Boogieman1 wrote:PK_ wrote:It sounds like you are hunting the kind of ground I try to stay the heck away from.
Some terrain is just way harder than others. There is no way around it. In those landscapes where sign is not very visible or telling, I just hunt the terrain. I hunt where I expect to have an opportunity to kill a mature buck, sign or no sign means nothing to me. If there are no terrain features or ecotones to key in on either, then buddy you really have your work cut out for you, even more so with a bow, even more so with a stick bow...
Good luck.
Whatever the heck u do certainly works! Guessing those Kentucky road trips your hunting wind and terrain. I've got good terrain to give myself a close opportunity so I have no complaints. Guess it's just human nature to hear what others have going and assume u r doing something wrong. When in actuality its figuring out how to make lemonade with the lemons u have at your disposal
Lol
Well if there is terrain to work off of then any sign I find I will correlate to that terrain. Hopefully I can connect it with known or suspected bedding and hopefully a pinchpont or thick edge or something to narrow my efforts... as I am typing this I feel this is far too elementary to be the true nature of your question...
In terrain where bed and food is widespread and integrated, combined with low deer numbers it can be tough because those big older bucks seem very nomadic once their antlers harden. I believe it is because they range a long ways in order to maximize the amount of does they can breed in a season (this is purely anecdotal). I do think most of those old bucks do hold down a small core that we simply never find. But instead of a circuit, that buck might run 3 or 4 circuits, large circuits, in different directions if that makes sense. So you aren’t seeing him on a daily routine. It is more like once or twice a week he may come thru and when he comes thru it may be a 1/4 mile off where he came thru last time or it may be right in his old tracks.
Just to put it in perspective I have hunted some open terrain that fits this bill. Almost never will you sit there and see the same buck move along the same edge or do the same thing in a 3 day period(save for a buck locked down with a doe). But you will see multiple different bucks doing a similar movement pattern. This is why I focus on terrain or observed buck movement and I setup and let the buck come to me. Trying to hunt down a specific deer is real tough as far as finding sign and moving in on him I just don’t see it happen often.
The other thing I do is hunt doe groups. Idk why but those family groups seem to stick tight to home. You can watch them bed and feed day after day in the same spots. The bucks know where these doe groups are, obviously. If you see a good buck with a doe group take notice of the date. The same does seem to come in at the same time each year. It still isn’t easy and can take years to get enough intel to start to capitalize on, but it’s just another piece of the puzzle...
There’s my tangent.