Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

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mheichelbech
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Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby mheichelbech » Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:33 am

Any suggestions on what to do when you know a buck is using the property (small, 60 acres) but you can’t seem to pin him down...can’t find the bed, doesn’t show on cameras. Neighbors have seen in out in the open at 830 am during the week and behind their house in the evenings at dark. He is not leaving any sign per se except for tracks I’ve seen in the middle of the field. This is in a suburban area. I have walked nearly every inch of this propane there is no visible sign of his existence. The only way I know he is there is my friend lives next to the woods/fields he is using and she sees him. He doesn’t seem to be nocturnal.

Based did on how she described the buck I believe it is one that I had written off a few years ago as I thought he had left the property or died. She said the other day he had traffic stopped for people watching him standing in the middle of the picked corn field. She says it’s the biggest buck she had ever seen anywhere and has a big drop tune which is why I think it’s a buck I was after before.

I’ve sat in 3 different observation stands almost all weekend and no sightings.


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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby tim » Tue Dec 11, 2018 9:12 am

Sounds like you need to be hanging out with her lol
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby may21581 » Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:22 pm

Again look for the overlooked spot that he is safe, where there is food and water. A water hole can be a small low spot somewhere holding water, a ditch, springs, ect. Get you an aerial and start plotting his sightings and record wind directions daily. You will figure it out. Success is in the details most people over look. Good luck
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby muddy » Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:47 pm

He's probably sleeping in a ditch or brush pile 75 yards from someones house.
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby Brian1986 » Tue Dec 11, 2018 10:28 pm

muddy wrote:He's probably sleeping in a ditch or brush pile 75 yards from someones house.

X2
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:15 am

If you are not finding any sign at all, no tracks, no trails, no rubs, no scrapes, no browse lines, etc., then he isn't spending much time there. Like others stated above look at the surrounding areas for an overlooked bedding area.
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby mheichelbech » Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:54 am

DaveT1963 wrote:If you are not finding any sign at all, no tracks, no trails, no rubs, no scrapes, no browse lines, etc., then he isn't spending much time there. Like others stated above look at the surrounding areas for an overlooked bedding area.

It’s not that I’m not finding any tracks per se. Just not enough to really make any conclusions. For example, found a set of tracks going across a picked bean field that could only be his or another very large deer. Then I picked them up again going across a horse pasture and then can’t pick them up after that.

I have to think that being spotted multiple times by my friend and her husband would indicate he is spending a lot of time there. It also is a bow only area with significant gun pressure surrounding it.
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby mheichelbech » Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:59 am

muddy wrote:He's probably sleeping in a ditch or brush pile 75 yards from someones house.

This wouldn’t surprise me at all. Or up against someone’s garage. I’ve watched other deer on this property just walking along and then out do the blue bed down. It has plenty of food and water with multiple drainages, couple lakes around. Cut corn fields, cut beans and standing beans, not to mention a lot of acorns still in the ground in various areas. I’m thinking they must not like the acorns much because there are so many left behind at this point. Plus who know how many neighbors are feeding them or have backyard bird and squirrel feeders. This place had an amazing number of large squirrels. Even the gray squirrels are big here.

There also are 2-3 other 5 acre wood lots that I don’t have permission to hunt around there. So it’s not like he doesn’t have places to hide.
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 2:22 am

mheichelbech wrote:
DaveT1963 wrote:If you are not finding any sign at all, no tracks, no trails, no rubs, no scrapes, no browse lines, etc., then he isn't spending much time there. Like others stated above look at the surrounding areas for an overlooked bedding area.

It’s not that I’m not finding any tracks per se. Just not enough to really make any conclusions. For example, found a set of tracks going across a picked bean field that could only be his or another very large deer. Then I picked them up again going across a horse pasture and then can’t pick them up after that.

I have to think that being spotted multiple times by my friend and her husband would indicate he is spending a lot of time there. It also is a bow only area with significant gun pressure surrounding it.


