Who has had a multi-year quest for an individual Buck?

[mheichelbech]

Like to hear your experience with this, whether you were successful or not. If successful, what do you think you changed or that changed that led to success? If not successful, why do you think you haven't been?

I have been after one....for 2 seasons. My main issue has been lack of time other than weekends, I think he beds in standing corn during the season, and I hadn't been able to figure out his movements during season. He is on a small property and it has been difficult to do this without over hunting it.

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[iowa whitetail]

ive had 4 multi year quests that i won at. alot more that ive lost for sure but its fun.

[purebowhunting]

I've had two multi year quests that I've won. One I passed on the previous year, one I had multiple encounters and 5 sheds from.

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[Mike]

I have had a few, my favorite is here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6273

That buck taught us a lot so in that aspect I feel successful even though we didn't kill him. He was a homebody for sure though.

[mheichelbech]

I have had a few, my favorite is here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6273

That buck taught us a lot so in that aspect I feel successful even though we didn't kill him. He was a homebody for sure though.

That is one heck of a story! What I am looking for is what specifically did you learn from hunting him? Or learn that you could apply to the next time you find one like that? We're you able to figure why you didn't ever get a shot? It's amazing that a buck could be so visible and so lucky that the hunter doesn't get a good shot at some point. He reminds me of Fran Tarkenton avoiding a sack!

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[BassBoysLLP]

I've had several with some absolute giants...most in 2009 - 2012. I've never taken a buck with 4+ years of trail cam pictures.

The last couple of years I haven't developed a lot of history. The age structure on my properties has gotten worse, for some reason there are more mature bucks on public land in S/SE WI, and I'm utilizing my cameras differently...mainly to find a better situation. I have a couple that fell off the radar last year. I hope they re-appear this year bigger than I imagined.

[JoeRE]

I have been fortunate enough to chase around a few for a couple years or more.

This one I was after for two years. He was the smaller of two similar 11 pointers if you can believe that...someone else got the other one. Shot him late ML season in a nudge my brothers and I did. First opportunity at him.



To be honest, this one is my all time favorite bow trophy. Far from the biggest considering he is a half rack. I followed him for 3 seasons and connected on my first opportunity.



I shot this one as a probable 6 year old after 4 years of history...he was sick and already going down hill a little. First opportunity at him, late muzzleloader.



I shot this one second year chasing him with a bow. I almost had a chance at him the first year but he skirted me.



I think there might have been a couple others I succeeded with...now the interesting ones, the ones that got away!

This buck didn't get away exactly, rather I passed a good opportunity with the muzzleloader 2 years before finding him dead. Only chance at him. I wrote up an article about him:
http://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=159&t=17682

This buck I MISSED It was a challenging shot but one I should have made. I chased him for three years before he disappeared (missed him on year 2) and you guessed it, only opportunity at him.


There are many more I have chased multiple years but never got any opportunity at but I don't have those pictures readily accessible. There are many MANY more that I have seen glimpses of for several years in a row but just did not have any kind of a pattern so would not say I went after them directly.

There are so many variables in hunting specific bucks its hard to find a common theme in mistakes beyond the obvious big picture one. Every close call I have had can be summed up by - I screwed up. The best you can expect is one chance at a buck you are chasing, if you screw that up the odds of having a second chance and succeeding are really small. Sure a few hunters succeed on their second chance, but for every one of those successful second chances there are 10 instances were they got no second chance. Its all about finding a way to close the deal the first time or you probably are not going to.

[Mike]

I have had a few, my favorite is here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6273

That buck taught us a lot so in that aspect I feel successful even though we didn't kill him. He was a homebody for sure though.

That is one heck of a story! What I am looking for is what specifically did you learn from hunting him? Or learn that you could apply to the next time you find one like that? We're you able to figure why you didn't ever get a shot? It's amazing that a buck could be so visible and so lucky that the hunter doesn't get a good shot at some point. He reminds me of Fran Tarkenton avoiding a sack!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Here are some of the things learned:
He bred a doe on 10/27 2 years in a row in view of one of our hunters. These occurred basically on the opposite side of the same ridge and leads me to believe it was the same doe, and that he was seeking her out in year two based on getting to breed early in year one.

