One of the downsides to trailcams, we end up seeing what could've been. Good luck arrowing that big guy. Blessings. .......Pastorjim
Good Lord that is one massive buck. Ha I had a similar experience with a buck two years ago. I had pictures of him at least 6 different times when I was either in a different stand or had vacated that stand within an hour. Granted my buck was maybe half the size of that one but I sympathize. Good luck next time.
One more piece of the puzzle. That deer is another 24hrs closer to his demise than he was yesterday Go get him JZ.
Technically speaking we're all 24 hours closer to our death than we were yesterday. :D I wasn't planning on hunting him this weekend but the forecast is showing an East wind for Saturday which is perfect for what I want to do. I may have to cash in a Get Out of Jail Free card with the wife and sneak out there on Saturday provided that wind holds up.
Yeah, an inch or two of it anyways. He must've done it as he was shedding velvet. I have pics of him half-shed and it's already busted off.
Jeeze, nice when fate spits in your eye isn't it. One of mine didn't grow back his droptine from last year, stuff happens I guess. Still an incredible deer, good luck with him.
What a stud and to be up on his feet way before shooting light expires is an incredibly advantage for you guys. Good luck!
If you were South of this location and he is traveling SW in this photo, your thermals very well could have rose to him and that is why he is changing bedding areas mid afternoon. Many times thermals are the determining factor of where a buck travels, more so than wind direction. In this scenario it appears this very well could be the case, it appears he is on a hill side taking advantage of rising thermals.
I was SW of him and he's traveling NW in the pic, headed up the hill. He's coming out from a large, open valley headed up into one of his bedding areas. With the wind direction we had that day, the route I took to my stand, and where he's at there's virtually no chance he smelled me. In between where I was and where he's at is about a 300 foot tall hill. I was on one side of it, he was on the other. However that doesn't mean he didn't see and/or hear me on my way into the stand. I've thought about that a few times and it's a pretty long shot but certainly possible. The most likely scenario I can think of is if I did bump him somehow on my way in he made his way down the valley he was bedded in, past this spot on the other side of the hill, then back tracked up into the bedding area which lead him past the camera. The second possible scenario is a neighbor bumped him that afternoon as this spot is pretty close to the property line and I think he's bedding half on our side and half on theirs. If they dumped him from down low on their side of the valley it would bring him right up into this location. Any way you look at it in this photo the way he's moving up the trail the wind is at his back, which is unusual. I've thought about it a million times and have a hard time believing he was just out walking around 3 hours before dark for no reason. Possible, but unlikely.
Any chance the direction in which the buck traveled from was the direction of the bottom Graf was hunting opening afternoon? Maybe Graf pushed / bumped/ got winded by him. Looked like that doe somehow smelled him in the video. When I noticed the time stamp on the photo, the first thought that came to my mind was this buck was most likely bumped.
