Pre Beast Kill Examples

[ScottSpitzley]

Alright boys, girls. We are pretty much into the meat of spring scouting and I am just curious to see everyone's perspective and game plan on at least one setup you may have found for this upcoming season.

Possibly give a little breakdown as to what you found, why and when you may think a mature buck is frequenting the specific bedding area, the access you will be approaching, time of day, the conditions, if any, you plan to attack it on, time of season you plan to hunt it, etc.

There have been a few beast kill example topics when it comes to results but I feel like a lot of them start out saying they were "accidental". Let's see everyone's plan before the success happens. I think that if we get enough examples on here, there may be a few that actually pan out and tag a buck making this thread even more helpful and memorable.

Don't be afraid to toss around ideas on these specific examples either, I think that alone can help us all out..whether you're the one giving the example, or just someone reading them.

I know we will all have more examples from now up until possibly the end of deer season, so keep them coming if you are comfortable sharing your tactics. You can also use examples maps if you don't want to give up an area(that's what I did here).

I will start.

[ScottSpitzley]

So this specific bedding area I found is an oxbow that butts up to private on both the east and south side. I found great mature buck sign and bedding in this specific oxbow and I accommodated multiple exit trails leading into both private sections towards crop fields, hoping to catch them browsing before they hit the fields at night.



Buck sign: Fresh Big tracks. High Big Rubs

Access:(Shown on map) Parking area is to the west, it will be a long walk.

Setup:(Shown on map) I found a tree that will give me a shot at multiple exit trails. 70 yards from bedding.

Conditions: Wind SW(Believe this bedding is wind specific) - First cold front of season - On a weekday(less pressure)

Time of Day: Evening sit.

Time of Season: Early season.

[tundra]

my partner and I just completed a pit blind, in the bluff country in SW Wisconsin. This was on private property, and with access from a farmer, on another piece of property. we shot one buck in this area, last year, and passed on several. We analyzed the tree stand positions after the rut and decided a more affective method had to be done.

this was a washed out pond area, that washed out from last August floods, but we analyzed the sand and dirt etc, and realized it had a high mineral content, and natural licks, that deer were digging out. as the drainage comes down the bluffs, it drops into a pasture, area, still hidden in a valley, with a ton of apple trees, and peters out, to a cow pasture......

Our pit blind, looks like a Jap sniper/machine gun nest from WWII. we dug it out, with picks and shovels, and a lot of sweat. it is set with two posts, and has a roof, which is a sheet of plywood, set at an angle, so rain runs off. It is now covered with all brush. the chair inside, is a summer solid one piece plastic chair, with the legs cut off, at the correct height, for shooting out of. Either with crossbow or compound, both will work.

You literally look at the side of the bluff, covering the drainage, and you can not even tell its there. we are going to video a lighted noc arrow coming out of it, that will be cool.....

we have to slide our body down into it, but this is going to be a killer set up, and them deer, will have no clue we are even down, and buried inside that bluff

we have clear shooting of 50 yards, out to where the pond use to be, and the licks are,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[ScottSpitzley]

Bump.. the meat of spring scouting is over. Let's see those setups.

[austin1990]

This is a spot I found while squirrel hunting last winter. Blue line at the top is an old road bed that had a bunch of rubs and scrapes and above it has a good bit of doe bedding. The red lines at the bottom are deer trails that had rubs and the red marker there is where I found a buck bed. The white marker is where I found a trail crossing the river and had some good sized tracks. My plan is to come in by boat til I get to the blue marker and then walk down the river bank and set up on the south side of the tree stand marker close to the head of the 3 trails and drainages
The area in yellow is a big flat oak bottom and the biggest concentration of white oaks in the area. I plan to hit this area early in October when the acorns start dropping. I'll hunt it on a evening hunt with a south wind. I feel like because the bed was on a knob between the 2 drainage he is using it on a cross wind and then hes walking the drainage down to the bottom and hitting some acorns before he crosses the river.

20190604_203041.jpg

[ScottSpitzley]

This is a spot I found while squirrel hunting last winter. Blue line at the top is an old road bed that had a bunch of rubs and scrapes and above it has a good bit of doe bedding. The red lines at the bottom are deer trails that had rubs and the red marker there is where I found a buck bed. The white marker is where I found a trail crossing the river and had some good sized tracks. My plan is to come in by boat til I get to the blue marker and then walk down the river bank and set up on the south side of the tree stand marker close to the head of the 3 trails and drainages
The area in yellow is a big flat oak bottom and the biggest concentration of white oaks in the area. I plan to hit this area early in October when the acorns start dropping. I'll hunt it on a evening hunt with a south wind. I feel like because the bed was on a knob between the 2 drainage he is using it on a cross wind and then hes walking the drainage down to the bottom and hitting some acorns before he crosses the river. 20190604_203041.jpg

This is exactly what I wanted to see. Thanks for sharing and I hope it pans out! Keep us posted on this setup and let us know what happens when you take a crack at it in October.

[Boogieman1]

I'll play along.

Although I found this spot about 12 years ago, but it takes a unique set of conditions to hunt which I believe I will have this upcoming season. Major player being food source.

Property isn't very big guessing 40 acres of primarily overgrown weeds and scattered buck brush. A series of grown up ditches leed to a big Milo field 1/2 mile away. Property does not get hardly any deer activity but when it does it's usually a dandy that takes up residence. Nestled in the corner of a fence 15 yards off a f.m road is a overgrown knoll that always gets the bucks interest for bedding. A drainage comes off knoll and splits off a couple times a 100 yards away. There is a old nasty locus tree right at the head of the forks in drainages where I hunt. This is one of the only early season spots for a good buck I have so I get excited when the conditions are right for it to be a player. Had lots of good memories from that locus tree although have yet to arrow one. 2 years ago I jumped a covey of quail getting in tree and ran the buck out at the start of my hunt. Missed another good one a few years before that.

Plan is: wait on a good hard SE wind preferably with something to encourage early movement. Front, after rain etc... Then get dropped off from road, walk down the far fence line then loop around the back door through the far drainage to the locus tree and set up shop.