I have his sheds from last year. My dad saw him twice crossing the road, and I saw him once last year. We never got on him while hunting though. He is an absolute stud of a 10 pointer. I have now seen him 3 times this season. October 19th---He ran right by me at 10 yards and wouldn't stop for anything. A very tough but awesome encounter, and the first I had seen him while hunting. November 30th---I sat up about 200 yards away from where I had last seen him and watched him right before dark walk out of a thicket on a bench on the steep hillside. December 1st---I set up another 100 yards closer to the thicket, and saw him again around 3:00. However, he was walking down below me and heading towards a standing cornfield. I hunted again the 2nd and saw nothing. The 3rd brought the start of gun season again. I figured he was safe in the cornfield with the increased pressure, and I don't have access to it. I took a doe that afternoon on my way to a stand, and didn't get the chance to hunt him this weekend (Illinois has a stupid no bow hunting during gun season law). Here is a very rough sketch of the hillside. I can hunt everything to the left of the black line. I believe he is bedding and staging on the shelf shown in the pic, and traveling to and from the cornfield down a long tapering point. Problem being is that if he is bedded where I expect him to be, he can see me walking down the shelf to him, coming up the hill towards him, or popping up over the hill above him. I'm lost as to how I can approach this bedding area. The red dot is where I would think the buck is bedding at. Sorry for the kindergarten sketch, I'm trying to get a topo too.
I believe that why he's bedding where he is He has it all covered!! Im not sure what to tell you. Hunt near the area but where the Does are maby.
Haha your right he has it all in that little honey hole of his. There are other areas that he could be hanging out in as well with different winds and such, but this is definantly one that I KNOW he is using.
If you get too frustrated just let me know I will come down and kill him for you. (Just kidding.) I can't tell if it's an option with out a topo, but can you sneak around the side of the bench and go up a tree just around the corner from his bed out of his view? Then you may be able to catch him moving along the bench staging up before dark. Especially if the are some acorns around there. Make sure to get good and high because of potential swirling winds from the terrain and thermals too.
Well the farmer threw me for a loop today by cutting the corn that I thought the deer would be spending time in. I will be after this buck tomorrow afternoon. I'm taking DEERSLAYER's advice and trying to get setup on the shelf as close to the thicket as I can.
Here is a topo map of the area. Yellow blocks are spots where I have seen deer bed before. Red is where the thicket that I saw the buck emerge out of. White line running N and S is the shelf. Yellow fields below are freshly cut corn fields as of this afternoon.
