Beast kill examples

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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:22 pm

Although I would feel somewhat guilty referring to this as a true Beast Kill (I wasn't a member or aware of beast tactics at the time) it is a decent example of thinking outside the box and doing something that some people might consider a waste of time.

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The snip that is pictured is a tiny section of a public tract in SD that is close to a mile square.

I drove by this land two years in a row, thinking it would be a waste of time due to the amount of hunting pressure it received. I can remember seeing 5 vehicles parked on the highway one November morning as I passed it up to get to my "hot spot". After seeing the same vehicles time after time two years in a row, it was obvious to me that they knew something I didn't so I decided to scout it out the next summer.

There were quite a few deer in there, no doubt. The problem was, the few spots that caught my eye were already taken. I hiked toward the back side and soon realized that the incline of the land I had been climbing eventually turned into a nasty drop off. It was steep! I didn't care. I picked a phenomenal rut stand location at the bottom where the oxbow of the river pinched movement into the steep hillside. I refer to this stand in a couple other threads on the Beast...

On my drive home, I passed the cemetery and noticed lots of deer tracks on the shoulders (tar road, gravel shoulders). The cemetery fence coincided with a nice ravine. The kicker was, the corn/bean field edge met perfectly with the ravine. I parked and took a look around. The trails were as heavy there as anywhere. I felt stupid setting up that close to a highway, but with the ravine, cemetery fence, and corn field edge across the road, I felt it was worth a try.

October 5th 2008 I decided to try an a.m. hunt hoping I could catch a buck crossing the road coming back to the hardwoods to bed. Lucky for me that's exactly what happened! The best part was, he died right next to the cemetery fence. I lifted it, drug him underneath, then another 8 yards to my truck 8-)

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Not a big one but a buck I was super proud of


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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby TN Whitetail Freak » Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:31 am

Bowhunter4life wrote:
This is interesting and I know that there is never an "always" in deer hunting but the few fields I have observed bucks enter, they always entered in the lowest spot in the field. Often a small draw in the field and it seemed like they enter when the air started to cool (after the sun went down) so I figured they were utilizing the falling thermals. I'm not going against what Dans saying at all just curious if I'm the only one that has ever noticed this?

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well think about this....my theory is deer would love to have both senses handy.....but if they lack one, in this case eyesight, bucks rely on their nose before entering the fields. once in the fields maybe once when they can SEE securely they will then turn there back to the wind and have the luxury of both senses once again....idk its just a theory.
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby MonsterMadness » Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:39 am

This is an awesome thread and I would like for it to continue. Hopefully I can post a kill with details after this fall.
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby TN Whitetail Freak » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:40 pm

In the summer of 2014 I got drawed to hunt a piece of public land for the bow and muzzleloader season....I had been bouncing around this 2400 acres trying to learn this land....at the same time i discovered this site so my brain was 100mph trying to soak up what i can from this site and apply it to my cyber scouting and trying to pick the best spots to hunt from what Dan's Dvds talked about. On the day of November 14 just days after the opening of muzzloader season in TN, I decided to try a spot on the east side of the cotton field where a bunch of points ran N to S...The wind was out of the N-NE. I decided that Id hunt on the boundary marked in red line of an area that was off limits to hunting hoping that deer would funnel by using that fence as a guide. This was my first time in this area and my point of interest was the point where the red dot is......I didnt know there was a buck bedded up there but knew that there "could" be one up there. I slowly crept up to the north facing point just off that fence line and got to the top of the tree around 3 pm with my bow. I hung up everything and pull the bow up as I heard a shot going off in the distance. For some reason, I decided that I was going to give out a bleat/grunt sequence before i settled in to start my hunt. I took out my Extinguisher(best call ive ever used) and made 3 doe bleats followed by short tending grunts then i repeated that sequence 15 seconds later and put the call up....before i could get the call in my pack I heard a deer coming...it was a buck and at this point in the season i could tell it was the biggest i had seen all year....i grabbed my bow as i watched this deer come from the direction of that point and cross the valley over to my point. My heart is pumping and I anticipate this deer's path as he approaches....I picked my opening at 10 yds and let my arrow fly....the deer bounded north back toward that point but crashed at the foot of my point in the valley....no tracking job necessary. I was tore up and was done with the hunt by 3:15 pm. This deer ended up being the biggest deer I seen all year and is a new personal best bow buck. I based this hunt on the hope deer would use that point as bedding because id scoured most of the points on that property with no luck finding beds. It was more like a product of cancellation....there werent many points left to bed off of and the combination of the funnel fence, the restricted area to the south and this point led me to my first successful beast Kill.

