I think peeps say it to sound smart..... Myself included hahahahaha
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4 days to kill a buck on public ground
- Thread starter BTaylor
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When I hunted Florida, granted I was young and a crappy hunter, I couldn't distinguish bedding cover because all of the woods was super thick and all looked the same, either planted pine or swamp. Much different where I am now and we have terrain.
Bedding cover around here is cover that deer bed in. As opposed to cover that deer eat in or cover that hasn't seen a deer since they quit using their vestigial toes.
I don't think you can. Bedding cover in FL. is going to be different then in KY.
Where I hunt they like to bed on the down wind side of a ridge. It does not need to be a big ridge, somtimes a small hill. But you have to have thick cover to there back. I would not even know where to start in Fl.
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It's relative, I think.
For instance, in WV forests....most of it is thick, thick enough to be bedding cover some places. So, I look for especially thick but not so thick that a buck with antlers can't travel through it.
One area I hunt is for the most part entirely cutover and deer can and do bed anywhere they get good and ready. Another area has virtually no undergrowth at all and the deer can and do bed anywhere they get good and ready. The mountain area I scouted this spring has a decent mix of open and heavy cover areas. All of the beds I found there were in or on the edge of heavy cover.
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When in doubt, walk a lot and figure it out.
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Very valid question sometimes bedding is not in “cover” so to speak as most people assume. Bedding can be in/on/ near terrain features that provide an advantage via elevation, sight lines and wind….. with virtually little to no thick cover in the actually bedding location. Perhaps bedding or bedding location is a better descriptor. However, in discussing things like deer habitat typically one will say bedding cover instead of bedding location which can be misleading.
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yep....these non-thick bedding spots are just harder to find, in my experience...helps, of course, to see the deer or the bed/hair
Here in NW lower Michigan just killing a buck in 4 days should not really be a problem, even with APRs. Set up on transition edges with good sign and you'll get a chance at a young buck.
If you're looking for a 3+ year old deer then that changes the game considerably. I think like a lot of of states, deer hunting pressure is high here and the deer get educated pretty quickly. Older bucks get older because they learn to adapt to that pressure, be it staying mostly put during daylight hours or finding little overlooked areas to spend their days. I try to find those overlooked spots as either small thickets close to access or back in where fewer hunters care to travel (hilly, wet, thick, etc). Finding the bedding is key and developing approach/exit strategies that won't alert them to your presence is a must. They're hanging there because nobody is hunting them there. As soon as they feel threatened they'll move on. Its been my experience though that doesn't necessarily mean any incursion into the area will boot them out though. We have a lot of grouse hunting going on here during bow season and the deer seem to tolerate these guys walking through it. Its guys spending extended time there that seems to unsettle them. I've seen on multiple occasions deer wander out of a bedding area and hang out in the adjacent hardwoods as bird hunters walked through it only to filter right back in as soon as they've passed. It's almost like they learn the difference between threatening and non-threatening human behavior.
EDIT: Back to the OPs question. If I had to limit myself to 4 days I'd hit the first four days of November locally when rut is just kicking in and they aren't continuously paring up yet. Even an educated buck can get stupid/careless during this time of year.
If you're looking for a 3+ year old deer then that changes the game considerably. I think like a lot of of states, deer hunting pressure is high here and the deer get educated pretty quickly. Older bucks get older because they learn to adapt to that pressure, be it staying mostly put during daylight hours or finding little overlooked areas to spend their days. I try to find those overlooked spots as either small thickets close to access or back in where fewer hunters care to travel (hilly, wet, thick, etc). Finding the bedding is key and developing approach/exit strategies that won't alert them to your presence is a must. They're hanging there because nobody is hunting them there. As soon as they feel threatened they'll move on. Its been my experience though that doesn't necessarily mean any incursion into the area will boot them out though. We have a lot of grouse hunting going on here during bow season and the deer seem to tolerate these guys walking through it. Its guys spending extended time there that seems to unsettle them. I've seen on multiple occasions deer wander out of a bedding area and hang out in the adjacent hardwoods as bird hunters walked through it only to filter right back in as soon as they've passed. It's almost like they learn the difference between threatening and non-threatening human behavior.
EDIT: Back to the OPs question. If I had to limit myself to 4 days I'd hit the first four days of November locally when rut is just kicking in and they aren't continuously paring up yet. Even an educated buck can get stupid/careless during this time of year.
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I also agree about the rut lockdown and generally trying to get them before that period on the ramp up but I’ve witnessed several and shot a few bucks locked down on a doe not ready but smelling ready and that doe has everything she can do to try and get away. The buck is hazy and
dogging her constantly grunt, grunting all over the place….. their guard is both down. Just last season it was early November, I was grumbling to myself at how long it took me to get up to a transition I wanted to set up on about 80 yards back from a cornfield just at the top of a wooded gorge where the deer bed for the day. A few nights before I had a nice one within 6 yards of me but it was just past legal shooting and he came through a section of timber a “strip” of slighly heavier cover usually with grape tangles/ blackberry/ high stem count small saplings etc. within more open hardwoods. I was hoping I’d catch him still on that pattern but I’d be back in closer to the gorge overlooking that strip of cover he used and hopefully with some shooting light left. Anyway, he never showed up but I no sooner got to HH with my one stick with my bow still on the ground and I hear the buurrrp, buuurrrp, of a buck behind me chasing or on lockdown. She would stop in cover he was trying to back her up into an old cutover with fallen logs a field edge and a triangle of multiflora rose. I’m looking over we’re I last saw them they’re just standing there. I see a rack so I’m getting my bow up and get an arrow nocked and get my grunt call out. I let out a couple of grunts then did a slight snort wheeze…. Pff,pff, TTssssssssss and the doe broke and came towards me immediately bringing the buck in tow…. They went by me about 25 yards but he wasn’t what I wanted. I truly think lockdown hunting is underrated. That doe was not exactly ready yet and y theory is that she wanted to bring the buck to another buck so they would fight and she could get some relief. That same evening a four pointer came out and then that same buck and doe came by me again later…. her tongue hanging out!!! I’m like boy oh boy I feel sorry for that girl. My target never came out on his pattern that evening though!!!!