Both years we saw him 2 days in a row in the vicinity, first year I saw him the day before he bred but second year I saw him the day after still with the doe and got as close to getting him (the next morning) based on believing he would stick around.

In summer he hung out in the valleys when hot, near a water source. We got to see his range shift from year 3 to 4, luckily it shifted to our land which I believe provides better food and cover. He never was on cam on our hilltop field where other good bucks were on cam.

He traveled up and down the valleys during his feeding pattern all the way up til the rut, then it was a little more random. Sometimes he would travel in the open, sometimes he would be on the first trail at the bottom of the hill inside the woods. i tried to correlate with moon phase or wind but no luck. He would then cut straight up hill to approach his bedding area. We got pics of him going in and coming out the same day a few times.

When he died another big buck took his area over. That buck didn't act exactly the same but we had an idea of how he would use the terrain and did kill him.

Finding his sheds and dead head gave insights into winter bedding and travel

I'm sure there is more but thats off the top of my head

[bones09]

I have had a few, my favorite is here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6273

That buck taught us a lot so in that aspect I feel successful even though we didn't kill him. He was a homebody for sure though.

That is one heck of a story! What I am looking for is what specifically did you learn from hunting him? Or learn that you could apply to the next time you find one like that? We're you able to figure why you didn't ever get a shot? It's amazing that a buck could be so visible and so lucky that the hunter doesn't get a good shot at some point. He reminds me of Fran Tarkenton avoiding a sack!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Here are some of the things learned:
He bred a doe on 10/27 2 years in a row in view of one of our hunters. These occurred basically on the opposite side of the same ridge and leads me to believe it was the same doe, and that he was seeking her out in year two based on getting to breed early in year one.

Both years we saw him 2 days in a row in the vicinity, first year I saw him the day before he bred but second year I saw him the day after still with the doe and got as close to getting him (the next morning) based on believing he would stick around.

In summer he hung out in the valleys when hot, near a water source. We got to see his range shift from year 3 to 4, luckily it shifted to our land which I believe provides better food and cover. He never was on cam on our hilltop field where other good bucks were on cam.

He traveled up and down the valleys during his feeding pattern all the way up til the rut, then it was a little more random. Sometimes he would travel in the open, sometimes he would be on the first trail at the bottom of the hill inside the woods. i tried to correlate with moon phase or wind but no luck. He would then cut straight up hill to approach his bedding area. We got pics of him going in and coming out the same day a few times.

When he died another big buck took his area over. That buck didn't act exactly the same but we had an idea of how he would use the terrain and did kill him.

Finding his sheds and dead head gave insights into winter bedding and travel

I'm sure there is more but thats off the top of my head

This is cool. Seems you were able almost pattern the does he was chasing as easily as patterning him, which can be key.

I've been lucky enough to kill a few bucks that i had a few years of pics of. Some i had a shed or two. But for me hunting on small properties the most important piece of the puzzle has been what time of the year each individual buck uses the property.

[mheichelbech]

I have been fortunate enough to chase around a few for a couple years or more.

This one I was after for two years. He was the smaller of two similar 11 pointers if you can believe that...someone else got the other one. Shot him late ML season in a nudge my brothers and I did. First opportunity at him.



To be honest, this one is my all time favorite bow trophy. Far from the biggest considering he is a half rack. I followed him for 3 seasons and connected on my first opportunity.



I shot this one as a probable 6 year old after 4 years of history...he was sick and already going down hill a little. First opportunity at him, late muzzleloader.



I shot this one second year chasing him with a bow. I almost had a chance at him the first year but he skirted me.



I think there might have been a couple others I succeeded with...now the interesting ones, the ones that got away!

This buck didn't get away exactly, rather I passed a good opportunity with the muzzleloader 2 years before finding him dead. Only chance at him. I wrote up an article about him:
http://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=159&t=17682

This buck I MISSED It was a challenging shot but one I should have made. I chased him for three years before he disappeared (missed him on year 2) and you guessed it, only opportunity at him.


There are many more I have chased multiple years but never got any opportunity at but I don't have those pictures readily accessible. There are many MANY more that I have seen glimpses of for several years in a row but just did not have any kind of a pattern so would not say I went after them directly.

