How do big bucks die outside the rut?

[cornfedkiller]

I would say that when a person who is new to hunting goes to a spot and sets up where the other hunters do not hunt and kills the biggest buck ever killed there........it is not a coincidence that he killed it in a spot where the "regulars" do not hunt.

Exactly.

Gotcha..that makes sense..

[solocam88]

Big bucks die outside the rut from.... luck. preseason scouting or a collision with a car Or old age.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Zap]

Very proud of this buck.



Shot 10/16. 200 yards outside of the city limits.
In a private landfill used for dumping excavation spoils.
He was bedding in a city park, and I had seen him four times from late July thru September.



His bed at the X, my set at the dot near the Y.
At the end of the black line he died.

Thats an eight foot pick up bed. He was a slob........

[Pullintoobs]

It amazes me at the number of big bucks that are killed every year. I read the Wisconsin outdoor news and look at the pictures they have that people have sent in. Just that publication alone has many many bucks that have been killed the previous year. You would think that it would be a heck of alot easier to kill one. It would be cool to find out how many bucks at least 3 and half are taken every year. I know they keep track of the number of bucks killed but I wish they would keep track of the age as well....Would be interesting.

[Swampthing]

Sometimes they are hunting staging and don't know it,

I think this happens a lot. Someone goes into a new area and climbs a tree not knowing that they are actually in the perfect spot. I think a lot of deer are killed by accident. The key to becoming a consistant trophy hunter is to learn how to kill them on purpose. Maybe someday I'll start doing this. [/
quote]
I agree, and I have an experience to prove it,regarding setting up in a staging area and not knowing it.

The biggest buck I ever had walk past me was late October before I hunted beast style. I just strolled into an area and set-up .No scouting ,no thinking, no planning. And out walks a 140 + swamp buck. That spring I found Dan ,and his tactics. Went back in there to try and figure it all out. I found his worn down bed, and only 2 rubs. But HUGE rubs. I had inadvertedly picked a huge bucks staging area,without even knowing it. Crazy looking back on it all now. I still always think back to that huge buck. Hoping another might take over his bed. But it,s now a dead bed .

[ Post made via Android ]

[headgear]

Great buck Zap, slob for sure!

[PLB]

Great buck Zap, slob for sure!

X2!! That's a helluva good buck Zap!! Asskicker for sure!!

[Hodag Hunter]

I think we are missing one of the most un-popular ways a big buck is killed.....poached.

Quite a problem in the northwoods with corn, yard light and cabin "hunters".

[kenn1320]

Guys Im not going to be popular with this post, but you all need to step back a bit and look in the mirror before you judge others. If you have big bucks on the ground you hunt, how much pressure is there? Go hunt a state where they run deer with dogs, now that is pressure. You guys belittle the hunters on TV with their "managed" deer that have no negative associations with humans. You guys are finding bucks that are hiding back where humans don't go, so are they really pressured in the environment your hunting them? They have learned if they hide in that spot, they have no negative interaction with humans. John Eberhart said EVERY buck he has shot in Michigan has a wound from a hunter from seasons past. Those deer have had a negative association with humans, but then again did they smell a human prior to the shot and put two and two together? I don't want to single out anybody and understand I'm not knocking anybody or their kills, just saying some of you guys are not much different then the celebs in terms of deer your hunting.
Zap I would love to have shot the buck you shot and would have hunted that land no questions asked. However look, its surrounded by humans and bedded in a park. Was that buck as afraid of humans as every other buck walking the earth? Was he as smart? I say he was, but reading some of these posts it seems deer like that are stupid and easy to kill. Guys that hunt big woods say farm land bucks are easy to kill, its always easier for the other guy or so it seems. Some of the bucks you guys are killing on public land are bigger then most hunters in Michigan have ever seen in their lifetime. I spot things those guys do wrong on just about every show, but that doenst mean I could kill deer where they hunt and they couldnt kill em where I hunt.

[Zap]

Thank's guy's.

