Aggressive deer hunting tatics

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Tadmdad
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Aggressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Tadmdad » Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:46 pm

I read in a earlier post....that things were getting pretty chatity on the forum because is was off season, and it would be better to see more tactics being discussed. Seems to be enough year round whitetail fanatics online, so how about a tactic discussion.

So what kind of tactics does everybody use?.....Do you just stand hunt, ground or treestand? Rattle? Deer drive? Spot/Stalk? Calls? Stillhunt? Track Hunt all day? Just a.m. and p.m.?

And under what conditions do you use those tactics? Weather conditions dictate tactics? rut or pre rut?


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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby matt1336 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:44 pm

I wana get to be a better tracker. My goal is to kill a mature buck while I'm on his track.

Otherwise I hunt beastly- scout for bedding areas in spring, prep the trees in spring and hunt in fall. I'll also walk transition lines in fall and hunt hot sign.

During gun season I'll sit over escape routes for opening weekend and then participate in drives for the rest of the season.

I hunt over my late season food plots for late bow season. I'll plant 'nips and rape in August this year. That's usually a meat hunt, however I've seen some dandies on these late season hunts in the past.- never connected yet.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:47 pm

After reading the post, I started to ask myself how I hunt. I do sit in stands a bit. But, I dont think I am that good a tactician at stand placement, and not very patient. Calling is something that can help, but I am pretty timid at calling and rattling.

Anyway then I read the title again - Aggressive deer hunting tactics. What I really like to do is spot them first and try to get close enough for a shot. Or walk til I bump one and shoot it when it gets up. That is about as aggressive as it gets, I think. My hunting entails a lot of moving. I am starting to get better at identifying bedding areas, and hope to get better at stand placement. Someday I may get good enough at this that I can get deer when my legs slow down.

What I have been recently studying on a new chunk of public is bumping them and watching their escape routes. I dont plan on slowing down for a few more years
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby matson123 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:53 pm

My best success is mid-day during the rut. I hunt hard in the AM (usually fall asleep in my stand), wander on over just outside of either a known buck's bed between 11-12, or a doe bedding area, and hit a doe in estrus call and rattle. Two great deer in a row. I'm almost done waking up early.....

Last year's buck let me know he was coming when I saw a small tree start shaking. He ran into the estrus call and instantly started rubbing a tree. After I arrowed him, we took a great picture of the rub and it is hanging next to the mount.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby magicman54494 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:29 pm

I have been tracking for several years now. It's a learning process and the most fun I have ever had hunting. I have killed 3 bucks tracking and let one walk. Much more important than killing deer is all the neat things I'm learning about deer by following them.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Dewey » Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:09 pm

I mostly stand hunt but will hunt ground blinds depending on the situation. Most of the time I am focusing on known buck bedding areas that are found while scouting over the years. The more I scout the more of these spots I have available to hunt depending on wind/weather conditions and the time of the season. Day to day conditions will affect which spots I hunt.

As far as calling I don't do much blind calling anymore since I don't want to tip a buck off that I am near his bedding area. The only time I call now is if a buck is out of range and looks like he is going away from me. In the past I think I spooked more mature bucks by over calling but it does work great for inmature bucks most of the time. The older bucks are just too smart for most calling unless it is during certain times of the rut and then it can work great.

During the rut I focus on being downwind of doe bedding areas and shot a few nice bucks using this tactic when they were scent checking for does. The bucks are so unpredictable during the rut that it is hard in my opinion to hunt there bedding areas because they are all over the place kinda like here today and gone tommorow and you never know what you will see from day to day. Because of this I try to hunt all day every day from Oct. 31-Nov. 10 every year to try and catch the peak of the seeking/chase phase of the rut. To me this is the most exciting time of the year and what I live for although I do hunt very hard from opening day until the last day of the late season.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:53 am

Uncle Lou wrote:

What I have been recently studying on a new chunk of public is bumping them and watching their escape routes. I dont plan on slowing down for a few more years