dogging her constantly grunt, grunting all over the place….. their guard is both down. Just last season it was early November, I was grumbling to myself at how long it took me to get up to a transition I wanted to set up on about 80 yards back from a cornfield just at the top of a wooded gorge where the deer bed for the day. A few nights before I had a nice one within 6 yards of me but it was just past legal shooting and he came through a section of timber a “strip” of slighly heavier cover usually with grape tangles/ blackberry/ high stem count small saplings etc. within more open hardwoods. I was hoping I’d catch him still on that pattern but I’d be back in closer to the gorge overlooking that strip of cover he used and hopefully with some shooting light left. Anyway, he never showed up but I no sooner got to HH with my one stick with my bow still on the ground and I hear the buurrrp, buuurrrp, of a buck behind me chasing or on lockdown. She would stop in cover he was trying to back her up into an old cutover with fallen logs a field edge and a triangle of multiflora rose. I’m looking over we’re I last saw them they’re just standing there. I see a rack so I’m getting my bow up and get an arrow nocked and get my grunt call out. I let out a couple of grunts then did a slight snort wheeze…. Pff,pff, TTssssssssss and the doe broke and came towards me immediately bringing the buck in tow…. They went by me about 25 yards but he wasn’t what I wanted. I truly think lockdown hunting is underrated. That doe was not exactly ready yet and y theory is that she wanted to bring the buck to another buck so they would fight and she could get some relief. That same evening a four pointer came out and then that same buck and doe came by me again later…. her tongue hanging out!!! I’m like boy oh boy I feel sorry for that girl. My target never came out on his pattern that evening though!!!!
Depends on the quality of buck you're trying to kill. Legal or "mature" lol. Different times and scenarios for either, but also dependent on where I'm hunting, as to when the peak breeding dates are. If I'm hunting NE PA, I'm choosing Oct. 18-21, Nov. 4-7, or Nov. 15-18; dependent on quality of deer I'm looking for. All that aside, I could choose the last 4 days of the PA primitive season and be perfectly happy (i.e. Jan. 13-16), but more scouting than sitting in that instance.
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Here's a thought.
How many here look for actual beds (kidney shaped leaf print with hair in it)?
You can jump a bedded deer and walk to the bed, and half the time the indent and hair are so slight that you'd never see it if you hadn't seen the deer and know where to look (and even then you might be experiencing pareidolia...seeing what you want to see).
The spring is a bit better when they are shedding more.
I feel that like tracks, some areas "hold" body prints better (perhaps for similar reasons....well drained ridge lines will fewer leaves due to wind blow and also the leaves and soil will be drier...all leading to less noticeable body prints). Also, if an area has a lot of possible bedding, then the deer seem to move around and bed at more various spots and so no one spot gets enough action to show a print. Which, if true, is ironic because those spots might be your best area (so many bedding spots that the deer are spoiled for choice....but you can't seem the imprints for the same reason).
How many here look for actual beds (kidney shaped leaf print with hair in it)?
You can jump a bedded deer and walk to the bed, and half the time the indent and hair are so slight that you'd never see it if you hadn't seen the deer and know where to look (and even then you might be experiencing pareidolia...seeing what you want to see).
The spring is a bit better when they are shedding more.
I feel that like tracks, some areas "hold" body prints better (perhaps for similar reasons....well drained ridge lines will fewer leaves due to wind blow and also the leaves and soil will be drier...all leading to less noticeable body prints). Also, if an area has a lot of possible bedding, then the deer seem to move around and bed at more various spots and so no one spot gets enough action to show a print. Which, if true, is ironic because those spots might be your best area (so many bedding spots that the deer are spoiled for choice....but you can't seem the imprints for the same reason).
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Lowg08
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I feel I have gotten better at finding beds. By topography and land composition. Pick a place the other day. I I nailed it the other day.
Where are the balloons?
Lowg08
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Maybe in the trees lol. Didn’t find any. Wait. Don’t the balloons only work for buck bedding. Even though I have found them in bedding areas at higher elevations
Thought I would bump this one back up as a place to chronicle the rest of the season. Outside of maybe a late season hunt on private to shoot another doe, from here on out this season I am going to be hunting new to me areas of public here in AR or out of state. For the local stuff I intend to limit myself to 4 days per area. First up is GA next Wed thru Saturday and the forecast right now is temps on a warming trend with pretty good chances of rain for next fri and sat. Decided this might be a fun personal challenge to take on. Mostly planning to focus on 4y/o or older but that very well might change if a legal buck gets in bow range. I like shootin deer lol. That said I intend to consider success having any legal buck in range and in a spot a shot could happen if so chosen. Considering a good bit of this will be mountain hunting which I have never done for whitetails, I fully expect to get my teeth kicked in but that's why we go and learn new things.
Given the option I would prefer multiple back-to-back short sits vs. a single long sit. This would be dependent on the fact that I'm not sacrificing location quality because of a time crunch... The reasoning is that I could make real-time adjustments to put myself in a optimal position over a period of days based on visible deer activity. A week is too long to base a certain location activity adjustment off of for me... I'm currently stuck on the Saturday thing mostly.