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3 Feb 18...... let's do it again

D

DaveT1963

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I got up at 3:30 this morning got everything ready and I'm about to head out. This is a short video about one of the number 1 questions I keep seeing on the Internet I personally get asked a lot is how do I locate these big bucks on Texas public land. The truth is I don't have no magic pill to give you the answer is quite simple…. you WORK for it.

 
Dave, do you zig zag through the woods? Find a trail and follow it? Sometimes I get tunnel vision when I find a good trail and don’t see what’s around me. I end up following the Good trail and marking the lighter trails that cross it. Is that what you do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Right on man. Great video again. My challenge up here is that I've got 3 feet of snow and the deer really change their patterns (particularly bedding areas) from early season to the start of late season once the snow starts.

Doesn't mean I shouldn't be scouting. Anything I find now is good for the late season. It's also a lot easier to follow tracks when you have snow, so getting on them is way less of a challenge than what you southerners face with no snow.

Thanks for the video!
 
Babshaft said:
Right on man. Great video again. My challenge up here is that I've got 3 feet of snow and the deer really change their patterns (particularly bedding areas) from early season to the start of late season once the snow starts.

Doesn't mean I shouldn't be scouting. Anything I find now is good for the late season. It's also a lot easier to follow tracks when you have snow, so getting on them is way less of a challenge than what you southerners face with no snow.

Thanks for the video!
Click to expand...
Yup
In heavy snow our deer limit their range to 10 or 15 % of their summer range. They want cover, food and safety.
That said I think some deer use the same trails and bedding areas in the winter range as they do in the summer. They do not all leave.
Because it is the best cover available in an area the biggest most mature bucks will stay year round IMO>
But yes our deep snow in the snow belt areas changes things. More starvation, predation and abortion of fawns. Less food, more cold and it is harder for the deer to move. I think that is why we actually have less deer than many States to the south.
 
I stepped on a honey locust thorn thus afternoon, it went through my boots and into my foot about a inch and a 1/2. Can hardly walk out..... not exactly the way I wanted this day to go
 

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Ain't no cleaning..... went in and out.... by the time I walked out it was closed
 
DaveT1963 said:
I stepped on a honey locust thorn thus afternoon, it went through my boots and into my foot about a inch and a 1/2. Can hardly walk out..... not exactly the way I wanted this day to go
Click to expand...
OUch Sorry to hear that Dave... Clean it up good.
Went scouting some public this afternoon... -6 C snowing and thankful for no thorns. Broke through some ice under snow and my feet got wet... No pain and still warm. I take my wife. She likes the exercise and likes to see rubs, deer trails and she likes to find sheds. I like the company.
 
20180204_052844.png 20180204_052821.png Screenshot_20180204-052435.png I will be uploading a few videos that I may before I stepped on that thorn. In the meanwhile here are some pictures of some of the days findings:
 
The 1st video shows a year round licking branch that will be a great spot to take inventory of this property. A camera set up in May or June in left till February will give you a good inventory of not only the local buck population, but also those bucks that will travel during the rut. I absolutely plan on dropping a camera near here when I go to set up the 3 trees I selected before I got injured.

 
This doe walked in on me as I was having lunch. I found this area where a swamp emptied into a large opening and there was a ridge that funneled down the crossing..... they create a perfect pinch point. The ridge was literally covered with fresh deer scat and a ton of rubs. Further out in the open area I found a massive rub where the sapling was absolutely destroyed by the buck. Of course I'd already selected a tree to prep next time in. This doe confirmed my suspicions that this is the right place for an ambush..

 
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This video illustrates finding those small rubs with only tine marks on them to locate buck bedding. I personally believe these are made near buck core areas in the very early season before the buck turn aggressive. They often go overlooked by the majority of people during scouting. I also believe these are usually made by dominant mature bucks.

 
Ontariofarmer said:
Yup
In heavy snow our deer limit their range to 10 or 15 % of their summer range. They want cover, food and safety.
That said I think some deer use the same trails and bedding areas in the winter range as they do in the summer. They do not all leave.
Because it is the best cover available in an area the biggest most mature bucks will stay year round IMO>
But yes our deep snow in the snow belt areas changes things. More starvation, predation and abortion of fawns. Less food, more cold and it is harder for the deer to move. I think that is why we actually have less deer than many States to the south.
Click to expand...

I agree brother! I've found this year that the bigger bucks have been bedding in the wetter areas (that's why I wasn't really seeing them before I started targeting those areas). As I followed them this season, I was consistently seeing mature bucks come out of the swamps and marshes even though I didn't have exact bedding locations. As the season progressed, and the water froze, I stopped seeing them as frequently. When I stopped seeing them, I decided it was time to start scouting again. What I found was that the coyotes had started moving across the ice and the deer didn't seem to enjoy walking on it. The bedding I started to find was the thick cedars and conifers near the swamp were holding the bucks - the best cover available in the area now that the water was frozen. However, in a lot of instances this year, the thick thermal cover was a lot further away from the swamps than I had assumed. I'm on to them now, just need to figure out how to work it into next years late season!
 
Babshaft said:
I agree brother! I've found this year that the bigger bucks have been bedding in the wetter areas (that's why I wasn't really seeing them before I started targeting those areas). As I followed them this season, I was consistently seeing mature bucks come out of the swamps and marshes even though I didn't have exact bedding locations. As the season progressed, and the water froze, I stopped seeing them as frequently. When I stopped seeing them, I decided it was time to start scouting again. What I found was that the coyotes had started moving across the ice and the deer didn't seem to enjoy walking on it. The bedding I started to find was the thick cedars and conifers near the swamp were holding the bucks - the best cover available in the area now that the water was frozen. However, in a lot of instances this year, the thick thermal cover was a lot further away from the swamps than I had assumed. I'm on to them now, just need to figure out how to work it into next years late season!
Click to expand...
My granddaddy always told us, "Gotta get your feet wet to kill big bucks."
 
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