Bucks that Showed You the Way

[WMAn]

First discovered the beast last year, but I feel like some of the ideas were shown to me by a few bucks along the way. I just needed the resources and a community to help me put the pieces together. I expect this is a common experience so please share some of your buck encounters that lit the way.

Here are two of mine:

2006 - Drew a quota hunt on some hill country, public land. I had worked one summer on this ground (my first career was a wildlife biologist). Also spent a lot of time turkey hunting here throughout college. The upper 1/3 of the ridges are covered in places with a shrub. I don't know what it is, but it is open underneath then terribly thick from 4' to about 7'. You cannot walk through it upright, and you cannot see through it in places. If you hung a stand, you would not be able to see down in to it.

I can't remember why. Probably just needed to get to the bottom of the ridge and didn't want to go around. I bent over and started busting my way down hill.

About 10 yards in, I cut a deer trail and followed. The trail led to a single bed that was unlike anything I had ever seen. Bowled out. Full of hair. With lots of snapped branches and tine marks on the bushes around it. A single rub showing multiple years use sat off to the side. The trail continued past the bed and along the same contour line.

I thought, "My goodness. How would you ever hunt this?" Well, the first evening of the hunt, I was frustrated with my first spot. Moved into the holler about 100 yards below the bed. Shot a large buck that may have been the deer using this bed.

2007 - Scouting ducks on public land in MS. I was standing on the edge of a large slough (swamp) with a small island/peninsula out about 50 yards. The swamps here are a series of long sloughs separated by narrow ridges. Suddenly ducks start flushing out too far for me to be the cause.

Then flashes of brown and a large rack out on the peninsula. He never blew or ran just determinedly moved away.

I waded out in chest waders. Had to hold one cypress tree and lean out to catch the next one with my boot. The trees were semi-floating and would lean as I pulled on them. Made it to where the buck was. Never found a bed. But same as before, "How in the world do you hunt this?

Fast forward a few weeks. This particular public land had a two week muzzleloader hunt. Waited for the wind to be right and left the truck at 1:30 AM. Used two inner tubes to float me and my gear out to where the buck was. The morning was cold. I had to bounce up and down in the inner tube to break sheet ice with my wake. My hope was that the deer would show up right at first light.

Made it to the island at 4:00 AM. About 4:45, I heard the first truck pull into the main public access. Fifteen minutes later, breaking ice and sloshing water as a single deer made his way out to the island. Well, the deer got so close that I wanted to cut my flashlight on to lay eyes on him. Then he suddenly stopped and in one fluid motion snorted and crashed back where he came from.

Two deer that put me on the path to start thinking about hunting beast style.

[timberninja]

That second story sounds intense. And the inner tube is innovative!

[northeast beast]

The second story was intense.....inner tubes and 1am leaving the truck....I bet you thought...no one is crazy enough to do this......then you joined this site lol

[hunter10]

Of the bucks I have shot, the 11 pt I shot 2 years ago with bow on oct 8th morning hunt was a big eye opener to show me you need to hunt thick, get off the field edges and open woodlots and hunt near bedding cover. I setup in the bedding thicket and at first like caught 2 bucks coming back to bed.. if I had not setup there and was say 150 yds away and also did not arrive early to my spot, the bucks would of been bedded and I would of never known they were there

[Tennhunter3]

I had no idea what hunting beast was when I killed my best buck.

I hunted a swamp transition line and found several rubs hooking uphill. I went in set up late at 7.10 at 8.42 here come a great buck hooking his way up to his bed.

30 yards shot with a muzzleloader.

I had unknowingly hunted a j hook buck bedding area and sat up correctly for that wind direction by accident.

After I killed the buck for awhile read every article and tried to figure out how I killed it then I found the beast and realized.

In my early youth 15 or so I hunted a clear cut edge coming back from a soybean field To bedding my stand was about 80 yards from bedding in a thicket behind my house I hunted the spot a lot. Every year bucks would walk that transition and I kept filling my tag. Missed a 130 inch 8 point with a bow on that trail.

Looking back it was a fantastic spot I just shot the first bucks that came in front of me had I been patient and not overhunted it I would probably have taken several big ones from that tree.

These were real learning experiences for me.

[mauser06]

For me, it was killing a buck in his bed in rifle season.

I was supposed to be pushing for my dad.... working a hillside his direction.

The hillside is VERY thick in a lot of areas..a lot of it is nearly vertical...some is vertical rock faces. There are 2 old logging roads...1 high and 1 in the middle. I try to catch both when I make that push. I hit the middle one and backed up and climbed the hill to get up to the top one.

