Where is the Buck 2

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DaveT1963
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Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:24 am

Didn't want to hijack Magic's thread, not sure there is or will be any interest but I thought it would be kind of cool if several beast did a similar thread in different terrain types. Think it would be a great learning tool to compare how bucks react in various terrains and perhaps we can start drilling down to some commonalities that would help us all out no matter what terrain we hunt.

Background on this spot. This is a spot that is typical of North Texas/South Oklahoma cattle country. I hunted it several years back and took a couple nice bucks off this property. The deer density at that time was low for the area, say around 12-15 deer per square mile. The buck to doe ratio was not great – say 4:1 and the age structure was typical for most midwest states with long gun seasons (60-65% 1 ½ and younger the rest equally distributed between 2 ½ and 3 ½ with an occasional 4 ½+ buck.

During early season the dominate wind is SW-SE with an occasional NE showing up as fronts come through. The temps are usually in 65 and up with highs over 80 at times. The terrain is hilly with a lot of hackberry, birch, post oak, pecan and locust trees with native Bermuda and Rye grass and lots of native weeds. The more open areas are checked full of red brush, blackberry and plum thickets…. Very thick in some spots. The pics don’t show it well but the grass/weed fields are usually 2 foot high and higher.

There are several wheat fields that come in around mid Nov and most are off to the north and west of this location. The few water holes stayed wet most years

There are two main entries one from the north that goes down about 1/2 way into the area, and the other is a road off to the east that only borders the area for about ¼ mile of access. The pressure on this particular spot was medium during archery and high during gun season (archery Oct 1-Jan and Gun Nov 1st - end of Dec).

Where would you look for early season beds and where would you set up?
Where would you focus on during pre-rut/rut hunts?

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:41 am

I love these! Maybe we can get a "Where's the buck?" compilation thread and threads like yours and magics could have links to them in the main thread? :think:

I'm going to do a riverbottom scout today and do the same thing.

As far as your map goes do we get a topo?
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:46 am

Let me see if I can find one. When I say hilly - we are talking mild hills no real structure. Sorry should have clarified. Elevation changes are usually less then 100 foot throughout the property. I am trying to think back on the several stands I used and none had real "elevation structure" except for creeks and most of what deer oriented on was changes in vegetation (edges) and a lot of these are deeper in the timber. Let me see what I can find as far as a topo without giving this area away ;)
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:32 am

The one area I hunt that has hills does have bedding on points where there is 20-25' elevation changes.

If you don't feel it is needed that is fine, you obviously know what is relevant and not.

Not going to lie Dave this one might kick my but :D I'll take a stab at it tonight... heading out to scout now.
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:22 am

Good luck on the scout.

While this property does initially look tough to decipher - they key I found was to focus on interior transitions ;)
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby stash59 » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:25 am

Lockdown wrote:I love these! Maybe we can get a "Where's the buck?" compilation thread and threads like yours and magics could have links to them in the main thread? :think:

I'm going to do a riverbottom scout today and do the same thing.

[glow=red]As far as your map goes do we get a topo?[/glow]


x2!!
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:32 am

stash59 wrote:
Lockdown wrote:I love these! Maybe we can get a "Where's the buck?" compilation thread and threads like yours and magics could have links to them in the main thread? :think:

I'm going to do a riverbottom scout today and do the same thing.

[glow=red]As far as your map goes do we get a topo?[/glow]


x2!!


I am really hesitant about posting the topo as there are some features and markings right at the spot I want to illustrate that will give this area away. Let me see if I can use paint this evening to remove some of them. The main elevation changes relates to drainages - this is more subtle tolling hills and the key to hunting this area is inner transitions (funnels)
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:15 am

Total shot in the dark on this one Dave, but if you don't swing the bat you'll never hit the ball :mrgreen:

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby kurt » Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:20 pm

I don't look at property like this. Im guessing for sure. Top of map eastish side I'd go to first. It looks like 3 higher points formed by ditches above the water but a topo would maybe clear that up

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Jphunter » Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:26 pm

Dave, the open hill tops look to have trails are they roads? Is so do they get traveled much?

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Jphunter » Sat Apr 09, 2016 2:52 pm

I'm gonna give it a try..it's hard to tell how big the property is so I'm not sure how far away my stands are from the suspected bedding.
Red is suspected bedding for southern winds. blue would be potential stands and I circled the green area because it looks like an area that could funnel down deer traffic during the rut.


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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:08 am

Im out at the lake house so can't do any picture editing. One of you are right on where I took one of my better bucks.

This property was really hard to break down due to the randomness of buck movement. In all the years I hunted it I only found one well used bed.... The bucks tend to have 3+ bedding areas and rotate throughout them in no real pattern with the exception of this bed. CLUE: they used it a lot with a NW wind and that was exactly how I set up on that buck. I'll wait a few days before I show the set up for those that still want to take a crack at it. Lockdown is very close to the bed with one of his selections and JP actually is real close to the tree.... That's all I'm saying for now :)

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:42 am

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I circle what appears to be a drop off. I'm guessing beds have prevailing wind to back right on the military crest?

Tricky without a topo

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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby JoeRE » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:33 am

I can see why movement is relatively random Dave, lots of cover, and scattered food. Since its more arid down there...I would key in on the most secure and isolated water sources, then work out from there to identify good buck bedding near those. I see 4 ponds, and another bigger pond/reservoir in the top center - Lockdown has three marked then there is another pond in the lower right corner. Is that all the water - I assume the creeks are usually dry runs in the fall?

If there is 100 foot elevation differences that's enough for bucks to favor wind specific hill country type bedding I would think. The topography should make some good rut pinch points and bottlenecks. Around that bigger resevour I bet funnels bucks during the rut but if the buck to doe ratio is really out of whack you won't see much cruising.
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Re: Where is the Buck 2

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:17 am

JoeRE you've been paying attention to what I've said about hunting down here. As I stated im my journal, I focus on the least abundant of the three basic needs of a deer: food, cover and WATER. We have an abundance of cover and natural browse in this location ... So water was indeed the single factor that led me to this buck.

With a NW wind and with keeping that these bucks will usually bed with 100 yards and usually downwind of water.... A bedding area becomes apparent that not only gives him scent advantage but also he can visually watch this water hole. He got up from this bedding area ( blue dot) would get a drink in a small isolated pool in the creek and then would head West until he hit the small stand of mature trees (edge) where he would stage while browsing and walking into the wind. He usually worked his way north to Northwest following this small edge.

My tree (yellow dot) was set up to where he would first enter this edge and turn into the wind heading north/northwest (red line) until he got to the wheat field 3/4 mile to the north west. A trail camera on this edge was what clued me into this routine as I noticed I got a lot of afternoon pics on days that had a NW wind.

Knowing the bed was on the point just below this lake inlet; it wasn't hard to figure out what he was doing. A cluster of rubs close to where I set up clued me in that he liked to stage along the edge if the mature tree line.

Sorry for the poor pic this was best i could do from phone. The red line is a little off but shows the general direction of travel... he usually worked more North then what this shows

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