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Hunting Would you rather question.

MattMan81

MattMan81

Well-Known Member
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Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
5,066
Location
The Mitten
W Y R shoot a 140" buck know to the area from a pre determined elevated spot that comes in some what like you planned and predicted.

Or

Shoot a 130" you spotted driving around that after noon, and found a good place to set up and kill him that evening.

What would get you more fired up?
 
Last edited:
MattMan81 said:
W Y R shoot a 140" buck from a saddle that comes in some what like you planned and predicted.

Or

Shoot a 130" you spotted driving around that after noon, and found a place to set up and kill him.

What would get you more fired up?
Click to expand...

this is a good question

probably the 2nd scenario, i'd feel more accomplished

but with more backstory on the first, if i had seen that 140 on cams or saw big buck sign and set up on it.....then that might be more fulfilling than 2nd scenario

if i just found a decent spot, and setup and then got lucky with the 140, then i'd prefer the second scenario

pretty close, you set the spread like a pro bookie
 
This time of year I’d be happy to fantasize about either scenario. But during the season I’d be more happy about killing the known deer from a chosen location. I’m currently really into developing understanding of specific deer and targeting them with tactics.

All that said, my favorite and most exciting way of hunting is tracking deer in the snow. Some days it gives me the ability to go after specific deer and other days it enables me to go to a completely unknown area and get right into the deer, often seeing / getting shots at good bucks.
 
Jammintree said:
This time of year I’d be happy to fantasize about either scenario. But during the season I’d be more happy about killing the known deer from a chosen location. I’m currently really into developing understanding of specific deer and targeting them with tactics.

All that said, my favorite and most exciting way of hunting is tracking deer in the snow. Some days it gives me the ability to go after specific deer and other days it enables me to go to a completely unknown area and get right into the deer, often seeing / getting shots at good bucks.
Click to expand...
I’ve been working the same deer for three years, private farm, most nights he’s walking 75 yards from the barn, bedding 250-400 yards back. Sounds like fish in a barrel, and hunting the public land guys would scoff at. But it’s not, it’s that darn tricky, that’s one thing I love about hunting, it’s so situational and choose your own adventure.
 
neonomad said:
I’ve been working the same deer for three years, private farm, most nights he’s walking 75 yards from the barn, bedding 250-400 yards back. Sounds like fish in a barrel, and hunting the public land guys would scoff at. But it’s not, it’s that darn tricky, that’s one thing I love about hunting, it’s so situational and choose your own adventure.
Click to expand...
In the three years have you ever found your hunting pressure pushes him away, or does he stick to his routine?
 
I would definitely be more excited by the first scenario regardless of size. At this point of my hunting lifecycle I'm way more into the challenge of besting a good mature deer one on one in his territory. That means figuring out his patterns and trying my best to predict how he's going to respond to the day's conditions and how I can exploit it by a good entry and setup. When it all comes together there's nothing like it in my opinion
 
Man I’m in Florida where a 100 buck makes it into the registry… So either one would be great. The 130 would be more of a surprise but to me the 140 shows fruits of labor as obviously you’ve scouted, anticipated, and planned for the conditions that led to him doing “as planned”
 
I’d rather have a dozen green heads cupped up and dumping into my decoys at 15 yards with my old 28 gauge and a good dog. I can shoot them from a saddle if that helps!
 
raisins said:
this is a good question

probably the 2nd scenario, i'd feel more accomplished

but with more backstory on the first, if i had seen that 140 on cams or saw big buck sign and set up on it.....then that might be more fulfilling than 2nd scenario

if i just found a decent spot, and setup and then got lucky with the 140, then i'd prefer the second scenario

pretty close, you set the spread like a pro bookie
Click to expand...
Ditto this is my answer.
 
I realize there are tons of other variables that could influence this decision. Like out of state hunt, early season vs late season.
To me spotting a good deer that day and being able to kill him in the evening would be almost as impressive as patterning the other one. My real life world would probably be I messed up the hunt on the 140". So I left and found the 100" and got lucky.
 
raisins said:
this is a good question

probably the 2nd scenario, i'd feel more accomplished

but with more backstory on the first, if i had seen that 140 on cams or saw big buck sign and set up on it.....then that might be more fulfilling than 2nd scenario

if i just found a decent spot, and setup and then got lucky with the 140, then i'd prefer the second scenario

pretty close, you set the spread like a pro bookie
Click to expand...

just to clarify.....i read the second scenario as "you see a buck for the first time that day, and then you hatch a plan and figure out how to setup on him"......i think that's about as good as an actual spot and stalk

i guess i'd tie my feeling of accomplishment to how clever i had to be to take the deer.....i value hard work also.....just slightly less
 
raisins said:
just to clarify.....i read the second scenario as "you see a buck for the first time that day, and then you hatch a plan and figure out how to setup on him"......i think that's about as good as an actual spot and stalk

i guess i'd tie my feeling of accomplishment to how clever i had to be to take the deer.....i value hard work also.....just slightly less
Click to expand...
In many ways this is exactly what happens tracking on snow as well. When you see the track of a 5 1/2 year old buck that was made less than 12 hours ago, you know what’s at the other end of those tracks. So in a way tracking is a form of spot and stalk.
 
raisins said:
just to clarify.....i read the second scenario as "you see a buck for the first time that day, and then you hatch a plan and figure out how to setup on him"......i think that's about as good as an actual spot and stalk

i guess i'd tie my feeling of accomplishment to how clever i had to be to take the deer.....i value hard work also.....just slightly less
Click to expand...
This is how I understood it as well. I guess the quicker I could figure out and set up on a nice buck based on a prediction of his travel pattern from woodsmanship, scouting, sign and terrain analysis the more of a rewarding overall experience it would be for me personally. I think figuring out a mature buck is where I gain the most satisfaction. I guess I interpreted your scenarios as more randomness means less satisfaction to me. Less randomness of the deer because I put myself in a better situation to kill that buck would be the more rewarding buck….. certainly not those rack differences.
 
Jammintree said:
In the three years have you ever found your hunting pressure pushes him away, or does he stick to his routine?
Click to expand...
We haven’t pushed him away that I’m aware of, but he’s always 2/3 absent through rut. I’ve also gotten better about skirting around his core routes with my access, for example I’ll wade up a river and cut 5 yards into the woods to the tree. I’ve hunted pretty aggressive but on the map my access looks like lines drawn around the outside of a core area with no lines on it.
 
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