Uncle Lou....This particular tactic has killed quite a few bucks for our group over the years. I guess we call it a nudge hunt, and it may play out over several hunting seasons. When after a particular buck and we locate his core area, and will try stand setups, we will try rattling and calling, and if all else fails a 2-3 man nudge hunt. By observation, one thing that mature bucks have in their bedding area is a good escape route to escape from predators. We will intentionally bump the buck out of his bed, just to learn his escape route. Later we will post 1-2 hunters on the escape route(s) and bump that buck.
Will slip in the front door, and when he exits the back door, put him on the pole. Mistakes made doing this......You want to bump this buck quietly, if he catches you scent or recognizes your human, he'll bump out of there going 90 mph, and nobody gets a shot. Used best with a crosswind, and I'll usually belly crawl, if you can get him out of his bed and snort at you, not knowing what you are, all the better, at that point everyone has him located.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:18 am

[quote="matson123"]My best success is mid-day during the rut. I hunt hard in the AM (usually fall asleep in my stand), wander on over just outside of either a known buck's bed between 11-12, or a doe bedding area, and hit a doe in estrus call and rattle. Two great deer in a row. I'm almost done waking up early.....

Matson123.....Great rut tactic. One of my hunting buddies Bob, is great at this.
I'd say 1/2 the bucks hes killed over the years are using this tactic, and he is loud doing this, on a quiet morning I've heard him rattling/calling from a 1/2 mile away. He killed a decent 130ish 8-pt this year, and rattled in another for one of the other guys. I also used his rattling tactics in Ontario this year, and killed 2 decent bucks (posted earlier). Couple of things I've learned from Bob using this tactic.....You don't know how a buck will come in to your setup, will they charge in.....circle...sneak in.....always be ready. Setup is very important, 90% of the time, a buck will approach from downwind, hes curious, is there a doe there? who's these intruders in his territory? Or sometimes hes just ready to rumble....either way Bob uses what I call forced exposure. Downwind from his setup is either open, natural obstacle (beaver pond,lake,clearcut) that the buck would prefer not to cross....if he does it provides a open shot, and funnels the bucks travel that he has a hard time getting downwind. Bob uses tarsal glands in his setup, usually placed downwind, and within range, to give the buck a scent confirmation to what he just heard.
Last edited by Tadmdad on Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:33 am

magicman54494 wrote:I have been tracking for several years now. It's a learning process and the most fun I have ever had hunting. I have killed 3 bucks tracking and let one walk. Much more important than killing deer is all the neat things I'm learning about deer by following them.


Magic, I agree...we probably hunt alike. Every year I look forward to the days where we have fresh snow, because I'm tracking. I have killed a couple of bucks over the years tracking, although I don't think they were the bucks I was tracking, just right time,right place. But during the rut when bucks can travel miles in search for does, there is no better way of learning deer behavior than by tracking. Everything a buck does there is a reason, nothing is random.
Some of my best standsites have been located by tracking a buck, locating doe bedding areas,core areas and travel corridors,done by tracking. It certainly is enjoyable and probably one of the hardest tactics to master.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Tadmdad » Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:07 am

Would certainly like to hear more about.....Bump and Dump tactics....and Stacking. From the way I understand these tactics, I've never employed either tactic. But would like to hear more about timing used....how these were used...
lessons learned from using. Or any other tatics being used for that matter.
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby JRM6868 » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:04 am

I was helping a buddy hunt this 13 point via him on foot scouting and me familiar with the property and him reporting findings to me. We would sit down and talk about what and where he would find sign. We decided to set up two stands on these 2 flats coming off the bucks bedding area both above and below each other. Well he was hunting the high one and he saw the 13 point chasing a doe on the lower flat across it back and forth for 2 hours. He called me and I told him to drop down to his other prehung stand. He was afraid of jumping the deer. I told him that he's occupied right now the wind would cover his sound and wait til they pass again and you can't hear them anymore and move. I said what have you got to lose. Get aggressive and move. His lower stand had a point that shieled it from the right and he would have cover. He moved and got the deer. So don't be afraid to move if the sign and the deer are telling you something else.It took me alot of convincing on some of my buddies to not stay in the same stand all the time and to move. They fought me on it because they were taught to stay and hunt the conventional way. Mature deer are anything but conventional. Get aggressive and sometimes it pays off.

