Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

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trad4life
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Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby trad4life » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:32 am

I hunt the big woods in Wisconsin and I do it without bait. For the past 5 late season hunts I have yet to see a buck. I hunt over pawing activity or find a decent trail that goes through the woods and set up. What am I missing or should be looking for? Do the bucks stay in swamps and turn nocturnal? Or should I focus on another food source? We have no agriculture anywhere near me.

Thank,
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:45 am

lOOK FOR REMOTE SLASHINGS WHERE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS THEY HAVE DONE SOME LOGGING. Deer should be congragated in those areas right now...
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby trad4life » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:49 am

dan wrote:lOOK FOR REMOTE SLASHINGS WHERE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS THEY HAVE DONE SOME LOGGING. Deer should be congregated in those areas right now...

Will they still be doing that the last week of the season?
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:52 am

trad4life wrote:
dan wrote:lOOK FOR REMOTE SLASHINGS WHERE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS THEY HAVE DONE SOME LOGGING. Deer should be congregated in those areas right now...

Will they still be doing that the last week of the season?

Even more so... They live on browse in the winter there is nothing to eat in mature forests.
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby Longbow » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:54 am

They'll often do that all winter , particularly if it is near good wintering cover, i.e. cedar swamps.

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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby KLEMZ » Mon Dec 08, 2014 12:02 pm

dan wrote:lOOK FOR REMOTE SLASHINGS WHERE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS THEY HAVE DONE SOME LOGGING. Deer should be congragated in those areas right now...


Solid advice there!! If you are hunting public, your best bet would be to look at a plat map and find state forests, county forests or logging company lands.....NOT National Forest! State and county lands have active timber sales (logging). Browse should be the food of choice at this time. You may be able to find these new logged ares on current Google Earth pix or your county GIS maps. I'm sure some one will chime in on how to find recent logging operations.
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby olivertractor » Mon Dec 08, 2014 1:29 pm

All about food source, if you're in area where there's not much baiting than like Dan said couple year cuts, solitary oaks (there's not many, but there's few). Winter hasn't hit really hard especially with recent weather, so they're not panicking from what I can see, so somewhat nocturnal still. Bassboys brought up good point before in different thread that the early winter blast shut down rut now might be sputtering thru, cause I've noticed little cruising tracks, so rut tactics around cuts could produce for sure. As far as finding cuts I always just follow the logging trucks thru the years :-) it's been tough year though man not many mature bucks gotta cover lots of ground, good thing gas is cheap, haha!

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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Mon Dec 08, 2014 2:21 pm

Slashings are definitely good...

Red Oak acorns, if you have them, are a huge draw in the big woods right now. The tannins have begun to leach out of them as they sat on the forest floor which makes them less bitter... The turkeys and deer hit them so hard right now the woods looks like a WW2 bombing run. I see this every year in the big woods of Michigan and Canada. The bucks will maintain secure bedding and sometimes they are a long, long ways away... set up as near to their bedding as possible to see daytime movement, specifically along transition lines they will traverse to get there.

Any trees that have been knocked down recently by the wind / snow / ice will become instant hotspots especially if they are near buck bedding. If a white cedar gets knocked down along a transition line the bucks will camp on it, the young bucks being the first to arrive. From early November throughout the late season if I kill a buck, I will open its stomach and find white cedar in it among other food items... but cedar in my areas being in the stomach is a near certainty.

If others are baiting they don't like to carry it far, which means it will be close to roads and access. If you have knowledge of buck bedding areas in the distance, a funnel near buck bedding as they move toward the roads can produce.

Large thickets of red-osier dogwood will have lots of feeding from the herd in general right now and are worth locating as well in big woods areas. These are a few of the big draws at this time of year, there are others of course.
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby olivertractor » Mon Dec 08, 2014 2:59 pm

Singing Bridge wrote:Slashings are definitely good...

Red Oak acorns, if you have them, are a huge draw in the big woods right now. The tannins have begun to leach out of them as they sat on the forest floor which makes them less bitter... The turkeys and deer hit them so hard right now the woods looks like a WW2 bombing run. I see this every year in the big woods of Michigan and Canada. [glow=red]The bucks will maintain secure bedding and sometimes they are a long, long ways away...[/glow] set up as near to their bedding as possible to see daytime movement, specifically along transition lines they will traverse to get there.

Any trees that have been knocked down recently by the wind / snow / ice will become instant hotspots especially if they are near buck bedding. If a white cedar gets knocked down along a transition line the bucks will camp on it, the young bucks being the first to arrive. From early November throughout the late season if I kill a buck, I will open its stomach and find white cedar in it among other food items... but cedar in my areas being in the stomach is a near certainty.

If others are baiting they don't like to carry it far, which means it will be close to roads and access. If you have knowledge of buck bedding areas in the distance, a funnel near buck bedding as they move toward the roads can produce.

Large thickets of red-osier dogwood will have lots of feeding from the herd in general right now and are worth locating as well in big woods areas. These are a few of the big draws at this time of year, there are others of course.

Singing how far have you seen mature bucks travel to acorns, all dependent on pressure/alternative food sources of course?
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby trad4life » Mon Dec 08, 2014 3:04 pm

Alright, thanks for the advice! I will have to look around I guess when I get up there. Hopefully there isn't much snow so I can easily get around. I think I know of an area that might hold some decent slashing. Is there any food source i should look for in a swamp?
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby Kraftd » Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:50 pm

Singing Bridge wrote:Slashings are definitely good...

