Going where the bucks are...

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
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Edcyclopedia
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Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:51 pm

A discussion with my best buddy about driving cross country, from NH, to Sturgis.

Of course he hunts along with me so naturally the conversation turned to Deer:
He commented that he has never seen that many Deer in his life while driving through Ohio and Illinois @ dusk.
Bachelor groups of 10-15 bucks, pods of Doe's, etc...
Easily seeing over +500 deer!!!
That's more Deer than he has seen in his entire life hunting NH.
Of course he mentioned it was likely private land but none the less odds are in your favor...

Hmmm - We both wondered what our walls would look like if we had more opportunity...?
We average our chances of ONE 3.5+ year old buck every 5-6 years.
Imagine if we had 2 or 3 chances / yr. @ that very same 3.5+ year old classed deer...
Crop hunting verses woods hunting...

Tell me your sob story about how you could, would, should kill good deer by your standards?
I'd like to here a bunch about less-producing "Staters" that move to "Deer Country"!
And everyone else too ;)


Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
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DeerDylan
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby DeerDylan » Sat Aug 01, 2015 12:33 am

Ed I am curious, do you ever take out of state hunting trips?

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby hunter_mike » Sat Aug 01, 2015 12:44 am

Edcyclopedia wrote:A discussion with my best buddy about driving cross country, from NH, to Sturgis.

Of course he hunts along with me so naturally the conversation turned to Deer:
He commented that he has never seen that many Deer in his life while driving through Ohio and Illinois @ dusk.
Bachelor groups of 10-15 bucks, pods of Doe's, etc...
Easily seeing over +500 deer!!!
That's more Deer than he has seen in his entire life hunting NH.
Of course he mentioned it was likely private land but none the less odds are in your favor...

Hmmm - We both wondered what our walls would look like if we had more opportunity...?
We average our chances of ONE 3.5+ year old buck every 5-6 years.
Imagine if we had 2 or 3 chances / yr. @ that very same 3.5+ year old classed deer...
Crop hunting verses woods hunting...

Tell me your sob story about how you could, would, should kill good deer by your standards?
I'd like to here a bunch about less-producing "Staters" that move to "Deer Country"!
And everyone else too ;)


Ed, if you ever get back to wisconsin, you should try deer shining. You probably would never leave the state of WI again!
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:59 am

Hardknocks of deer hunting. Some great hunters live in big buck states some don't. I know of a guy from Michigan who sold a successful business to move to Iowa for deer hunting. He was in his late 30s at the time and had a young family.

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Sat Aug 01, 2015 2:52 am

My story plays different cause I moved to Illinois without any thoughts or dreams of deer hunting. Boy that part sure has changed. Man those big boys are plentiful.
They have been safe for a few years but I'm a part of the blood brothers and plan to put a hurt on them soon.
Going to where they are makes perfect sense if you internal drive can push you through the highway miles.

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby ZSV » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:00 am

Hawthorne wrote:Hardknocks of deer hunting. Some great hunters live in big buck states some don't. I know of a guy from Michigan who sold a successful business to move to Iowa for deer hunting. He was in his late 30s at the time and had a young family.

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Just curious, did the guy you know end up killing a slob on public here (IA)? I read a story in a magazine (think it was Iowa Game and Fish) that sounds like the guy you described.

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:13 am

Whatever happened to your plans on moving to Wisco? :mrgreen:

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:37 am

ZSV wrote:
Hawthorne wrote:Hardknocks of deer hunting. Some great hunters live in big buck states some don't. I know of a guy from Michigan who sold a successful business to move to Iowa for deer hunting. He was in his late 30s at the time and had a young family.

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Just curious, did the guy you know end up killing a slob on public here (IA)? I read a story in a magazine (think it was Iowa Game and Fish) that sounds like the guy you described.