There are so many variables in hunting specific bucks its hard to find a common theme in mistakes beyond the obvious big picture one. Every close call I have had can be summed up by - I screwed up. The best you can expect is one chance at a buck you are chasing, if you screw that up the odds of having a second chance and succeeding are really small. Sure a few hunters succeed on their second chance, but for every one of those successful second chances there are 10 instances were they got no second chance. Its all about finding a way to close the deal the first time or you probably are not going to.

Great story, you are an excellent writer! I know you indicated each buck was very individualized, are there any key points that could help a guy in his pursuit of an individual buck? How many hours do you estimate that you spent scouting each one?

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[JoeRE]

I know you indicated each buck was very individualized, are there any key points that could help a guy in his pursuit of an individual buck? How many hours do you estimate that you spent scouting each one?

Honestly the key for me is recognize a buck as an individual and try to understand its personality. Some bucks are very aggressive and dominant, others are pretty sub-dominant their whole lives. Some have a super small core area and others have a larger one they move around in. The most aggressive of all those bucks I talked about above was that half rack. I would love to have seen the other buck he fought with that snapped a 5" main beam (or maybe he got hit by a car but there was no bruising). He swaggered around with his ears back and tail out in all my trail cam photos of him, pushed all other bucks around. Every year I watched him he got more and more aggressive. The year I got him, he was clearly very dominant and pretty nocturnal and I tried to use that to my advantage - hunting him the late pre-rut (Oct 28th) in an area that I knew he would go to check on does. Any later in the year I knew that buck might start ranging for miles in any direction, any earlier he wasn't going to show in daylight.

The old 8 I wrote up about was the opposite. He never seemed very dominant and had a small core area. He was just about invisible during the main rut. The time I passed a shot at him was late season - in that area a lot of doe fawns come around in December every year it seems like. I suspected a late doe fawn in heat might draw him out from his steep valley hide-out and I was right - not as many other bucks were around so it seemed like he didn't feel as intimidated.

I try not to spend a huge amount of time going after any one particular buck because I have gotten burned doing that before - ending the season with empty tag and worse, regrets. That buck I missed is a good example of that. I spent quite a bit of time hunting him the year I missed him, maybe half a dozen hunts, then the next year I probably spent 12+ hunts exclusively after him and never saw him. I let emotion (mad at missing him) take hold and as a result ended that following year with bow tag soup. When I become obsessed with a buck it generally ends bad for me - the only time I succeeded with an obsession was the big buck I shot last late season. Maybe a rule of thumb would be not to spend more than 25% of my available scouting and hunting time after one single buck. That way I have a pretty good chance at something else too. If I don't smell blood in the water so to speak I probably won't try more than 3 or 4 hunts after a particular buck and not much more than that scouting him. If I don't have a good grasp of what a buck is doing after 3 or 4 scouting trips I take that as an indicator I should look for a different one. That's just my strategy, always trying to be most efficient with my time.

Just the way I look at it....lots of different successful strategies out there.

[rack addict]

I have 3 years of pics of this buck. Hopefully this year will make 4. Never seen him during hunting season the first year, second year seen him run through a thicket for about 5 seconds. Last year had him come in behind me at less than 20 yards and walk around me and I couldn't do a thing for a couple reasons. First it was super cold and the slightest movement of my feet made all kinds of noise on the stand and secondly when he came around the side of me I hadn't cut shooting lanes like an idiot and couldn't take advantage of a 30 yard shot. Maybe it's me becoming more mature but normally I would have been extremely upset with not getting a shot but in this case I was pumped. I had outsmarted this old brute and he didn't even know it. I saved this specific spot for this deer and waited until the morning of November 14th to go in for the first sit since the season before. The stars almost aligned for me on this one. I did go in the middle of January and cut lanes and put up a millennium tree stand so hopefully no repeats of this again.
first year

second year

third year

[mheichelbech]

I know you indicated each buck was very individualized, are there any key points that could help a guy in his pursuit of an individual buck? How many hours do you estimate that you spent scouting each one?

