Trying to locate a ghost buck ?

[dreaming bucks]

Looking for some advice fella's.
I have a buck that keeps showing up every year, but not till hunting season is over with. Me or my neighbors have never seen him during the bow or gun season, or shining or on trail camera. I take that back, I got one picture of him 2 years ago when I would say he was maybe a 4 or 5 year old then. My cousin and good friend just saw him last week behind his house, which is only about 150 yards from my land...
He is a monster of a buck, probably pushing 190". He is now a mainframe 10, but lots of kickers and super thick, and now this year my cousin said he added a droptine on one side.
I'm trying to figure out how the heck I can get a crack at this guy. I'm really not sure he lives on or near my land, as Me or my brother have ever seen him hunting. Do you guys think that maybe he could just be super noctournal ? But we never see him shining either. I don't know, sure would like a crack at him, but it's not looking good.

[76chevy]

I would bet you that he is bedding where NO ONE is hunting..likely an out of the way spot, could be in the wide open if you have farm country around there

find that spot and you will get a crack at him...

easier said than done, right?

[Wrinkleneck]

Sounds to me like you may want to target this "Ghost Buck" in the late season when he is hanging out in your area. Can you go and get on his track now to find where he is bedding this time of the year. If so you can make a game plan to put the hurt on him late season next year!!

[dreaming bucks]

Sounds to me like you may want to target this "Ghost Buck" in the late season when he is hanging out in your area. Can you go and get on his track now to find where he is bedding this time of the year. If so you can make a game plan to put the hurt on him late season next year!!

I tried to go out yesterday and cut a track, but the snow we got monday is pretty fluffy stuff and almost every track I looked at would have snow all fallen back in on top of the actual track.

[Dewey]

There is no better time than right now to pick up his tracks in the snow and find out where he has been bedding and as a bonus you may eventually find his sheds. Nothing is better than following a mature bucks tracks and letting him show you exactly where he travels and beds.

I have a few myself that I have been trying to figure out and I am very excited for next season.

Good luck and hope you get a chance at him in the future.

[dreaming bucks]

Here he is two years ago. He was a mainframe 8 then, but my cousin found his shed last year, and he had grown into a main 10.

[huntinfool14]

if you can get a track and find the bed..i bet hes got an shed antler laying there for ya..

[beddedbuck]

cool brow tines. probably super nocturnal. we ahd a big buck that was bedding on an ajacent property about 100yards in. no one liked to hunt close to the property line so no one was seeing him. he would only move from like 1am til 5 or 6am. he lived in a strip of woods that a barn was in and just no one went back there.

[Hodag Hunter]

You have three pieces of the puzzle. You know where the picture was taken, your cousin saw the actual deer and your cousin also has a shed location. These are all concrete facts or "knowns" for this deer.

Was the shed laying in a picked corn field, on a walking trail, or better yet in a bed? What time of the year was the shed found? Fresh drop in January or spring find?

Take all that information, approx time of the year and exact location and put these on a topo and areial map. Start assuming some locations of travel and potential bedding and start some walking now to cut his track. I wouldn't be afraid to place cameras right now either. Might get lucky and get him on camera.

All the information you can gather as concrete 100% evidence makes the assumtions easier to narrow down.

I dunno....this is how I do it. Curious on other ideas also?

[dreaming bucks]

He found the shed up in the woods, basically right on the border of his and my land. It was just laying there half way down the hill (his, and my land are really hilly), he was actually cutting wood I believe and basically just stumbled across it..
That picture was taken on the other end of my property, there is basically a dip in the ridge where alot of deer cross a lot. I kept that camera there the rest of that year and also last year, and again this year, but no more pics of him. Lots of other nice bucks, but never him again. So he, at the time I got that picture, is probably 300 yards away from where my cousin found his shed...
I think I really need to have some better tracking snow, so I can hopefully come across his track. But even so, lets say I do cut his track and follow his tracks right to his bed and I actually kick him up. That doesn't mean that is where he beds during the hunting season, does it ?

[Hodag Hunter]

But even so, lets say I do cut his track and follow his tracks right to his bed and I actually kick him up. That doesn't mean that is where he beds during the hunting season, does it ?

Could or could not be. If you do find his bed....why is he there now? What wind direction that day, what is he feeding on now? Guess what he will be feeding on in early Sept or Oct. Will the crop field(I'm assuming farm land) be the same this year or differnet? Do you have oaks he could feed on? where is the closest water source? What does your neighbors property hold for bedding cover? Do your neighbors even hunt? Little pressure hunting pressure by neighbors or pushed hard? Does your family constantly utilize your woods all year for logging, atv use, small game hunting, do you over pressure your woulds for constant mature deer bedding?

Good sign on the shed being found in your cousins land and yours.....he's not just passing thru on the rut. He does live and spend some time on your land. To me, these are good things.

Tons of questions that you could gather answers too or partial answers. Take it all in one little piece at a time and put it together pouring over maps on the kitchen table. Slowly things will jump out to you as assumptions on where he could be and when.

[dreaming bucks]

Thanks Hodag... I'm getting pretty pumped now the more I keep talking about it. If I find anything more, I will let you know.

[Hodag Hunter]

Good luck at him. The scouting part can be frustrating or fun at the same time. Take it all in stride and do a little each day.

Trying to cram it all in one or two days ussally doesn't work for the big bucks.....for me anyways.

Will be waiting for kill pictures this fall.

[PredatorTC]

The buck that i spent the past 3 years hunting bedded in the swamp about 100 yards off the feild. He was a ghost buck as you are describing. When he was young we got a few pictures of him but as he got older we got very few. I found his exact bed when i cut a big track one day and followed it. HE was not bedding in a surprising spot or anything, it all made sense to me. I even kicked him out of his bed multiple times during the bow season. But here was the shocker to me. HE had a sawmp that was over 200 acres that he could bed in and keep safe but when he was killed he was shot out of a fencline off of heavily hunted public land that was up agenst ours. The reason i tell you this is because he was a ghost buck that was under my nose the whole time. I was to bucky to hunt this land he was killed on because I figured why would he bed there when he can bed in a huge private swmap. But when it came to the few encounters i had with him it was always in super odd spots i never normaly would have sat. Most all of the deer in our swamp walk from there beds straight out to the feild. This buck traveled lenthways in the swamp and to this day it is still a mystery as to how and where he was entering the swamp most of the time.

Hope i could get you thinking outside the box with my story. This buck could be right under your nose also. He could be watching you everyday walk to your stand.

Or he could be like many of the bucks on our land that show up in the late season to eat in our cornfeild because its the only one around.

Hope you can get onto him!!

[dreaming bucks]

That's a cool story Predator...
My land is ALL woods and is basically all hills. There is really no odd spots to look that I can think of, but I'm sure there is if I really pick it apart. I really think the buck is bedded on my cousins land next door, but I have not confirmed that YET.. I hope to get out next weekend again, and do some scouting. If I find anything, I will be sure to report back here.