Are heavily hunted mature bucks with big racks that survive just lucky?

[Woodsman10]

I don't know if they are lucky or smart. I call it instinct with a good memory of danger.

I do know that daylight camera activity decreases substantially after the first week of rifle season.
I do know that if you hunt a spot and he smells you, he likely ain't coming back unless he is with a doe in heat.

Like others have said. If you don't kill him your first hunt in your best spot, your odds go way down especially for that area. He will still smell your scent several hours into the night after you are gone.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Stuff like this on some of the land I have to share with others have really made me dislike deer hunting. Or that area specifically. At least I have other places.

I hear ya. It's just the norm here now. You have to be quicker to get it than the thermal and drone guys. Pretty much Every buck will come to the bottom fields in the Summer, they won't stay up high in the mountains, so they will always get spotted and talked about. That's where the roads are. I will say that we did get a TWRA warden finally this year after not having one for quite awhile. He did spend a lot of time trying to keep a particular buck alive from the thermals and drones. He did make a few cases but the big fish got away of course.

 

[CrossVolle]

1000%

 

[348Winchester]

I think there used to be some skill to it on the bucks part but technology has pretty well made it luck around here for a big one to make it. Once a big one is spotted here during the summer, it will have all resources known to man after it until it's dead. That includes of course an army of cell cams, thermal scopes, and thermal drones. It ain't hard to bait one up to a cell cam, get a drone in the air when it comes, and track it until you can get ahead and get a shot. I knew one really big buck that survived that very scenario this year(probably only because they mistook his running buddy for him in the thermal scope when taking the shot), that buck moved over across a big holler out of the area after that incident but was then legally taken thankfully. Many other big bucks have not been so fortunate and get killed.

Only an asshole with no woodsmanship would use all that tech to kill a deer. What thrill is in that?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Only an asshole with no woodsmanship would use all that tech to kill a deer. What thrill is in that?

That has pretty much went away. It's about likes and clicks and all that attention.

 

[Wooden Arrow]

best buck i've killed had never showed up on cameras on any surrounding properties. he followed a doe onto my side of the ridge... have read that they'll wander over 20 miles from their normal range during the rut. mistakes will be made...