Hunting Too Mobile?

[WKPTodd]

I've killed around 15 good bucks. Of the 15, I've killed 2 of them 2nd time/ 3rd time in or more. 95+% of the time I kill it's first time in / and half of those have been run & gun. That should tell you something.

Only (1) buck of ALL of them over food/ field edge. All others have been in bedding/ transition areas.

[Dewey]

Almost every single buck I ever killed except for this past season came from a first time sit in a particular spot that year. Easy to say that because I have rarely hunted the same exact spot more than once per season even way before I started bed hunting. This thread really got me thinking about being more aggressive on particular bucks in the future. Hunting mobile is the way to go but certain times when the sign is extremely hot I think pushing the limits can pay off sometimes. This is something I have always been afraid to do out of fear of pushing a buck out of the area. I think it can work but obviously entry/exit is a huge determining factor.

[Stanley]

Great thinking James. I agree to a certain extent. When the buck pressure is heavy in an area the buck has to ping pong around.
Plus the time of year is a determining factor. So many variables. If you are sitting in a stand and advertizing you are there like peeing out of the stand. I don't think any sets will take much pressure. The least amount of pressure sets will produce the best second chances.

By this I mean if you walk in walk out and the buck doesn't know you were there. If the buck is 1/2 mile away in a bedding area. You hunt the area and the buck has no idea you were there why could you not get a second chance hunt out of that set? I killed a buck in 2012 on a second hunt from the same set up. I don't hunt the same set very often. If I do, I'm very confident I have not been busted. Good stuff James.

[Wlog]

There is such a thing as being too mobile if it means you are leaving a buck you know is there from a sighting or sign. What I mean is if he's there and you know it why not hunt him hard while he is there and be aggressive.

Bucks move because of hunting pressure, food source changes and rut stage timing. If a buck is only on the property you have access to one week a year, the time to get him is when he's there not a month later.

I'm always mobile. But being mobile doesn't always mean you bounce from one property to the next. I scout all through the post season now looking for buck beds and coming up with a plan of attack for the next year. But a lot of times these are places I can't glass or check cameras during summer. So even though I have knowledge from my post season scouting, I'm going in blind for the most part. When I show up to hunt if there isn't really fresh sign or there is just OK sign I hunt it anyway because I'm already there and don't always have a second option close by. So if that hunt doesn't pan out, I move on to my next best option the next day I have to hunt.
Now on the other hand if I show up and it's tore up with sign or I see a good buck and don't get a shot. I'm probably going to try and get back the next day and make an adjustment and try and get that buck. A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.

I'm hunting him now because I know he's there. As long as I don't spook him there is still a good chance I can connect. Doesn't mean you necessarily even setup in the same tree or use the same entry/exit or even hunt the same bed. But don't abandon the property and leave one buck that you know you have a bead on to guess at another one.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Arrowbender]

Wlog said:

Code: Select all

There is such a thing as being too mobile if it means you are leaving a buck you know is there from a sighting or sign.

That is just what I was thinking.

Vacating a property with HOT sign; or a known mature buck is not being too mobile, it's neglegent. Plain and simple!

I say: if you're not going to come back to that spot or property for 2 to 4 weeks any way; what would it hurt to hunt it two days in a row?

To me, mobile means taking your stand in and out with you and not sitting in the same tree or stand. Really has nothing to do with jumping to a new property or section of a large one.

I hunt mostly mobile. I sat very few pre-sets the last few years and most of my stands that don't have a LW on them didn't make it out of my garages attic.

That said, my last three bucks were killed out of the same stand that I had sat the day prior. Two of these were during the rut, the other was opening week of the bow season.
AND..... I should have killed another one that I saw 3 out of the 1st four weekends of the season. Either from the same tree or with-in 50 yards of the same tree.

Yes. I had great access on these set-ups. I felt that I didn't bugger up the area. I take precaution to set-up outside of the normal safety zones, and "hunt" in and "hunt" out of these areas if I know I am going to return.

On the buck that I had continuous encounters with in 2013; I had left my stand up a time or two knowing that I was going to return. Easy to justify, knowing that it is quieter to hit a pre-set than put up mobile, but thinking back, I wonder if I could have killed that buck too just by moving a short distance using the exact wind condition for the day.

