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Finding Mature "Bucks"

Silvio

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2019
Messages
951
Location
Grand Blanc MI
Well, it's been a while since I've made a post so here it goes. I've been out chasing scouting two mature bucks for several weeks. Finally found ones main bed after 3 weeks of searching. One aspect and/or rule I use is finding hunting hotspots is where I dont find any human activity. No access parking lots, no human foot prints in the snow, and no tree stands. This particular buck has a 2mile home range...so finding his core security cover was a challenge. Many of the bucks I've harvested thru the years have one similarity...they've never been hunted or recieved alot of direct hunting pressure where they feel the most secure. Older bucks learn to travel at night since they have never encountered human activity or mainly your human scent under darkness. Enough of that, but now I have the rest of the post season to prepare exit and entry strategies. I really feel post season scouting is where you get to increase your odds for the upcoming bow season. Get out there and do some leg work guys20200211_090204.jpg
 
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How did you go about finding his core area, was it boots on the ground or aerial scouting or both? Do you run any cameras?
 
That's a great looking spot just from the pic. How big is that bedding area he's in, and yea, how'd you find it. s%$@ luck, or did you narrow it down from a larger area. Did you cut one of his trails and follow it back into the cover?
 
This is the best time of the year to walk the woods to me. Bonus is finding shed antlers. Get out of the house, get some exercise, learn new spots, etc Deer aren't always in the same locations at different seasons so finding hot sign now doesn't always equal hot sign during the season but it never hurts to add more data to the library.
 
This is the best time of the year to learn new properties....you can return during season to find the most recent sign for hunting. Learning new areas is as much or more fun than hunting to me. Finding sign like that at this time of the year also lets you know that deer survived and can be focused on in the fall. I hope you get him!
 
I have been doing alot scouting this post season as well. That is a great looking bedding area. What I have been having trouble with is the entry exit strategy, like you said, and I think this is has been my Achilles heel. Let me throw this out to all of you,
I have been finding areas with multiple beds, (oriented in different directions) which I assume is a doe bedding area. But I have also found similar area with multiple beds and then there are multiple rubs right in and around the bedding area. Is that buck bedding or is it a doe bedding area that a buck has been going to and " showing off" for the ladies by making rubs?
 
I have been doing alot scouting this post season as well. That is a great looking bedding area. What I have been having trouble with is the entry exit strategy, like you said, and I think this is has been my Achilles heel. Let me throw this out to all of you,
I have been finding areas with multiple beds, (oriented in different directions) which I assume is a doe bedding area. But I have also found similar area with multiple beds and then there are multiple rubs right in and around the bedding area. Is that buck bedding or is it a doe bedding area that a buck has been going to and " showing off" for the ladies by making rubs?
Bed size will tell you who was there generally.
 
How did you go about finding his core area, was it boots on the ground or aerial scouting or both? Do you run any cameras?
It first was a calculated hunch...sometimes years of knowledge helps...but I actually found this buck back in late sept early october. I was hunting in Iowa this past season so I didnt get a chance to hunt him at all this year. However, I scouted his area several times in October and was on my last east area grid search before I found his main bed. It was pretty ironic though that I was within 250 yrds from his bed the last time scouting his core area two weeks ago. When you find a cluster of sign post rubs within a 50 yrd area your usually pretty close. I use a Garmin GPS and mark every rub big and small as well as every bed.
 
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Yea Silvio you're back I've been wondering where you were!! I have been out post season scouting too. I walked a mile back on remote public and found this rub cluster near a ridge with beds. Off the ridge spur in the second picture below is a nice bench with beds on it as well. Oaks and hemlocks and they were digging for the acorns along the bench. Also some rubs. I found where they walk up out and off the bench back up on the flat toward feed fields and an area where it bottlenecks a bit between the ridgeline on the right and an opening/two track road on the left with some more rubs. I think he gets up off his bed on the bench which faces westerly and he heads south toward feed fields. I think I can get back to where he comes up off the ridge to the first rub cluster and set up there. I will be 100 yards from the bedding area but figuring out access to my ideal spot is still an issue as I could easily disturb deer going in. Anyway, its fun trying to figure stuff out and go through the potential scenes in your mind that you hope to have play out this coming fall!!IMG_3673.JPG
 

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I have been doing alot scouting this post season as well. That is a great looking bedding area. What I have been having trouble with is the entry exit strategy, like you said, and I think this is has been my Achilles heel. Let me throw this out to all of you,
I have been finding areas with multiple beds, (oriented in different directions) which I assume is a doe bedding area. But I have also found similar area with multiple beds and then there are multiple rubs right in and around the bedding area. Is that buck bedding or is it a doe bedding area that a buck has been going to and " showing off" for the ladies by making rubs?
Bucks prefer to bed by themselves during the rut, but post season scouting gives you a mature bucks prefered bedding location between doe groups. Remember it's not always one hot doe.
 
