2018 buck killers...

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dan
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2018 buck killers...

Unread postby dan » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:33 am

2018 buck killers...

So, you got your buck, congrats, but now that the celebration is done lets talk strategies. What tactic or thought process put you in the right spot, at the right time?


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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby PredatoronthePrairie » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:53 am

Nov 1 morning hunt
SSE wind, 3-5mph, moon over head

Pre hung set back in April
Second time in that stand
Doe bedding area.

Walked through a qrt. of standing corn to reach the stand.

East to West tree belt, with 1/4 acre corn field to north, crp to the south.

Lessons learned
- Need a wind stronger than 3-5 pushing more S than anything east an west. Found that although I had a south wind. The larger trees in the shelter belt would stop and swirl the wind and my scentstream would actually carry my scent straight west down the belt. To an area that deer come from.
The deer I harvested came from the east. Would probably have busted me if he came from the west.
-also, I had my acces trail to far west need to move it to the east. If I have to cross a trail might as well have it be in a shooting lane, facepalm. Figured out that one while sitting in the tree.
Last edited by PredatoronthePrairie on Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby fatblockabody » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:54 am

My biggest takeaway is not being afraid to make a change when what typically works... is not. An hour after I got in a tree after a big mid day change, I had a buck down.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby cjw5136 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:58 am

October 15 I had stand and sticks on my back. Had a spot further back in a public area as my destination. Scouting on the way in I started seeing fresh scrapes/rubs and then a very fresh scrape under an apple tree with several apples still on the ground. Setting up on the fresh sign, I had a good buck come in with about 10 minutes left. He ate some apples and worked the scrape. I shot the buck but was unable to find him, despite best efforts.

So scouting on the way in and setting up on the fresh sign was the tactic that worked for me in this circumstance.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Eddiegomes83 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:16 am

I have been very forunate this season and will have multiple stories.
I will break mine up into seperate post only because i wont have time to reflect on all of my hunts in one sitting.

Public Buck 1.

September 16th 2018

On opening day (Sept 15) I slept in because i was going in blind and decided to slip in in the evening. My buddy beat me out and I didn't want to mess him up so i found a spot (funnel) between bedding and food. I didnt see anything that evening. I left my stand in place because i thought for sure it was a better morning spot. Next morning i woke up and it was raining. I drove to my spot and waited for the rain to let up. Right about daylight it let up to a sprinkle so i decided to slip in quietly.
(Over the past few years i started going in right at daylight and hunting my way in unless Intel tells me otherwise or i have a real quiet sneaky entry. I used to get to my stand at 5am every morning and usually busting deer along the way. I have has wat more success hunting my way in in the am.)
I got to my stand about an hr later. After i had set up in this spot i noticed there was an oak flat directly behind me out of range that i could barely see. I decided to stand and face that way. I wasnt in the stand 15min when i seen a buck cruising the oak flat. I grunted to him and he made his way towards me. Had i not decided to stand and face that way he would have slipped by unnoticed. It took him a while to close the distance but ultimately gave me a split second window to take a shot. I was pinned to the tree and i ended up making a bad shot and hit him high and back. I never recovered the deer.
I will post buck number 2 later.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby rfickes87 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:28 am

My 1st buck of the season
DATE: 10-2-18 (killed right before dark)
AREA: Family Farm here in PA
TACTIC: Using the lowest elevation/depression of a corn field to my advantage.

I was able to do an observation sit high on a ridge on opening day and watch this area of the corn field for any deer activity. 2 young bucks made an appearance before dark confirming to me that in fact that was the area where they were entering this large corn field right before dark. 2 days later I came back and was able to find a worn out trail leading from this area of the field back to bedding. I walked right along the trail back as far towards bedding as I felt I could get and set up. Right at closing time I shot my buck. He was making his usual routine towards that field. I learned this from the farm bedding DVD...actually just from the preview on YouTube. I still haven't bought the DVD yet, lol. SORRY!! :lol: I will do this winter!

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My 2nd buck
DATE: 11-10-18 (killed at 8:10 am)
AREA: Ohio Public - Hill Country
TACTIC: Cyber scouting my tail off. Went in blind before daylight and set up on a remote leeward ridge top 1/3. 1.4 mile walk in.

It was a perfect looking ridge that caught my eye on the map. It was only 100 yards wide across the top. Connected 2 large areas. Suspected bedding was adjacent from either direction along the ridge. Very remote ridge with almost no parking or access. Just seemed like a slam dunk and it was. The wind made my set up perfectly leeward. A very steep military crest made my buck walk right past me.

More detailed stories and pictures here...

viewtopic.php?f=287&t=47737
Last edited by rfickes87 on Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby flinginairos » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:29 am

I killed two whitetails this year so i'll break them apart separately...

Buck #1 Ohio. November 12th
I had preset the tree last year. South side of a ridge running East to West. NW wind that day. Steep ditch running up to the top 1/3 and stops where it hits a 60 yard strip of pines that borders a gravel road. The bucks cruise that transition line of the pines and the ditch/road funnels them past the tree perfectly! This is a rut spot and I stayed out until they were cruising. At 8:45 the buck came in FAST but I was able to get drawn and kill him at 15 yards. About the time he fell over my #1 buck (6.5+ yr old) comes cruising up the ridge the same way and stops at 15 yards! :doh: This is just one of those spots that most would overlook because it's so close to the road.

