Becoming a Predator

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
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headgear
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby headgear » Thu May 26, 2011 8:12 am

kenn1320 wrote:. Im finding what Im looking for now, but sneaking in and setting up shop with a buck 50yds away seems like an impossible challenge to me. However I will give it my best and as Dan has said in the videos and even in this thread, you will fail until you do this enough to learn the limits.


This is the part I struggled with the most my first beast season, was I quiet enough? Did I get close enough to the bed? Did they bust me in on the way in? Am I hunting the right bed?

It's one of those things you just have to practice and keep working on, you will make mistakes so don't worry about them, just try and learn from them.

I am pretty confident I bumped the deer I was after out of there beds the first handful of times I went deep into the bedding areas. Other times my entry routes needed work because they saw me coming long before I even got close enough to setup on them.

Heck one time I even hiked way back to this remote swamp to hunt an island, well my scouting skills were a little green then. The buck wasn't bedding on or near the island yet, he was just off the transition line maybe 75 yards in. I stepped on his bed on the way to the island and kept on going like an idiot. Here I had the right wind just off to the side of his bed, fresh nice sized tracks heading to the bedding area and a very easy access to the transition line but I go dive into the swamp to hunt to wrong bed and chased the buck away. I didn't even realized I messed up until the end of the season.


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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby tim » Thu May 26, 2011 8:43 am

i agree with dan when he said you have to push the limits to be in the game, else you could just be a spectator really. when it comes to whitetails i know for a fact we have all failed way more times than we have been succesful, its about increasing those numbers as much as possible and logging away that info to help us next time. HARD WORK PAYS OFF.
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby headgear » Thu May 26, 2011 9:08 am

Good point tim, we are all going to mess up and probably multiple times. Heck before the beast I was never messing up but I never had any good bucks in bow range, or there might not have even been any mature bucks on the property I was hunting. I took messing up as a good thing, I was messing up but I was on to mature bucks and messing up so that sure beats the out of never messing up at all on other deer.
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby Stuart » Thu May 26, 2011 10:11 am

dan wrote:If there is one thing else I was trying to convey that maybe I did not get across fully, is you need to also be willing to fail and not have that effect your motivation.
You have to push the limits, and in doing so you will fail and second guess your tactics.. But if you always play it safe, you won't be putting yourself in the game.


I really like this quote and it is so true because to see success in new areas, equipment failures , etc. you really need to try it during a hunt to experience what works for you.

What works in your head always doesn't seem to play out just like you thought it would on hunt day.
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Thu May 26, 2011 8:54 pm

xpauliber wrote:...Long live the beast!

I'll second that!!!


xpauliber wrote:...He didn't HAVE to make any of those videos OR offer advice on this forum.

I have an admission here. When I first watched the Marsh Bucks video I was pretty unhappy with Dan (That's actually a BIG understatement). I spent over 30 years hunting swamps and to a lesser extent marshes. I learned a ton and never believed anyone knew all that stuff, but me. Some yes, but not all of it (I know, I was nieve & had a big head :roll: ) and here is this guy on my TV giving out all "my" secrets. For FREE!!! I mean, to learn that stuff for the price of that video it may as well been free. It was a pittance. Not only that, but I even learned a few more things and even one tip or tactic can make all the difference sometimes. Now that I know him I really like Dan. He just wants to share his passion and truly wants to help others become better hunters/predators. Now I wish him nothing but success and I will help him when ever I can if I can. He is a genuine person and I'm a better person because of him (Autumn Ninja too) as I'm much more willing to help strangers (I suspect the same goes for some of you reading this too). I'm not the best hunter out there, but I try to help when I can.

The Hill Country video was different, I was still getting comfortable with the concepts in that one. In fact if I had not met Autumn Ninja less than a year prior to seeing that video it would have increased my knowledge of hill country hunting tremendously. I knew how to read a topo, but I didn't understand how mature bucks related to it at all. Plus having almost no hill country to hunt didn't make me to concerned anyway. ;) :D
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby headgear » Fri May 27, 2011 3:36 am

Deerslayer, I had a slightly different first impression. Well this was even before I watched the videos, I remember hearing some buzz about Marsh Bucks in 2007 so I watched the trailer a couple times and pretty much BLEW THEM OFF! :shock: :x I thought to myself this guy is hunting all farm country, I hunt the bigwoods what could I possibly learn from him.

Of course I couldn't have been more wrong and I was blown away the first time I watched the video, a couple weeks later I bought Hill Country. This time I knew I didn't hunt any hilly terrain but I also knew I would learn something and wow did I ever. I can't help buck kick myself now for waiting until early 2010 to buy Marsh bucks and Hill Country but it was the by far the best hunting purchase I have ever made.
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Fri May 27, 2011 3:55 am

Lots of good stuff here. Like others I too was scared to mess up, by doing this I was taking my self out of the game before it started. :oops:
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby chad » Fri May 27, 2011 1:22 pm

Welcome to the Beast ! 8-)
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby xpauliber » Fri May 27, 2011 3:11 pm

chad wrote:Welcome to the Beast ! 8-)


Thanks for all the greetings guys! I feel like this forum is a virtual hunting camp, where you're hanging with all your buddies talking big bucks and strategies... I love it!

