2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

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wiser blood
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2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:30 pm

Hey Guys!

My mind has turned back to its deer obsession and I wondered what I should focus on this year. To recap, last year I started doing a number of things differently on my families 400 acre farm.

1. I use to only hunt two stands that have been in the same spot for over ten years. Now I have a climber and a lock on that I cary in to find a new tree or one that I’ve wanted to hunt in.

2. I didn’t pay any attanetion to the wind before, but now it’s the first thing I pay attention to and I always try to have the deer coming in upwind. My property is a mix of crop and CRP fields, and hill country so I did pay attention to thermals for the fist time as well.

3. Buck bedding. Figured out where the biggest buck that I had seen on the farm was and put an arrow in him based on the wind and other factors but sadly didn’t recover him. I have redemption on my mind.

4. Before I was a few weekends a year hunter, but last year managed to hunt 50 times. I saw a lot of deer behavior and came to the conclusion that morning hunts were too tricky (but I still love them) and my best bet was to sneak in midday.


I still have a long way to go.

A. I still need to find all of the buck bedding on the farm.
B. I am still unsure what time of year to sit at cetrain places on the farm.
C. The two biggest bucks I saw last year were quartering into the wind with it coming over their back hip; crossing a field and in the hard woods. Is this normal?


I appreciate any advice! Thanks.

-chad


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elk yinzer
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby elk yinzer » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:07 pm

1) how do you feel about your shooting now? I know for me having had a couple bad seasons, that would be high on my list to make sure I was on point.

2) how did you locate and put an arrow into the biggest buck on the farm last year? That's a pretty big achievement. Do you feel you can replicate it, or was it more dumb luck?

3) finding buck beds on 400 acres...describe more your offseason scouting. Did you not find beds because you didn't look, couldn't pin them down, etc. 400 acres is pretty small in the realm of big bucks honestly imo.

4) w/r/t timing, so many factors again. Are there a lot of does? Good cover? Have more success with food bedding patterns?

5) wind....yeah big bucks do what they want when they feel safe. If they had a pattern of traveling into what seemed bad winds, I would try to figure out why. They would do that for two reasons. One they feel safe anyway. Two they got horny and made a mistake. Either way there could be room to catch them offguard.
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Lockdown
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby Lockdown » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:12 pm

Do you run cameras? Do you observe this time of year?

Also were all 50 hunts on the same 400 acres?
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:38 pm

Suggest u focus on having fun and not taking the stuff to dang serious. Shoot the first thing that comes along that trips your trigger and smile for the cam. Put a stand on the edge where the crops meet the crp and let the freakin Feathers fly! Expand your areas to more than your family farm and expand your horizons. Embrace the suck and learn from it. Just my .02 good luck
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby seazofcheeze » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:40 pm

Remember where and especially WHEN you got an arrow in the big one...he was there for a reason then. You should be there this year under similar timing and environmental factors, not two weeks before and not two weeks after.

Details, sounds like you are getting there. Biggest thing as a year 2 beast is to fine tune setups that worked or were close to work. Make sure all the details are right. Access routes, right tree, right time of year, right weather, etc.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby Jhand » Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:59 pm

My advice would be to try out some new areas to hunt. I found going to new areas really helped me grasp what guys on here were talking about. Hunting some public land will allow you to hunt more without overhunting your private land. The more you hunt the better you will get when it comes to setting up, tree stand location and reading sign. You can take what you learn and relate it back to your private. Also I would recommend starting a journal, write everything you can down. Wind, temp, deer seen, travel direction, time, how you accessed the property. This stuff really comes in handy down the road when you start figuring out a location.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:29 pm

I hope you enjoy your season. Don't put pressure on yourself.

Learning is all a guy can hope for. Make time for improving your strengths and separately look at the things holding you back.

Like a scientist think about a location, time of year or wind scenario and try to answer your own questions with field observation. A guy could take a whole season to study South wind bedding for example. Not what I consider ideal, but people put their whole season on rut activities.
You don't have to be the best, just do your best.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby Killtree » Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:07 am

I am going to assume that all 50 of your hunts were on the same farm.
With that thought in mind, the first thing I am going to advise is quality over quantity.
I had a total of about 15 sits in a stand last year,and only about 5 of those sits were directed at my target buck, which I ended up killing opening morning of gun season while still hunting. The other 10 sits were focused on does or a spot where I thought I might kill a buck.
I don't like throwing low odd sits at a bucks core area.
If you think you have a buck figured out then only hunt when you feel like you know where he is going to be and why.
Spend the rest of your time scouting out new areas, or go in somewhere blind and try to set up on a buck beast style without ever setting foot on that piece of property before.

One thing you should do is pick a piece of property and walk/scout every square inch of it.
Learn every nook and cranny with the intentions of hunting it next year.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:28 am

elk yinzer wrote:1) how do you feel about your shooting now? I know for me having had a couple bad seasons, that would be high on my list to make sure I was on point.

