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Why do you not kill the deer you are after?

I was locked in on a good buck last year just down the road from me. It is a dead-end gravel road, so the traffic isn't too bad. I spotted him several times and figured out where he was crossing the road. I went down there and set up in the woods about 10 yards off of the road. The first evening I seen a doe as she walked by me. The second even, it was getting dark, and I sat there as long as I could and as I was getting ready to leave, I heard some familiar sounds of a deer walking my way. It was the buck I was after. He walked within 10 yards of me, but it had already gotten way too dark. I never got another chance after that.

There was this short window where the bucks were moving like crazy, and I saw several good bucks roaming around all hours of the day but as quick as the window opened, it closed.
 
Like most everyone. The real reason is lack of time and more important commitments. Trying to chase an animal that lives where ever it wants to 24/7 versus someone who has to play by a set of rules set forth by a governmental body. On top of that has to work a job, take care of family, and care for the permanent things in my life.
I wish I had more time chase and monitor the deer at the farm I hunt. But not worth the time and money. In the end it's just some minerals on the wall. So far my favorite deer taken have been the doe I shot with my daughter a few years back, and the one she shot last fall. The one she shot seems to be extra tasty every time I cook it.
So I guess the only real reason I didn't kill that deer I'm after is I missed. Cause I'm only after the one I see in front of me I want to shoot.
 
shamus275 said:
Because the family 40-acres I’ve hunted for the last 12yrs since leaving the military has A-holes on all three sides and across the street that illegally bait year round and have conditioned the deer to be nocturnal. The only thing I can do is hunt harder than them during the week and hope they don’t come north for weekend hunting. That’s usually the only way see/harvest a deer.

The family 40 is also transitory property that doesn’t hold deer, the bedding areas are on neighboring properties. I can get within 100yds and usually watch deer go to either property on either side of me.

And the last reason is that I choose to hunt with a longbow so I’m usually just outside my comfort range. Most of my harvesting comes from rifle season and late season muzzleloader when everyone else has called it quits.

There is a giant 14pt that I missed last year with a compound at 40yds after hitting a branch. He’s walking in front of my cams but the odds of seeing him prior to mid November are pretty slim if at all.
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Sounds like you need to MAKE some bedding!!
 
BackSpasm said:
Sounds like you need to MAKE some bedding!!
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I’ve done quite a bit of habitat work over the last few years. Hinge cutting, select cutting the hardwoods, food plots all in an effort to make the property thicker and to provide better food and cover. The deer were bedding just west of the property line and the neighbor went and clear cut the whole east side of his property and ruined that. We cut about 2 acres of red pine out this year around a water hole and it’s getting really thick around that now so hopefully that will start holding deer. It’s my uncles property and he just hunted it the way it was for 40yrs. It’s only been the last few years that he’s seeing the fruits of my labor on the habitat. Last season was the best year we’ve ever had for deer and the neighbors figured out all the bucks were hanging out on our property during daylight so immediately started baiting and that shutdown all the deer movement we had. I hate the neighbors…
 
shamus275 said:
I’ve done quite a bit of habitat work over the last few years. Hinge cutting, select cutting the hardwoods, food plots all in an effort to make the property thicker and to provide better food and cover. The deer were bedding just west of the property line and the neighbor went and clear cut the whole east side of his property and ruined that. We cut about 2 acres of red pine out this year around a water hole and it’s getting really thick around that now so hopefully that will start holding deer. It’s my uncles property and he just hunted it the way it was for 40yrs. It’s only been the last few years that he’s seeing the fruits of my labor on the habitat. Last season was the best year we’ve ever had for deer and the neighbors figured out all the bucks were hanging out on our property during daylight so immediately started baiting and that shutdown all the deer movement we had. I hate the neighbors…
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All that neighbor effort will backfire for them in the long run as long as you have better habitat and less pressure. Baiting will get deer over there but not in daylight if they are hunting hard. Keep the faith and keep improving
 
My answer to this question could be several different answers and, also would have to be have to answered several different ways because it depends on hunting pressure, food, and a ton of other things that could effect the outcome.
I hunt 100% public land and this would be my answer for going after a certain buck (Outside of the rut)
During the rut I would do some research on where he likes to look for does from week to week hopefully through trail camera or previous meetings with him during the rut.
My honest answer to the question would be I either screwed up several things
1 Timing, hunting him during the wrong time in a certain area I know he uses at a certain time of year
2 Over hunting the area therefore telling him that he is being hunted. after this he will ghost quickly.
3 A bad entry way to the spot I plan on ambushing him from which I rarely get to because I scout my way in and do not hunt a spot until I am absolutely certain that its worth a hunt. If that sign is not there I keep going until I do find it.
4 Hunting just like most people hunt, over bait, way too open areas, along wide open transitions ( Hard Transition), etc.
5 not really putting the time and effort in learning how and when the certain buck I am after uses that specific area at a specific time of year.
6 Just being a Lazy SLob lol especially durint hte late summer heat waves.
lol short and sweet excuses :tonguewink: :tonguewink: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
 
