it is public land...its a 1.2 mile trek back there and ive never seen another hunter back here where ive been...too many lazy guys here in S la lol. I def dont understand mature deer and how they use cover other than they just want to be in the thick stuff so feel free to school me more on the subject if you have anything to add. I have an area in mind i plan on checking next that may be the cover im looking for...
Well I like the sound of it already. To keep it simple imagine you just escaped Alcatraz somehow and now your running for your life, do you pick the open woods or crawl through a swamp, something thick and nasty, that’s the mentality of a mature buck in a normal, high pressured state on public during hunting season. Too many people set up in locations with better visibility that is more appealing to the human way of thinking about things, a spot where they can see more ground, maybe stare at several rubs from said tree, more shooting light..etc.. and sure probably see more deer, those are all the recipe to blister a 2.5 year old buck or cull some does. Locating mature bucks in their home range is the challenge in my opinion, that’s why few get killed, well fewer exist also but just locating one is the challenge, and finding his core area. I don’t even pay attention to buck sign in open country, once again in a normal high pressure state on public, we’re not talking about Kansas or Iowa here.. I look for big buck sign in terrain conducive of where a mature buck could live and survive, some thick nasty hole nobody would dare venture into for a half day sit carrying a climber. That’s what I look for, it can be 300 yards from a road, or several miles deep, but that’s what I look for, big, fresh, mature sign, and hopefully lots of it. It can be a challenge to find, but that’s most of the fun for me. I don’t even process it while scouting, I just keep going, marking it all on ONX, I have tons of free time at home from my recliner to process that stuff, when I’m out there with limited time I just keep hammering away, mark it all too, what mite seem insignificant in the woods may be gold once your finally home and begin to connect the dots. In a perfect world, what I like to find is a solid rub line, with big high rubs, leading to the edge of…once again a super thick spot, with a car hood size scrape, all alone on the edge of said cover, that’s like hitting the lottery. I don’t dive in and look for beds like some guys, I circle the whole piece, the thick spot, looking for more of that same scenario, exit and entrance routes, with big sign, and then I get out of there. Go home or to another piece of woods and start over. I sit down later on and try to decipher exactly what is going on from my ONX points, I don’t stare at a zoomed in screen, I back it off, sometimes a mile or more, look at the big picture, where else could he also be bedding? With any luck you mite find 2 or 3 of these core areas, if just one.. that’s ok too, but the more the better, I never settle for just one unless I have to. Once I’ve established what I believe to be a mature bucks core area I go in early, August.. monitor the primary entrance/exit routes from his primary bedding area with cell cams, hang them high in a tree so as not to alert him, and get the heck out, I mite pick a tree or 2 while there, but no heavy trimming or disturbance, I leave it all alone if I can, and I don’t set the cams super close either, maybe a 100-200 yards off those entrance/exit routes, and then I wait.. and just keep waiting, which is why I like multiple spots like this, the more the better, when the times right I move in, if I screw one spot up I go to the next, all the while I’m still monitoring several of these spots with cams. I never venture into my core mature buck target locations until the time is right, you will know when it’s right, be patient and let the cameras do the work, go in to early and all of that could be for nothing, if you don’t have patience like me and need to still hunt while waiting your target buck out, go someplace new, burn off some energy, do whatever, but don’t get jumpy and go into that target area too soon!