Finding a Known Buck

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AndreSaavedra
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Finding a Known Buck

Unread postby AndreSaavedra » Sun Nov 08, 2020 7:41 am

I'm sure this question has been asked a million times but I would really appreciate any ideas. I have a big buck on camera and I have a general idea where he is. How can I narrow it down? Should I go in right now and pepper the place with cameras? Thanks for the help.


Jdw
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Re: Finding a Known Buck

Unread postby Jdw » Sun Nov 08, 2020 2:44 pm

If I am getting close to getting one figured out I am trying to get as much intel as possible, without putting unnecessary pressure on him until I think I can kill him.
How to do that changes with each situation and individual buck.
Cameras can tell you a lot but if you’re not careful how and where you use them and when you check them you will have some pictures but no buck.
mauser06
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Re: Finding a Known Buck

Unread postby mauser06 » Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:34 pm

You sure picked a tough time of the season to pursue a known buck.


Your best odds to kill a target buck IMO is the opener upto the pre-rut phase and then post rut. During the rut phases, you have challenges. Roaming, seeking , chasing, breeding... sometimes their bedding changes completely. They patterns are far from predicable.
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Boogieman1
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Re: Finding a Known Buck

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Sun Nov 08, 2020 4:05 pm

For myself finding one particular buck has always been a needle in a haystack scenario. You look at the size of a bucks home range and imagine picking a tree in a 20 yard radius of that. In my opinion a deers life revolves around the wind. Yes I know u have prob heard that if that was the case all the deer would be in California or whatever. But the fact is deer have home ranges. A small sample size better illustrates what they do imo. Take a 40 acre woodlot on a day with a SE wind. The deer will be in the NW corner.

I don’t even make an attempt at hunting one specific buck and probably have close to the same amount of success as those who pride themselves on it. Deer survive by being unpredictable otherwise a hunter who puts his time in would be tagged out the first day. Coyotes, bobcats, cougars and other predators wouldn’t have to constantly search. Even guys with lush food plots, thousands of acres of private to themselves and months of rifle season can’t stay on a buck.
Life is hard; It’s even harder if you are stupid.
-John Wayne-
mheichelbech
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Re: Finding a Known Buck

Unread postby mheichelbech » Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:10 am

My very first buck with a bow, about a 140s 10 pointer I was able to locate his primary scrape area and he hit that the first afternoon I hunted it right at the end of legal shooting light. I didn’t know at that time to try and locate bedding. I don’t know of all bucks do it but this buck and others I have killed had very small areas, maybe the size of a vehicle that were just absolutely tore up with rut sign. I’m talking big fresh scrapes with deer scat all over them, trees shredded, branches shredded, etc. These spots just screamed big buck. They were not bedding areas but the bucks bedded close by, within 50-100 yards. If you can find one of those you should be in business. The funny thing about that first buck we must have walked past his bedding area 10 times or more. He couldn’t have been far. It was about 50 yards from the road and we hadn’t thought to scout this area until I did one day.

Another option that I have had some success with but only a couple times is by using observation stands to try and see where he is coming from and try to narrow it down that way. The problem with this method is it can be difficult if you aren’t close to where he moves in daylight. I think this works best in Summer and pre-season if the buck doesn’t relocate when bucks are more prone to daylight movement. It can work in season if you have been able to narrow down his bedding area.

A method Dan has espoused is breaking the property down in 10 acre grids and bouncing around each section with the idea that eventually you will see him in daylight.
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893


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