Kane0928 wrote:Kokes wrote:Kane0928 wrote:On November 10 I was lucky enough to wrap a tag on my number one Target buck. I couldn't have done it without following the forum and Dan's teachings for the past couple years. I've watched this buck grow for three years and he was a ghost night time pictures and never could get him pinned during daylight hours. Hunted different bedding areas waited for the right winds. Backed out and sat observation stands trying to get a glimpse of how his patterns consisted. Mid day cruising was coming to a peak in my area and I studied topo maps and picked out a new spot and was easing my way to the stand about nine AM taking my time getting in since I was moving through a thicket I wasn't familiar with. I made my way to the 1/3rd way elevation and spotted a smaller eight chasing a doe. I watched and waited for them to move through and slid steathfully to wear they were at. I noticed a faint cruising trail on the edge of the flat I moved about twenty yards further up the hill and hung my lonewolf checked the wind with milkweed and confirmed I was as close as I could get to have the wind and thermals in my favor. The ridge I was set up on was a North south facing ridge and a north west wind was blowing about 5-10mph over it. At this time it was about 10 AM 30minutss went by and the wind was starting to chill me down I was putting my bibs on over my current layers and heard crunching leaves behind me. I slowly glanced over my shoulder and there he stood first encounter during daylight. I slowly picked up the bow and sent an arrow for a 20 yard shot he bolted into the thicket 70 yards and 30 minutes later my biggest buck to date was part of a great photo shoot.
Awesome buck congrats!
Just curious when you said mid day movement was coming to a peak in your area how did you determine that - historical data, observations, etc..
I had 21 days off from work for vacation I hunted everyday and ran cameras and all my cruising activity for older deer was after 10AM from both sitting stand and running cams and slacked off after 2pm and I was seeing alot of night time activity in the ag fields. Just my guess on the reasoning when does are starting to go into heat I believe these older bucks wait until later in the afternoon to cruise to check groups of does rather than look for individual does in the early morning hours. I also believe once you start seeing this happen by going in after daylight and slowly moving in you push less deer resulting in less nervous deer traveling. Sit on the leeward side catching the thermal tunnel ( actually caught this deer moving the faint trail on the edge of the flat leeward side looking down hill as he walked ). After about 3 without and luck I would take down my stand set up for dropping thermals or relocate. This particular deer I hunted 10 days before tagging and never got a daylight picture always afterdark and had been trying to get a solid pattern all season until I had some luck in my favor. None of this is proven and every Hunter has different opinions this is just my observation from hunting and running cameras as hard as I did for the entire season.
Your daytime observations match what I have been seeing also, mature bucks moving after 10 am and until around 2pm, Stanley used to talk about those times and also waiting till after daylight to avoid spooking deer and it seems to be something to key in on. You really do have to hunt those mature bucks like they are a different animal! Once again great buck, and nice job saving 21 days vacation for hunting that's impressive :)
Dang man... Sweet buck 
