What is the most important piece of the puzzle

[Gibby]

Backwoods
I have used Google earth and the clarity and detail depend on the location being viewed and usually if your not within city limits the detail turns to crap, I just downloaded Acme and I will give that a try

Thanks

Gibby

[Black Squirrel]

All good info, like others have said it comes with experince, but spending a day with Dan, as we did at my place gives you a "feel" of what you need to be looking for. Of course the videos help too. I first found this site(actually BBO), when I google mature buck bedding. I realized that to get mature bucks you needed to figure out their bedding habits. When I first found this site, I didn't have a clue what to look for, but after the videos, the post and scouting with Dan, I now have that "feel" you get when you say this just looks like a buck bedding area. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am slowly starting to get it, the light bulb is starting to glow.

[Dewey]

Bump

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[justdirtyfun]

Great bump. My 2 cents to the puzzle.
At the bed you take as much time as needed to know why it works.
Each bed has advantages and weaknesses and if you put a whole afternoon in on one bed it can pay off better than a 100 acre walk.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Dewey]

Great bump. My 2 cents to the puzzle.
At the bed you take as much time as needed to know why it works.
Each bed has advantages and weaknesses and if you put a whole afternoon in on one bed it can pay off better than a 100 acre walk.

[ Post made via Android ]

Great point. I am sometimes guilty of cruising thru trying to cover too much area and finding as many beds as possible in one day. I'm constantly telling myself to slow down and figure out the entire puzzle. I'm getting much better but still need to improve.

Like Dan said I also like to sit in the bucks bed this time of the year and really think about why he is bedded there and what he can see, hear and most importantly smell from it. We need to think like a buck. Everything they do is for a reason.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Stanley]

Great thread missed it the first time around. To me I think the most important piece of the puzzle is adapting to the area you hunt. I always hear guys say I'm going to hunt out of state but have no idea or plan as to what they can/can't do. If you are a flat land hunter and go out of state and hunt hill country you will struggle. If your forte is marsh land and you go into agriculture ground you will struggle.

Sometime we get a false sense of what we can do because we are successful in the area we hunt. To me the most important piece of the puzzle is understanding what we don't know or can't do. When I hunt hill country I talk to the guys I know that hunt the hills. Way better than conferring with a river bottoms hunter. The puzzle is complex and few know where all the pieces go without trying to place them in the puzzle.

The puzzles are all different, so one answer will fit all the puzzles. Every time I think I know something darned if I'm not wrong. Don't be afraid of being wrong, it happens to the best. Some guys blow gas (tavern talk) you can't get caught up in that talk. A guy that knows a guy that says killing big bucks is easy in Kansas even though he has only hunted there 2 times in the last 10 years. Talk to some of the big buck killers that live in Kansas for crying out loud. It's not all that hard to get some good information from guys that share it.

In conclusion; I wish I had all the answers to the puzzle pieces but I don't. I know a lot of hunters, that know a lot more than I do and are better hunters. I also know a lot of hunters, that don't know, they know less, than most do.

[Singing Bridge]

outside of rut activity, it is buck bedding and when he is utilizing a bedding area. whether you hunt the bedding area, the trails between bedding and food, or the food source itself it is rather irrelevant if the big boy isn't in the area.

seems like i've heard this somewhere before!

[dkoy85]

For me, if I've done all my homework and located good buck beds (which I'm still learning to do), the biggest piece of the puzzle is finding the buck I want to go after for that area. Their beds are obviously the most important thing to find and learn details on to kill the buck, but locating a good buck and knowing he is in their moving around and using those beds gives me the confidence to go in and screw up :-D

[ Post made via Android ]

[PK_]

Realistic expectations for your area, personal experience, knowledge base and time available to scout/hunt.

[fishlips]

Great bump. My 2 cents to the puzzle.
At the bed you take as much time as needed to know why it works.
Each bed has advantages and weaknesses and if you put a whole afternoon in on one bed it can pay off better than a 100 acre walk.