Buck #2 WV. November 17th
Run and gun hunt. Hadn't been on this ridge all year and by the looks of it, nobody else had either. I scouted my way in with my saddle and climbing spikes just looking for sign. My plan was to setup if there was sign or move to the next ridge over if there wasn't. I was following an old logging road that runs the length of the ridge and splits super heavy bedding cover on each side. Several doe groups bed on the ridge top and the bucks seem to bed in close proximity to them during the rut. As I made my way out the ridge where it rounds out into a brushy knob I found a cluster of fresh scrapes and rubs where the main logging road met with another road that cuts directly down the ridge to the bottom. I figured there was a buck using the logging road to check doe groups quickly on each side of the ridge. Tons of tracks and fresh rubs/scrapes really got my attention! I had a SW wind and it was blowing my scent back out into the open hardwoods away from the main bedding cover. I decided since there hadn't been any pressure to setup right on the logging road, downwind of that cover. At 5:18 the buck came out of thick stuff right on his rub line and walked right to the scrape giving me an easy 17 yard shot.

Usually I can get on a good buck early by getting super close to bedding and that didn't work out for me this year. I had several encounters with mature bucks in range getting close to individual beds but just couldn't get good shots on any of them. Once the rut started I shifted to more "traditional" tactics of hunting terrain/sign and staying mobile and it paid off for me.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Rich M » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:54 am

Found right spot by heading away from bulk of hunters and focusing on edge, points, and then following trails. Recognized a bowl feature, went around to opposite side and whamo - a gazillion tracks, jumbo rub, and ultimately 4 bucks and 1 doe seen in 2 am hunts. Stand spot is essentially ideal - cross open area at 90 degree angle to woods, stand is 10-15 yards in. The deer angle to go around bowl and go very close to stand.

Otherwise I just went where the other guys had not been hunting...
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby MEKeithD » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:57 am

I need to send a big thank you to Dan and The Hunting Beast nation here.

A little history: I’ve been hunting this farm for 4 years and this was the first mature animal I have been able to kill. I previously hunted bigger northern WI hardwoods my whole hunting life, hunting this farm with a marsh was all new for me. When I first scouted, I was fairly quickly walking across deer beds (which was new for me). So I started researching deer beds and quickly found The Hunting Beast. I’ve been reading everything I can off of here for the last three years…and fairly quickly 20 years of hunting started to make more sense. In 2015 I was hunting right in the bedding area (this was pre-hunting beast knowledge). I was also running too many trail cams and walking around way too much and I was not successful – I have since mostly ditched the trail cams. By the end of 2016 I had read a lot on The Beast and was realizing that I was way over hunting this property…but I did manage to identify some patterns between the beds and the neighbors food plot…I missed a 9 pt with my bow. 2017 I was now using more beast tactics. Paying way more attention to wind, working hard not to blow up the bedding area, and also trying to identify buck beds vs doe beds (which I’m still not great at). I managed to killed a 2.5 yr old 8 with my gun.

This brings me to 2018. I feel like the majority of beds I find are doe beds (I’m still working to identify buck beds). Rubs and scrapes don’t really show up until Nov – so I decided to stay out until the rut. I did one observation sit in Oct (which I only saw does) and I didn’t hunt the property again (this was a big change for me). I went in on Nov 8th and was very mobile based on wind – milkweed flying all over the place. Over 3 days I hunted up and down the 160 acre property – which consist of a corn field on the south and north and roughly 30/40 acre dogwood/redbrush marsh between them. Hardwoods on the west of the marsh and northern corn field. Over the 3 day hunt I saw 8 different small bucks. On Sat Nov 10 I had the right wind and I moved just north of the bedding area that the 9 pointer had walked out of two years earlier. Right before dark (just like Dan explains) About 10 min apart from each other, I had two deer stand up and walk away from me, I never saw them, but the marsh was frozen so based on breaking ice I knew the deer was about 75-100 yards away – and my assumption was that it was a buck (if not two bucks). Before I headed home on Sunday, I snuck in and hung a new stand in a tree that would give me a shot at seeing those deer with my gun the following weekend – still about 100 yards away but at the edge of the marsh. I honestly was thinking my best chance would be Sat night…but I had the right wind on opening morning so I snuck into the stand and to my surprise a doe walked out of the bedding area and this buck followed her. It was the first time I had ever sat in that tree overlooking that part of the marsh. It all happened very fast, but the result was a mature buck kill.

Tactics used:
1. After listening to Dan pound on hunting pressure being key, I reduced the hunting pressure compared to previous years and I waited for the rut.
2. Never let my wind blow into the bedding…I know this sounds like a no brainer, but I wasn’t always aware of my wind in the past.
3. I was more mobile than ever before. I tried hard to react/learn based on what I saw and I never sat in one place more than twice.

Thank you Beast Nation!!

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Lu Rome
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Lu Rome » Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:05 am

Big lesson for me this year was to not put all my eggs in last year's basket....

