Survey for early season public land hunters

[dan]

How many of you have killed a mature buck (4+) on public land before October 25th???

1st off, you probably wouldn't get much more than double that number if you posted "how many have shot a mature buck with bow on public" Fact is, not to many people have shot a mature buck with a bow on public . period.

Second, its a lot easier in September than October, and some places / states don't open till october.

How many mature public bucks with bow you got?

[headgear]

I was not sure the actual intent of this original post at first. I thought it was trolling to discredit the beast style of bed hunting. I kept an open mind and monitored for tid-bits of usable information.

I too am surprised by the lack of responses.
It's too bad that the OP has so many restrictions.
I think that valuable information could be gleaned from all successful (not even kill dependant) beast bed hunting experiences. (I do not recall seeing the disclaimer "Do Not try this at home, These are paid professional public land tactics......) lol

It may be too difficult to tell age of public hunted bucks if you don't have history. This leads me to believe that most public land hunters on this forum aren't ready to pass good two or three year olds that they encounter on early beast style hunts. (Kudos to those that do, especially if they aren't saving their tags for their private land hotspots).

Is the problem that the tactic does not work or that mature bucks are not only hard to kill but equally hard to locate, much less pattern.

Maybe that was the point the OP was trying to make.

Or; maybe a better question would be to ask how many mature bucks have you located through scouting but could not kill through the use of this tactic and where do you think you faltered. Now that could be valuable to all of the beasts!

I think a better point to make would be that a lot of the followers of this style of hunting are fairly new to it,and that it certainly takes a learning curve to get to the point that Dan is at.

Does this mean that it should not be tried or that some of the knowledge gained by scouting beds can't be invaluable to other styles of hunting, just because there is little proof that mature bucks can be consistently killed this way. I think the draw to this forum is that it allows a group of like minded people; those determined to up their game; to discuss what has helped them, and maybe learn from others.

The OP seemed to be looking for excuses instead of opportunity.
My intention is not to vilify that need, but to further open up the discussion.
Maybe here.....Maybe a new topic?

Good post Arrowbender, I will chip in what I can. I haven't killed a mature buck early season yet but it is certainly one of my goals and I put a pretty serious effort in the first couple weeks of the season. I've had 3 encounters that I can remember but none of them were quality encounters where I had any kind of a chance to shoot. The biggest issues I have with early season is the exact bedding locations can fool me. I have the right general area down but the exact bed location is very often different from what I see during spring scouting. This is obviously due to the extra cover in early season and the lack of hunting pressure in some of these areas during early season. I have been working to fine tune my early season setups, I've been doing more in-season scouting and spot checking to fine tune my hunts this time of the year but of course that can take time to get good at it. Lots of times you have a small window of opportunity before the patterns change so gaining intel during that time is key for me.

[Hodag Hunter]

What about looking at the pictures of the 2014 bucks members and their family shot this year.

I know some of the deer posted before October 25th are public land.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Arrowbender]

Thanks HG!
As far as the exact locations of beds; I find it difficult as well.
I seldom find that the beds I find in the spring are the same as those being used during September.
If I know the General bedding area and the food source, I try to get between them, setting up as close to the bedding safety zone as possible. If the bedding is on the opposite side of a transition as the food; all the better. Wait for a wind that parallels the transition and set up on the opposite side.
It sounds like you are getting very close to closing the deal.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Lockdown]

Not a 4.5+ but a public land 3.5 (I think??) and somewhat of a cool story.... I shot him when I lived in Sioux Falls SD. on a piece that was only 45 minutes away. Needless to say, it was HEAVILY pressured land. It was 2008 so before my beast knowledge, but I was hunting somewhat beast style. I knew there was a good buck in the area due to a couple nice rubs. Everyone was hunting in the middle and way back in the property, so I set up a stand on the edge of a cemetery fence 100 yards off of a tar road. Kicker is, there was a standing corn field edge across the road that coincided with the fence and a ravine on the public. I decided to give it a try and on my first sit in early to mid October he crossed the road and came right to me. By no means a wall hanger but a buck I'm pretty proud of, as it was my biggest bow kill at the time. To answer your question though, just one

[Lockdown]

Oops... 4.5+... I'm still at zero

[john1984]

Lockdown , that's a huge buck, and your crazy not to call it a "wallhanger". Dan, I never killed a mature buck with a bow.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[headgear]

It sounds like you are getting very close to closing the deal.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I know I will catch up with one eventually, just a matter of time. I almost stepped on a nice one last year, he was in a different bed about 100 yards closer that I thought, got him figured out if he survived gun season. A couple other spots are close too, lots of trial and error these past few seasons. Going to mix it up a bit more and back off some spots and make a few adjustments in others. All part of the fun of figuring them out.

[whitetailassasin]

I have shot 3 mature 4.5 yr olds. One was a inferior 5 pt rack was very small but was over 230lbs dressed. I also took a 9pt and a 10pt back to back days. Archery all 3. In Michigan state land. I have pictures in my albums of them. 5 pt I would have to locate the albums sonewhere.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[JoeRE]

I have killed two 4+ year old bucks on public land in that time period....most recent one was last year on the 24th so just barely makes your window I guess, the other one was mid-Oct. a few years ago. I would admit I would not call the one I shot last year an "early season" buck.

Both were set ups on known buck bedding.

[john1984]

I have killed two 4+ year old bucks on public land in that time period....most recent one was last year on the 24th so just barely makes your window I guess, the other one was mid-Oct. a few years ago. I would admit I would not call the one I shot last year an "early season" buck.

Both were set ups on known buck bedding.

Hey JoeRE, what day do you consider the last day of "early season" ?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[JoeRE]

Hey JoeRE, what day do you consider the last day of "early season" ?

Good question....obviously its pretty vague and varies place to place. To me "early season" is the time when the rut is having almost no impact on deer movement. After that you have the pre-rut then the chasing and breeding phases of the rut.

As you get into the last 10 days of October around here bucks are beginning to move differently, they may still be mostly on bed to feed patterns but they start doing a lot of other things too. They start nosing around doe groups, really hitting scrapes hard, and that sort of thing. Buck bedding often changes about then to keep a little closer tabs on does in the area. If I had to pick a day I would move it up a little bit from what you said and say anything before October 20th....but thats just around here in Eastern Iowa.

The buck I shot last year was coming back to bed but that bedding had no bucks using it until mid-October. I know because I had a camera on the main entrance and exit route. They only started bedding there in mid-October to be a little closer to a couple mega-doe bedding areas. I shot him while he was working a scrape that was getting pounded right next to the bedding. That's why I think of it as a pre-rut hunt and not an early season hunt.

[john1984]

Bump

[Hawthorne]

Yep, only one in that time frame. Oct5, 2018. 8point dressed 210lbs

[greenhorndave]

Bump

Good bump. This looks like a cool thread and one I haven’t seen before.