I figured I'd show you guys a picture of a future big buck serial killer:

Image

I hope to teach him how to become a predator/beast. This was my first hunting season since he was born and my wife was gracious enough to run him out for pictures waaaaay after his bedtime because she knew how much it meant to me to have him in pics of Daddy's first buck kill since he's been around. He was 9 months old in this pic, and I think it will be great to show him this pic when he's older and tell him that he had his hands on bone before he could walk...LITERALLY! haha
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby JRM6868 » Fri May 27, 2011 3:27 pm

Great pic! That will be one to share later when he gets his hands on one of his own to show him how he got started. 8-)
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby dan » Fri May 27, 2011 8:29 pm

Nice... The kid looks like a natural born killer. 8-)

Where else could you say that about someones kid and it be a compliment?
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Fri May 27, 2011 10:17 pm

Ditto what dan said.

And that looks like a pretty nice PA buck there XP
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby xpauliber » Sat May 28, 2011 4:25 am

Uncle Lou wrote:Ditto what dan said.

And that looks like a pretty nice PA buck there XP


Thanks!

I shot him Nov. 3rd in the evening. I was covering a doe bedding area and he came through just before dark on a mission to get to that area.

It's interesting after watching Dan's videos, I started reflecting on my hunting season and I had one encounter with a HUGE-bodied deer right at dusk. I was set up on a transition zone of open hardwoods and a 4 or 5 year-old clearcut. I looked up and at 28 yards was one of the biggest bodied deer I had ever seen. He had his head behind a big pine tree but I could see his body and vitals clearly. I remember thinking to myself "holy $&$, he's 30 yards away but he looks like he's 10 yards away" because of how big the body was. I also remember thinking, "I should run one through him even though I haven't seen his rack, he HAS to be a whopper buck." I refrained from letting one go at him though. Darkness moved in and I never did get a look at his headgear.

Aaaanyways, as I look back on that sighting in early-October, I unknowingly had done everything Dan suggested in his videos. I was set up on a transition line. There were oaks and cherry trees in the open side and thick nasty bedding on the other side. I was almost certainly set up in his staging area, somewhere he was comfortable moving because he had walked with the wind at his back to get to where I saw him. The spot I was hunting was completely out of the way and a spot that everyone had overlooked.

I thought about that deer all the time and kept trying to figure out how I had this chance encounter with him and how I could repeat it. I got VERY excited after watching those vids and then putting all these pieces together! It wasn't a chance encounter, it was my unintentional use of the BEAST strategy! It all makes sense and guess where I'll be this October with a my newfound knowledge :D
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby dan » Sun May 29, 2011 1:12 pm

I have an admission here. When I first watched the Marsh Bucks video I was pretty unhappy with Dan (That's actually a BIG understatement). I spent over 30 years hunting swamps and to a lesser extent marshes. I learned a ton and never believed anyone knew all that stuff, but me. Some yes, but not all of it (I know, I was nieve & had a big head ) and here is this guy on my TV giving out all "my" secrets. For FREE!!!


Believe it or not, thats probably the most consistant complaint I get about the video's and this site... Good hunters that have spent years learning these tactics thru hard work offended that I am giving those secrets away without being "earned"...
When Andrae 1st watched Marsh bucks, he slapped me on the back with a smile and "jokingly" said, well there goes my book!

I have tried to get a good trapper, and others to come on the site with other topics and offer expert advice in those fields and keep hearing... No way I am giving up my secrets!
Thats a shame... Because by educating others and comparing stratagies we continue to gro our sport.
When young or new hunters come here and learn how to succeed, rather than start out failing, they stick to hunting and pass those skills on.
Thats one of the main reasons trapping is failing,. Trappers are so secretive of there tactics that a lot of newbies fail and have no place to turn for info and end up quiting... Soon there sport will die because of that..

To me, I am not so hung up on my own success that I don't enjoy watching others succeed... If I never shoot another buck ever, I am still very happy with my hunting success.
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Re: Becoming a Predator

Unread postby Liberty-Hunt » Sun May 29, 2011 6:00 pm

dan wrote:I have tried to get a good trapper, and others to come on the site with other topics and offer expert advice in those fields and keep hearing... No way I am giving up my secrets!
Thats a shame... Because by educating others and comparing stratagies we continue to gro our sport.
When young or new hunters come here and learn how to succeed, rather than start out failing, they stick to hunting and pass those skills on.
Thats one of the main reasons trapping is failing,. Trappers are so secretive of there tactics that a lot of newbies fail and have no place to turn for info and end up quiting... Soon there sport will die because of that..

To me, I am not so hung up on my own success that I don't enjoy watching others succeed... If I never shoot another buck ever, I am still very happy with my hunting success.


Long time invest! The good education & knowledge are always a progress!
Understanding, good practices and examples are the only way for keeping our way of live...

If all deer hunters let past the majority of small buck they will have more big one's for every one...
etc...
"Huntingly",
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