How do big bucks die outside the rut?

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cornfedkiller
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How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:34 am

Been wondering about this for awhile, and after reading a thread on another forum, it really got me wondering.

We talk on here quite a bit about how smart mature deer are, that they pretty much always know whats going on, are always on the defensive, can smell xxx,xxx times better that a human, no such thing as fooling their nose, etc, etc, etc

Now its pretty common knowledge that the majority of mature bucks that are killed each year are killed during the rut..guys sitting in a funnel or downwind of a doe bedding area when a big buck comes cruising by..pretty simple.

There is not a large percentage of hunters that hunt the same way that Dan and Andrae (and others on this site) hunt. Their method makes a ton of sense, and its easy to see why this method produces results.

BUT, what about all the guys that dont hunt this way (the majority of hunters), and kill deer outside the rut? Stuff I see are tactics such as just sitting yourself on the edge of a food plot, sitting in the same stand day after day, hanging trail cams near where they are hunting, checking their trailcams waaay too often, not taking the wind into consideration, not taking entrance and exit routes into consideration...Stuff that I would think wouldnt produce mature deer, yet some of these guys seem to be successful..

Are they just getting lucky from time to time? Are the bucks slipping up? Are the bucks completely unpressured and dont act like a pressured deer? What do you guys think? How are these guys killing bucks outside the rut without hunting their beds?


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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby Bucky » Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:40 am

Are they just getting lucky from time to time? Are the bucks slipping up? Are the bucks completely unpressured and dont act like a pressured deer? What do you guys think? How are these guys killing bucks outside the rut without hunting their beds?

Yes - managed property deer = Drury's do not act the same as public land pressured deer. They are still smart but even though they have smelt and sensed hunter pressure for 3-4 yrs it never caused any harm to them. Therefore, they move to food plots and such when a public land 4-5yr old rarely moves to open food during daylight.
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby RaisedByWolves » Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:46 am

Most of these guys that i talk to are good at hunting food sources.....either they have one patterned early season coming out to a field before he starts getting skittish, or they are hunting late season during the bitter cold. One of my customers last year comes to mind...i put a new ripcord on his bow in about mid august and he was telling me about 2 giants he was glassing and watching on trail cams. The first week of the season he arrows a dandy 164" 10 pointer...comes in to show me the pics grinning from ear to ear...he was just back in the woods off a bean field and must have had a smaller buck come through first and the big one right after. It was private land and he had them patterned for some time.
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby GRFox » Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:53 am

Pretty sure most of the time its luck. They catch a buck going to bed late or staging too far out too early.

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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:36 am

Sometimes they are hunting staging and don't know it, sometimes its managed property where stupid deer survive till they are big enough to kill, some of its luck, some of it is deer making the occasional mistake...
But even on managed land, I believe a hunter will create more and better mature buck opertunitys by hunting near bedding areas and not over hunting.
Seems in good areas every hunter gets one or two nice bucks regardless of how they hunt... Its the guys who get the biggest / oldest bucks year after year in there areas that are doing something right...
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby JRM6868 » Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:41 am

dan wrote:Sometimes they are hunting staging and don't know it, sometimes its managed property where stupid deer survive till they are big enough to kill, some of its luck, some of it is deer making the occasional mistake...
But even on managed land, I believe a hunter will create more and better mature buck opertunitys by hunting near bedding areas and not over hunting.
Seems in good areas every hunter gets one or two nice bucks regardless of how they hunt... Its the guys who get the biggest / oldest bucks year after year in there areas that are doing something right...

I agree
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby magicman54494 » Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:46 am

dan wrote: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. :lol:
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby headgear » Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:58 am

Agree with all of the above.
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby PLB » Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:18 am

Bucky wrote:Are they just getting lucky from time to time? Are the bucks slipping up? Are the bucks completely unpressured and dont act like a pressured deer? What do you guys think? How are these guys killing bucks outside the rut without hunting their beds?

Yes - managed property deer = Drury's do not act the same as public land pressured deer. They are still smart but even though they have smelt and sensed hunter pressure for 3-4 yrs it never caused any harm to them. Therefore, they move to food plots and such when a public land 4-5yr old rarely moves to open food during daylight.

I agree Bucky!! I also agree with everyone else! If you look at the Pope and Young entries from every state each year many of the highest scoring bucks are shot late Sept til Mid Oct. Lots of 125 to 140's are shot during the first couple weeks of Nov. Lots of Slobs again shot middle to late Nov. You watch these hunting videos that claim fair chase 100% wild hunting. Yet they are hunting 100's of acres of intensely farmed or managed land. These deer get hunted but they never get shot at or have reason to fear anything til they are mature enough to kill. There may be no fences but why would these deer ever leave this property? I mean cmon they have everything they could want, food, cover, security cover and no fear of getting whacked!! Is this really fair chase?? It seems more like deer farming than deer hunting to me!! I've been thinking about this for a long time. Are these really big managed bucks getting whacked for entertainment and money purpoeses just to sell videos, or are these guys really care about the animals they are raising and killing?? I think I will roll over in my grave if the next world record whitetail gets killed on video by one of these jerks as they say BBD or Yeah Baby or give me a second or Booyah to the camera!! Ok I'm done rambling now!! :lol:
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby Wrinkleneck » Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:40 am

Never reallt thought about it, but it really makes you think!!!
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby GRFox » Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:47 am

I would be hesitant to take anything away from the Drury brothers they made most of they're money in construction and chose to spend they're money on what they love which is bowhunting mature whitetails. They don't hunt "Beast Style" but I would still consider both Terry and Mark good hunters and masters at turning they're properties into deer paradise.

I think if any of us had the money to own the ground that they own we would be doing the same thing. JMO.

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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:00 am

magicman54494 wrote:
dan wrote: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. :lol:


This might sound kind of funny but I realy believe it.
When I watch how hunters set up and hunt the same stands over and over I truly believe that if the guy would step back and throw a dart at an aerail of a woodlot each day he hunts and hunt where ever the dart hit he would have much better odds of conecting than sitting the same 3 or 4 stands consistantly.
I hear so many stories about some kid who never hunted before and knows nothing about hunting going out and just finding a spot where no other hunters are and he kills the biggest buck anybody ever took off that farm that it has me believing that its more than just coinincidence.
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:59 am

dan wrote: I hear so many stories about some kid who never hunted before and knows nothing about hunting going out and just finding a spot where no other hunters are and he kills the biggest buck anybody ever took off that farm that it has me believing that its more than just coinincidence.


You believe its more than a coincidence, or do you mean that you feel it is just coincidence?
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby Zap » Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:55 am

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.
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Re: How do big bucks die outside the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:35 pm

Zap wrote: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.


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