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Dan Infalt Big Swamp Buck

g2outdoors

Well-Known Member
Vendor Rep
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
7,448
Location
Savannah, GA
I'm posting this here because I think it makes sense.

Pay attention to all the analysis he gives throughout this hunt. I think there are a lot of takeaways.

Things that stuck out to me:
1. He needs to be hunting from a tree saddle. The areas that were giving him problems were PERFECT for a saddle. PERFECT.
2. Notice how aggressive he gets. He trusts his instincts and moves right on top of the deer.
3. Notice how he's constantly moving - never really in the same area more than once or twice.
4. He focused on funnels and terrain. For those of you that don't know, Dan Infalt (The Hunting Beast) preaches buck bed hunting. While he did consider buck beds in his hunt, he really keyed in on terrain features that worked in his favor.

There's a lot to learn and enjoy about this video. It's long, but worth it.

 
Watched that vid yesterday and was thinking "Dangit Dan you need to be in a saddle!" lol. Still a great example of getting aggressive and not getting hung up on one spot.
 
great video by dan. as always informative and funny but the guy is a killing machine and to do what he does on public takes drive and lots and lots of work
 
Things that stuck out to me were
Scouting: Most people don't want to spend much time walking around their hunting area that time of the year, Look how much time he spent scouting in the afternoon, being aggressive
Scent: All he did was hunt the wind, put sticks in deer beds walked on the trails, he did all that with no worries.
Moving: Like you said he never really hunted the same tree twice, but hunted the same trail or area from different trees. He also moved just on deer sighting in the distance and hearing deer moving.

Thanks,
Boswell
 
Yup. Can always learn something by watching Dan's videos. Good stuff.

As Boswell mentioned, he moved around and did a lot of scouting within his hunting area which obviously spreads a lot of scent and bumps some deer. What do you guys think - would those bucks have stayed in the area if there was not a hot doe around? My feeling is that they would not tolerate that in September and October... Just goes to show you that you have to know what you can get away with based on the time of year.

Interested to hear what you guys think.
 
Yup. Can always learn something by watching Dan's videos. Good stuff.

As Boswell mentioned, he moved around and did a lot of scouting within his hunting area which obviously spreads a lot of scent and bumps some deer. What do you guys think - would those bucks have stayed in the area if there was not a hot doe around? My feeling is that they would not tolerate that in September and October... Just goes to show you that you have to know what you can get away with based on the time of year.

Interested to hear what you guys think.

If you follow Dan at all he mentions "stacking" an area. He will hunt specific areas with plans of pressuring deer into other known beds and then moving in on them once he thinks he has moved them with his pressure.


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Also, he mentioned the bump and dump but didn't really explain it.
Sometimes he and Mario will intentionally soft bump a deer out of their bed (noise or sight, not scent bump). They then immediately set a stand for the bed and hunt it the next morning as the buck comes back into it.
They both have several kills this way, especially Mario. He has a LOT of great information compiled from him and other guys on his site. Great place for aggressive tactics.


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Also, he mentioned the bump and dump but didn't really explain it.
Sometimes he and Mario will intentionally soft bump a deer out of their bed (noise or sight, not scent bump). They then immediately set a stand for the bed and hunt it the next morning as the buck comes back into it.
They both have several kills this way, especially Mario. He has a LOT of great information compiled from him and other guys on his site. Great place for aggressive tactics.


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Best hunting forum (besides this one) there is IMO. So much great info over there. The last year of reading Dan's tactics have really opened my mind while hunting and scouting and I think it's really going to pay off. My kill this year was a direct result of info I got off that site!


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Things that stuck out to me were
Scouting: Most people don't want to spend much time walking around their hunting area that time of the year, Look how much time he spent scouting in the afternoon, being aggressive
Scent: All he did was hunt the wind, put sticks in deer beds walked on the trails, he did all that with no worries.
Moving: Like you said he never really hunted the same tree twice, but hunted the same trail or area from different trees. He also moved just on deer sighting in the distance and hearing deer moving.

Thanks,
Boswell

Very good point about scouting in season. I can add to that example from a hunt I had this year. I hunted a brand new area this past season and during the morning hunt I saw several deer running near the top of the ridge in the heavy cover but couldn't make out what they were. About 10am I got down and snuck up there and bumped several deer from their beds. I quickly found a tree and got out of there. The next morning I went right back to that tree and I ended up seeing ten different bucks and 20+ does that morning and killed a nice doe on my very first sit in that area. I could have easily sat on the lower end of the ridge and seen deer from a distance but one move put me right on them.


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All good comments.

You also have to keep in mind the circumstances regarding this video.

1. He was hunting the rut. The tactics used during the rut might not necessarily be the right call for different times of the year.
2. He only had a limited time to hunt this property. He's not worried about keeping this property fresh for an entire season. He only had several days. After that, he didn't care if he blew every deer out of the area. Most of us can't hunt that way. We have to be a little more cautious about bumping and alerting our deer.
 