Here's his buck 2010. Grossed 171"

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My 2009 buck was the same way. Through trailcam pics he started showing up in daylight. Once I saw that and saw a day it was going to rain I went in and hung a stand to get my scent washed away and killed him the following week. This stand was right off of his bedding and he had 2 possible routes. I waited till I found out which route and wind he committed to the most and set up. Be aggressive and move in. If your careful with your scent and trimmings it can pay off big.

my 2009 buck.grossed 172"
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby dan » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:06 am

STACKING:
There are many places I hunt where a bump would be out of the question because the buck would likely move across borders or into a worse situation... In the places where this has worked for me, its been large public areas that I know intimately.
Take the marsh behind my house, I know just about every big buck bed out there and which bucks are using them. A bump there can be easy for me, but for a guy who don't know the beds well, he might just loose track of that buck.
A few years ago I had a Booner bedding in a spot that always holds some of the best bucks. Its in a very remote area that only sees human activity about once or twice a year and thats usually me doing a bump...
I new the buck was in there cause I seen him enter and exit the area.
I new his secondary bedding area, and had some close calls with him there but after a couple hunts he moved remote... During gun season I had someone hard bump him for me while I sat in his secondary bedding spot. On the way out I fell though the ice and got soaked to my shoulders in the freezing weather... After siting on post nearly freezing from hypothermia I figured the push was over at 9:30 am when a little buck came in from the direction of the pushed buck bedding area... I headed back and changed. The Guy who bumped for me stopped over and said it was so hard getting back there that he did not bump the bucks till nearly 11:00 So I went back out and when I got to my tree 20 yards away the booner jumped up and took off... If I had stayed I would of gotten him for sure... The buck then ran to the other end of the swamp and a neighbor shot him. 180 something...
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby dan » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:12 am

BUMP & DUMP:

Andrea sets his standards pretty high... There is usually only one buck any given property he hunts. Knowing the exact bedding spot is critical in killing the buck.
Although bucks get pretty edgy about harassment they do have to put up with hikers, farm dogs, coyotes, and wolves in some areas and often get bumped out of there beds. They will put up with a certain extent of this type of harassment. Sometimes they will put up with one bump, sometimes several, sometimes 1st bump and there gone... I often tease Andrea about his "bump em and dump em" tactic and tell him in the public marsh we call it "Bump em and never ever ever see them again" but to be honest, it has sometimes worked here too.
There are ways to make it work better too... We have two definitions of a "bump". A hard bump is when you aggressively push a buck from his bed with the intent of him relocating to a new spot. A soft bump is where you move him, but try not to scare the crap out of him.
To soft bump a deer, a person does not want to walk directly towards the animal. Angles make it appear to the animal that your just passing by. Also, when the deer stands or trots off don't stop walking make it appear as though you could care less what the deer does. On Andreas property they are used to atv's occasionally crossing the property so he will sometimes cruise past a buck bedding area with the ATC and see what gets up...
Timing is important too... Really, its probably thee most important thing in bump and dump hunting... Bucks should be bumped about an hour before dark, or just before they normally get to there feet... The reason for this is because a deer that is bumped just before he would normally get up is more likely to just go about his normal night time routine after settling back down. Then at the end of the night he just goes back to the same old bed out of habit... When bumped early in the day they will head to another bedding area, then there is a good chance they will bed in the new spot rather than the spot you bumped them from.
It should also be said that Andrea usually knows these bedding areas pretty well, it is not a good idea to get scent near the bed or near the entrance rought you suspect the buck will use. Its important for the buck to believe the bump just wandered through. If he hints human scent on his way to the bed, he will likely turn tail...
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby Stuart » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:15 pm

I always love hearing tactics like that :D

How many years have you been hunting the marsh or area behind your home like you said in staking, just curious...?
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Re: Agressive deer hunting tatics

Unread postby dan » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:14 am

Stuart wrote:I always love hearing tactics like that :D

How many years have you been hunting the marsh or area behind your home like you said in staking, just curious...?

The marsh behind my home I have been hunting for about 11 seasons... I learned it inside out the 1st two years.


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