Riverbottom Bucks

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MOBIGBUCKS
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Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:12 am

Anybody hunt Riverbottom terrain? This will be my first year scouting and hunting. Obviously, the area is very flat, full of water, and immensley thick brush. Do you guys think I can use the same tactics for scouting and hunting that are used on the marsh bucks DVD? My plan is to walk all of the transition lines between cover types and backtrack big tracks to the bedding. Good plan or not? Anything else I should key in on? It is a big area and I'm thinking the transition lines might be the key. Thanks for the advice.


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Spysar
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby Spysar » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:21 am

I love all kinds of river bottom hunting. Lots of my hunting relates to water.

What river are you talking about? Or if you don't want to say, is it a big river, or a smaller one?
A buck will see you three times, and hear you twice, but he's only gonna smell you once.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby JakeJD » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:52 am

A lot of the river bottom that I hunt is fairly open with pockets of thickets (cedars or russian olives) or phragmites. Up to this point, I have not scouted looking specifically for buck beds, but I plan to walk quite a few miles over the next couple of months trying.

I have had some success on 3.5 y/o bucks, but I have not consistently had encounters with mature bucks. The deer density is really high so I always seen many deer. However, my big buck sightings are sporadic, at best.
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headgear
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby headgear » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:53 am

I don't say any reason why marsh bucks can't be related to hunting a riverbottom area. I have several bedding areas I hunt near or right next to rivers, no doubt the deer feel secure by them. There could be some subtle differences but overall those bucks are going to find somewhere they have the advantage.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:07 pm

Spysar, it is the mighty Missouri :)

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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby cwoods » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:18 pm

ttt
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby BCam » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:34 pm

I would put your waders on and check the high bogs surrounded by water. Around here the big boys like to lay up on these during hunting season because it is really hard to get at them.

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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:38 pm

Yup good idea about the waders. I got my hip boots ready for Saturday.

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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby Spysar » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:41 pm

MOBIGBUCKS wrote:Spysar, it is the mighty Missouri :)

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I hunt on the Missouri all the time. Did your area get wiped out from the floods last year?

Where I hunt, thousands of acres of lush cat tails and swamp island thickets turned into sand... :cry:
A buck will see you three times, and hear you twice, but he's only gonna smell you once.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:45 pm

Not as bad as up north. About a quarter of it did get leveled. Landowner lost all of his crops. Area that I'm hunting is still super thick. Lots of secondary growth in those white alder looking trees.

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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:49 pm

Spysar, I forgot that you have shot some giants around the river. Any tips about bedding and covering lots of ground effectively? Kind of a new terrain for me

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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby Ack » Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:23 pm

I've found an area where the bucks bed on a downwind, inside bend of a river. The woods is wide open here and they can see a long way. Anything that comes at them from upwind, they can see and smell it and take off down the edge of the river, or even across it if they feel really threatened.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby Schultzy » Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:16 am

River bottom hunting Is my favorite!! In back of my house there's at least 200 acres of prime river bottom hunting. Back when I was a youngster I shot my 1st deer back there. 5 years later different land owners own It and I can no longer hunt there. The river bottom that I hunted Is full of bedding. I'd give my left nut to own this piece of land that I once hunted as an Inexperienced youngster. Dan's tactics will work In any kind of terrain where bucks are bedding.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:40 am

Schultzy wrote:River bottom hunting Is my favorite!! In back of my house there's at least 200 acres of prime river bottom hunting. Back when I was a youngster I shot my 1st deer back there. 5 years later different land owners own It and I can no longer hunt there. The river bottom that I hunted Is full of bedding. I'd give my left nut to own this piece of land that I once hunted as an Inexperienced youngster. Dan's tactics will work In any kind of terrain where bucks are bedding.


I'm realy hoping some of Dan's marsh tactics will work here; The area is obviously flat so there is no discernable land marks per say. The only thing I can see from the aerial shots are random transition lines of cover. That is what I will have to key in on to find the big buck tracks. I'll be in there all weekend from dawn til dusk walking this thing out.
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Re: Riverbottom Bucks

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:41 am

Ack wrote:I've found an area where the bucks bed on a downwind, inside bend of a river. The woods is wide open here and they can see a long way. Anything that comes at them from upwind, they can see and smell it and take off down the edge of the river, or even across it if they feel really threatened.


Thank you for the tip Ack. I will keep an eye out for such situations.


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