Guaranteed........................paralysis by analysis!
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Subtle ways we defeat our chances at mature bucks
- Thread starter fairchaser
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I never knew what was worse for success- coughing up a lung, or eating peppermint by the truck load trying to stop it
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
I love these comments and there is great wisdom in them to learn from. However, I've experienced exceptions to many of them. For example, the buck I killed this season, we had no daylight pictures of him. One hunter did, but naturally he kept that secret. The first buck I killed, I had no picture of him at all. I believe he avoided the camera which was only 150 yds away from where he was shot.
All I'm saying is this. Every mature buck is an individual and while they still have the same needs and drives as any other deer, they are individual bucks and must be approached that way. Rarely, do you kill a mature buck the same way as another. It does happen sometimes. More often it's at a different place and time. The circumstances are different and then you say oh that's how it's done. Then it's different next time.
Use your experience but be flexible depending on what the buck is doing and what your instincts are telling you. Be persistent and flexible. Be aggressive when necessary and also be willing to back off. There are times for both. That buck doesn't posses super intelligence but he is more wary than we give him credit. That's why he beats us most of the time.
All I'm saying is this. Every mature buck is an individual and while they still have the same needs and drives as any other deer, they are individual bucks and must be approached that way. Rarely, do you kill a mature buck the same way as another. It does happen sometimes. More often it's at a different place and time. The circumstances are different and then you say oh that's how it's done. Then it's different next time.
Use your experience but be flexible depending on what the buck is doing and what your instincts are telling you. Be persistent and flexible. Be aggressive when necessary and also be willing to back off. There are times for both. That buck doesn't posses super intelligence but he is more wary than we give him credit. That's why he beats us most of the time.
As my taxidermist likes to say to me year in and year out when I tell him stories about the one that got away.................."you're a part time turkey/deer hunter, and he's a full time turkey/deer survivalist". When the playing field is level, the odds are rarely in our favor year in and year out with mature bucks.
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deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
This times a 1000. There's a reason I don't hardly ever post pictures even hear let alone Instagram or Facebook. I've seen it to much someone post a big deer the following year he doesn't have that spot. Happened to a buddy of mine this year. It happened to is 15ish years ago and we stopped posting all together. Only show very few people the pictures of deer we do kill. And it's always off of land we own not leases.
I wouldnt hardly tell my own momma if I heard a turkey gobble much less where.
I'm not a duck hunter but look at what it's done to Arkansas someone post pictures with limits of green heads the next year there's fights about spots and people getting hurt just trying to get out there on boats.
Wooden Arrow
Well-Known Member
both my biggest rifle buck and bow kill were taken on the first time i hunted those spots. i think your odds go down every time you go in to a place. the deer pattern us too. although with bucks traveling during the rut, not so much then.
Wooden Arrow
Well-Known Member
maybe afterwards, if i killed that bird...
I used to post trail camera pics of nice bucks on my lease years ago. I found more and more tresspassers when i started posting. Then, I'd have random strangers saying to me, " yea, you hunt over on so and so's property". I quit posting any pictures of big bucks after that.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this although I'm sure it's done. I pray and ask the Holy Sprit to guide me to the right spot and to reveal to me the deer in that area. That my aim be true and the kill quick. That whatever happens, God gets the glory! Also that I see the less obvious blessings in nature around me. I try to learn something on every hunt. Praying is not a magic formula for success but a way to draw closer to God to see the love and lessons He has for me.
Being as absolutely still as possible in the tree stand. Of course this doesn't apply nearly as much in a blind or shooting house. I've learned over the years that an older buck may top a ridge near where you are in the stand, and he may stand there observing the area for upwards of 30 minutes, or more, looking for danger (movement). So, if he has just come into your, or actually you have come into his, FOV, and he sees you turning your head a little too fast, fiddling with your phone, pulling your little Debbie snack cakes out for that lifesaving snack, he will cautiously ease back out of sight and be gone. This is probably THE most important thing I've learned over the years that has increased my odds of seeing older bucks, that, and adding in just being quiet, as in no calling or rattling blindly. Yes, it can call them in, but, at least in the hardwoods where I hunt, I think it lets them see you first. Just my 2 cents. 
Oh yeah, that's a given.
BSK
Well-Known Member
You Christians are cheating!
Being as absolutely still as possible in the tree stand. Of course this doesn't apply nearly as much in a blind or shooting house. I've learned over the years that an older buck may top a ridge near where you are in the stand, and he may stand there observing the area for upwards of 30 minutes, or more, looking for danger (movement). So, if he has just come into your, or actually you have come into his, FOV, and he sees you turning your head a little too fast, fiddling with your phone, pulling your little Debbie snack cakes out for that lifesaving snack, he will cautiously ease back out of sight and be gone. This is probably THE most important thing I've learned over the years that has increased my odds of seeing older bucks, that, and adding in just being quiet, as in no calling or rattling blindly. Yes, it can call them in, but, at least in the hardwoods where I hunt, I think it lets them see you first. Just my 2 cents.
This is a good observation, and I can think of two bucks I've killed where this scenario played out.
Both were 4.5 year old bucks, and in both cases I'd almost moved to adjust something or fidget in general when I could see two black eyes and a nose pointed in my direction. Each stood stone still for over fifteen minutes before even twitching an ear, much less moving.
Each time was as they encountered a cover break (and had also probably smelled where I'd been before) and they'd stand on the edge of it like a statue. I thought I'd been busted and couldn't figure out why they didn't run.
The takeaways were that I could BARELY see their faces, it occurred at a major cover change/edge, and how slowly they'd crept up on those spots to observe.
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I've heard other tales that have played out similarly. One in particular, that happened to a good friend, and very well seasoned and accomplished hunter and woodsman I know well. He had been in the tree bow hunting, and at about an hour before dark, he saw an old buck sneak up to the edge of his viewing area, then stop dead still. He said he thought the wind had switched a little and the buck must have gotten a faint drift of his scent that caused him to stop. Next was what was so amazing to me, as he related that he waited for that buck to make a move, either to keep moving towards him, or to back out and leave. To his astonishment that buck stood motionless for the remainder of the hour till full dark. He said he never even saw when the buck left the area, and he waited till well after dark before he would even climb down, afraid he would spook the buck even more, to leave. These stories, and those experiences of my own, have drilled this regimen into my brain, to just slip in as quietly as I can, climb up into my stand, and then just hunt, as quietly and as still as I can. It's worked for me on several occasions.
A big one for me is thinking I can effectively hunt a spot from the ground instead of packing in a stand. I either can't get a shot off because of brush, or I don't have the time or viewing angle to judge whether a buck meets my standards. It's happened often enough you'd think I'd learned my lesson by now. Just this year at L b L, I was setup where I didn't think I'd need a stand, and I didn't until the last day. I could hear a buck grunting and chasing does right behind me, 40 yards or so. Any time he was stopped, I couldn't see more than his head and antlers. They spent several minutes running around on the bench. He never did give me a chance. Had I just been 10-12' up a tree, I'd had a clear view.