Red dot-buck was bedded
blue dot-my tree
orange line-deer route
red x-deer shot
green trail-entry route
red line-funnel fence


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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby xpauliber » Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:14 am

Here's an example from the buck I killed last season on October 9th. This buck was killed because of tips/skills I learned from the BEAST. I'm not going to go into all of the details but you can read about them in my kill thread if you're interested: http://www.thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=287&t=27062&start=15.

Green dot: Where I parked.
White line: Outlining a very small knoll in the middle of the woods that had mature red oaks dropping nuts. Deer were actively feeding on this knoll.
Purple dot/line: Stand I've hunted in the past and the route I had planned to take to access that stand. When I parked here that evening, I had planned to hunt this stand.
Red area: Known bedding area. I did not know where this buck's exact bed was however.
Orange line: Bucks path from bed to feeding.
Orange dot: Where I shot him.
Yellow dot/line: Route I took and stand where I shot the buck from. I deviated from my planned stand (purple) because of smoking hot sign that I found in the corner of that field. Notice also the "V" in my yellow route. At that V is where I stood and assessed that knoll outlined in white. I was tempted to venture further south and investigate that whole knoll but I could see from where I stood that there weren't any trees to get in and I would have ended up back where I setup anyway (yellow dot). I didn't have a shot until the buck got to the orange dot. [glow=red]IF I'D HAVE WALKED FURTHER SOUTH, THE BUCK WOULD HAVE SMELLED WHERE I WALKED BEFORE I HAD GOTTEN A CHANCE TO SHOOT HIM.[/glow] The only reason I got that buck was because I only walked where I could get a shot. When I shot him, he was within 10 yards of where I walked in but I got him before he reached that point.

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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby headgear » Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:26 am

This is one of my favorite threads, an amazing learning tool so I though I would finally post up my 2013 buck kill example. This hunt was in a bigwoods public swamp setting, this is a large island surrounded by a big swamp. The buck was bedding off a lowland point on the yellow dots and I was having a lot of trouble getting on them there, they were staging near the base of the point and this area is torn up year after year. I've hunted it several times in the past without luck, I think they were busting me either by the swirling winds or thermals. There is a big ridge coming off the main island to the south that was causing the swirls at the base and also pulling a downward thermal to the bucks when the wind was calm in the evening.

I finally got fed up and was ready to try something different and take a risk, I had a couple buddies in town and put them on the main island in case I messed up. I had a perfect SW wind and decided to shoot down the middle of the buck beds and setup hopefully right where they couldn't smell me. As I got close to the beds I was moving very slow (within 70-75 yards of each bed) however the buck had a little surprise for me, he wasn't bedding where he was suppose to be, he was bedding right at the tip of the point instead of off the peninsula. As I reached the point I could hear something moving and was hoping it was a doe. I let things settle down and take a couple more steps and off runs the buck and I can see that he is decent.

I have a view choice words for myself and hope he runs to my buddies on the big part of the island. However I also remember something Dan mentioned on the beast a few days earlier, he said sometimes he jumps them up but if they don't know what you are they might come back. So with that in mind I moved forward and setup on the point and kind of hoped for a miracle or that maybe the other bedding area held a buck. I did have the wind in my face the whole time and it was thick so it was very possible he didn't know what I was. It was also a moon evening and late oct so anything could happen. Amazingly about an hour before dark I hear something in the direction the buck ran and there he was working a scrape. I watched him work a couple of scrapes for a good 20 minues, he was almost pacing back and forth at about 35 yards, I have a couple of iffy shots and never let one fly. Finally the buck had enough and was headed right for me, I kind of suspect he was going to check out what had jumped him early maybe thinking I was another buck. At 15 yards he paused and looked right at me, I had no shot, after a little stare down he came into 10 and I was able to get drawn and put the pins on him, he caught the tail end of my draw but it was too late. I was only 10 feet off the ground too so we were up close and personal.

