Monday topic....Can it be done?

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Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Stump » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:35 am

So often a person reads, "I've been scouting this buck all summer"...."I have this buck patterned"...."This buck has been doing X for 3 nights in a row" and so on.

The public land(s) that I will be targeting are 1 hr + from my house. Between work, kids and life in general...I won't be able to sit there on random days just to scout long distance, run trail cams, etc... My plan is to scout now through green up...prep stand spots, get them on the gps, determine entrance routes and figure out wind scenarios and then just basically lay low until the season starts or when I think is the right time to hunt the spot(s). How effective/productive do you guys think this will really be without being able to spend that "extra" time scouting during the summer and early fall time periods? All depends on how well I've picked the spot? LOL!


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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby GRUD » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:23 am

I try to have all my spots scouted and trees picked by March and I don't really step foot in the woods until I actually hunt. The public land for me is 3+ hours away. Also, I try to scout new areas mid day on my trips to find new areas. It's hard to target a specific animal but I am able to find areas that I know hold a good deer but may not know what he actually looks like until he gets out of his bed that first evening in. I connected on a good buck this past fall that I knew was in the area but had never seen him. A buddy saw him the year before and I suspected he was still around and he was.
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Stump » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:28 am

That's a good point. If your confident in the area, your hunting what the area has to offer instead of hunting one specific deer. It makes me feel a little bit better about my limited scouting time. ha, ha
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby PredatorTC » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:40 am

I think that all this may work ok for you but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. If your looking at rubs and stuff, remember that deer may be dead already. Remember that the sigh that your looking at may have been made at anytime of the season so you could end up hunting rut sign in the early season. I have had the same idea as you the past two seasons but the problem was, that i had a sweet spot all picked out so i went and set up the first chance I had but then as i sat in my stand i realized the deer were not doing what they did last year and I should have scouted that day to confirm that the deer were doing the same thing as last year.

SO if you have some hot spots picked out, make sure they are still hot when you go to set up the day of your hunt
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby 76chevy » Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:12 am

I think it will work for you

you might go back in the summer for some shining just to verify they are in the area still
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby dan » Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:41 am

It works.. I do that very tactic in a lot of the places I hunt.


SO if you have some hot spots picked out, make sure they are still hot when you go to set up the day of your hunt

I kind of dissagree with that... I have found that if a big buck gets killed and its a good buck bedding are another will be bedding there. Also, some of the biggest bucks leave very little sign. My biggest buck for example, I watched him bed in the same spot from a distance over and over and even found his shed in that very bed the spring before, but there was not much of any rubs or scrapes anywhere around the bed...
If your spring scouting dictates its a good spot, give it a shot.
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Stump » Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:00 am

That's kind of what I had thought in the back of my head. I had always assumed that a big buck spot was just that for a reason. So as long as nothing major has happened, if a big one was killed....another would move into the same area and take over. Obviously it wouldn't act the same or do the same things, but if I'm going in somewhat blind as in not knowing what's really there....I wouldn't be any the wiser knowing that I'm not scouting it hard from a distance anyway. ha, ha
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Nortwoods » Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:18 am

Stump, I'm pretty much in the same situation you are in work, kids, and other daily tasks. I have been hitting a couple of marshes that takes me a good 40 minutes to an hour to get to. I don't have time to hunt a individual buck which I wish I could. If its your first year hunting the spot it may be a little frustrating finding out how the deer move on the land. What I've been doing is getting setup in spring and then pretty much leaving it alone all summer. Then as soon as the season start I'll go back in and check around may stands to make sure there is still activity and then stay out until the end of October of whenever the action starts picking up. Make sure the public land your going to hit is off the beaten path and hard to get to because not only will you not have time to hunt an individual buck you won't be able to keep tabs on who else is using the property. I've learned that the hard way and you only set yourself up for disappointment if you don't get off the beaten path. As for trail camera's I'll put one or two out when the season begins while I'm checking my stands and pick them up after my first hunt. I'll put may camera's within a couple hundred yards of my stand but not by it.

I've been hunting this one marsh for 3 years now and finally got a nice buck within shooting range but I blew it. I also seen one last year that was maybe close to the 140's but to far out to shoot. It is not the way I want to do it and maybe doing it all wrong but for right now its what I can do.

The other thing that I really enjoyed was late season hunting these spots. You have snow on the ground and you can get set up on a spot pretty quick with a little bit of scouting.
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby PredatorTC » Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:54 am

dan wrote:It works.. I do that very tactic in a lot of the places I hunt.


SO if you have some hot spots picked out, make sure they are still hot when you go to set up the day of your hunt

I kind of dissagree with that... I have found that if a big buck gets killed and its a good buck bedding are another will be bedding there. Also, some of the biggest bucks leave very little sign. My biggest buck for example, I watched him bed in the same spot from a distance over and over and even found his shed in that very bed the spring before, but there was not much of any rubs or scrapes anywhere around the bed...
If your spring scouting dictates its a good spot, give it a shot.


YOu make a good point but the hunt im thinking of in my head was good the one year and crap the next. What it was, was a spot that the buck went through to get to his bed but this spot flooded out the next year which i think is why he started entering his bed from a different way. Or maybe he did this bc he got older and smarter and knew we were onto him.

But now that i think about it im going to have to start trying your sugestion Dan because i have spots that seem to dry up from the deer action every year but maybe they are still there and im just not seeing the sign with the high vegitation in the early season

Great Post! Got me thinking now 8-)
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:13 am

dan wrote:It works.. I do that very tactic in a lot of the places I hunt.


