What can i be doing NOW to locate big bucks?

[GRFox]

Im in an extremely suburban area and locating big bucks by scouting fields for bachelor groups and so on is very tough. I have two trail cameras and am ordering 2 more but without being able to put out mineral licks in NY its kind of tough to figure out where to st up cams.

What can I do this time of year to be proactive in locating big bucks?

I've been thinking alot lately about going off of what I found post season and then doing alot of during season scouting which is something I've never done before.

So what would you guys do in my situation? Just wait til the fall and scout in season? What can I do to try and locate beds during the summer? Will they use the same beds in the fall? Or do they saith up they're home range during the seasons?

Anyone who can offers some advice would be helping my sanity tremendously.

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[Indianahunter]

If you are hunting 400 acres or less I would strongly suggest against in season scouting in any great detail. I personally would watch the food sources as much as possible, and go off past experience. That doesn't mean don't do any in season scouting, it just means you can't tromp around all over the place like you would in the spring without educating every deer on your property. You don't really need mineral licks to see what is using your food source but you do need to locate the cameras at the food source and within reasonable distance from where they enter and exit the field. I also recommend letting those cameras do the work for 10 or 15 days at a time and going in to check them just ahead of a good rain well before evening when deer are less likely to be coming to the fields. I am sure some of my other Beast brothers and sisters will have some great tips as well, but hopefully I have helped a little.

God bless

[headgear]

I would run your cams at some food sources or funnels to see if you can't catch a few bucks moving around. I might even get out there and do some quick scouting, it's not ideal to scout this time of year but it might be better then nothing, then stay out until you are ready to hunt. Once the season arrives I would do some in season scouting with the stand on your back and bow in your hand, when you find some fresh sign just setup and hunt it. Even with a bunch of bedding areas scouted out I still like to do this to gain some intel about a new area, I even got on a nice buck last year hunting a swamp I had never set food in before.

The other thing I like to do in more suburban or populated areas is to have friends, relatives, neighbors, or whoever keep an eye out for big deer. I don't really give them instructions to be on the lookout but I always ask if they have seen any nice bucks in the area, once they know you are on the lookout they usually pay a little closer attention or even give you a call if they spot one.

[Spysar]

The guys in Wisconsin (and other areas) use spotlights at night. That probably won't work for suburban NY scouting though....

Why don't you walk around the nightime feed spots and look for tracks, and trails into the fields. Find wide tracks. Set up what cams you have near the likely entrance routes. I don't think it's a good time to look for buck beds....I guess you need to "inventory" the night bucks, and then try and figure out where they might be coming from. If you know one is there, it has to go somewhere.

I think this time of year, you are finding them. If you find one, you know he will be living in his core area, and you might be able to draw conclusions on where he might bed. Hopefully this ties into your spring scouting, where you would have found sign from the fall before...

[dan]

Look for big tracks at or near food and water to know what areas hold good bucks. Drive around in the evenings and look for matue bucks out feeding in the late evening just before dark. Study topo maps and aerials of the area... If you need to check some hunches, you should be still able to get in there still without effecting the fall to bad. Talk to neighbors and land owners to get leads on big buck sightings...

[GRFox]

Thanks for the reccomendations guys. Im going to start to try and watch the food sources in the places I have permission to hunt. Finding big bucks at food sources is no problem for me except I can't hunt or don't have permission to hunt where I see them.

Im going to have to get creative in trying to get within veiling distance of the feeding areas within my spots as well as using cams without being to intrusive. Thanks for all the advice. Ill let you guys know how I make out.

Gary

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[dan]

Finding big bucks at food sources is no problem for me except I can't hunt or don't have permission to hunt where I see them.

The marshs I hunt are often like that.. they bed in the marsh but feed on the private. It helps to know where the bedding is so when you see a buck in the private field you can make an educated guess as to where to set up on him.