Honestly the key for me is recognize a buck as an individual and try to understand its personality. Some bucks are very aggressive and dominant, others are pretty sub-dominant their whole lives. Some have a super small core area and others have a larger one they move around in. The most aggressive of all those bucks I talked about above was that half rack. I would love to have seen the other buck he fought with that snapped a 5" main beam (or maybe he got hit by a car but there was no bruising). He swaggered around with his ears back and tail out in all my trail cam photos of him, pushed all other bucks around. Every year I watched him he got more and more aggressive. The year I got him, he was clearly very dominant and pretty nocturnal and I tried to use that to my advantage - hunting him the late pre-rut (Oct 28th) in an area that I knew he would go to check on does. Any later in the year I knew that buck might start ranging for miles in any direction, any earlier he wasn't going to show in daylight.

The old 8 I wrote up about was the opposite. He never seemed very dominant and had a small core area. He was just about invisible during the main rut. The time I passed a shot at him was late season - in that area a lot of doe fawns come around in December every year it seems like. I suspected a late doe fawn in heat might draw him out from his steep valley hide-out and I was right - not as many other bucks were around so it seemed like he didn't feel as intimidated.

I try not to spend a huge amount of time going after any one particular buck because I have gotten burned doing that before - ending the season with empty tag and worse, regrets. That buck I missed is a good example of that. I spent quite a bit of time hunting him the year I missed him, maybe half a dozen hunts, then the next year I probably spent 12+ hunts exclusively after him and never saw him. I let emotion (mad at missing him) take hold and as a result ended that following year with bow tag soup. When I become obsessed with a buck it generally ends bad for me - the only time I succeeded with an obsession was the big buck I shot last late season. Maybe a rule of thumb would be not to spend more than 25% of my available scouting and hunting time after one single buck. That way I have a pretty good chance at something else too. If I don't smell blood in the water so to speak I probably won't try more than 3 or 4 hunts after a particular buck and not much more than that scouting him. If I don't have a good grasp of what a buck is doing after 3 or 4 scouting trips I take that as an indicator I should look for a different one. That's just my strategy, always trying to be most efficient with my time.

Just the way I look at it....lots of different successful strategies out there.

Do you figure all these details through observation? It's just hard for me to understand how a guy figures out the size of a bucks area, his level of dominance, etc unless he literally lives on the property.

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[JoeRE]

Do you figure all these details through observation? It's just hard for me to understand how a guy figures out the size of a bucks area, his level of dominance, etc unless he literally lives on the property.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

The two biggest ways I figure out things are tracks and trail cam pics. Its interesting how I get a buck on cam repeatedly on one side of a valley on cam but a cam on the opposite side doesn't get him at all. I identify that as a boundary. A pic tells you exact time and direction of travel. Terrain features often serve as range boundaries....but some bucks cover 3-4 drainages and others keep almost entirely to one.

I walk a lot of field edges and check ditch crossings and such for tracks all year long too. When I can be certain of a buck's unique tracks (not always possible for me I will admit, but I can at least 50 percent of the time) that goes a long way to figuring out a buck's core area. Tracks tell you approximate time and direction of travel. A buck will lay down thousands of tracks every night...its the most plentiful kind of sign you can get. If a buck is the only mature buck in an area I also use sign like tall rubs to further pinpoint travel routes.

I always tie that info (time, direction of travel, my guess of what the buck was doing) back to what I know about the area's bedding and food sources. Do that with intel from a few spots and you start to carve out a mental map of the buck's range.

One thing I find interesting is often a buck changes things up a little year to year - either size of home range, core bedding, level of dominance, or something like that. I think that can depend on a lot of factors, hunting pressure, other bucks in the area, etc.

Another buck I wrote a story about my brother killed this past year that we both had many years of history with was this one. Good example of how he shifted things a little bit every year. We had trail cameras in various spots in the property every year and between that and many visual observations it was interesting how small of an area we would "routinely" see him - less than 100 acres. http://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=287&t=28355

[UPbowhunter]

This is a buck that I want bad this year. The single I found after it had laid a year, the following year, I found nothing, last year the first set, this year the last set. So if the single was his 3 year old set this dude is ancient. Won't score anything and I could care less. This is a canoe in public spot.

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