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Let's Talk Tactics

^ great example and I ll plan a modified version. Im married and would have to slip "multiple cell cams" at a very opportune moment before that pops up on a statement.
 
Great posts here.
Ive figured out how to consistently get close to legal deer but never have dialed in targeting mature bucks.
Sure I get hog bucks on camera. Hunter pressure, pheasant season, my own access- changes any pattern I find and I'm not good at finding/ hunting bedding areas.
Also after a certain point in the season I often am content with taking younger bucks that present a good shot.
Are you guys with trail cameras targeting a area after catching target bucks on camera? Or using mobile cams to find where to set up?
I use cameras to scout" flow areas" or primary feed trees/ areas that are consistently torn up. I Hunt the areas that show fresh and consistent sign.
I also most often hunt areas where 3 points on one side is pretty mature.
Most of my experience with larger deer has been on private in various states.
Hunts right where I have watched/ bumped deer after leaving the area be for a while are 50/50 with seing deer on public.
Mostly I watch the wind, play the terrain , rotate spots with sign and try to get in out quietly.
I ve tried to get away from getting too hung up or focused on camera pics as I fear I develop bad habits and need to move based on pressure.
Last, years of baiting public in NJ taught me bait is the #1 way to not see mature bucks consistently. Unless you have private.
Fully agree with the baiting thing. Im also in NJ. It kills me when I find a great spot to then speed scout and find a bait pile. That spot is now useless for anything other than does and spikes.
 
Fully agree with the baiting thing. Im also in NJ. It kills me when I find a great spot to then speed scout and find a bait pile. That spot is now useless for anything other than does and spikes.

Not that there’s anything wrong with spikes and does...

but, you know what likes does? Iwouldn’t consider the spot useless.
 
Postseason scout my butt off!!! Find the spots in the thickest nastiest cover away from all the other hunters with big buck sign (tall rubs, big scrapes and prints). Get good access in and out then prep the spot. If on state land I’ll go back one time in nasty weather early September to put a set in then stay the heck out of there until the last week of October. I practice scent control with scentlok and never hunt my spots based on wind direction just when I want to. I hunt in western PA and eastern Ohio. Shot 11 mature bucks in 9 straight years doing this...3 that make Pope and Young. The biggest was a gross 156 inch typical 10 point that I shot this past season at 3pm in 73 degree weather checking a scrape line. It was Nov. 9th and I was in my spot at sun up. The hunters I go with stayed at home because they said it was too hot and nothing will be moving...lol! But my favorite tactic is hunting from a Recon Sling that thing is awesome and thanks to this site for bringing saddle hunting manufacturers back! Couldn’t be happier!
 
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SE WI public land. I love the natural movement that happens the first couple weeks of season which for me is mid September. I’ve had the most success the last week of October though.

I focus my efforts on the edges of habitat diversity and hunt close to beds. I enjoy the map scouting to make educated guesses where I think the beds will be and then putting boots on the ground to see if I was right. Once the beds are located, the strategy game begins to put a plan in place to hunt them and kill them. I don’t particularly care if it is a doe, a unicorn or a booner at this point in my hunting journey so I don’t have to be as careful as someone that is after a Wiley 5 year old. If I bump one, I chalk it up as a learning opportunity and study why the deer was at that spot. I believe if I don’t bump one once in a while, I am either not pushing in close enough or not in the right area at all.

last season, I started to do some kayak entries. The first 2 trips were complete clusters but still some of the most fun I’ve had. The tactic there is change it up and just have fun with it, especially if you get in a rut.
 
So on top of all the usual scouting, hunting fresh sign, trail cameras, bedding ect... I started taking areas I've spring scouted and think are good and going on onx to get the neighboring private property's named. Than I cross reference the name to their Facebook account and check for buck pics (year, month, size). It's probably controversial but I've done every bit of scouting and I don't think it's any different than getting gossip from locals or over hearing it at a coffee shop. It's amazing how much easier it is to locate areas that big bucks are consistently.

