I’m in my fourth season in Central Ohio and still haven’t arrowed a shooter buck (for me). I’ve had lots of encounters with 1 and 2 year olds. I’ve had 12 encounters with shooter bucks inside my comfort zone and my bad luck has yet to run out. Trees over the vitals. Picking the wrong trail. Fog that made finding one awesome buck in my peep impossible at 52 yards. I’ve never had more success filling the freezer and a more frustrating time getting a buck on the ground. It’s all been public. I guess I can’t complain too much.
I have 3 more weeks and, hopefully, a handful more sits to break my Ohio buck-less streak. I have two spots in mind. One is a gap between two large bedding thickets (10-12 acres a piece) that are full of thorns up to your neck. I’ve seen most of the mature bucks in this gap or on the corners of the thickets but something always seems to happen there.
The other is a bedding area I scouted this year. There’s a 3 year old basket 8 point and a 4 year old 10 with a split brow. It’s perfect on any East wind and I saw the 10 less than 10 minutes after legal light the last time I hunted it. I was playing safe and sitting on the opposite creek bank hoping to shoot that bank or the creek crossing. Not anymore. I’m going to cross the creek just upstream and crawl in on the ground and see what happens. I won’t get more chances so it’s time to go balls to the wall.
Here’s the set up.
The blue is full of large individual beds scattered around with rubs in a few places. The red is a cluster of doe bedding I found. It was classic too. Multiple beds facing different directions and much more heavily used (hair and all). My entry is the white arrow and the ‘X’ was my spot for my first two sits. One morning. One evening. It was a 32-50 yard shot depending on where I would shoot to the opposite bank. The canopy in the buck bedding area is less than 6 feet in most places and the grass is between knee and waist high. It’ll be tight.
Wish me luck.
Appreciate it!
