One thing I have learned......There are more deer on any given property than one realizes, and there are bucks there that no one realizes. We can have cameras out all the time and somehow or another........They don't get their picture taken. I don't know how they do it, but they do. It is undeniable that not every patch of property has a 120 class or bigger buck on it. But every state does. The trick is.........Finding them.
I had 2 cameras running all summer into the beginning of bow season on one of my spots... Countless photos of small bucks... 1 night I got some pics of the "4 beam buck".... Just one night from one instance in August. Never saw him again until November 16th from my stand. Never another picture. He made one mistake walking in front of the one camera but never the other one. They were both set in strategic locations covering entry exit routes of the corn field. I cannot imagine how he fed in this field without walking by the other camera. He slipped up once, but never again.
It sometimes bothers me when people assume that in the Midwest, there is a big buck(s) on every property, every woodlot and ridge.. One property can have a bunch of 1.5 year old bucks and fawns running around, while a couple miles away there are a dozen nice bucks running around on the same little farm.
Both of the bucks I killed in the past 2x years were taken 150-200 yards from where I had corn feeders and cameras setup in the off season all summer long. Both bucks were killed in what I believe to be their core bedding areas based on the sign I found, so I do believe this was their home range. No pics of either in 7+ months of feeders and cameras setup in multiple locations on the property as close as 150 yards from the stands that they were killed out of........... In addition to these two, Dan and I have had encounters with at least 3 more bucks significantly larger than anything I have killed that also never appeared on camera. I strongly believe there are bucks we never know about roaming most places. I somewhat agree with both views on the location piece. Obviously you aren't likely to kill one in a WalMart parking lot, but as someone that hunts areas not known for big bucks, I still believe it can be overcome by stand time, and scouting time, within a reasonable driving time from anywhere in the country. It doesn't get much worse in our country for mature age class deer or P&Y bucks than eastern NY, and northeastern PA........but I'm still seeing them nearly every year. A post I made earlier this year about getting it done on a property 4 hours away really opened my eyes, a lot of the guys that are getting it done in areas of the country significantly "better" than mine were saying they couldn't get it done consistently with the time I'm able to put in. I know the distance/time is what really prevents me from getting the results I really want. I'm only able to hunt 8-10 days a year at my place in PA. It's just not enough time in a tree to get it done consistently on the top end bucks that roam the place. I'm killing top end bucks compared to other hunters in the area, but I know there are bigger buck around......I see them at least once a year. Sure, I might be able to offset this lack of time if I were in an area saturated with mature bucks, but I could also offset the lack of mature bucks with more time in a tree. I'm a big believer that there are P&Y caliber bucks within 1/2 an hour drive of everyone on this board, on property that they could get access to if they really wanted it. Just MHO. The location argument may hold water on the 100 acres you choose to hunt, but don't fool yourself into thinking that a specific region of the country is what is holding you back.........you can easily offset that with stand/scouting time and pulling yourself out of your comfort zone and finding new places within a reasonable distance of home if it was truly important to you. For me, I'm not willing to uproot and move closer to my hunting grounds (yet), and I enjoy hunting these places too much to hunt closer to home where it may allow me more stand time. This is what holds me back IMHO, not the location.
I'm really a schmuck, it took me almost 4 weeks of hard hunting in a prime location to kill a good buck this year. However, last year it only took 5 days!!?? I'm so confused.
In my neck of the woods, I would have to say preparation. Preparation = Location ~ meaning, hopefully picking the best spot in MY woods. I don't believe putting all kinds of time in my stand does me any good, if it's the wrong spot in my woods. Preparation = Time ~ meaning, hopefully selecting the right time to sit in MY stand AM or PM, rut or early season, etc. GregH mentioned, 4 weeks to kill his deer this year, however, it sounded like you passed on a few bucks everyone else would have shot, Sire! Hunting = Recipe Some eat @ 4 star restaurants, some eat @ diner's and some eat @ home... A little different, but an outfitted hunt... Preparation = Research ~ meaning, if one chooses to pay for a hunt, the research is used to select the right outfitter (phone, internet, etc.) As I continually learn throughout every year, in the field, scouting, talking to others or reading, etc. It soon starts to appear clearer for me, that the only "predictable" thing about a whitetail is that their "unpredictable"!!! Although, as we all know, they do have their basic needs as an animal (mating, food & survival)... Shultzy ~ Have you considered revitalizing your woods through selected cutting, etc..?? Or is it just a case of predators or winter kill ratio?
We are packing for Kansas, You all are more than welcome to my old Location in northern Michigan. Ha Ha Haaaa good luck!
That may be true but I did last year also. My point is that you just never know how your hunting is going to go from year to year. You know, one year you get something right away, another year you may not even see anything. This can be true even in big buck country.
You talking some sort of logging? Neither. The gun hunters are what kills my area every year. One of my neighbors a mile or so away passes on any buck 2.5 on down which Is good but he will not shoot a doe or doe fawn either If he has no luck with a nice buck, he thinks shooting a doe Is bad for the herd. We are over populated with baldys around my area. All the other neighbors complain about not seeing decent bucks but yet they have 1.5's and 2.5's hanging from their tree's every year. Uneducated hunters around me when It comes to quality deer management. They are their and my own worst enemy.
I would have thought the sheer amount of timber in MN compaired to the low number of hunters there would allow quite a few to get to that older age class. Is this just in your area you are seeing these problems in or the whole state?
Buckeye Minn. issues is the same as MI. Gun season during the Rut, two buck tags, and the I need to shoot a buck or I am not a man. Big bucks have zero to do with location and more to do with hunting regs and numbers. Give MI Iowa seasons and look out!!! MI and Minn would make Ill, Iowa or anyother big buck state look silly with better regs. We both have over twice the habitat.
For the area I hunt Scott the hunter numbers are outstanding!! It's farm land In my area. Northern Mn Is where the huge timber Is. I could see there being more mature bucks up there then around my place being It's big woods. The hunter numbers up there are fewer then what I have around here from what I understand. It all boils down to the shotgun season going on during the rut, It bites! Germ Is almost correct, only one buck tag here. If Mn and MI didn't have such screwed up regulation's, these state's would be unbelievable because of the habitat like Germ said.
