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Thoughts on My First Year "Trophy Hunting"

Something that's helps in taking bigger deer dramatically and something I don't think gets brought up enough is time to hunt. If you're a weekend warrior trying to kill one on public land, and especially live in an asinine state like PA where the weekend is only Saturday, you're gunna have a hell of a uphill battle. Look at somebody like Infalt. Something he for the most part doesnt emphasize enough is the fact he hunts just about every single day of the season. Every day. 50+ days to hunt sooner or later if youre decent enough you're going to run into something
 
Big bucks act different than small bucks.....period. There is a definite intelligence difference. Spend enough time watching them and you'll easily see it.
 
So I guess I'll share some experience even though it's not much with the big boys (I'll include a smart old doe too). The biggest deer I've seen while hunting not during the rut most certainly behave like a different animal. I think this makes sense because we do too as we age based on life experiences.
Here's one story: I was hunting an area very close to an urban environment on the cusp of being too close to acreages to even bow hunt. I had scouted the area in the summer and noticed old rub lines, poop and evidence of deer browsing the area. I set up on the ground in some taller grass that was enough to conceal me near a trail with wind in my face. I could hear homeowners nearby on the gravel driveway come home and let their yappy dog out. About 5 minutes later, one of the biggest bucks I've seen on the hoof made his presence in front of me. This buck was on full alert and very skittish. I had propped my bow down beside me not expecting to see an animal this early in the day (2 hours before sunset at least). I went to grab my bow as I've done with other deer I've been successful in harvesting and by the time I made any movement, he was gone. I let the area "cool down" for a couple weeks but have never seen that deer again.
Things I learned here: expect the unexpected, hunt areas out of your comfort zone and you're a hell of a hunter if you can get one of these big deer on public/pressured land.
Other big buck story: I had done some virtual scouting and found a Cottonwood tree and some osage orange trees in a sea of CRP (tall grass for habitat). I decided to bring some bolts, drill and the saddle for this hunt. I kind of J hooked into the area to keep my scent out of the suspected bedding area. I had my bow on the ground at the base of the cottonwood tree drilling my bolt holes as I went up. I was close to drilling my last holes when I heard rustling in the CRP. I saw a doe and two fawns so I froze. I heard more rustling and saw a nice buck with stickers all over. Once again, this buck was on high alert licking his nose but coming closer. I had made noises moving branches earlier I suspect sounded like a buck making a rub/sparring. I was motionless. This buck pegged me by ground scent alone and followed it up the tree to me. I was down wind. There was enough residual scent he had enough and bolted before I could even move a muscle.
Things I learned: Entry and exit routes play a important role and again hunt areas that you might normally overlook.
Big doe story: This area is close to home and I hunt it out of convenience mostly and don't always see the biggest deer. I was in a cedar tree with lots of cover and I was just sitting on limbs probably 10 feet off the ground. I was playing around with a fawn bleet call. I heard rustling behind me downwind and could follow the sound nearly 360° around me at a distance. There was a small opening in front of me when I saw a huge bodied doe I had never seen in this area before. She dwarfed the other doe. This doe was also on high alert. The doe was broadside and I was able to draw to take a shot as she was looking ahead rather than at me. When I went to draw, my arrow banged off the drop away portion of my rest onto the full capture part due to me hitting a limb while moving. Without looking she ran straight away.
What I learned: Just because you've hunted an area before doesn't mean the big deer aren't there, try new different things (fawn bleet for me), have your area cleared of any obstructions for your shot.
This is pretty basic stuff but it kind of opened my mind that these animals are pretty cunning after spending 24/7 in the woods avoiding predators.
Think of a 5.5 yr old deer spending 24/7 in the woods. That's 48,180 hours of evading predators and staying alive. When you think of the hours we spend in the woods hunting say 6 hours daily for 6 months out of the year (which probably isn't realistic for most) you're looking at 44 years for us to catch up to the amount of time he already has in the woods.
 
sureshot said:
Typo, it was supposed to say "that I gladly would have shot"

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I think it's awesome that there is public where you can be into 130", 140", & 150" bucks all in a days work.

We were hearing in another thread about whole hunting camps in PA that never took or know of a buck taken of 130" over 30+ years.

That's kind of 'Busters nut, finding the right ground.

