Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

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Babshaft
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Babshaft » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:02 am

Thanks for the answer Mike, that makes it easier for me to figure out some rut setups at the spots I hunt.

Jeff G wrote:This is a funnel that produces almost everytime I hunt it correctly.
The funnel is caused by the thermal tunnel and bedding/crusing.

Image


Awesome, as a visual learner this really helps. What I'm seeing here is the bucks are cruising inside the cover beside what looks like a clear cut or field at what I'm guess is the bottom of a ridge? They're travelling downwind of the doe bedding as they move from bedding to bedding?

What other factors am I missing? Any other details?

Thanks Jeff, it's greatly appreciated!


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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Killtree » Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:14 pm

dan wrote:
Im having a hard time remembering the hunt where a buck was locked down with a doe...

Questions with Mario and Dan part 2


How would you ever kill a buck that only moves 75 yards from his bed in daylight sitting in a funnel?

I have been hunting 30 years and my success has been less than impressive
hunting funnels.




Do you think the older a buck gets the more likely he is to let the does come to him?


The Wensels believe some bucks don't participate in the rut. I don't know if I believe a buck would absolutely not participate in the rut, but he may not seek out does and only breed if a doe showed up in his bedroom ready to go.
I just figure a buck would probably be 8 or better if this was to happen.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Rob loper » Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:26 am

Bucks are extremely nocturnal and move right at the limit of daylight
So from what ive learned older bucks are extremely nocturnal and unless the funnel is within 50-75 yards of his bedding. He will use it but its going to be most likely after time of legal shooting time
We scout to find these mature buck beds because we wannna be as close as possible to them while hunting them its pretty much the whole tactic. A mature buck seldom gets more than 70-80 yards from his bed when he gets up to move. So the guy who is sitting in a funnel loaded with big rubs and big scrapes (TV reality) has the right idea but. But the hunter doesn’t realize that they are hunting the wrong sign for mature bucks Most if not all the sign in these funnels feeding areas field edges etc is made when we are at home eating dinner and asking the wife and kids how their days went. Dan asked me couple times during our time together. Do you wanna kill bucks? Or do you wanna kill big big mature bucks?
The sign associated with bedding is where you wanna be
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Primetime41 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:07 am

Jeff G wrote:This is a funnel that produces almost everytime I hunt it correctly.
The funnel is caused by the thermal tunnel and bedding/crusing.

Image


I see that you're sitting leeward based on a SW wind and catching bucks cruising between doe bedding areas, but it appears the bucks are checking windward doe bedding on the other side of the valley. Is that what's going on? Do you ever sit the south facing ridge on a N wind?
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Jeff G » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:41 am

Primetime41 wrote:
Jeff G wrote:This is a funnel that produces almost everytime I hunt it correctly.
The funnel is caused by the thermal tunnel and bedding/crusing.

Image


I see that you're sitting leeward based on a SW wind and catching bucks cruising between doe bedding areas, but it appears the bucks are checking windward doe bedding on the other side of the valley. Is that what's going on? Do you ever sit the south facing ridge on a N wind?


Yes that is correct, they cruise the wind blown doe bedding on top of the nobs, then flip around and back track due to the nobs having a dead end. they then cross and hop back into the thermal tunnel.

on a north wind we have snuck up from the bottom to the 1/3 elevation on north slope. It works but you lay a lot more scent down doing that opposed to waiting for right conditions on my original set up. we have killed bucks on both set ups.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby dan » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:24 am

Those of you that saw THE hill country bedding DVD saw me shoot a mature buck in a funnel on a ridge. Now during that hunt, I saw many 150 class bucks and one mature buck go thru funnels. But the 140 to 150 class bucks were only 3 year olds. This was a very large managed property with little pressure. There was a lot of mature bucks around as evidenced by trail cams and shining. But you rarely saw one of them out cruising despite there numbers. By sheer population, you could likely kill one mature buck in a season or 2 sitting funnels, but in reality if you wanted to see big bucks regularly you still had to consider bedding, both buck and doe. Where I finally located and killed that target buck was a funnel, just before closing, within 100/150 yards from his and the does bed. Inbetween me and that bed was solid thickness nobody ever ventured.