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Good stuff guys! Lots of sound and proven tactics mention here that I incorporate and use. I also focus on different terrain for different times of the year like low sloughs that go to bean fields in September and after the beans dry up I want river bottom timber’s next to cornfields for a short time before I go to the oak ridges...oak ridges hold deer all season but when there are oaks and bedding everywhere it makes it easy to burn up feed trees so I wait til the briar and buck thorn thins up along with cover....I have very very good luck hunting 1/3s/military crests one leeward side of ridges during the rut near doe bedding...late season I’ll hunt near any current food(good oak crop years I’ll stay on the ridges) which is most likely back near thick cover and ag...I keep a journal with sightings from past seasons and I’ll continue check those spots and usually kill a deer every other year in spots I’ve had luck luck...I put lot of stock in bed scouting in spring and scouting food in late summer and put two and two together ...confusing areas or unknown I’ll sit back somewhere and glass from a tree or in a bush and that’s how I got my buck this year...also I try to pay attention how a deer will use an area with the wind in its advantage...not mine...all in all if you follow the hide eat and breed mantra and then break it down to the finer points what pertains in your area...you will kill deer...good luck and happy hunting dudes and dudettes

Edit: Surprise I forgot to mention this...EDGE could be So slight changes of various types It’s hard to notice or could be obvious but always stay on edge!
 
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A'ight, for realzies.

You can't kill deer where deer don't live. First things first...are there deer on the property? If you can walk the property and not jump deer, it's a no for me, dog.

If there are deer there, and if you want to find bucks, you want to hunt that area during the rut. Numbers don't lie. Your odds of killing a buck during rut vs the rest of the season are positively peachy. If you can't hunt rut, hunt opening archery. Then...still hunt rut.

Deer eat and hide. Half of them want to breed for 1 month out of the year, but the other half are still just eatin' and hidin' during that timeframe. Eatin' and hidin', hidin' and eatin'. More hidin' than eatin', generally. They're ruminants which means they've figured out how to basically inhale browse, and chew it later at a nice, safe, hiding spot.

Where are they hiding? Where you just jumped them, statistically. Deer generally hide in the day and eat at night, at least down here. So if you're walking through the woods and jump a deer during daylight hours, you probably jumped it out of its bed or at least general bedding area. Walk over to where you first saw it and poke around for a bed. If everybody just walked til they bumped deer, and then just hunted right there, I think at least half of them would kill more deer than doing whatever it is they're doing now. Deer are social, and if one deer is bedded in an area, it's quite likely more are in the area. Or that another one will swing by for a chat later. And, deer bed where it is safe. Even if they're bumped, they'll come back home more often than not. Don't be scared to hunt a bumped deer.

If you like to make it hard, then you can figure out where they're a-eatin'. How do you do that? Absolute easiest way is to walk the woods at night with a light, at least down here. I have decades of trail camera pics that clearly demonstrate that private or public, prime or pits, deer feed more at night in Alabama. If you can't shine, look for big fields, mast trees with heavy sign, or heavy browse.

So now you know where the herd be doin' the eatin' and hidin'. Deer will absolutely do both in one area if they can. If they are, GREAT! Just post up in that area with a good wind and be patient. If they're travelling, then you need to know this. Deer are lazy, and they move like cockroaches and water. Path of least resistance and most cover. Ask yourself, "Self, if I had a busted leg and knew that somebody was combing the woods looking to shoot me, how would I get from this hidey spot to this eatin' spot?" 99 times out of 100, that's the way the deer are moving if they move during the day.

So now you know that there are huntable numbers on the property. You know where they're doing the hiding. You know where they're doing the eating. You know what they have to do to transition between the two. You know generally at what time they will be doing these things. You know that it is the rut, and that does will be trying to do their thing while bucks busily try to convince them to do something else.

All you need to do at this point is ask yourself what time of the day you want to get in and get out, and ask yourself where the deer will be before, during, and after. If you're hunting in the morning, deer will generally be feeding, then going to the hiding spot, and then hiding. If you're hunting in the evening, deer will generally be hiding, then getting up and moving back to feeding. Outliers will be feeding or beating about the bush throughout the day, but they're to deer what people who eat at Waffle House at 1am are to most adults who don't do drugs. Weirdos.

Your job is to not run into a deer when you're walking to your stand, but to have one run into you while you're fiddling with your ropeman up in a tree. And to trust that numbers are honest, flukes are flukes, and that on the whole they guy who invests in the index funds will match or beat the guys who insist they know the One Weird Trick but who aren't insider trading.

Easy. :)

This is $$$$ advice!

I started incorporating the advice to walk until you bump a deer 2 years ago. That was exactly what I needed to start killing more deer. I generally try to do this in the off season during scouting. Then later before the next season I will set out some trail cams to verify they are still using that area. However, like Nutterbuster said, you can bump a deer during season and basically set up in that spot if you'd like (beasts call this the bump n dump I think). I've had more deer come back just to investigate right on the edge of legal shooting light again than I ever woulda thought. Their curiosity literally kills them. And for reference I am a meat hunter who kills 7-8 does and state limit of 2 bucks per year (so definitely not solely a big buck killer). I hope to find that awesome buck during the pre-rut specifically (here in the south last week of October - first 2 weeks of November). Best luck has been finding a super fresh, super large scrape and setting up over it. I am still figuring out how to consistently get into bucks in the other parts of the season though. However, I am starting to slowly figure out that you can locate a bucks "core area." there are tons of podcasts on this, but basically it's an area where the buck has food, cover and water all right there. This is supposedly how to kill one during early archery or perhaps late season too. I've still only ever shot decent bucks during the pre-rut though, so there ya go. Summary: walk till ya bump one to locate bedding, scout till ya find hot scrapes during the pre-rut.
 
