Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

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Tim H
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Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:37 am

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I hunt public bigwoods in northern Wisconsin. Last December 2016 my hunting partner and I did some serious scouting and found some very promising buck sign. What I mean by this is large rub and scrape lines. My hunting partner had cameras out not far from this area and got a pics of giant 10 and a very nice 8 2.5 year old. To us it was just scratching the surface since we never hunted this land before. It was a 2.5 mile hike in. This area consists of clear cuts, poplars, large pines, and extremely large deep cedar swamps. Fast forward to the 2017 season.

We had put out cameras in the bigwoods to scout and see what moves through and when. We got a few 2.5 year olds but nothing giant and neither of the two bucks my partner had the year before. Nothing to support our findings of big buck sign. Well we had our stand locations picked out and started hunting this area in the end of October. We stayed out of this area until then because we believed this area was where does hung out and the bucks passed through. We had 11 days of vacation to close the deal on a bigwoods buck.

On November 1st I finally saw a bigwoods giant in the daylight. Pictured above. I call this buck Rome. The moment I saw him was the first we got him on camera. It was like he showed up out of nowhere. I saw him working a scrape that I had a camera positioned over. The closest he ever came to my tree was about 60 yards. This buck I could tell was very smart. He played the wind perfectly while he walked through and disappeared.

After I saw him I thought perhaps this buck was a drifter. Just passing through. I thought I may never see him again. Well I got him on the same camera 3 other nights, 1 other day picture a week later, and we also got him on a different camera about a mile away a few nights. So we're confident he's not from us and sticks around this area. But where? We haven't found any new big buck sign to indicate that he is around. Only the pictures tell us he's been there. What am I missing?


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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Bonecrusher101 » Mon Jan 08, 2018 2:48 pm

Wow, I don't have any helpful advice but I find your discoveries interesting. I would love to hear stories about beasts who have found consistencies on mature big woods bucks and killed them from it.

I hunt some big woods in my area. What I do is hunt an area during rut that bucks are likely to travel through, following or seeking does. I usually see does when I hunt this spot, (actually seen multiple does every time the last 5 times I've hunted it), but the bucks are a wild card. Maybe no bucks, maybe a buck I pass on, Maybe a decent buck I shoot, and rarely a toad will stroll through. There's a lot more marginal bucks than monsters so that's what I see the most of. The best I can tell is its a gathering area for the rut and my setup in the exact spot to kill a big buck isn't exact. The area has great acorns and maybe it's a primary doe bedding area, I'm not certain. I haven't seen any noticeable beds, droppings, trails, rubs, rub lines or scrapes. Everything looks the same and is flat and mature hardwoods but the deer move around through there and never follow a trail. I see deer so I hunt it, but it's not a certain buck or bed or anything. It breaks the rules of every other area I hunt because it has no sign of deer but it works.

Be nice if you had a collar on your target buck and watched his movements. Even the studies when they put gps collars on bucks often are inconclusive with all the randomness of the rut and each bucks individual personalities. I would think Tracking him through snow to find his bed would be your best bet to try for an early season beast kill next year.

Good luck and again sorry I don't have anything better!
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Tue Jan 09, 2018 2:16 am

Bonecrusher101 wrote:Wow, I don't have any helpful advice but I find your discoveries interesting. I would love to hear stories about beasts who have found consistencies on mature big woods bucks and killed them from it.

I hunt some big woods in my area. What I do is hunt an area during rut that bucks are likely to travel through, following or seeking does. I usually see does when I hunt this spot, (actually seen multiple does every time the last 5 times I've hunted it), but the bucks are a wild card. Maybe no bucks, maybe a buck I pass on, Maybe a decent buck I shoot, and rarely a toad will stroll through. There's a lot more marginal bucks than monsters so that's what I see the most of. The best I can tell is its a gathering area for the rut and my setup in the exact spot to kill a big buck isn't exact. The area has great acorns and maybe it's a primary doe bedding area, I'm not certain. I haven't seen any noticeable beds, droppings, trails, rubs, rub lines or scrapes. Everything looks the same and is flat and mature hardwoods but the deer move around through there and never follow a trail. I see deer so I hunt it, but it's not a certain buck or bed or anything. It breaks the rules of every other area I hunt because it has no sign of deer but it works.

Be nice if you had a collar on your target buck and watched his movements. Even the studies when they put gps collars on bucks often are inconclusive with all the randomness of the rut and each bucks individual personalities. I would think Tracking him through snow to find his bed would be your best bet to try for an early season beast kill next year.

Good luck and again sorry I don't have anything better!


Thanks for the response! Yeah with targeting a single buck in the bigwoods is a little crazy in my opinion, but I'll be thinking about this guy all year long since in my mind he is alive and well.