I knew the land pretty well and knew I was coming to a little knoll...the wind was coming over the hill and in my favor....it was raining lightly and the rain was making plenty of noise and I wasn't while I was walking.

As I came up to the knoll, something told me to be ready. I halfway shouldered my rifle and slowly inched forward. I got to the point of where I was about to see around the knoll and took that last step. He sprang from his bed and I swung with him and dropped him in his tracks at 15-20yds.

I examined the bed. It all sorta clicked. He had the wind to his back. He was looking down the hill. He had a pretty good exit route...he kept a small multifloral rose bush to his back.

Normally thermals would been in play...but with the cold rain, that wasn't the case...

Silly buck...he should have bedded a few feet over and he'd watched me coming. Lol.





Another...same spot. Pushing to dad. I actually ended up in the creek bottom right below dad. He sets up on a point there watching a bench. I was looking up the hill for him..I knew I was right below him..but I couldn't see him due to the bench. But as I was looking up, I watched a good buck sneaking right up to dad. I laughed as I waited for the rifle to bark.

That spot is interesting now that I know a little more about the thermals and bedding....they can't bed in the top 1/3rd. I think they rely on thermals and sight more. My 1 man push has been effective. Aside from those 2, he's missed one there too.


Another thing that got me steered towards bedding is tracking in the snow. There were times I'd go out after the seasons we're over and track deer....you can learn a lot by following deer tracks. Especially if you stop and analyze the details....why is he bedding here...how can I get the drop on this bed next time? I'd start recognizing rub lines leading to the beds...scrapes in "odd" spots near the bed and usually smaller than scrapes I was used to finding...


This site really made a lot of things click for me that I was finding and helped me figure out how to hunt the stuff I was finding.

[WMAn]

The second story was intense.....inner tubes and 1am leaving the truck....I bet you thought...no one is crazy enough to do this......then you joined this site lol

You should have seen the looks I got at the tire store when I asked, "What size inner tube would it take to float a person out in a swamp?"

I definitely could have used Dan's just beyond what he can see, smell, and hear on that hunt.

[WMAn]

For me, it was killing a buck in his bed in rifle season.

I was supposed to be pushing for my dad.... working a hillside his direction.

The hillside is VERY thick in a lot of areas..a lot of it is nearly vertical...some is vertical rock faces. There are 2 old logging roads...1 high and 1 in the middle. I try to catch both when I make that push. I hit the middle one and backed up and climbed the hill to get up to the top one.

I knew the land pretty well and knew I was coming to a little knoll...the wind was coming over the hill and in my favor....it was raining lightly and the rain was making plenty of noise and I wasn't while I was walking.

As I came up to the knoll, something told me to be ready. I halfway shouldered my rifle and slowly inched forward. I got to the point of where I was about to see around the knoll and took that last step. He sprang from his bed and I swung with him and dropped him in his tracks at 15-20yds.

I examined the bed. It all sorta clicked. He had the wind to his back. He was looking down the hill. He had a pretty good exit route...he kept a small multifloral rose bush to his back.

Normally thermals would been in play...but with the cold rain, that wasn't the case...

Silly buck...he should have bedded a few feet over and he'd watched me coming. Lol.





Another...same spot. Pushing to dad. I actually ended up in the creek bottom right below dad. He sets up on a point there watching a bench. I was looking up the hill for him..I knew I was right below him..but I couldn't see him due to the bench. But as I was looking up, I watched a good buck sneaking right up to dad. I laughed as I waited for the rifle to bark.

That spot is interesting now that I know a little more about the thermals and bedding....they can't bed in the top 1/3rd. I think they rely on thermals and sight more. My 1 man push has been effective. Aside from those 2, he's missed one there too.


Another thing that got me steered towards bedding is tracking in the snow. There were times I'd go out after the seasons we're over and track deer....you can learn a lot by following deer tracks. Especially if you stop and analyze the details....why is he bedding here...how can I get the drop on this bed next time? I'd start recognizing rub lines leading to the beds...scrapes in "odd" spots near the bed and usually smaller than scrapes I was used to finding...


This site really made a lot of things click for me that I was finding and helped me figure out how to hunt the stuff I was finding.

Great stories. Your hill reminds me of another spot I hunted as a boy. Tall hill on the end of a long ridge. Learned some early lessons there about doe and buck bedding. Even if I did not know what I was seeing at the time, the memories remain.

We sometimes get snow here, but it's usually not enough and too short lived to allow tracking.