Red Oak acorns, if you have them, are a huge draw in the big woods right now. The tannins have begun to leach out of them as they sat on the forest floor which makes them less bitter... The turkeys and deer hit them so hard right now the woods looks like a WW2 bombing run. I see this every year in the big woods of Michigan and Canada. The bucks will maintain secure bedding and sometimes they are a long, long ways away... set up as near to their bedding as possible to see daytime movement, specifically along transition lines they will traverse to get there.

Any trees that have been knocked down recently by the wind / snow / ice will become instant hotspots especially if they are near buck bedding. If a white cedar gets knocked down along a transition line the bucks will camp on it, the young bucks being the first to arrive. From early November throughout the late season if I kill a buck, I will open its stomach and find white cedar in it among other food items... but cedar in my areas being in the stomach is a near certainty.

If others are baiting they don't like to carry it far, which means it will be close to roads and access. If you have knowledge of buck bedding areas in the distance, a funnel near buck bedding as they move toward the roads can produce.

Large thickets of red-osier dogwood will have lots of feeding from the herd in general right now and are worth locating as well in big woods areas. These are a few of the big draws at this time of year, there are others of course.


Very nice summary! Thanks!
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:47 am

I always think of this picture when I get find the deer.
I believe it now too ;)
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Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby headgear » Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:23 am

I think Dan nailed it with remote slashings or other food sources mentioned above. If you can find an active logging operation that is another hot spot. Even then I have a hard time getting on them late season, the sign is always there but the movement is not. I'm going to mix it up this year and do some mid-day hunting. For whatever reason they just aren't moving even when I hunt known bedding so its time to mix up the tactics.
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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:10 pm

olivertractor wrote:
Singing Bridge wrote:Slashings are definitely good...

Red Oak acorns, if you have them, are a huge draw in the big woods right now. The tannins have begun to leach out of them as they sat on the forest floor which makes them less bitter... The turkeys and deer hit them so hard right now the woods looks like a WW2 bombing run. I see this every year in the big woods of Michigan and Canada. [glow=red]The bucks will maintain secure bedding and sometimes they are a long, long ways away...[/glow] set up as near to their bedding as possible to see daytime movement, specifically along transition lines they will traverse to get there.

Any trees that have been knocked down recently by the wind / snow / ice will become instant hotspots especially if they are near buck bedding. If a white cedar gets knocked down along a transition line the bucks will camp on it, the young bucks being the first to arrive. From early November throughout the late season if I kill a buck, I will open its stomach and find white cedar in it among other food items... but cedar in my areas being in the stomach is a near certainty.

If others are baiting they don't like to carry it far, which means it will be close to roads and access. If you have knowledge of buck bedding areas in the distance, a funnel near buck bedding as they move toward the roads can produce.

Large thickets of red-osier dogwood will have lots of feeding from the herd in general right now and are worth locating as well in big woods areas. These are a few of the big draws at this time of year, there are others of course.

Singing how far have you seen mature bucks travel to acorns, all dependent on pressure/alternative food sources of course?


Acorns are very important to the deer when available at this time of the year. They will travel a mile or more with ease if it is a high pressure area- they will bed where they feel secure.

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Re: Late season big woods bucks.... where are they? Advice?

Unread postby ihookem » Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:04 pm

I just spent some time last week way back in the public land. Here is what I observed. When I drove up to my land I saw 2 does and a spike 50' from the road. There was a guy with a big backhoe 100 yds away working on new transmission lines going to Ladysmith. The noise didn't matter to them at all.I drove to my cabin ( 200 yds from the deer) and put out some corn. At 1:30 I went hunting and saw nothing. LOTS of tracks leading to the private 170 ac where they bait like crazy. This is where the deer were. When I came back to the cabin the corn was gone (1-2 qts) so I went ot put some more out. I left a gallon in the bucket on the steps but it was all but gone too. What the heck. Looking around I saw deer tracks right up the the cabin steps. They ate the corn right out of the bucket on the steps. The deer that know where bait is , they will wait for corn all week and the young deer will not go far if they know bait is coming. As I walked around the private land there were places there were no deer tracks cause deer were by the bait stations waiting . As I walked across the river to the 5 yr cutover there were almost no tracks there cause it was close to the bait piles, and bait pulls deer from an area . It took me almost exactly .5 mi. to start seeing sign of deer feeding naturally, browsing on twigs and shoots. These are unbaited deer . Go a long ways back in the woods like Dan said( remote logged areas is the only place I saw deer sign unless I was very close to bait on the private land. That is where ya need to go. I made the mistake of hunting too close to the bait piles and I saw little for fresh tracks in 2 day old snow. The 3 does and the spike stayed by my corn for 2 days. I don't think they went 200 yds from my corn. I could put a few handfulls out and they would walk right up to the corn as I was walking away. Here is the pic of the bucket of corn and the culprits. Also, the OP has yet to see a buck in 5 sits. You may not see a buck in a long time up north. There are very few older bucks and few young ones. Also, I never hunt over bait, it only would have taken 10 min to shoot this guy. This is to show how bait alters deer patterns inside of 1/2 mi. Also, I would like to add, a big buck will come to bait but only at night. Then he will go to a very remote area. Since his belly is full of corn he will likely only move when it's dark.lImageImage


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