So found 5 beds off an point several months ago.after a couple good rains there are no tracks in the ditches by the road to make me believe these are buck beds. So I moved around to the back side to set up cam close to a swamp point an a couple points coming off main ridge.saw a nice buck running off 80 yards through the woods. Looked like a potential target but want a pic to be sure. Didn't get one. Now the prob is there are about 5 spots right in that area I saw him he could bed on. I don't wanna waste a lot of time on him if he is not a 4 yr old at least. So how would you go about find his main spots or close to them to see what he is? My first thoughts are trail cams till mid October but run the risk on alerting him way to much or could wait till mid October an go back an try to see if I can find his bed a little easier then bc of use. Any other ideas maybe anyone has used that worked for them I'm not thinking of. The area is slow rolling hardwoods thick to open areas. On the back side of a big water shed lake.
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Needle In a Hay Stack
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Observation stand would be my tactic.
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Thought about it but that gets into that not spending to much time there if it's not worth it this year. Hate to spend a week of hunting to be a real nice 3 yr old I would mad lol.
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Yea if you want to confirm antler size the best way is a trail camera I think. That is at least half the reason I use cams in the first place, I don't like to waste time going after something I don't want to shoot either. Park it on the most likely travel route maybe a couple hundred yards from the bedding for a month and see what you get.
Tracks will tell you when and how a buck is using the bedding but they won't tell you if it is a 120 or 140 inch deer. To know antlers you gotta see the deer. Maybe you can spotlight some fields he might be feeding in at night?
Tracks will tell you when and how a buck is using the bedding but they won't tell you if it is a 120 or 140 inch deer. To know antlers you gotta see the deer. Maybe you can spotlight some fields he might be feeding in at night?
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
We are in the electronic age. Trail cameras are part of the evolution. I think using trail cams is beneficial for sure. I'll take pictures over tracks any day.
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: Needle In a Hay Stack
TNstalker wrote:Thought about it but that gets into that not spending to much time there if it's not worth it this year. Hate to spend a week of hunting to be a real nice 3 yr old I would mad lol.
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Do you have other for sure shooters lined up? If this is a top prospect he is worth the time IMO. I would not get too caught up in the exact age of the deer, it's very easy to guess wrong by a year or two aging on the hoof, by picture, by the jaw, or even by cementum annuli here in the south for that matter…
But if you want to find a decent amount of mature bucks to chase each season you need to start running some serious cams, with a good strategy. Scout, shine, glass year round. I believe one of the hardest things about killing big bucks consistently is consistently finding big bucks to kill. That is once you set your sights on the top end type bucks.
I look at guys like Andrae and even some members of this forum, I believe they spend way more time taking inventory, running cams, scouting, glassing, shining, just to find good bucks to hunt, than they do actually hunting them…
A couple years ago I tried to transition to targeting fully mature, larger antlered bucks for the areas I hunt. I bought 5 trail cams and scouted at least one day a week year round. I realized very quickly this wasn't near enough time/effort it would take to reach the goals I wanted. So I went back to hunting the terrain and being happy with the first shooter to arrive.
Just my .02, good luck with it man.
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
I'd use cameras if you can.
Wish I could use them on the public here, but they have been banned for use on our state public lands.
Wish I could use them on the public here, but they have been banned for use on our state public lands.
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Try that stacking method talked about on the DVD, where u use human scent to discourage him from using 4 out of 5 beds. Then give it one sit in the undisturbed area to try to get a shot or look at him
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Deploying a camera isn't necessarily going to give you a bed location. Combine the human scent factor with the camera and you will alter him even more. Unless you plan on not touching that camera for the entire season. Even if you do get a picture of him, you'll still be right where you started, left with more questions than answers.
Killing mature bucks takes a lot of time. Either the time is spent running cameras and chasing him that way, or observing without disturbing him even more.
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Killing mature bucks takes a lot of time. Either the time is spent running cameras and chasing him that way, or observing without disturbing him even more.
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Re: Needle In a Hay Stack
Like the stacking idea forgot about that. An I do have 3 shooters targeted. But I want as many as I possibly can before season opens. An hopefully fined more during season. I think scouting more than u hunt is a big key but experience in the whole process from scouting to being able to strike at the right time an take that animal at that time. being detailed with information on past experiences an knowing what a big buck shouldn't do based on his instinks an surroundings. I think all these set a few from the rest.
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