Watched him run a big U for about 80 yards pause and tip over. We had a bit of a rough winter the year before so he never grew any brow tines but was a nice mature 6 point, dressing out at 195. I was pretty happy to have some help with me that night, it was a long drag though a nasty swamp, it took two of us 2 hours so if I was alone it might have been an all nighter, I sent the other buddie out with as much gear as he could carry and he went and moved the truck a little closer. I didn't have any luck in this spot in 2014 but I will be back there agin this year.

Green = My Entrance
Red = Buck bed and suspected travel after jumping him.
Yellow = Buck Beds
Light Blue = Wind

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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby pitz0022 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:13 am

headgear wrote:This is one of my favorite threads, an amazing learning tool so I though I would finally post up my 2013 buck kill example. This hunt was in a bigwoods public swamp setting, this is a large island surrounded by a big swamp. The buck was bedding off a lowland point on the yellow dots and I was having a lot of trouble getting on them there, they were staging near the base of the point and this area is torn up year after year. I've hunted it several times in the past without luck, I think they were busting me either by the swirling winds or thermals. There is a big ridge coming off the main island to the south that was causing the swirls at the base and also pulling a downward thermal to the bucks when the wind was calm in the evening.

I finally got fed up and was ready to try something different and take a risk, I had a couple buddies in town and put them on the main island in case I messed up. I had a perfect SW wind and decided to shoot down the middle of the buck beds and setup hopefully right where they couldn't smell me. As I got close to the beds I was moving very slow (within 70-75 yards of each bed) however the buck had a little surprise for me, he wasn't bedding where he was suppose to be, he was bedding right at the tip of the point instead of off the peninsula. As I reached the point I could hear something moving and was hoping it was a doe. I let things settle down and take a couple more steps and off runs the buck and I can see that he is decent.

I have a view choice words for myself and hope he runs to my buddies on the big part of the island. However I also remember something Dan mentioned on the beast a few days earlier, he said sometimes he jumps them up but if they don't know what you are they might come back. So with that in mind I moved forward and setup on the point and kind of hoped for a miracle or that maybe the other bedding area held a buck. I did have the wind in my face the whole time and it was thick so it was very possible he didn't know what I was. It was also a moon evening and late oct so anything could happen. Amazingly about an hour before dark I hear something in the direction the buck ran and there he was working a scrape. I watched him work a couple of scrapes for a good 20 minues, he was almost pacing back and forth at about 35 yards, I have a couple of iffy shots and never let one fly. Finally the buck had enough and was headed right for me, I kind of suspect he was going to check out what had jumped him early maybe thinking I was another buck. At 15 yards he paused and looked right at me, I had no shot, after a little stare down he came into 10 and I was able to get drawn and put the pins on him, he caught the tail end of my draw but it was too late. I was only 10 feet off the ground too so we were up close and personal.

Watched him run a big U for about 80 yards pause and tip over. We had a bit of a rough winter the year before so he never grew any brow tines but was a nice mature 6 point, dressing out at 195. I was pretty happy to have some help with me that night, it was a long drag though a nasty swamp, it took two of us 2 hours so if I was alone it might have been an all nighter, I sent the other buddie out with as much gear as he could carry and he went and moved the truck a little closer. I didn't have any luck in this spot in 2014 but I will be back there agin this year.

Green = My Entrance
Red = Buck bed and suspected travel after jumping him.
Yellow = Buck Beds
Light Blue = Wind

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Awesome write-up Headgear. I think you and I hunt similar terrain. I have a lot of tagalder swamps, ash swamps and spruce swamps surrounded by a mixture of poplar slashings of varying ages, mature poplar and mixed hardwood in my big woods area.

Can you give some detail on what kind of vegetation is on those transitions and how the deer were using it? The east half is clearly different than the west. What kind of forest is the higher ground to the south? This seems like it was a pre-rut pattern so did you factor food sources in at all when you planned to set up here (such as acorns to the south drawing does or a doe bedding area)? My guess is that the travel was mostly north south with the stuff to the east and west not showing much deer activity which is why your approach was fairly safe?