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Bill Winke just had an article about individual buck personalities in the latest Peterson’s Bowhunting magazine. He showcased two Iowa Giants he followed for four years finally putting on tag on both of them in one year (2012). Both bucks were 7.5 years old. Both were nocturnal, The one larger deer he named Double G4 became less and less nocturnal as he got older and his home range shrunk considerably. He never had pictures of that buck beyond about a 30 acre area!! Typically that’s a core area size not a home range area size. Loppy, the other buck kept moving his core area 1/4 of a mile away ending up almost a mile away from his origins. Loppy however stayed nocturnal his entire life. I have witnessed first hand how viscous bucks can be to one another. Especially subordinate bucks to each other down the pecking order AND dominant bucks to other known subordinates. I have a theory that although bucks are attuned to hunting pressure… super sensitive to it in fact as we all know; however, They are also equally sensitive to collegial pressure from both dominants trying to keep their status and rank and also subordinates trying to raise their status within the herd. My point is that we assume bucks stay the same and exhibit the same personality characteristics throughout their life…. but they can change in a season depending also on their herd status and will either become more dominant, recoil more into submission or fluctuate between the two. It’s hard to know completely what’s going on throughout the season but pressure from you may not be the reason why our targets remain just that. So we shy off from hunting them assuming we pushed them off when perhaps we should be more aggressive or at least aware that we aren’t operating in a vacuum of deer behavior that remains constant but instead is constantly in a state of flux and chaos to some degree.
 
woodsdog2 said:
Bill Winke just had an article about individual buck personalities in the latest Peterson’s Bowhunting magazine. He showcased two Iowa Giants he followed for four years finally putting on tag on both of them in one year (2012). Both bucks were 7.5 years old. Both were nocturnal, The one larger deer he named Double G4 became less and less nocturnal as he got older and his home range shrunk considerably. He never had pictures of that buck beyond about a 30 acre area!! Typically that’s a core area size not a home range area size. Loppy, the other buck kept moving his core area 1/4 of a mile away ending up almost a mile away from his origins. Loppy however stayed nocturnal his entire life. I have witnessed first hand how viscous bucks can be to one another. Especially subordinate bucks to each other down the pecking order AND dominant bucks to other known subordinates. I have a theory that although bucks are attuned to hunting pressure… super sensitive to it in fact as we all know; however, They are also equally sensitive to collegial pressure from both dominants trying to keep their status and rank and also subordinates trying to raise their status within the herd. My point is that we assume bucks stay the same and exhibit the same personality characteristics throughout their life…. but they can change in a season depending also on their herd status and will either become more dominant, recoil more into submission or fluctuate between the two. It’s hard to know completely what’s going on throughout the season but pressure from you may not be the reason why our targets remain just that. So we shy off from hunting them assuming we pushed them off when perhaps we should be more aggressive or at least aware that we aren’t operating in a vacuum of deer behavior that remains constant but instead is constantly in a state of flux and chaos to some degree.
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That is something I have never considered before but it makes perfect sense.
 
woodsdog2 said:
Bill Winke just had an article about individual buck personalities in the latest Peterson’s Bowhunting magazine. He showcased two Iowa Giants he followed for four years finally putting on tag on both of them in one year (2012). Both bucks were 7.5 years old. Both were nocturnal, The one larger deer he named Double G4 became less and less nocturnal as he got older and his home range shrunk considerably. He never had pictures of that buck beyond about a 30 acre area!! Typically that’s a core area size not a home range area size. Loppy, the other buck kept moving his core area 1/4 of a mile away ending up almost a mile away from his origins. Loppy however stayed nocturnal his entire life. I have witnessed first hand how viscous bucks can be to one another. Especially subordinate bucks to each other down the pecking order AND dominant bucks to other known subordinates. I have a theory that although bucks are attuned to hunting pressure… super sensitive to it in fact as we all know; however, They are also equally sensitive to collegial pressure from both dominants trying to keep their status and rank and also subordinates trying to raise their status within the herd. My point is that we assume bucks stay the same and exhibit the same personality characteristics throughout their life…. but they can change in a season depending also on their herd status and will either become more dominant, recoil more into submission or fluctuate between the two. It’s hard to know completely what’s going on throughout the season but pressure from you may not be the reason why our targets remain just that. So we shy off from hunting them assuming we pushed them off when perhaps we should be more aggressive or at least aware that we aren’t operating in a vacuum of deer behavior that remains constant but instead is constantly in a state of flux and chaos to some degree.
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Great points, also I’ll add that some targets just aren’t on your property enough, like mentioned here that one of them kept shifting 1/4 mile. Or they don’t bed there so chances of seeing them daylighting on your land is extremely low, especially outside of rut

I have a buck that I couldn’t kill last year, and haven’t seen yet this year. Though I have access to a fairly large chunk right now, he was near a boarder. I had him on 2 cams, but only once in daylight (over a 4 day period) and that was during rut, prior to season opening(dammit weird FL rut). After that I’d get him on one community scrape near the boarder(between 1-4 am), I’m convinced he beds on the other side of the hard road on neighbor land. That’s the excuse I’m using for not killing him at least, lol


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