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Help Support TNDeer:
Knowing Your Deer
- Thread starter Spurhunter
- Start date
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
No program. I just use folders on my desktop. Nothing really fancy or complicated but it's easy to keep things in order. Each season gets a new folder.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
That pretty much exactly how I do it, then back it all up on an external drive. I use excel when I want to graph out data to visualize patterns.
…." We backed out and gave him until the next morning, and im glad we did because he died just out of sight. "
Bell3wv
Well-Known Member
The other thread got me thinking about guys getting pics of certain bucks year after year, learning all about them, naming them, etc. I have a 416 acre lease in TN. It has everything a buck could want, especially thick, thick cover. There is very minimal hunting pressure and human intrusion. We rarely have bucks hang around longer than a couple weeks. Very rarely. A buck will show up on camera, get me excited, and disappear never to be seen again. Many times a mature buck will only get caught on camera once and he's gone forever. I've always found it interesting that other folks have bucks hang around for years. Maybe the deer on my lease are traveling deer, or maybe it's a difference in farm land vs. timber land.
Solo Hunter
Well-Known Member
I have a friend that hunts a couple hundred acres and kills a couple really good mature bucks a year off of it. He says he's in and out of his land at least almost once a week all year. His reasoning is the deer gets used to you and doesn't associate the intrusion as danger. The deer gets used to someone in and out of the property so when season comes they're not expecting anything any different. He's very successful with his experiences.
For me I stay out of mine because I feel like I'll hurt mine more then help it.
For me I stay out of mine because I feel like I'll hurt mine more then help it.
BigRiver1
Member
Apparently you have the cover, but do you have the food and water to go with it, and is the cover bedding cover??The other thread got me thinking about guys getting pics of certain bucks year after year, learning all about them, naming them, etc. I have a 416 acre lease in TN. It has everything a buck could want, especially thick, thick cover. There is very minimal hunting pressure and human intrusion. We rarely have bucks hang around longer than a couple weeks. Very rarely. A buck will show up on camera, get me excited, and disappear never to be seen again. Many times a mature buck will only get caught on camera once and he's gone forever. I've always found it interesting that other folks have bucks hang around for years. Maybe the deer on my lease are traveling deer, or maybe it's a difference in farm land vs. timber land.
Those bucks come to certain areas year after year in search of Food, Water, Cover, and Does. If you have great Bedding Cover, and the food and water year round, they stay.
Might try one of these online land management gurus to help figure out what's going on.
I read an article once where the author claimed he kills big bucks by having such a consistent presence on the property that the deer are familiar with him. As I've gotten older I lend more and more credence to his claim. There's something to it.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
There's a reason farmers see big deer a lot imo. I see a pile of deer feeding cows or doing hay. Checking on them with the ranger. But our farms that are away from is we don't have the ability to be on them all the time we have to be careful and hunt them very careful they aren't used to any kind of pressure. And they are sensitive to the pressure.
deerdills
Well-Known Member
And in a few months there will be nothing to score
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
In my experience there are so many variables that go into why and when a buck travels somewhere that you could go crazy trying to make logical sense of it as a human. Sometimes I feel we overthink the simple and obvious answer. Deer are simple creatures in their thinking but they aren't robots. There are no absolute truths when it comes to bucks and honestly each one has his own personality. I have had bucks that 12 months out of the year I could locate within 100acre piece and others that I might be able to get a handful of pictures in 10,000acres. I like to approach all my hunts/properties with the KISS mentality. Bucks need cover, water, food, and sometimes sex. I try to break each property down based on this premise and whatever is lacking most in the area of those 4 things and go from there…The other thread got me thinking about guys getting pics of certain bucks year after year, learning all about them, naming them, etc. I have a 416 acre lease in TN. It has everything a buck could want, especially thick, thick cover. There is very minimal hunting pressure and human intrusion. We rarely have bucks hang around longer than a couple weeks. Very rarely. A buck will show up on camera, get me excited, and disappear never to be seen again. Many times a mature buck will only get caught on camera once and he's gone forever. I've always found it interesting that other folks have bucks hang around for years. Maybe the deer on my lease are traveling deer, or maybe it's a difference in farm land vs. timber land.
Agreed. We far too often over estimate bucks. Many times Forrest Gumping it is the best approach.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I STRONGLY suspect your experiences are habitat driven, in that your hunting property is a transition between other locations. Even with much smaller properties than yours, I regularly see the same bucks showing up year after year.The other thread got me thinking about guys getting pics of certain bucks year after year, learning all about them, naming them, etc. I have a 416 acre lease in TN. It has everything a buck could want, especially thick, thick cover. There is very minimal hunting pressure and human intrusion. We rarely have bucks hang around longer than a couple weeks. Very rarely. A buck will show up on camera, get me excited, and disappear never to be seen again. Many times a mature buck will only get caught on camera once and he's gone forever. I've always found it interesting that other folks have bucks hang around for years. Maybe the deer on my lease are traveling deer, or maybe it's a difference in farm land vs. timber land.
BSK
Well-Known Member
It may have been me Ski. I've become absolutely convinced I have conditioned my local deer to my presence. In the past, I would rarley walk around outside of food plots during non-hunting months, and when I did, I was super scent cautious. Heck, I would even put on a cheap plastic rain suit while driving my ATV to trail-camera locations to prevent any twigs from rubbing against my clothing and picking up my scent.
Now I go out of my way to have my scent everywhere, all year round. And I take no special scent precautions. I want the deer to find my scent - everywhere - as a normal part of their daily experience. 99% of the time, my scent will not mean danger to them. That makes the 1% time it is dangerous to be the final one!
It couldn't have been you. Notice I specified the author killed big bucks....
Just teasing lol. I've read where you've stated that several times. The article I'm referring to was in a wildlife magazine when I was a teenager. I don't recall which magazine it was but I vividly recall the author claiming that the deer were so familiar with him that his presence didn't affect them like it did when he was hunting other places. He said it was key to him being able to get in close to the older bucks. Your experience seems to very closely mirror what he was saying. It must have been very intriguing to me because it's stuck with me all these years.
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
Goes along with a story I was told years ago about a farmer/hunter that wore the same cologne all the time all over his farm. Story was that he fed deer outside of season, they became used to his smell, then come season they were never concerned about the presence of his scent. He always killed good deer.It couldn't have been you. Notice I specified the author killed big bucks....
I was just out riding fence with an old farmer in his truck. It's a farm I hunt. Man we drove right through deer like they were cattle. They'd lift their heads and watch us go by but none spooked. When I'm there alone I can't get anywhere near the deer. They bolt as soon as they see my truck. It was eye opening for sure.
