Bedded buck pics

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dan
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby dan » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:30 am

PredatorTC wrote:
dan wrote:Looks to me like those are arrival times to a day bed. Some of you probably remember me talking about how hard it is to hunt mature bucks in the AM because bucks are already bedded before daylight on most days.


I agree with you on this for the most part. I personaly see a lot more action in the morning. But, i know Andre prefers his morning hunts over night time hunts. Have you ever asked him why, that is. Because if they are all bedded before light like you say, it does not make any sense


He only hunts them in the AM on the right moon phase or weather condition that gets them to arrive at there bedroom after light. His last two Booners were shot right at there beds in the AM... And both of those arrived right at 1st light.
The nontypical he got two chances at two mornings in a row if you remember from the Hll country DVD...


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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:13 am

Welcome to the forum, Pike. My experiences on heavy pressure public land are very different from what you are suggesting. I love the Moultrie flash cams, inexpensive and they take great pictures. That being said, they scare the Bejesus out of the heavy pressure public land bucks around here. I had hoped that 2 year old bucks were still inexperienced enough to tolerate them, but after just one picture taken by the Moultrie they abandoned that bedding area for the rest of the three month deer season. No more pics, no more tracks, no more buck. The Moultrie was set for one pic an hour to hopefully reduce the impact. These were two and a half year old 8-point bucks, the bedding area itself was never approached or hunted and the camera left in place. Tracks were monitored in outlying areas, creek crossings and the like that the buck crossed on his way out of the big woods bedding area.

In my heavy pressure public land areas, bucks that make it to maturity nearly always have survived being shot more than once and likely have broadheads and or bullets in them already. They don’t care if you left human scent at their bed two days ago at 11 pm or if it was 11am today- Color them gone! You can take as many scent precautions as you want, they know you were there. Hunters experienced with reading mature buck sign can quickly determine if a mature buck is using a bed by tracks/bed size / bed location / rubs / hair etc.- Normally there's no need to put the cam right in his bed.
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Pike » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:10 am

SB. That is interesting that your bucks react so differently and it made me think about when I first starting hunting OH.
When I first started hunting OH. I knew that I couldnt take for granted that how I hunted,scouted etc. to be successful in PA. would work in OH. I knew that deer from different area's have different habits and react differently to things like hunting pressure.
I thought because where I live and hunt in PA. the hunting pressure is so great (were I live we have more more bow hunters per square mile than any place on the planet)and the fact that the hunting pressure in OH. is light that I wouldnt be able to get away with lingering human scent, my climber making the accidental clanging metal sound an hour before light etc. as I climb a tree etc. :cry:
Here in PA. I found that our bucks because they get so much pressure and are bumped from their bedding area's constantly
do not relocate, If they did, they would never bed in the same area. For the most part they stay in the same area's, they do go 100% nocturnal though (which nocturnal is my most hated word in the english language :D ) I learned by accident when I was still a teen, that most mature bucks here in PA. tolerate being bumped, They will run a certain distance and stop and look back, I started turning in the opposite direction and walking directly away from them at a fast pace even jogging. One time I was walking to my stand in the snow and I jumped a 3.5 year old 10-pt. bedded 20 yards from my stand, I had no clue that deer was in the area, well after saying a few choice words under my breath
I decided to climb up in my stand anyway even though the buck made so much noise vacating the area that every deer in the county knew I just bumped him. To my amazement 15 minutes later the same buck appeared and I shot him 10 yards from the bed I just bumped him from!! After the shot he exited the area the exact same route that he did when I bumped him, He only made it 65 yards but his tracks were in the snow from where He ran when I bumped him. Because I was still in shock at what just happened I followed his tracts, they made a large circle and of course ended right back where they started. When I got home, I called my friends and told them I just shot the dumbest buck in the state of PA., but that night the more I thought about it, the more I realized how smart this buck really was, after he survived on public land to the ripe old age of 3.5, and there was no telling how many times he had been bumped, shot at etc. chased by bird dogs hunting grouse, or how many times he used the exact same escape tactic and survived.

But when I started hunting OH. I thought the mature bucks would be alot less tolerant to human scent, So starting out I treaded very lightly, But then after a while I thought to myself this is stupid!! In OH. we have a tremendous coyote and bobcat population and they are hunting our deer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 12 months a year. So me checking my cams at night every 4-6 weeks isnt going to pressure them or cause them to relocate any more than the predators.
So I started out testing my theory in one bedding area, and didnt see any adverse affects,and havent since. Pike
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:34 am

Pike, sounds like you've got a system that works for you- I would never discourage anyone and am always open to new ideas and tactics. Most of the areas I hunt the bucks have more than one bedding option, pretty much a guarantee they will use those that are without human scent or intrusion.

Great pics of the buck in his bedding area, by the way. 8-)
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Pike » Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:44 am

Singing Bridge wrote:Pike, sounds like you've got a system that works for you- I would never discourage anyone and am always open to new ideas and tactics. Most of the areas I hunt the bucks have more than one bedding option, pretty much a guarantee they will use those that are without human scent or intrusion.

Great pics of the buck in his bedding area, by the way. 8-)

Thanks!! And I agree 100% I also agree with that bucks usually have more than one bedding option, I know Kicker Buck did, and so do most other bucks in OH. and here in PA.
I have numerous sets of sheds of particular bucks that were in bedding area's over a mile apart over the years.

As far as worring to leave scent, the pics below are the reason why I dont worry about checking my cams every 4-6 weeks in OH.,(with that said I still take all precautions) The deer are used to having scent from
meat eater's in every one of their bedding options 12 months a year. The first pic is from my last set of pics for the year prior to removing my cam in Kicker Bucks bedding area. I get tons of yote and cat pics every year.Pike
Image


Here is my favorite pic of all time, if you look close you can see the hoof and part of the leg of the deer the cat is chasing in the bootom left hand corner of the pic.
Image


Here is another one of my favorite pics of the year. Over the years we have had numerious packs of yotes travel under or past us while sitting in our stands waiting for first light, but this is the first time that I ever got a pic of more than 2 yotes in the same pic.
Image


Here is a pic of a large yote that I killed as it chased a mature buck passed my stand during the 2008 gun season. Pike
Image
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:08 am

Thought this was an interesting thread from way back when, with some great info in it......
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Stanley » Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:13 am

Too bad Pike disappeared. Looks like he was on top of his camera game. Love the buck bedding pictures.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Bedded buck pics

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:16 am

I missed this somehow, thanks for the bump.

[ Post made via Android ] Image


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