So funnels can work for consistency, but you do need to pick the right ones based on "bedding" in my opinion if its going to work on a regular basis with the next level of age class... In my opinion you get a lot of hunters who start putting down "good" bucks year after year in the 100 to 130 class range that can never step up to that 150 and up size range cause they are not hunting that age class. Sure, maybe they get one every 6 to 10 years, but me? I want to be in the game than once every 8 years. And I really don't want my hunting to revolve around hoping a deer makes a mistake. I want to constantly make precision attacks at areas he moves in within daylight.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Killtree » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:37 am

To be honest, 90% of the time I ask a question I already know the answer, or at least I think I do.
I am not looking for answers as much as I am confirmation.
I have really changed the way I have hunted the last few years and the Beast is really putting the icing on my cake.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby mnswamphunter » Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:38 am

I believe now more then ever that mature bucks do not move very much during daylight. With my mid winter scouting I have derived that I was standing in my stand for hours while bucks were bedding just 100-200 yards away. I have hunted funnels and ridges all my life and only had one encounter with a 4.5 + year old buck.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Killtree » Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:10 am

mnswamphunter wrote:I believe now more then ever that mature bucks do not move very much during daylight. With my mid winter scouting I have derived that I was standing in my stand for hours while bucks were bedding just 100-200 yards away. I have hunted funnels and ridges all my life and only had one encounter with a 4.5 + year old buck.


I hunted many years without concentrating on how close I was to the bucks bed.
I tried to get between the bedding and point B, but didn't realize how reluctant a buck was to travel very far from security until dark.
I killed a 7+ year old buck in 2009. I figured out after I killed him that I was within 100 yards of his bed.
A whole bunch of lightbulbs lit up and I started making an effort to get within 100 yards of buck beds.
My success has went way up.
I have actually been rescouting areas where I felt I should have killed bucks in the past but never did.
One thing I can promise you is that I will never set up on a bunch of hot sign ever again if there is not a buck bed close by.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby mnswamphunter » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:56 am

Killtree wrote:
mnswamphunter wrote:I believe now more then ever that mature bucks do not move very much during daylight. With my mid winter scouting I have derived that I was standing in my stand for hours while bucks were bedding just 100-200 yards away. I have hunted funnels and ridges all my life and only had one encounter with a 4.5 + year old buck.


I hunted many years without concentrating on how close I was to the bucks bed.
I tried to get between the bedding and point B, but didn't realize how reluctant a buck was to travel very far from security until dark.
I killed a 7+ year old buck in 2009. I figured out after I killed him that I was within 100 yards of his bed.
A whole bunch of lightbulbs lit up and I started making an effort to get within 100 yards of buck beds.
My success has went way up.
I have actually been rescouting areas where I felt I should have killed bucks in the past but never did.
One thing I can promise you is that I will never set up on a bunch of hot sign ever again if there is not a buck bed close by.


Very true, I was setting up in spots that I could cover the most trails. I saw a lot of deer and shot a a lot of bucks over the years.
Another for instance, this year my buddy, Son and Myself hunted the same farm one evening. We all gathered in the farm yard after the hunt and talked for about 10 minutes. I left and my buddy got on his tractor to spread a load of manure. He drove by my stand. When he did he saw a big buck. It had a wall of 10-12 inch tines.
That buck did not make it to my stand until after dark. I am sure that this has been happening to me all my life. :angry-screaming:
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Rob loper » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:20 am

Killtree wrote:
mnswamphunter wrote:I believe now more then ever that mature bucks do not move very much during daylight. With my mid winter scouting I have derived that I was standing in my stand for hours while bucks were bedding just 100-200 yards away. I have hunted funnels and ridges all my life and only had one encounter with a 4.5 + year old buck.