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Not sure. The guy im talking about there about 10 years ago

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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby cbigbear » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:41 am

Here's my sob story about LA hunting. The hunting within a hr of my home here in SE LA is terrible. Zero agri in this range mainly big woods - pine & cut overs mixed with urban areas. Then we have the huge cypress/tupleo swamp public land only accessible in late Nov - March. We do have some cattle pasture land, but you could ride all evening & night & be lucky to see 1 or 2 deer. Glassing is impossible due to thick cover, shinning is illegal but would be unproductive anyway due to cover, public land is limited except for deep swamp terrain, no snow for late season tracking or post season scouting, skeeters, snakes, spiders, gators, hogs out number our deer by far.

Now with all that said making a 2 1/2 drive north to MS or 3 1/2 to NE LA puts you in much, much better hunting - with agri & big MS river bottom bucks so it's not a terrible situation.

Now from my one Midwest experience. It was a 5 day blind trip to NE MO public. We targeted 3 different CA's & spun some wheels trying to narrow down the best one. So we end up with 2 days of actual hunting. On the last day I had a 150" 10 come in to 95 yds, which was a tad out of range for the bow. However, it's my first 150" buck ever seen in 26 yrs of hunting.
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:04 am

The real truth of the matter is; the area you hunt is often what defines you as a big buck hunter. There is huge false sense of skill level in a lot of hunters. I say this because the playing field being equal, would bring a lot of those high self opinionated skilled hunters back to reality.

Make no mistake there are guys that know their onions that are hunting in great areas. One name that comes to mind is Andrae D'Acquisto. I have much more respect for a guy like Andrae D'Aquisto that formed his skill in areas not so great. Andrae certainly understands what a good hunting area can do. That is why he purchased one.

I know a lot of below average skilled hunters that have killed good bucks. I kind of consider myself one of these. If I hunted in just say Vermont or New Hampshire (been to both states) . I know I would not be as successful as I would have been. Don't get me wrong I do know and understand a lot about deer hunting, I should have learned something dedicating the past 50+ years to hunting deer.

That said there are hunters that know a great deal more than I do. There are also much better skilled hunters than myself. I figure if you can't gauge your own skills you can't gauge others skills. That brings me around to what the OP Ed thinks his walls would like if he lived in a better big buck area.

Lets break it down into apples vs apples. Ed is a good business man, a good father and husband. He spends Thanksgiving Christmas & other holidays with his family. How would Ed's wall look hunting a good area be compared to a selfish hunter that spends the entire deer season including the holidays hunting? I'm not going to spell it out, I think you get the picture. Ed my friend you are a better person for not having a wall full of big bucks. I am sure of it.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:35 am

Great post Stan. Some of it will probably will rub a few the wrong way but I agree on all counts.

I pay just about no attention to people comparing the hunting skills of various big shots or wannabes anymore. Nobody walks in anyone else's shoes. I really don't care if you have 1 buck or 30 bucks on the wall lets just talk deer hunting and have fun.
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Kraftd » Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:49 am

Both great posts Stan and Joe. As come up often, that is part of what makes this site great. Everyone is here to learn and generally to help also. Most also seem to have an open mind that they can learn from people with lesser walls, because they understand exactly what this thread is about. Good stuff guys!

Great reminder that success can breed complacency. Keep on learning!
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby hunter_mike » Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:04 am

Kraftd wrote:Both great posts Stan and Joe. As come up often, that is part of what makes this site great. Everyone is here to learn and generally to help also. Most also seem to have an open mind that they can learn from people with lesser walls, because they understand exactly what this thread is about. Good stuff guys!

Great reminder that success can breed complacency. Keep on learning!


Spot on. Deer hunting is more fun if you don't care what your wall looks like and you just give yourself a clean slate every time you step into the woods. You vs. the best buck in the woods every time (not you vs. the hunting beast forum)
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby DeerDylan » Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:24 am

Stanley you knocked it out of the park with that post! Good stuff
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Re: Going where the bucks are...

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:38 am

Right on Stanley. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Some people get way too concerned about having bigger bucks than the next guy. As long as your having fun hunting and killing bucks that are considered better than average in your state you should consider yourself a succesful hunter. If you do want something better only choice is to travel for more opportunity. If I want to kill a mule deer I know it will never happen here in WI so realize I would need to travel 12-15 hours west. It's all about creating opportunity if it's not currently available.

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