This is really a great thread. Hopefully it will open up some minds. Mine included!
It's funny that the Beast "Mantra" is to think outside the box. and we talk about "one trick ponies".

Truth is; we can get so hung up on thinking that we can only sit in a stand once or twice a season that we might be leaving some of the best bucks behind.
It's not about being mobile. Rather it''s about being logical, pre-cautious, and maybe just a little bit aggressive.

Click Bait......Bitten!

[Lockdown]

great topic. I have thought a lot about this...

[Ghost Hunter]

If I am hunting sign only. I will sit a spot at least a morning an evening. Maybe another morning an normally by then an area just starts to fell cold to me. If I'm watching a hot doe an seeing bucks. I will stay as long as I'm seeing bucks or start seeing the same bucks. Then I move. Normally no more than two days.

[briar]

I agree 100% with a ton that has been posted. The key seems to be using mobility when it is the most effective way to arrow a buck, not being mobile just for the sake of being mobile

[ Post made via Android ]

[kurt]

I agree hunt where the sign tells you he is. It seems like Dan hunted the same general area for the Big 8 on public this year but I can't confirm that. I think tolerance varies between bucks but a high tolerance one won't live to long. Sometimes I feel it's not so much they vacate area completely as much as pressure just makes that much more nocturnal or cautious.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Stanley]

Lot of great points to consider. I think Arrowbender hit the nail on the head. We can't want to be Like Dan, to the extent that we lose great opportunities for it. If you are hunting the rut, and all of us do at some point and time. A hot doe that is in an area should be considered a golden opportunity.

A hot doe area during the rut always gets my attention. I more than likely will hunt different sets in that area. I will on occasion hunt the same set but not very often. This is a great thread. I think most guys don't want to talk about much, but mobile bed sets. And that usually equates to one and done.

[Lockdown]

When you're talking rut, to me a good spot will be good A LOT If you're on hot sign, what's to say that big buck wasn't 1/2 mile away when you hunted the day before? Or two days prior? You could easily sit a spot twice, he could have no clue you were there, then he could come running back "home". I completely agree with the early and late season bed mentality of hunting once or twice and moving on... but IMO hunting fresh sign in a rut spot one time and moving on is a very bad move, especially with good access.

[Edcyclopedia]

Hot sign wins every time for me, just have to some how distinguish night sign verses day sign...

[BassBoysLLP]

In a scenario where you have a known good buck active in the area and a Booner in a different area without a recent visual, do you hunt the active good buck or the booner when the time is right? I've historically swung for the fence and pursued the booner. Sometimes I see him, sometimes I don't. Last year I fell on my face and didn't see anything over 50s from the tree. Its an annual quandary for me.

[ Post made via Android ]

[JoeRE]

Yea a hunter can move around too much, you have to pay attention to what the sign is saying.

You also have to realize what you are good at as a hunter and not so good at. For instance I am bad at going in blind to an area...I either see good sign and don't push far enough in or push just too far in and spook stuff. That is probably the case with all but a few hunters....as a result I try to pick a bunch of spots by scouting year in and out and narrow it down from there based on what I see through the season. I think I am good at that so that is what I try to do....I move around a lot but generally to pre-picked spots.

That being said, I do think mobile hunting one way or another is key to hunting mature bucks though...at least on non-exclusive access hunting lands. You just have to be smart about it, watch the sign and try and decide if you should sit somewhere again and just as importantly WHEN you should sit it again.

Like other guys have mentioned, almost all the mature bucks I have killed with a bow, out of 15 or so, were the first or second time I hunted a certain spot. Most were the first. This was true even back in the days when I might hunt a "good" spot 4-6 times a season. I killed My hunting journal indicates that those last hunts were mostly a waste of time even if there was fresh sign popping up around the stand. You must hunt based on the expectation that resident mature deer will detect repeated sits in a single spot.

[fishlips]

Yea a hunter can move around too much, you have to pay attention to what the sign is saying.

This caught my attention. For guys that have had success on second sits in a stand (or area), what tipped you off and led you to hunt that spot again?

For example, the sign that I ignored in my situation was that there was a hot doe in the area that didn't look like she was going very far. I absolutely think I should have hunted that spot one more time. I may have made a tweak or two to the setup, but I should have been very close to that area.

It's hard when you only have so much time to hunt and you always want ot be in the best spot possible and it's hard for me to tell when the best spot might be the spot I just sat in.