This is what’s been working for me. Basically, I run about a dozen cameras, mostly cell cams. I start in mid summer, but earlier is probably better, or even year around. My goal is to simply get pictures of good bucks.

every couple weeks I’ll move the cameras around. As the season comes closer, hopefully I’ll know the whereabouts of 3-5 “shooters”. From there, I’ll start developing a plan on which deer are more favorable to hunt and bounce cameras around them, to see where they’re moving.

setting cameras is a thinking game and it’s a part that’s very easy to get wrong. If a deer smells where you’ve been you should be okay, if in an area that’s not security related, but if he smells you then spots your camera, he will not return, making patterning him impossible It’s important to hide cameras usually high up, if low they need to have very good breakup. also, low glow flash. I believe they can pick up IR at times.

Once I know where a deer lives, taking all things into consideration. I’ll set cameras in areas I expect him to show during the season, while avoiding the area I know he is living at the time. Here’s where you’d use your local knowledge of area and best guess of where he’ll show.

As an example. the buck i shot this past season was summering on public, in an area that I knew would receive some pressure. Expecting that, I put a couple cameras in areas, I thought he’d shift to. After awhile, he eventually showed up routinely on one of them. He was using the same bedding area as earlier, but hunters coming from public access, had him exiting and entering from the unpressured side of his living area, about a half mile deeper than anyone was venturing. It’s important to add, that the area he shifted to had no buck sign, but the area that became pressured, had rubs and scrapes that he had previously left. Leading to the point that sign is only reliable if smoking fresh and that others are not also keying in on it.

Effects of pressure is the wild card, because you can take all the precautions, but if someone else crashes through their living area, mature bucks will adapt, by moving off and becoming ten times harder to kill. Which will obviously squash your plans, if you had them. Hence, Its good to have backup plans and expect the competition.

This is a basic rundown of what I’ve been doing, but I believe it’s important to have the subject to change attitude in hunting.

How exactly did you pinpoint his alternative travel pattern with no clear sign? How did you know where to move in and set up specifically? Observation sits? Cams? I would love to hear more about this scenario
 
I look for a fresh rub or scrape. Once I find that I hang around in a tree or on the ground. Some time he shows up...sometime he doesn’t.

I’ll be hosting a whitetail workshop for anyone wanting to know my secret, or you can read the above again before season opener. Workshop involves hands on training of how to lift a corn bag with both legs and not your back. Food and drink will not be served. BYOB.


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The first thing I'm looking for is just an area where bucks can get old. In NJ you can shoot up to 6 bucks a year and the vast majority of bucks harvested are 1.5. So I'm looking for places where bucks actually have somewhat of a chance at reaching maturity; areas with antler restrictions, properties that are bow only or only allow gun hunting on specific days, properties that are open to public hunting but require some sort of extra permit or fee, and places that are just flat out hard to access and hunt mentally and/or physically. Basically if the orange army can effectively drive the entire property and they're allowed to shoot everything with antlers you're wasting your time there. Big swamps and cattail or phragmites marshes help a lot of bucks make it to the next age class around here.

In the summer I try to locate as many big bucks as I can. I'm glassing a lot of soybean fields, and big grassy marshes and meadows. I also do a lot of shining. You might be surprised at some of the bucks you shine at 2 a.m. that you just never see while glassing the same fields during the day. Another tactic I use for locating bucks in the summer is very short term trail camera sets. I'll go into an area with several cameras, set them up in high deer traffic areas, then come back in a few days and pull them (the entire cams, not swapping cards). All I'm looking for is a single picture of a giant. If I get that, I stay out of that area until I go in to hunt him. If I don't, I re-set my trap line of cameras in a different area. This is how I located my early season buck last year, got 1 series of photos of him about an hour after dark on a camera that was only up for 2 days in late July. Didnt step foot back in that area until September 15th when I killed him within a few hundred yards of where I got his pictures. I'm usually hunting a September 1st opener out of state, then NJ opens the second Saturday in September. I love hunting that early to mid September timeframe when most of the bucks are still bedding in bachelor groups, but they're coming out of velvet, starting to spar and rub trees/bushes, and starting to do their own thing. They might not be tearing up the big trees early season like they will closer to the rut, but they will be rubbing on stuff in and around their bedding areas. Few things get me as excited to climb a tree as finding fresh tall rubs, in early-mid September in close proximity to good bedding, because you know they were just made and the buck is likely still on that pattern or at least in that area as long as someone else hasn't pressured him out of there. Versus closer to the rut when you could find big fresh rubs that were made the day before, yet the buck could be miles away already.