What's lingering is wether or not it will take something special of him to capitalize on the right ground, because the mature deer are "different".

I don't think you should bank on any one deer doing the same as another, though they sometimes or often do the same stuff. It's like stopping a goal kick or guessing which way Capt. Ramius is going to turn, sometimes.
 
Plebe said:
I think it's awesome that there is public where you can be into 130", 140", & 150" bucks all in a days work.

We were hearing in another thread about whole hunting camps in PA that never took or know of a buck taken of 130" over 30+ years.

That's kind of 'Busters nut, finding the right ground.

What's lingering is wether or not it will take something special of him to capitalize on the right ground, because the mature deer are "different".

I don't think you should bank on any one deer doing the same as another, though they sometimes or often do the same stuff. It's like stopping a goal kick or guessing which way Capt. Ramius is going to turn, sometimes.
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I go to a rifle only cabin. 1000 acres private PA. It's been tradition to have those successful stand alongside there deer and take pictures going back to 1939. It's surreal to see my great grandfather, grandfather, dad and now myself up on that wall. Until the antler restrictions came, there was 3 deer out of hundreds that was over 110 inches. It was always spikes, basket racks, dinkers. Nowadays ever year at least someone shoots a 130+. I've routinly see 130s when I go out spotlighting on my public. Northern PA is loaded with unpressured giants. The western and especially southern part of the state is where the dreaded orange army resides imo
 
Plebe said:
I think it's awesome that there is public where you can be into 130", 140", & 150" bucks all in a days work.

We were hearing in another thread about whole hunting camps in PA that never took or know of a buck taken of 130" over 30+ years.

That's kind of 'Busters nut, finding the right ground.

What's lingering is wether or not it will take something special of him to capitalize on the right ground, because the mature deer are "different".

I don't think you should bank on any one deer doing the same as another, though they sometimes or often do the same stuff. It's like stopping a goal kick or guessing which way Capt. Ramius is going to turn, sometimes.
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That's not a typical hunt, one of my best days. Generally, I'll at least have eyes on at least a 140" every year. That being said, I've only taken 4 bucks in the last 7 years. I try to hold out for 130-140", depending on how long it's been or how desperate I am to get a buck.

He was looking for specific examples on trophy bucks acting different, so I gave one. Yes, every deer is different, but generally, older big bucks act different. They move slower, more deliberate, and pause for longer periods of time, especially if they think something isn't right. They come out later to fields, don't move much during the day, and it usually takes the rut for them to overlook their cautions in the pursuit of does for them to get killed.

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@Nutterbuster I am going to say you are somewhat right but mostly wrong. Mature deer are just deer, with that I agree. Mature does and their family units are going to dominate the best habitat for pretty much the entire year. Bucks older than 1.5 generally will be found in groups until or just after the point they shed velvet each fall. People generally scout looking for sign and that is a great way to find deer and kill deer. People find primo bedding areas and that is a great way to find deer and kill deer. Most are not considering that a large majority of mature bucks after velvet shed are alone the majority of the time. They will use slightly to greatly different routes to food and bed than the rest of the local herd. As mentioned, age and experience has made them keenly aware of environmental stimuli and because they travel just off the herd a lot of time, they catch us trying to catch them. We find "the deer" not "a deer". This is why scent control has significance, we get caught because our entrance, exit or use of wind is right for "the deer" not "a deer". I also disagree that the best time to kill a mature deer is the rut. It is the best time to luck into one but not the best time to kill "a deer". I think the better times are early season while they are still on a feed to bed pattern in their primary core area and post rut when they return to that pattern.
 
Plebe said:
What's lingering is wether or not it will take something special of him to capitalize on the right ground, because the mature deer are "different".
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Exactly. I forget who posted that "killing trophy bucks while also killing other deer isn't hunting trophy bucks" or something to that extent, but my hypothesis is that by hunting deer in an area that holds older/mature/trophy bucks I can take my same skillset and knowledge level and convert it into dead bucks instead of just a truck full of dead deer. Since that's kinda the way I've killed the bucks I've killed so far while putting next to 0 effort into targeting them.

I'm publicly betting the farm that I can have good to great results hunting in a way that spits in the face of the established internet forum rhetoric. I'm claiming that it's not the bait or the rod or the reel or the angler that matters most once you hit a very basic level, but how good the farmer's bass pond is.