OK got ya. I was referring to the specific 60 acres you mentioned. Are the two fields you found tracks part of that 60 acres? Is there other bedding you do not have access to? The reason I ask is that if that buck is spending a lot of time in the wooded section you have access to you should be able to find sign there also. As it is, he could have just been following some hot does on the occasions your friend saw him? If he is only showing up in Nov, and you are NOT finding sign in the wooded section, then my guess is he lives somewhere else and was just doing what bucks do in Nov - following does. So timing will be the key to killing him. Killing a buck that is chasing does is hard to plan ahead - its best to wait until he shows up and then go after him immediately. If he is bedding in the 60 acres then you should find some sign or at the least jump him and find out where he is bedding. Just hard to come up with a solid recommendation when so much is not known.
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby mheichelbech » Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:04 am

DaveT1963 wrote:
mheichelbech wrote:
DaveT1963 wrote:If you are not finding any sign at all, no tracks, no trails, no rubs, no scrapes, no browse lines, etc., then he isn't spending much time there. Like others stated above look at the surrounding areas for an overlooked bedding area.

It’s not that I’m not finding any tracks per se. Just not enough to really make any conclusions. For example, found a set of tracks going across a picked bean field that could only be his or another very large deer. Then I picked them up again going across a horse pasture and then can’t pick them up after that.

I have to think that being spotted multiple times by my friend and her husband would indicate he is spending a lot of time there. It also is a bow only area with significant gun pressure surrounding it.


OK got ya. I was referring to the specific 60 acres you mentioned. Are the two fields you found tracks part of that 60 acres? Is there other bedding you do not have access to? The reason I ask is that if that buck is spending a lot of time in the wooded section you have access to you should be able to find sign there also. As it is, he could have just been following some hot does on the occasions your friend saw him? If he is only showing up in Nov, and you are NOT finding sign in the wooded section, then my guess is he lives somewhere else and was just doing what bucks do in Nov - following does. So timing will be the key to killing him. Killing a buck that is chasing does is hard to plan ahead - its best to wait until he shows up and then go after him immediately. If he is bedding in the 60 acres then you should find some sign or at the least jump him and find out where he is bedding. Just hard to come up with a solid recommendation when so much is not known.

Thanks and I don’t know what he is doing. I have seen multiple bucks on this property over the years that would hit the BC books. However, I have only ever seen the runs you would expect a buck to leave, really only one year.
Although the does have a specific bedding area in the woodlot I can hunt, I just don’t think the buck or bucks do. There are spots they SHOULD be bedded in but I’ve yet to find the evidence.
I just wanted to make sure there isn’t something I was missing and it doesn’t sound like there is. I call this property the Heartbreak Hotel because that’s all it has done is break my heart.
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:08 am

sounds like a legit name :) Hope you get him so you can reveal the how :)
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby mheichelbech » Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:35 am

DaveT1963 wrote:sounds like a legit name :) Hope you get him so you can reveal the how :)

Thanks...me too!
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby EdC » Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:10 am

I've heard Dan say that rut bedding sometimes is hard to find because it is seasonal so they are not worn down as much
could be the situation for you and when you see them you need to act big deer don't act randomly
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby Bonecrusher101 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:15 pm

sounds like a heartbreaker! 60 acres is a sizeable chunk and sounds like he has a core bedding area not far off. I think he might be in a brushy fence row somewhere. I'd be discouraged if you can't bump him or get a bead on where to focus. You'd have to shift to a buck that is get table for the time being.

It even sounds like he knows he can't be hunted in the wide open. He probably avoids all areas with climbable trees during daylight. You haven't left much out. If I were you I'd keep tabs with your friend and sightings in the area and hope for a hard winter with a snow storm. Then you might be able to catch him feeding more often and during daylight during late season.

Hopefully a pattern will develop and you'll get your chance. Good luck!
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Re: Mature buck - can’t pin him down..

Unread postby Paca » Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:23 pm

Surprised u don’t have more does in that area. Someone must be shooting them. I’m those urban fringe areas there is usually tons of does around. My in-laws have similar habitat around their house, tons of does and only a few yearling bucks.


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