Mossyhorns wrote:dan wrote:Missionshooter wrote:Dan,
Great post!!
I noticed none were shot late season. What are your thoughts on why that is.
This is so counter thinking to how most people hunt. Most guys take off 2 weeks in November thinking they'll kill their mature buck cruising for does or coming to his calling looking for a fight. I hear guys rattling on public every year. I see their scent wicks while out scouting. I had a 3 yr old buck bed 60 yards from my tree at 715am on November 7th this year and thought, "why the he'll is he bedded this early during the rut?!?! He should be chasing does or cruising till at least 9am... It's Nov 7th!!!!"
Do you recommend that us novices start looking for scrapes like you describe where staging areas meet? (Obviously they won't always be there) Within 100 yards from bedding?
I have called in a lot of nice bucks, mostly when I see them and they are not coming to me. But, one buck that comes to mind a couple years ago was a mature buck that was casually walking up wind of me, and obviously not coming to me. It was a 1st time sit... I grunted to him then looked down to turn the camera on, when I looked back up I could not see him. I waited 5 minutes and new he had to still be right there I would of surly seen him leave so I grunted one more time and he jumped up from the grass and bolted out of there... Same call I had tricked dozens of 2 or 3 year olds with... Those bed scrapes are not real easy to find, but when you do find one, there golden.
What do you mean by bed scrapes?
If you search, I know there are some posts on that topic... But what it is, is a scrape where the staging area over laps with a staging area of another bedding area. Bucks don't do anything "randomly" there is a reason for things lake scrapes and such. Scrapes usually mark something. In this case its put where two rival bucks meet. Its usually within 100 yards of each bedding area. And the scrape is used when ever bucks are actively using the beds. I shot one of my vary biggest bucks on such a scrape opening weekend in early September when most think scrapes are not out yet.