I'm also saying that dead deer on your wall was a stupid sum'gun. End of story.

If I'm wrong I'll be inconsolable. If I'm right I'll be (more) insufferable. Either way it sounds like a fun time for everybody really.

bigmike23 said:
Something that's helps in taking bigger deer dramatically and something I don't think gets brought up enough is time to hunt. If you're a weekend warrior trying to kill one on public land, and especially live in an asinine state like PA where the weekend is only Saturday, you're gunna have a hell of a uphill battle. Look at somebody like Infalt. Something he for the most part doesnt emphasize enough is the fact he hunts just about every single day of the season. Every day. 50+ days to hunt sooner or later if youre decent enough you're going to run into something
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He also hunts a county that has twice as many P&Y deer on record as my whole state combined. May I be struck down for my sacrilege but I think that (and the time thing) may have a LOT more to do with his success than his skill level.
 
bigmike23 said:
I go to a rifle only cabin. 1000 acres private PA. It's been tradition to have those successful stand alongside there deer and take pictures going back to 1939. It's surreal to see my great grandfather, grandfather, dad and now myself up on that wall. Until the antler restrictions came, there was 3 deer out of hundreds that was over 110 inches. It was always spikes, basket racks, dinkers. Nowadays ever year at least someone shoots a 130+. I've routinly see 130s when I go out spotlighting on my public. Northern PA is loaded with unpressured giants. The western and especially southern part of the state is where the dreaded orange army resides imo
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Does this country typically get snow later in the season? Northern PA that is.
 
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Nutterbuster said:
I'm also saying that dead deer on your wall was a stupid sum'gun. End of story.
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I'm a big fan of the folks who can about every year take big bucks by tracking. Now, that's something you're not going to be doing in Alabama. But, I find their experience more than anecdotal.

You see, these hunters can read tracks like the sports section. They know what they're on, and they see the daily life of mature bucks in those tracks day in and out.

They typically hunt in remote areas, where deer aren't suppressed by heavy human pressure. There may be other predatorial pressures, but humans are scarce. In such places, I believe the deer are most deerlike.

It seems to me, there are some common themes to what these mature bucks do, where they go, how they spend time. Nothing so mysterious as to floor me with surprise.

But, when the tracker knows they've been had, it's much more interesting and heuristic.

Story to story, the chase can be wildly different, with some ending rather dully with the buck getting curious and giving away his advantage. Others give Cool Hand Luke a run for his money with clever evasiveness that would even defy the expectations of those who assign big bucks near omnipotence.

What does that mean for those of us just trying to do our level best? Maybe, you start with what you know, and you either succeed quickly, or you learn and adapt to what you keenly observe, or you fail, or you get lucky.

But, your comment, it's subject to the same sometimes that we should rightly expect of our intended quarry.
 
Topdog said:
Does this country typically get snow later in the season? Northern PA that is.
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Yes. In fact, two years ago ANF had snow on the second day of rifle, but there was intermittent rain and it was spotty on the ground. I ran into a dandy, almost literally, but wasn't ready for the shot and eventually lost his track.
 
BTaylor said:
@Nutterbuster ". I also disagree that the best time to kill a mature deer is the rut. It is the best time to luck into one but not the best time to kill "a deer". I think the better times are early season while they are still on a feed to bed pattern in their primary core area and post rut when they return to that pattern.
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My thoughts are bucks are most vulnerable during the rut phases, on the whole. Of course there are exceptions, but this is a time when attentions are on more than detection of predators, when hormones cause them to take on risk. For example, bucks will fight each other to the death. When else do they knowingly put themselves in harms way like that, other than crossing a highway.

Does rut madness mean patterning is more difficult? Possibly, but I don't really think so.

Early season can be great, surely. A nice farm surrounded by woods with known bedding, maybe a small swamp. I bet that's a winner.

Yet, I have hunted woods so thick, feed to bed was a matter of feet and yards. The main advantage of early was, low hunting pressure, and the hope to maybe catch a good one out for a stroll.

I won't deny many skilled hunters know how to scout, locate, approach, and kill big bucks early.

But the advantage is weighted, ambushing a buck with full wits about him when he's unsuspecting or one that's half-cocked and galavant.
 
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