I think the bedding of the buck makes some sense if he could have the wind at his back and if the vegetation to the north was sparse enough to give him a decent view of approaching danger.

Don't mean to pry with all the questions but I think studying your experiences directly apply to my situations. I don't want to use the term "easy" but locating buck bedding doesn't seem as easy in the big woods swamps as it is in cattails.
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby headgear » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:55 am

The whole area is a big bog with some holes in it, part open the rest a mixture of tag alder, spruce and some other brush. On the island is some mature oaks, poplar & maple. So certainly some food and does that way but from this bed they actually stage in all directions if they want to. Other high ground is about a half mile away in almost all directions. Like any bed they have a lot of reason to be there, the swirling winds in the area really make it hard to hunt and why I think they love this area so much. Some spots they have a nice view from the beds but other areas are thick and they rely on noise. The island actually gets some pressure from other bowhunters but they generally stick to the big trees on the high ground while I was hunting out of a tiny poplar. Obviously you never want to jump them up before you shoot them but sometimes it's nice to have a little luck on your side.

You might also be surprised that the food that is available in that bog, I have watched deer feed in that stuff for hours. I mostly think they bed their for safety with everything else being secondary. This was a pre-rut situration around Oct 25th.
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby pitz0022 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:06 am

headgear wrote:The whole area is a big bog with some holes in it, part open the rest a mixture of tag alder, spruce and some other brush. On the island is some mature oaks, poplar & maple. So certainly some food and does that way but from this bed they actually stage in all directions if they want to. Other high ground is about a half mile away in almost all directions. Like any bed they have a lot of reason to be there, the swirling winds in the area really make it hard to hunt and why I think they love this area so much. Some spots they have a nice view from the beds but other areas are thick and they rely on noise. The island actually gets some pressure from other bowhunters but they generally stick to the big trees on the high ground while I was hunting out of a tiny poplar. Obviously you never want to jump them up before you shoot them but sometimes it's nice to have a little luck on your side.

You might also be surprised that the food that is available in that bog, I have watched deer feed in that stuff for hours. I mostly think they bed their for safety with everything else being secondary. This was a pre-rut situration around Oct 25th.

Great Story and thanks for the additional detail.
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby Gibby » Thu Sep 03, 2015 12:43 pm

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I know the heading says Beast Kill Examples but I still consider this a good example of a Beast set up even though I didn't pull the trigger.
This is a set up I had back in 2010 on a property I was hunting at the time, I had observed bucks on numerous occasions from the trail under the compass on the map marked in orange on previous years so I did some investigating and I had found some beds marked in red circles and the deer trails marked in red during my summer scouting that year so I set out a trail cam at the green circle.
The blue line indicates wind direction, it was SW on the nights I hunted it. The yellow line was my access into the stand and the yellow star was my stand location
I got several pictures of good bucks coming in and out of this area during late summer and early fall, but there was one buck in particular that I had targeted

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Here he is within shooting distance of the tree during shooting light
The Beech tree with the red line on it is the tree I set up in, I only hunted this spot a couple times during that season. On my first sit I didn't see anything and on my second sit I had a nice encounter with a mature 10pt that was all busted up on the one side so I decided to pass on him. I had two encounters with the deer in the picture that season in different spots, one around Halloween and again during late season but he didn't present a shot opportunity on either sit. This deer ended up being found dead the following spring by an adjacent land owner and he had it scored just over 180 inches.

Although I never killed my target buck from this set up I did have an opportunity at another mature buck and decided to pass on it so I still consider it a successful set up. I lost permission on this property after that fall and have just recently gained permission there again so its a spot I will be keeping an eye on :D
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby LetMreap » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:44 pm

Love this thread! So many good stories and I can't wait to read more! I will share my "Beast" moment, and truthfully this hunt got me started on hunting buck beds. Thanks for sharing and reading!