I had identified a bench a couple years back that has seen a lot of travel and ran a camera on it all season in 2017. Buck use during the rut was very high particularly with a SE wind. Was planning on putting my time in there when conditions were good, problem was we never got a SE wind during my time to hunt. Additionally, camera intel of this year showed they weren't using it either. Started running off of current camera intel and sign and put myself into an area I had previously written off because of swirling winds and poor movement. I had overlooked an obvious doe bedding area on the neighbor and had to figure out how to capitalize on it. Put myself in a couple spots only to have swirling winds make things difficult. Final night of my time off and I knew I needed to be close, I had heard bucks grunt from a bedding area earlier in the day, so I got to within 150 yards and found a suitable tree and climbed as quiet as I could. Had 2 bucks work past, one of which was a target 6 year old (crazy 120ish 7), and I promptly messed that opportunity up. Had a couple other small bucks work past and finally with 10 min of light left a good 140ish 8 came in and I was fortunate to get him.

Big lesson: MRI is more important and look at the big picture. I had blatantly overlooked an obvious spot because of poor experiences on other hunts in poorly selected stand locations.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Steelhead125 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:23 am

Really didn’t have too much strategy involved in my buck this year Had the day off on October 16th and my wife was home as well so I didn’t have to watch the kids. For whatever reason my alarm didn’t go off so I missed hunting the morning. Sat around the house for a couple hours contemplating what to do. In Pa we have a one week muzzleloader season at that time of year. With that in mind I decided to head to the mountains instead of the river bottoms because I figured there wouldn’t be any pressure up there. Even though I had spots on the mountain already scouted I figured since I was hitting the woods around 11:00 am. I had plenty of time to scout some more with my stand on my back. After three hours of promising scouting I finally decided on a area that had a couple scrapes and some nice rubs on the upper 1/3. Shortly after getting settled in had a deer blow at me that I couldn’t see. Disgusted by it but still had over four hours of daylight left. A few hours later of nothing three coyotes came running out of the bedding area I was anticipating deer coming from. Felt like throwing in the towel at this point but planned to ride it out. Later on I did a blind grunt just to see if I could make something happen. To my amazement a shooter buck came in from behind me through wide open woods. Fortunately my stand was positioned that way because I was kind of skylined and was using the tree I was in to hide behind for the direction I was watching. I was sitting when he came in and had to draw on him without standing and I had to draw fast when his head got behind a tree. When he stepped out I knew I was going to have to shoot him right away because if he went about 5 more yards he was going to hit my windstream. Knew exactly where my scent was blowing from dropping milkweed just before he came out. He stepped out about 5 yards behind a log I had ranged at 30 yards. Held a little high and ended up with a double lung shot. Turned out to be a great hunt.
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Crazinamatese » Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:51 am

During my morning sit I was set up high on a narrow ridge in a spot that deer weren't traveling through at all. No fresh sign either. The wind was kinda blowing in different directions. It just didn't feel right or make any sense for me to set up where the wind and thermals were doing two different things. Around midday I ended up moving, and not knowing until later, I ended up setting up close to fresh sign and where a nice buck was bedding nearby. The terrain looked conducive for funneling deer movement and the wind was a little more consistent. Those two factors sealed my decision to set up there. There were 2 or three points in between two major ridges. On the topo map it looked like a heavy metal music 'devil horns' fist. The ridges being the index and pinky finger and the points as the knuckles in between. I set up in the knuckles. lol The fresh sign(scrape lines, rubs, cruise trail) was in the ravine below. The buck was on the 'index finger' ridge over looking. He got up for a midday stroll and I got him within minutes after setting up. I first used grunts to try to coerce him to come in close for a shot. He ignored me. Then I snort wheeze at him and got him turned around toward me and finally into range.
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Edcyclopedia
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:25 am

:cry:
Only got two Doe's, no buck yet...

TBC :mrgreen:
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ghoasthunter
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Thu Nov 22, 2018 10:32 am

Edcyclopedia wrote::cry:
Only got two Doe's, no buck yet...

TBC :mrgreen:

hang in there im in the same boat this year. lack of acorns and deer numbers have really made the season slow i did shoot a 230 pound 4.5 year old six opening morning in NY on Saturday but i shot him in the middle of a orange army drive and one of the standers shoot my buck and claimed it while it was kicking on the ground 60 yards away i was not about too get in a fight with ten locals so i told him congrats and left. lesson learned next year im bringing my slug gun and shooting the deer threw the shoulders.
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Edcyclopedia
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Re: 2018 buck killers...

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:07 am

ghoasthunter wrote:
Edcyclopedia wrote::cry:
Only got two Doe's, no buck yet...

TBC :mrgreen:

hang in there im in the same boat this year. lack of acorns and deer numbers have really made the season slow i did shoot a 230 pound 4.5 year old six opening morning in NY on Saturday but i shot him in the middle of a orange army drive and one of the standers shoot my buck and claimed it while it was kicking on the ground 60 yards away i was not about too get in a fight with ten locals so i told him congrats and left. lesson learned next year im bringing my slug gun and shooting the deer threw the shoulders.



Ouch...
Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...


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