2) how did you locate and put an arrow into the biggest buck on the farm last year? That's a pretty big achievement. Do you feel you can replicate it, or was it more dumb luck?

3) finding buck beds on 400 acres...describe more your offseason scouting. Did you not find beds because you didn't look, couldn't pin them down, etc. 400 acres is pretty small in the realm of big bucks honestly imo.

4) w/r/t timing, so many factors again. Are there a lot of does? Good cover? Have more success with food bedding patterns?

5) wind....yeah big bucks do what they want when they feel safe. If they had a pattern of traveling into what seemed bad winds, I would try to figure out why. They would do that for two reasons. One they feel safe anyway. Two they got horny and made a mistake. Either way there could be room to catch them offguard.


Thanks for the reply Elk Yinzer!

1. The reason I didn’t recover that deer was because of how I rang and shoot. I’ve adjusted my shooting style to fit a more variable situation which is what messed me up in the heat of the moment.

2. I hunted that buck for 13 hunts. I followed his trail back each time, and figured out that he was set up on a finger on a ridge. Then based on seeing him on camera and that data which showed that he only liked to move on sunny days, the current wind direction, and temperature drop, I set up in an area where I had never seen him but thought that he would go that way to graze on acorns(the other way was cow pastures).

3. There was no scouting the previous off season.

4. I’m still trying to figure out the door patterns. There are two corn field and a ton of hard woods with acorns.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:30 am

Lockdown wrote:Do you run cameras? Do you observe this time of year?

Also were all 50 hunts on the same 400 acres?


Lockdown,

I have a few cameras which I set up during the season last year.

All of the 50 hunts were on the same farm. Since I didn’t do any scouting, I decided to just see what I could during the season. A lot of mistakes led to good information.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:32 am

Boogieman1 wrote:Suggest u focus on having fun and not taking the stuff to dang serious. Shoot the first thing that comes along that trips your trigger and smile for the cam. Put a stand on the edge where the crops meet the crp and let the freakin Feathers fly! Expand your areas to more than your family farm and expand your horizons. Embrace the suck and learn from it. Just my .02 good luck


Thanks Boobieman1,

There are two large corn fields that have CRPs around them. I just need to find the spots where the deer seem to acces them.
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:34 am

seazofcheeze wrote:Remember where and especially WHEN you got an arrow in the big one...he was there for a reason then. You should be there this year under similar timing and environmental factors, not two weeks before and not two weeks after.

Details, sounds like you are getting there. Biggest thing as a year 2 beast is to fine tune setups that worked or were close to work. Make sure all the details are right. Access routes, right tree, right time of year, right weather, etc.


Thanks seazofcheeze,

I do need to figure out better access routes. But I will try that spot at the same time next season.
wiser blood
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:37 am

Jhand wrote:My advice would be to try out some new areas to hunt. I found going to new areas really helped me grasp what guys on here were talking about. Hunting some public land will allow you to hunt more without overhunting your private land. The more you hunt the better you will get when it comes to setting up, tree stand location and reading sign. You can take what you learn and relate it back to your private. Also I would recommend starting a journal, write everything you can down. Wind, temp, deer seen, travel direction, time, how you accessed the property. This stuff really comes in handy down the road when you start figuring out a location.


Thanks Jhand,

I do want to get on some other land, either public or private to test my skills out. That’s a must this year for me.

Last year, after every hunt, I used an overhead map and made notes about every deer I saw and what they did along with the weather details. I started to put that into a spreadsheet but need to finish it,
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:39 am

justdirtyfun wrote:I hope you enjoy your season. Don't put pressure on yourself.

Learning is all a guy can hope for. Make time for improving your strengths and separately look at the things holding you back.

Like a scientist think about a location, time of year or wind scenario and try to answer your own questions with field observation. A guy could take a whole season to study South wind bedding for example. Not what I consider ideal, but people put their whole season on rut activities.



Thanks justdirtyfun,

My wife and kid are holding me back! Ha. Just kidding. Good advice though!
wiser blood
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Re: 2nd Year Beast: What should I focus on?

Unread postby wiser blood » Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:42 am

Killtree wrote:I am going to assume that all 50 of your hunts were on the same farm.
With that thought in mind, the first thing I am going to advise is quality over quantity.
I had a total of about 15 sits in a stand last year,and only about 5 of those sits were directed at my target buck, which I ended up killing opening morning of gun season while still hunting. The other 10 sits were focused on does or a spot where I thought I might kill a buck.
I don't like throwing low odd sits at a bucks core area.
If you think you have a buck figured out then only hunt when you feel like you know where he is going to be and why.
Spend the rest of your time scouting out new areas, or go in somewhere blind and try to set up on a buck beast style without ever setting foot on that piece of property before.

One thing you should do is pick a piece of property and walk/scout every square inch of it.
Learn every nook and cranny with the intentions of hunting it next year.


Thanks Killtree,

My situation of staying in a cabin next to my farm allowed me to hunt in the morning before work which won’t be the situation this year. I will have to pick and choose more carefully this fall.


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