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My first and only "Beast" kill was on a buck fittingly named "Beast". I killed him on October 9th, 2011, but my hunt for him
started in 2010. I gained access to this farm through a good friend on my baseball team in college. On the map you see
a blue dot, which is where I hung my observation stand. In 2010, I sat in this stand quite a bit and learned a lot about the
deer movement. Truthfully, I did this by accident because I was just happy to have a stand to hunt after being run down by
baseball and classes. Anyways, I had observed the deer in this area for nearly the entire season and found that they moved
towards the west side of the swamp (near the buck bed). After the season was over I did some investigating and found that
there were many beds in the swamp I had my observation stand over. I found a rather large bed in a island thicket in the
middle of the swamp, which was surrounded by willow trees. Perfect place for a monster buck. I decided that I would hunt
the nearby funnel that connected the buck's bedding area to a corn/hay field.

The 2011 season came along and I went out to place my stand based on my observation from my spring time scouting. I
will say that the tree I sat in is the most deadly tree on that farm, and the most deadly tree I have ever sat in. What the map
doesn't show you is the contour of the land, which right about where my stand is there's a huge drop off going down towards
the swamp. The deer are forced to take the path that this buck traveled due to the major land elevation change. To top
it off, all I had to do for entry and exit was walk down a hay field, but back off the ridge so I would not get silhouetted. As I hung
that stand, I knew I would be seeing deer, but I had no idea what size of bucks were in the area. So I hung a trail camera a
few days before the opener right in the funnel I was hunting over.

I pulled my trail camera on October 4th and there he was...I wish I still had the picture of him on the hoof, but my PC got wiped
out and I lost his pictures. He looked awesome. Biggest deer I had ever seen at that point in my hunting career. I promised
myself I would hunt the next chance I had, BUT only with the right wind. On October 9th, the stars aligned for me and I managed
to get out of class earlier enough to hit the woods.

About 20 minutes before dark, I saw a CAGE coming through the switchgrass and he walked right where I thought he would.

Arrowed him at 37 yards...

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11 pointer @ 143 gross 225 lbs

Thanks for reading!
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby Peeps22 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 11:00 pm

Thanks for sharing headgear, gibby, and letmreap. Nice bucks! If you look through this entire thread its amazing to me how many things are dang near the same about everybodys setups and observations with bedding/movement. Also note, alot of the kills were during first or second time sits.

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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby dkoy85 » Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:04 am

Awesome stories! It all revolves around bedding. Find the bed, and they're dead :lol:
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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:07 am

I killed this Michigan buck several years back. It is in one of the highest pressured areas that I hunt. Parcels are small and the river bottom area in the picture have 7 raised box blinds in a 1/4 mile stretch owned by various landowners. It's literally the most ridiculous sight you've ever seen. I'll try to take a picture next time I'm out there. Post season scouting revealed several beds along the river bottom in the bends and on the brushy points. A handful stood out as primary beds that were well worn and carried rubs from years prior.

Anyway, at this time I was experimenting heavily with mock scrapes. More specifically I was experimenting on this property with maintaining year round scrapes in thick cover. Because the parcel was so small I was trying to find a tactic that would get a buck to an exact spot for a shot. About once a month throughout the year I would go in and work the scrape with a stick and add some synthetic scent. I had this buck visit the scrape sight regularly for 2 years almost always at night. The handful of daylight pictures I did get were always within a day or two of Halloween. This was the first time I hunted this property this particular season and I waited until the afternoon of Oct 30. A cold front had come through and scraping activity was peaking so it felt like the perfect time to strike.

I arrowed the buck through the liver with about 30 min of light left. I returned the next day to a very tricky blood trail that eventually led back to one of the primary beds I had scouted the spring prior.

Note: I gave up on the (maintaining year round scrape tactic) because I didn't see consistent success with it. I still use them for scouting/inventory purposes.

Red Dot: Buck bed
Yellow Line: Buck travel route pre shot
Black yellow line: Buck travel post shot
Blue dot: stand sight
Blue X: mock scrape
Green arrow: wind (which shifted slightly in my favor after dawn)

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Re: Beast kill examples

Unread postby headgear » Fri Sep 04, 2015 8:24 am

Great example Ridge, I also like the tip about the wind shift. When that wind shifts during mid-day it is a great time to move into a set you might not be able to hunt with a steady wind.


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