I hunted many years without concentrating on how close I was to the bucks bed.
I tried to get between the bedding and point B, but didn't realize how reluctant a buck was to travel very far from security until dark.
I killed a 7+ year old buck in 2009. I figured out after I killed him that I was within 100 yards of his bed.
A whole bunch of lightbulbs lit up and I started making an effort to get within 100 yards of buck beds.
My success has went way up.
I have actually been rescouting areas where I felt I should have killed bucks in the past but never did.
One thing I can promise you is that I will never set up on a bunch of hot sign ever again if there is not a buck bed close by.



Oh so true and i will never make that mistake again either
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:54 pm

I hung a camera on a primary scrape in a low deer density area and found that mature does will become very active on scrapes right around breeding time and have had them use the licking branch and pee on there hocks in scape almost daily till the buck comes back from his loop I don't think they seek bucks out but they definitely will let them know how they are doing. sometimes it will take a mature buck 2 weeks to come back threw he will hang around for a day or two than be gone again. I think the bedding is possibly because of the age of doe she just pics safer spots to bed with age and buck beds give her that especially if she's alone. does are more sociable but they can be loners too especially if she had some bad experiences with hunters or predators.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:13 pm

Stanley wrote:Older bucks are on their feet much less than younger bucks. I think this is the short version of why they are less likely to go through a funnel. Plus funnels are some of the hunters favorite places to set up. Big old mature bucks know this. Because that is where the human scent is.
many times have I seen mature bucks loop around those traps. I set up before or after funnels for morning hunts for that reason. I pic a spot on how I think a big buck will use the wind to negotiate that trap. just like bed hunting it takes a while convince yourself that putting yourself out of the main action is the right call. normally I hunt right on the edge of the wind and pic a tree with a obstacle that will force the buck to use a cross wind for 20 or 30 yards. if he's coming wind to back or nose I still have him then. I have had a lot of failure before success this way but it gets easier with time.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby <DK> » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:30 am

Stanley wrote:Older bucks are on their feet much less than younger bucks. I think this is the short version of why they are less likely to go through a funnel. Plus funnels are some of the hunters favorite places to set up. Big old mature bucks know this. Because that is where the human scent is.


x2 - 100% agree!
How many times has a 4+ yr old buck been passed or winded in his life a hunter in a select spot? Speaking about a homebody deer, the discussion on educating younger bucks is intriguing. Dan catches a lot of flack about the funnel thing and I think some people forget he speaks in a manner and mentality about high pressured, public land bucks. Also, this is why the discussion about natural funnels is so great. Not everyone has the eyes for them and takes boots on the ground to locate but are very effective.
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Re: Question for Dan or anyone else that wants to jump in

Unread postby Babshaft » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:54 am

Darkknight54 wrote:
Stanley wrote:Older bucks are on their feet much less than younger bucks. I think this is the short version of why they are less likely to go through a funnel. Plus funnels are some of the hunters favorite places to set up. Big old mature bucks know this. Because that is where the human scent is.


x2 - 100% agree!
How many times has a 4+ yr old buck been passed or winded in his life a hunter in a select spot? Speaking about a homebody deer, the discussion on educating younger bucks is intriguing. Dan catches a lot of flack about the funnel thing and I think some people forget he speaks in a manner and mentality about high pressured, public land bucks. Also, this is why the discussion about natural funnels is so great. Not everyone has the eyes for them and takes boots on the ground to locate but are very effective.


Bang on!

And I'm one of those guys that does a terrible job of locating GOOD natural funnels. I really like the idea of hunting bedding because it's easier to find good primary bedding to setup on, then it is funnels. At least for me as an individual. Everything looks like a funnel somedays lol. I spent the last few year having deer go through what I thought were good funnels at night (mainly because of my presence). I started hunting beds and was consistently seeing bucks in daylight, and finally had a shot at one.

It'd be nice to figure out some GOOD natural funnels that connect bedding areas to make it easier for me to anticipate travel directions.


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