After cutting hay lastnight I decided Id go hang a couple stands since it was cool. I put one of my ladderstands up in a new spot for early season, and after that I went down to my pond in our woods to see if I could find a suitable tree for one of my hangons. This spot has been known as a massive scrape area. In the last 5 years there has been a set of 3 huge scrapes. I have encountered this buck several times over the last 6-7 years. My neighbor who hunts with is saw him last gun season and wasnt able to get a shot at him, I wasnt either after seeing him 2 times during the gun season. I have taken 3 shots over the last 6-7 years at thie buck during gun season but he was always on a dead out run on the other side of the pond and up into the thich woods. I decided it was time to try to take him with the bow this year. Well needless to say him and 5 other bucks and 2 does jumped up from the weeds and took off before I could even start looking for a tree to hand my stand in. Now my question, is how soon should I go back there to hang this stand? Im afraid If I go down there too soon, he may cross the river and leave the area. Should I wait about a week or so? Ive never really focused all this energy towards one buck since 2002. This guy is a true monster. He will easilly go 180-200 class, possibly higher. Im going to be getting a new digital cam real soon and will be placing it at the scrape site probably mid-late October when they really start scraping. Another thing is, for the last 2 years hes had 14 points and one split brow tine, is this as big as hes going to get at his age? It seems hes reached his peak and may start going down hill, id like to take him this year one way or the other. Im trying to think strategy on this buck as hes pretty sneaky. If I cant manage to get a crack at him theres one more big buck running our property that we saw last year and a few weeks ago. I dont know how big he is, but he was hit by a car and broke one of his back legs wich happend to be driven by a friend of ours and got a real nice look at him when he approached him when he was laying on the side of the road and counted 12-15 points and 1 drop, double split brow tines. Sounds too good to be true. We only saw him once last year during the gun season. I know hes not lyeing either, my neighbor did push him from his bed on the last day of gun season lastyear and damned near got a shot at him, he ran in between us on a drive, I saw the buck as well. Im not sure if hes still around or if hes crossing the river back and forth. Ill find out when I put out the cams. The guy that hit him with his car is a retired Federal Marshall and happens to be a real good friend of the family. they even drover around adn through the fields that nite to see if he had dropped, no such luck. My father in law and I went up the next day and found sign of him dragging one of his legs, all the way to the river. But he never crossed. I have never been so excited about bow season as I am this year. I have a feeling this is my year for a nice P&Y or B&C class buck. We have never taken anything bigger than a big 9 off our property. Everythign else has been scrubs or big 8s. How hard should I hunt these bucks in the early season. Should I hold off hunting them untill mid Oct? HELP!! lol
I would have hung the stand last night. No point in making more than one trip if bumping him is your concern. As far as hunting him, I'd do it anytime I had the right wind for that stand. I've never seen the same mature buck more than twice during the season from a stand. If you and your group are seeing him that often, he must really feel safe there.
IMO The best chance at these bucks is early season for the element of surprise and the rut.GO FOR IT!
This stand will only be good for 1 wind and that wind blowing north towards the river. So my days may be limited in that stand come that time of the year lol.
Allot of my stands I can only hunt with one wind direction knowing the movement of the deer but scouting further down he's run Im sure you can find different setup spots for different wind directions. I would get as many stands in he's core area as I could.
I agree with buttonbuckmaster. You were already in there, might as well have put the stand up. As far as when to do it since you didn't, I would agree with GMMAT, except for maybe the rain part for safety reasons. Other than that, get that stand in there and get after him.
Thanks guys. I think im heading in after work today and see if I cant find a good spot for the stand in the general location. I do have one possible that may work but I would have to do some heavy trimming of some trees. Im afraid if I change too much I may push them out.....thoughts??
I think if you get in, do your thing, and get out you'll be fine. As Jeff said the deer are used to getting bumped from time to time. It's when you are in there repeatedly, leaving scent, bumping them over and over, disturbing the area, etc. that they start to get wise and find new areas to live in.