During the rut I like to focus on areas with lots of does and preferably more than 1 big buck. A lot of the areas I hunt have nearly 10 does for every buck, and maybe 1 out of every 5-10 bucks reach maturity. The big ones are nearly always with a doe from about halloween through the end of November because there are does everywhere so they don't need to go far to find that next hot doe. The buck I shot this past November was locked down with a doe every time I saw him (4 times total) from Halloween until I killed him on November 16th. I hunted him extremely agressively something like 15 times in that timeframe and missed him twice, all within an area less than 500 acres, but he just didn't want to leave his does. I got on him several times by following younger bucks to where he had a hot doe locked down. Ended up spotting a couple young bucks come flying out of a thicket like bats out of hell followed by a 6 pointer that was limping like he just got his butt whooped; got on the edge of the thicket and shortly thereafter a doe popped out with the giant 8 pointer patiently following her. The doe brought him right to me and I shot him at 10 yards from the ground.

After about mid December I basically transition to scouting for next season, learning new ground, bow hunting squirrels (possibly the most fun I have all season. If you can kill a squirrel spot and stalk with a bow, you can kill a deer spot and stalk with a bow). Maybe shoot a doe or 2 if I need meat. If I happen to get on a big buck while scouting or squirrel hunting late season I'll attempt to hunt him, but I haven't been very successful at it. I feed the deer at my Aunts house about 160lbs of corn a week from mid December- mid March every year, and sometimes have an older buck or 2 feed during daylight when the temps get really frigid, but I cant bring myself to shoot those yard pets. It helps that they are like 90-100" 4.5+ yr old bucks whose longest tines are maybe 4 inches.
 
I use a couple of trail cameras to let me know what's hanging around but I haven't really used them extensively to pattern deer. I do like the scout and scout and scout some more approach. I'm looking for thicker areas to hunt in. I love vegetative transitions. I look for fresh sign along these. If I can find a good transition that maximizes terrain like a bench or one that runs through a saddle I'm there. These are the pinch points and funnels that direct movement. If I can use other hunters to direct deer movement I'll do it but I don't rely on it as much because it's hit or miss. I know where the common access points are and I'll try to set up off of them on Saturdays when I know hunter pressure is high. I'll give me good morning hunts. It's a day when I go to the most obscure little pockets I can find. I'll hunt these or just off these little pockets in the evening 2pm til dark.
I try to sit as much as possible. I like to hunt hard, I love the saddle because it let's me hunt all over quickly and quietly. I have some fixed position stands I put out in those consistent deer travel areas so I can get in and out fast before and after work. These stands let me see what's going on in a particular area and if I'm close I'll go in and fine tune some sit positions using the saddle.
I like to use calls. Doe bleats, and grunts. Deer are social and they are vocal. They're not vocal like the gals at the local quilting bee, so my blind calling is conservative. I always like to know where deer are feeding it helps me pick the transitions I'm going to hunt. Transitions are hot but one that offers safer passage to food is the one I'll hunt right now. I would consider myself a conservative hunter. I don't hunt specific beds as much as I put myself in line with deer coming off the bed or going to the bed. As the season progresses I'll slowly move closer to buck bedding areas to give myself a chance at a deer moving during shooting light. During the rut it's funnels and doe bedding areas. The bucks will come off the ridges and scent check the thick young pine stands where the does crawled into. I've taken some of my better deer down wind of super thick doe bedding areas.
 
How exactly did you pinpoint his alternative travel pattern with no clear sign? How did you know where to move in and set up specifically? Observation sits? Cams? I would love to hear more about this scenario

I left a lot out of the first post, because there was a lot of small details and luck with that deer, but I’ll try to add more to it

from hunting and scouting that area previously, I had a good idea where the deer liked to bed, the year before I jumped deer the second week of gun in an area, and also in 2019 killed a 4.5 y/o opening day of rifle, nearby. I figured that area was a place to key in on once pressure hits

I looked the area over, and found a perfect pinch point, where edges and downed trees created a natural fence, that funneled movement through a 20 yd gap. The spot was about 125 yds from the area I suspected pressured deer to bed.

before the season I went back to that area and picked out a tree and a low impact route that led me to to it. I also left a cell cam guarding the opening in the gap. The luck aspect occurred, because we had a really spotty acorn crop in this section, but that one particular area turned out to be thee spot.
there were about ten trees dumping acorns.

once the pressure hit the deer disappeared from the areas I was originally picking them up, soon after they started to appear in that area, then eventually the bucks moved in.

then it was just a matter of waiting for good daylight activity. It still took three evening sits to connect, but the camera let me know, that I was getting in and out without moving the deer off.
 