Boots on the ground put the deer down. The arrow just seals the deal.

The more I work this angle, the more I believe it.
 
Yea Silvio you're back I've been wondering where you were!! I have been out post season scouting too. I walked a mile back on remote public and found this rub cluster near a ridge with beds. Off the ridge spur in the second picture below is a nice bench with beds on it as well. Oaks and hemlocks and they were digging for the acorns along the bench. Also some rubs. I found where they walk up out and off the bench back up on the flat toward feed fields and an area where it bottlenecks a bit between the ridgeline on the right and an opening/two track road on the left with some more rubs. I think he gets up off his bed on the bench which faces westerly and he heads south toward feed fields. I think I can get back to where he comes up off the ridge to the first rub cluster and set up there. I will be 100 yards from the bedding area but figuring out access to my ideal spot is still an issue as I could easily disturb deer going in. Anyway, its fun trying to figure stuff out and go through the potential scenes in your mind that you hope to have play out this coming fall!!View attachment 25022
Try and determine his prefered travel directions from his bed then set up on the best opportunity. Usually your going to bust a doe before him
 
I realized those pictures kind of don't show much but that one of the ridge spur coming up, right off to my left of that second picture is a nice flat or bench and I followed it right up to where it goes up off the bench to the ridge top in a very gradual incline. From that point for about another 35 yards there was another cluster of rubs... I think he stopped there to stage before continuing to the south toward feeding. That bench is on the west side of north-south running pount, that ridge spur comes up from the west. Our predominate wind is from the south west and certainly thermals are coming up. I'm going back soon and going to look on the east side of that ridge I'm thinking he will bed more on that side to stay out of the wind too but there were fresh beds but clusters, not a single one but some decent rubs on the bench.
 
I have been doing alot scouting this post season as well. That is a great looking bedding area. What I have been having trouble with is the entry exit strategy, like you said, and I think this is has been my Achilles heel. Let me throw this out to all of you,
I have been finding areas with multiple beds, (oriented in different directions) which I assume is a doe bedding area. But I have also found similar area with multiple beds and then there are multiple rubs right in and around the bedding area. Is that buck bedding or is it a doe bedding area that a buck has been going to and " showing off" for the ladies by making rubs?
Probably buck bedding. Most buck bedding that I find has at least two beds close to each other with rubs. They will use different beds in different winds but stay in the same area. I snuck in on a bedded buck during high wind in October that had been bedded in an area just like that. He had 6 different beds in a 50 yard area and was in one of those beds. He liked that general area for bedding and felt safe there but the wind wasn't always good for one bed, so he had several. They are usually on the edge of thick cover where he can duck into it when he feels threatened.
 
Probably buck bedding. Most buck bedding that I find has at least two beds close to each other with rubs. They will use different beds in different winds but stay in the same area. I snuck in on a bedded buck during high wind in October that had been bedded in an area just like that. He had 6 different beds in a 50 yard area and was in one of those beds. He liked that general area for bedding and felt safe there but the wind wasn't always good for one bed, so he had several. They are usually on the edge of thick cover where he can duck into it when he feels threatened.
Again great stuff here guys, but try and locate bucks that aren't pressured and are free from hunter intrusions. The more you hunt him the more he will set himself up to detect you...and believe me he will see you or hear your from a good distance away. My favorite wind to hunt has always been a direct east wind which doesn't happen to often. But hunted correctly will produce your best buck..
 
It first was a calculated hunch...sometimes years of knowledge helps...but I actually found this buck back in late sept early october. I was hunting in Iowa this past season so I didnt get a chance to hunt him at all this year. However, I scouted his area several times in October and was on my last east area grid search before I found his main bed. It was pretty ironic though that I was within 250 yrds from his bed the last time scouting his core area two weeks ago. When you find a cluster of sign post rubs within a 50 yrd area your usually pretty close. I use a Garmin GPS and mark every rub big and small as well as every bed.
We really appreciate this post Silvio, but what we really want is GPS coordents.... :cool:
 
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