I believe that deer living in close proximity to humans are used to human scent. But they are also able to distinguish what is normal from what is not.....The route that buck took to the bean field did have heavy equipment running in it alot, but not very much foot traffic. He also had a bed in the triangular shaped swamp area on the west side of the crop field, which is a closed to access city park "frog area".

Was he dumb. I cannot say for sure, but I know for a fact that other's were hunting him in and around that area, that year and the year before. We estimated age at six year's.

My first whitetail kill, BTW.
Beginner's luck.........

[Zap]

I do not believe that comparing buck's that live part of the time in the harder to reach section's of public hunting land and buck's that come into contact with hunter's but get a "pass" for years on large private managed tract's is a fair comparison.

There is a reason that the pro TV hunter's hunt and film hunt's where they do.
It is simply easier to kill a bigger deer where they hunt. Maybe they are the best hunter's in the world......maybe not. But they do not regularly hunt and film on public area's because they cannot be as sure of killing a big buck there.

[dan]

Kenn, I don't think anybody hates the celebs for there success and because of there managed lands... I think there is some venting because people get sick of watching managed hunts on TV with a dozen shooters walking around an open field midday and they portray it like they are expert hunters... People just get sick of seeing that shoved in there faces.
I would have a large managed farm to hunt on just like them if I had the money... Andrae is building that farm right now. But at least he earned it, starting out hunting public and pressured whitetails.
Me? I could care less what others do... I worry about me and my little world.

[kenn1320]

I do not believe that comparing buck's that live part of the time in the harder to reach section's of public hunting land and buck's that come into contact with hunter's but get a "pass" for years on large private managed tract's is a fair comparison.

There is a reason that the pro TV hunter's hunt and film hunt's where they do.
It is simply easier to kill a bigger deer where they hunt. Maybe they are the best hunter's in the world......maybe not. But they do not regularly hunt and film on public area's because they cannot be as sure of killing a big buck there.

Other then a few that hunt their own farms, most are using guides that anybody could book a hunt with. They use those guides in my opinion cause they have to film X amount of footage and they simply don't have the time to go scout 5 different states every year. I'm not saying its apples to apples, but guys are acting like the celebs are hunting a chained up deer. The guides they are using obviously know how to hunt, that's how they are getting onto big bucks in the few short days they are there. The Lakowskis are hunting their private farms a lot, but they aren't shooting their deer in 2 sits like it seems.
Your also right about the deer that live by humans know where there should and shouldn't be human scent. They will watch you walk around your yard and not care, but the minute you step into the woods they are gone. Even at my work where there is no hunting, you can walk across the parking lot and the deer stare at you until you get in your car. If you walk off that parking lot,they are GONE!

[JRM6868]

Dandy buck Zap! Congrats

[Zap]

I really do not care what anyone else shoot's or how they shoot it.
We all have our own defination of what "hunting" is.....some think other's need to abide by their defination...I am not one of these folk's, but I do believe that some type's of hunting are harder to be successful at than other's.

That bring's us to the defination of "successful" hunting.
Again we all have our own definations of that.

The industry standard of a successful filmed hunt end's with a big buck killed....so you cannot blame someone who want's that type of success for hunting where that is more likley.

But that does not mean that the industry standard of success is an actual success according to other's defination's of success. I believe that the problem some folk's have with most hunting shows lies there........

Now if you want to talk about "outfitted" hunts.....does you killing a big buck that someone else scouted, did the stand placement and other work involved make you "successful"? A good hunter? A good shot? Whatever........
If the hunter is happy with the result's of a legally taken animal, then I am happy for him. But when you want to say I am a good hunter, well that would depend on the circumstance's of the kill, IMHO.

One hunter kills a good buck every year due to sitting in the same stand every year for twelve hour's a day, for fifteen day's straight....in November.

One hunter kills a good buck every year due to sitting a different stand every day only when the conditions are correct for that location. He tags out before November each year.

Who is a better hunter.........well the answer to that is a matter of personal prespective.