I left a lot out of the first post, because there was a lot of small details and luck with that deer, but I’ll try to add more to it

from hunting and scouting that area previously, I had a good idea where the deer liked to bed, the year before I jumped deer the second week of gun in an area, and also in 2019 killed a 4.5 y/o opening day of rifle, nearby. I figured that area was a place to key in on once pressure hits

I looked the area over, and found a perfect pinch point, where edges and downed trees created a natural fence, that funneled movement through a 20 yd gap. The spot was about 125 yds from the area I suspected pressured deer to bed.

before the season I went back to that area and picked out a tree and a low impact route that led me to to it. I also left a cell cam guarding the opening in the gap. The luck aspect occurred, because we had a really spotty acorn crop in this section, but that one particular area turned out to be thee spot.
there were about ten trees dumping acorns.

once the pressure hit the deer disappeared from the areas I was originally picking them up, soon after they started to appear in that area, then eventually the bucks moved in.

then it was just a matter of waiting for good daylight activity. It still took three evening sits to connect, but the camera let me know, that I was getting in and out without moving the deer off.

So other than jumping that deer previously, you were hunting a good spot where pressured deer lived/went, not the specific spot where THAT BUCK was hiding out. He happened to be there, but it wasn't like he was the only deer back there. Is that right? You scouted and hunted a great spot that multiple deer shifted to, not just him
 
Yes, but after finding him before the season, I knew he was around, so I was monitoring the cameras that I moved into his area to see where he’d show up.

So yes, good area , but If during preseason camera work/scouting I wasn’t able to locate a good deer there, I would have X’d that area off.

Find the deer first, then set up cameras in areas nearby, that that deer will likely use, before he moves into them.

big mistake IMO is people chase pics.. once you know he’s in that area, start developing plans for in season and different scenarios. Use cameras to validate.
 
I hunt only public land. During the off season, I try my hardest to get into thick spots with lost of cover and search for bedding. I try to find previous sign like rubs and scrapes. Im thinking this year as Im scouting that I will post up in the saddle once a jump a deer just to see if it comes back. Im new to hunting so I tend to follow some advice I was given on here. Check transition lines, points, funnels, ridges and saddles. Find food and water. Look for sign. Locate travel trails, Find pinch points. Been hunting for about five years now and the first 2 - 3 years I wasn't even seeing deer. The past 2 years I always seen to jump deer going in the the mornings That was all ground hunting, either still hunt or try and stalk. Seems like I'm learning more every time I go out. Must be doing something right, since I'm seeing deer now. Hopefully, I can drop something this year. This will be my first season in a saddle so I hope that with being more mobile and not having to fumble with setting up a hang on stand and not having so much movement on my part. That I'll be able to set up quieter and faster. Being in South Carolina and having so much forest and wma land to hunt. I always start with e-scouting and then block off sections I want to scout with boots on the ground.

You're learning things rapidly and having fun at the same time. That's a good place to be.
 
Yes, but after finding him before the season, I knew he was around, so I was monitoring the cameras that I moved into his area to see where he’d show up.

So yes, good area , but If during preseason camera work/scouting I wasn’t able to locate a good deer there, I would have X’d that area off.

Find the deer first, then set up cameras in areas nearby, that that deer will likely use, before he moves into them.

big mistake IMO is people chase pics.. once you know he’s in that area, start developing plans for in season and different scenarios. Use cameras to validate.
Exactly! That's how ghost stories happen. Figure out where the deer are going to be, not where they are early season. People get pics in random spots and then chase ghosts all season because they rely on cameras too much. Ask me how I know....I've made that mistake when I first got cams.
 
It depends on the style of hunting. I hunt funnels around pine thickets and cut overs. I climb up in the corners around 25-30 ft up. I prefer hunting swamp islands if I’m hunting swamps or around a lot of water. Hunting pines 5-8 yr old I will hunt trail crossings that lead or exit to creeks bottoms or ridge tops. I prefer cross wind to cut the distance quicker. Hunt draws
 
When I use cameras I will go to back tracking. I listened to a podcast on this and it really works. Keep in mind this is a great way to build a long term hunting areas.
 
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