SO if you have some hot spots picked out, make sure they are still hot when you go to set up the day of your hunt

I kind of dissagree with that... I have found that if a big buck gets killed and its a good buck bedding are another will be bedding there. Also, some of the biggest bucks leave very little sign. My biggest buck for example, I watched him bed in the same spot from a distance over and over and even found his shed in that very bed the spring before, but there was not much of any rubs or scrapes anywhere around the bed...
If your spring scouting dictates its a good spot, give it a shot.


Dan, I agree on this 100% and have had similar experience.

One particular buck bed I hunt in N. Minnesota I've killed 3
mature bucks of of this bed,(one was my oldest buck cementum annuli at 8 1/2 yo) 2 with portable treestands and 1 on a 2-man nudge hunt. The core area is no more than 100 yards
square and I've never seen a rub or scrape outside the core area. There is one trail access in to this bed and one exit and a perfect escape route out the back door. The entrance trail crosses a hiking trail about 1/2 mile from the bedsite, its the first place I look when we get to camp is that entrance trail. If I determine a buck is using that bedsite, I need a N or N.W. wind to hunt the setup.
This year I set a stand in there 2 days before rifle season, but I did a portage hunt with 2 buddies. When we left camp, I reminded Ed who is 68 years young, that I had a stand setup there and he should hunt it with the right wind, 5th day of season Ed shot a 130ish 10pt in there, he told me he was on stand for exactly 17 minutes.
My point is, that year after year this is a good spot, but if we go in there and scout, set trail camera, cut shooting lanes during season the hunt is over before we even start hunting. It also took several years to learn how to access this spot undetected got busted several times at first, and it's a all day hunt when I hunt this spot and usual only hunt it once or twice in a season. Sometimes less = more.
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Stump » Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:21 am

Nortwoods,

Another tactic I plan on using if it works out with the landscape is for my first few hunts to be in areas where they might not be where I want to be, but where I can see the most....vantage points. I'll pick my areas hoping/thinking I can kill a deer there, but almost primarily pick a spot or 2 where I might be able to view A LOT of deer movement. And then adjust.

Of course my plans and theories sound good in my head and look good on paper. LOL!!
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:37 pm

YOu make a good point but the hunt im thinking of in my head was good the one year and crap the next. What it was, was a spot that the buck went through to get to his bed but this spot flooded out the next year which i think is why he started entering his bed from a different way. Or maybe he did this bc he got older and smarter and knew we were onto him.

But now that i think about it im going to have to start trying your sugestion Dan because i have spots that seem to dry up from the deer action every year but maybe they are still there and im just not seeing the sign with the high vegitation in the early season

Great Post! Got me thinking now 8-)[/quote]

PredatorTC...Interesting post

Got some thoughts and questions
When are you scouting your spots? before season a month? a week? Are you setting stands, cameras, cutting shooting lanes, and trying to figure out a buck just prior to season, trying to find fresh sign? If your doing these things in a attempt to pattern a buck to hunt, are you sure your not alerting that buck to your presence before the hunt and he's patterning you.

As I read Dan's post, I believe the key to what he spoke about is that he watched that buck numerous times from a distance and patterned that bucks movement and didn't alert him to his presence, when the conditions and timing were right he made his move and killed the buck, he had confidence and picked his time when the conditions were in his favor.

We all have had spots that weve located scouting that were smoking hot, usually the first time you hunt the spot, you see alot of deer, the second time only 1/2 as many, by the third or fourth time you hunt you don't see a thing. Why? how did you access the spot? wrong conditions, wind, noise ? It' safe to say that you've alerted the deer to your presence, and if your hunting a mature buck, it's probably game over.

I was bowhunting a spot like that years ago, I new there was a good buck working a scrapline along a swamp, the first year that I hunted there, I saw that buck on the first evening but he was out of range. So I moved my stand, never saw him the rest of the season, and the scrapline went dead. After season I spoke to some of the local farmers, and it sounded like nobody had killed that buck. So I started scouting after season, and formed a new plan for the next season. What I learned later is that when I accessed my stand that I was crossing his primary trail into his bed, I'd alerting him to my presence and that he was being hunted. The next season I set a stand only 20 yards off the swamp, and accessed the stand using waders going through the swamp. I'd get out of the swamp, take off the waders and put my boots on and go up the tree. On the third hunt, I killed that buck at 15 yards, he must of been curious about my waders hanging on a hook at the bottom of the tree I was in, he was walking right up to them with his nose in the air.
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby wmihunter » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:32 pm

stump, I am in the same situation. I am scouting hard in a couple months then waiting until Oct 1 when the season opens!
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby PredatorTC » Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:31 pm

Tadmdad wrote:When are you scouting your spots? before season a month? a week? Are you setting stands, cameras, cutting shooting lanes, and trying to figure out a buck just prior to season, trying to find fresh sign?


I scout all winter and all spring and dont come back until its time to hunt
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Re: Monday topic....Can it be done?

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:44 pm

Stump wrote:Nortwoods,

Another tactic I plan on using if it works out with the landscape is for my first few hunts to be in areas where they might not be where I want to be, but where I can see the most....vantage points. I'll pick my areas hoping/thinking I can kill a deer there, but almost primarily pick a spot or 2 where I might be able to view A LOT of deer movement. And then adjust.

Of course my plans and theories sound good in my head and look good on paper. LOL!!



Hopefully Autumn Ninja will chime in on this if he hasn't already but this sounds sort of like a process he uses and highlighted on in another post. He said he'll hunt a handful of marginal spots on a piece of public land until the time is right to close in the one buck he knows is out there and is after. I'm sure he puts it better than I have repeated it but basically he sits spots he will see deer, ideally THE deer he is after, and in doing so the deer figure out he is there. They discover his scent after dark etc. The whole time he is avoiding their core bedding area so they continue to feel safe there. Then when the time is right he executes and kills that big buck who is tricked into feeling safe in his little hiding area.
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