Also, he mentioned the bump and dump but didn't really explain it.
Sometimes he and Mario will intentionally soft bump a deer out of their bed (noise or sight, not scent bump). They then immediately set a stand for the bed and hunt it the next morning as the buck comes back into it.
They both have several kills this way, especially Mario. He has a LOT of great information compiled from him and other guys on his site. Great place for aggressive tactics.


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Just wondering if you know their reasoning for this tactic, rather than just hunting the bed the next morning without bumping him? I know Dan isn't big on morning hunts in general. I also know Andre killed that big one by bump and dump, but just reading your post got me to thinking, why bump?
 
Very good point about scouting in season. I can add to that example from a hunt I had this year. I hunted a brand new area this past season and during the morning hunt I saw several deer running near the top of the ridge in the heavy cover but couldn't make out what they were. About 10am I got down and snuck up there and bumped several deer from their beds. I quickly found a tree and got out of there. The next morning I went right back to that tree and I ended up seeing ten different bucks and 20+ does that morning and killed a nice doe on my very first sit in that area. I could have easily sat on the lower end of the ridge and seen deer from a distance but one move put me right on them.


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Totally agree with you here. This is a huge advantage of our type of hunting. If your spots are not paying off in season, you HAVE to be able to adapt!

In situations where I am scouting in season, I (usually) try to limit my impact and scent as much as possible. Then I get out of there and don't come back until I hunt.

This year I started scouting just before gun season. I do this because I figure the gun pressure is going to mess things up anyways, and I'm really looking at the spots for future years. The week before gun season I found an island with a point going out to it. There was a little finger of brush coming off the island with a couple big beds with big poop in it. I went back the day before gun season and set up a spot on the point coming off the mainland. The week after shotgun season I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot with my muzzleloader. He didn't end up coming from that spot, but he did walk right by it and by me at about 80 yards. If he came out 10 minutes earlier I could have dropped him.

One of my many motto's is that you got to make sure you're in the game :D.
 
Just wondering if you know their reasoning for this tactic, rather than just hunting the bed the next morning without bumping him? I know Dan isn't big on morning hunts in general. I also know Andre killed that big one by bump and dump, but just reading your post got me to thinking, why bump?

I could be wrong, but I don't think they are intentionally bumping them from their beds. I think they employ the tactic in the situation they bump one while scouting and then move right in on the bed the very next day.


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Another thing to notice is how he ditched his stand a few times, once it looked like he was only a few yards away but decided to hunt off the ground. Didn't seem to bother him to ditch his stand and loose visibility to hunt off the ground. That is something I don't think I could do.

@g2outdoors its a good point that he only has a limited amount of time. It makes me wonder even though he has a limited time he also has a very limited area to hunt from, wouldn't he risk pushing them out of his area? I know its the rut and much dumber, but its an interesting concept.

Thanks,
Boswell
 
Most of us can't hunt that way. We have to be a little more cautious about bumping and alerting our deer.

This is why I plan on having as many trees set up as I can manage, on entirely different areas. I am really lucky in that I have probably 80,000 acres of public within a 2 hour drive. It is HEAVILY hunted, since it is also within a two hour drive of 7.1 million other people. Most of it is in small fragmented pieces along lakes and rivers, so I may only end up with one or two worthwhile setups every few miles. I can really blow it in an area and have several choices of backup stands with entirely separate deer populations. I plan to get really aggressive this year, because my wife tends to be completely done with the season by the 4th or 5th day I hunt.


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During the early/late season, on a similar sized property, a hunter would definitely blow all the mature bucks out of the area in short order. At the very least, the big boys would go mostly nocturnal. Dan did it this way because he had a limited amount of time. Also, he got away with a lot more since it was the rut. However, that was absolutely the right call all things considered. He had a limited window of time and the hot does were helping him out.

The big takeaway for me is when the time and conditions are right, I need to be aggressive.
 
The biggest takeaway for me is he will do anything to kill a buck no matter how hard it is, he really has confidence in what he is doing, and he stayed super aggressive.

Hell how many times are you going to see a tv hunter kill one from the ground barefooted in the swamp and then drag it out half naked. Haha
 
The only thing I have in common with dan is I don't follow any scent control like he does and just play the wind. By looking at his maps, you really have to flirt the edge of getting winded. A wind that is awesome for you is probably going to mean the deer aren't in the area and aren't going to be coming from the direction with the wind at their back like you would hope.
 
The only thing I have in common with dan is I don't follow any scent control like he does and just play the wind. By looking at his maps, you really have to flirt the edge of getting winded. A wind that is awesome for you is probably going to mean the deer aren't in the area and aren't going to be coming from the direction with the wind at their back like you would hope.

Yep. I hear him talk about that "just off" wind a lot where the buck still thinks he has the advantage.


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You can shoot a mature buck inside Walmart on a busy Saturday morning if you can get a hot doe inside.
 
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