[ Post made via Android ]

Great point. I am sometimes guilty of cruising thru trying to cover too much area and finding as many beds as possible in one day. I'm constantly telling myself to slow down and figure out the entire puzzle. I'm getting much better but still need to improve.

Like Dan said I also like to sit in the bucks bed this time of the year and really think about why he is bedded there and what he can see, hear and most importantly smell from it. We need to think like a buck. Everything they do is for a reason.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I didn't have a ton of time to scout yesterday, so I hit a spot that I had already found and rescouted it. Glad I did. I actually took the time to sit in the bed and look all around it. Found that the tree I had originally planned on setting up in would have been an awful setup. But the tree that is less than 10 feet from it will work just fine. Looking back at it, it is crazy how 10' might make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful hunt.

[justdirtyfun]

Yesterday I had time to scout. And went to a ridge/valley area that I only knew the top of. I came away with a good feeling and a bunch of important gps marks. Getting to know the DETAILS of the area gives me a huge boost of confidence and will pay off for years to come. If season comes with NW wind I have multiple trees for different scenarios. Things like trail to field, edge of buck staging, scent checking does in field all went through my head while I picked the location apart. A bowhunter detail that can be missed is tree location for broadside shot while keeping wind in mind. If your tree brings them to you with only a frontal view it can be trouble.
I found other hunter sign and consider that very important as well. It's not always a deal breaker if you add that into your gameplan.

[dan]

I didn't have a ton of time to scout yesterday, so I hit a spot that I had already found and rescouted it. Glad I did. I actually took the time to sit in the bed and look all around it. Found that the tree I had originally planned on setting up in would have been an awful setup. But the tree that is less than 10 feet from it will work just fine. Looking back at it, it is crazy how 10' might make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful hunt.

Exactly... A lot of people think that great hunters are lucky cause they hunt the same areas without success, but 10 feet can be 10 miles when hunting for big bucks.

I am real cautious and particular about the exact tree I set up in... I remember a hunt deep in a swamp last year. On my way out I crossed a small island that was about 15 yards wide and 40 yards long. The sign on that island had erupted. Rubs and big scrapes were now everywhere, and I new it was adjacent to a major doe bedding area and bucks used it to monitor bedded does.

This meant they would be cruising the island in daylight to check on the does, and/or might be bedded close monitoring the doe bedding...

I was hunting this area with Mario and we were well aware of the potential of this spot in the right conditions. I decided right there and then that this spot needed to be hunted the next day based on the sign... Now your average hunter would of had a certain tree picked out and prepped, but, I understand that the conditions on the day you hunt are critical, and I try to be in the exact tree I need to be in on any given hunt.

I could not get back out there the next day, but Mario could... We had a just off wind and it was going to be a tough set up, I explained that he should not walk up on the island, but should instead walk in the swamp grass on the down wind side then cut in at the high point and go right up a tree... He did just that, but went across the island instead of along the edge and was 8 or 10 yards past where I meant... It was far enough that he went over the rise of the island anbd when the swamp thermals kicked in, it pulled his scent down the wrong side and the buck winded him as it entered the head of the island just before he could get a shot.

It can be a huge difference in just yards...




If you look at Mario's spot vs mine its only a difference of feet, but when the swamp water thermal raised his scent pulled down the island to the west, and at my spot it pulled to the East with the high point of the island being right on the pink buck travel line... Even without the water thermal though, we were more likely to have the wind miss the buck from my spot... His spot had better shot opportunities though..

It should be noted that he hunted with the wind we had that day cause it was do or die... Neither of us could get back after that day.

[justdirtyfun]

That breakdown is great. you live and breathe this stuff don't you?

[Jphunter]

Realistic expectations for your area, personal experience, knowledge base and time available to scout/hunt.

Yeah I think realistic expectations can be a big piece of the puzzle. If your after a certain caliber buck and a the area your hunting doesn't hold that caliber of deer it's going to be tough to kill one. And I agree with what others have said finding his bedroom is the next biggest poice.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Zona]

For me it's knowing when a buck is in the area I have access to. All the big rubs or scrapes mean little if you don't know when he is using the area.