From my experience during the full blown chase phase of the rut I see isolated spots erupting with activity while others are dormant. This is always a hard time of the year to hunt for me. Here is my thought. Some of the spots I have access to are bordered by lakes. I could slip in on a canoe early in the morning prior to sunrise and just listen. Listen to the hillsides for any noises of chasing. Or I could wait until daybreak and watch from a distance with binoculars. Then I could move in to the hot spots and set up after things have settled down. What do you all think?
I am just seeing a lot of chasing and pushing does up into thickets...isolated thickets that can hold does/bucks for days. I am not trying to target a certain buck that I see chasing, just more of a general observation to clue me in on a potential hotspot of hot does and aggressive bucks around thickets and such.
I see. Didn't look at it that way. Like Jeff said, I tend to rut hunt where I know there are does. That seems like the best shot during the rut. Its still a guessing game at that point but the odds are much more in my favor. Good luck!
I have gained some knowledge of where the does bed only from information gleaned from seeing them during the hunting season. I cannot tell you with any great deal of certainty where does bed during any period of time. Minus game cams and actually being able to sit and watch does moving in and out of their bedding areas, how would I go about locating a doe bedding area other than what I have observed over the years? I hunt a massive piece of property with no crop fields to observe and acorns dropping everywhere. It makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint where does bed as they are not drawn to a consitent or semi-consistent food source (that I know of). That is why I asked about this strategy. I think I could bump around and observe during a "live" period of time, when the deer are actually doing there thing. I do have 2 thickets I hunt around each year that produce year after year in terms of me seeing bucks chasing does around them, and pushing them up into the thickets. I have only seen 2 worthwhile bucks in all those years and I arrowed one 07. Other than that, I usually see smaller 4-5 pointers. I wonder what I am doing wrong.
Last year I tried an EXTREMELY aggressive approach to take on the heavy chase phase and even the lockdown phase. I took my climber in about 11:30 or so and went to where I knew the does had to be bedding. went right in, found a tree and climbed up. Ended up missing a monster at 10 yards not 5 minutes after climbing up. I ended up seeing 8 other bucks that night, 3 other for sure shooters and 2 possibles. It was down a crick bed but with TONS of cover. Just an idea
