Those are nice bucks Dawg! It sucks when someone else kills a buck you're chasing. I've never killed a buck I had sheds off of, that's cool. I looked pretty hard this year for the sheds off the buck I named Crossbow but there's so much CRP grass on that property (133 acres worth) that is native grass about 8' tall that the odds of finding them even if they were there was pretty remote...and I also have yet to bag him, lol...hopefully that happens this fall.
I started to figure out this hunting thing about 5 years ago, my hunting revolves around bedding. The last pic was an old buck I hunted for 3 years, had 5 sheds 2 matched sets and he taught me a ton on chasing mature bucks. I had 6 encounters in those 3 years, all within a 30 acre swamp. Taught me you have to hunt where they live and that area often is quite small.
Here are some videos that I got from last year also! This guy is on the property that I lost that is now a NON HUNTING spot due to the owner passing and his daughters are anti hunters. I do have the left "Big Fork" shed off this buck!
Here is a video myself and my best friend did, it's the biggest buck I shot, scored in the 170's if you're interested. https://youtu.be/XpiEb6p5lDo
This is going to sound dumb but what do you guys look for when your scouting for a bedding area? I'm pretty much self taught when it comes to scouting for deer. I used to have an idea of where the deer bed on the property I hunt and I killed quite a few deer over a few years there but now they switched up a little and my harvest rate has plummeted the last couple years. Although I do see deer on most of my sits.
Very nice bucks Dawg, it's tough losing bucks you've been chasing. Wish I could find sheds like you, I stumble on a few here and there but it's tough.
Those are nice bucks too! There's a lot to be said both for and against that methodology. It depends on the hunter, the right guy can invade an old ghost bucks living room and walk out dragging the big bastard and the wrong guy can try it and never see the deer on the property again. I've played both of those parts, lol. Just about the time I think I'm a master hunter of old weary bucks over the years I get humbled in a big way but that's what keeps it interesting and fun. My dad was always one of those guys that could play that game and win far more than lose. His brothers always claimed he could go into a thicket a deer hadn't been in for forty years and come walking out at dark dragging one, lol. I've always been pretty efficient at killing deer but my prowess at hunting the old smart ones has never been up to par of dad's and those like you. I've been humbled on more than one occasion by those old bucks but that's why I respect them so much so I wouldn't have it any other way.
Buck bedding is very specific and bed using their nose. Bed on points on hills, points of woods, edges of brush. Generally thick behind them they can smell with a visual advantage downwind. They'll be where humans never go, where they don't encounter ground scent.
It is true, and why I hunt more and more public so I can spread out the pressure over a lot of setups, some bucks react very negative to pressure, some tolerate quite a bit. I think real old buck tolerate more because they're more established into an area, but all have different personalities. But I came to feel you can't kill them unless you're pushing the envelop.
That's a big one right there in red. Lol, for some reason (my weird brain) I got a mental image of Elmer Fudd pushing an envelope through the brush with a stick. I liked that vid man, Splits was an awesome freaking chocolate horned PIG!
Basically what purebowhunting said. Deer will bed just about anywhere, especially if they are pressured. Edges are a feature on the property I hunt that the deer like to use. Like the edge of mature timber and a big ol patch of multi-floral rose, or a thicket. They can jump right in the nasty stuff if they need to. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
A girl from work feeds him and has dozens of trail cam pics from her 3 acres. Another guy from work has asked to hunt there, but it isn't clear if he is actually going to.