The area we hunt doesn't have any acorns and no feeding source is all that obvious. My hunting partner and I scouted all day Saturday and found some pretty interesting sign. We decided to walk through some of the big swamps and found lots of useful information. In the middle of this one cedar swamp we found this island of elevated land that has a group of red pines. We must've found 10 beds just on this one island with several small rubs. I'm not sure if we'll be able to hunt this piece but it's good to know it's there and the deer feel safe bedding there.

One thing to know about the area we hunt is there isn't a lot of hunting pressure. The only hunters we run into are bird hunters with their dogs. No bowhunters yet. Which is really great! Essentially our competition for the deer is predators (wolves, black bears, coyotes, and bobcats) and the winter. The more we scout the area and learn things, the more we get excited about hunting it!
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby tgreeno » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:00 am

I have never targeted a single buck for a season. I just hunt the best bedding areas I can find, and let the cards fall where they may.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:07 am

tgreeno wrote:I have never targeted a single buck for a season. I just hunt the best bedding areas I can find, and let the cards fall where they may.


Oh, I'm not going after him exclusively. We won't be passing up any shooter that we have an opportunity to kill. But what I think about is if I can figure this buck out, it'll be a piece of cracking the code for mature bucks in our bigwoods area. This buck is different than the others that we've seen and gotten on camera.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby tgreeno » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:16 am

NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:
tgreeno wrote:I have never targeted a single buck for a season. I just hunt the best bedding areas I can find, and let the cards fall where they may.


Oh, I'm not going after him exclusively. We won't be passing up any shooter that we have an opportunity to kill. But what I think about is if I can figure this buck out, it'll be a piece of cracking the code for mature bucks in our bigwoods area. This buck is different than the others that we've seen and gotten on camera.


With snow on the ground, this will be your best opportunity to find his bedroom! I backtrack every big track I find, to find their bedding.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:20 am

tgreeno wrote:
NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:
tgreeno wrote:I have never targeted a single buck for a season. I just hunt the best bedding areas I can find, and let the cards fall where they may.


Oh, I'm not going after him exclusively. We won't be passing up any shooter that we have an opportunity to kill. But what I think about is if I can figure this buck out, it'll be a piece of cracking the code for mature bucks in our bigwoods area. This buck is different than the others that we've seen and gotten on camera.


With snow on the ground, this will be your best opportunity to find his bedroom! I backtrack every big track I find, to find their bedding.


Do you think that a mature buck will only use the same bed over and over?
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby tgreeno » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:28 am

NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:
tgreeno wrote:
NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:
tgreeno wrote:I have never targeted a single buck for a season. I just hunt the best bedding areas I can find, and let the cards fall where they may.


Oh, I'm not going after him exclusively. We won't be passing up any shooter that we have an opportunity to kill. But what I think about is if I can figure this buck out, it'll be a piece of cracking the code for mature bucks in our bigwoods area. This buck is different than the others that we've seen and gotten on camera.


With snow on the ground, this will be your best opportunity to find his bedroom! I backtrack every big track I find, to find their bedding.


Do you think that a mature buck will only use the same bed over and over?


IMO...I think a mature buck may use a different bedding this time of year. Because of thermal advantages and cover changes. But if his primary bedding area has those same advantages, he may use them year round. It seems that once they find areas that gives them the security they want, they hang around in that area all year. I do think his travel routes will be similar all year long.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Killtree » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:04 am

You got the 1st pic of him Nov 1.
When did you get the last pic and are you still running cameras in the area?
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby PK_ » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:57 am

I would hunt over that scrape 31st, 1st, 2nd.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Ragingun » Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:06 am

NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:Do you think that a mature buck will only use the same bed over and over?


I was waiting for this question.

I also hunt the "bigwoods" on the boarder of northern WI and MI. My observations over the years have coincided with how this thread has progressed. The lack of hunting pressure was mentioned earlier. Same is true in my area. Then the predators were mentioned, this is KEY to how bucks/deer in general move. Wolves in an area can push out or shut down deer movement. In my area wolves will come and go, when they are in the area that year of gun hunting has "sucked". When the wolves are absent those years have been much more productive.

As far as bucks and buck beds. This is related to predator pressure. Bucks still desire to bed in the same manner as everywhere else, i.e. leeward hillsides, points leading into swamps, etc however they have the room to roam and a multitude of options for these areas to bed. I have noticed that although they bed the same, a lot of times they do not "repeat bed" nearly as much. I don't have an answer for this however I believe it's due to the pressure from predators. They simply do not need to tolerate any predator presence with the amount of land they have available to them and the lack of deer/specific buck population.

I took note of a few things I've not paid as much attention too this year. First off is how far a buck will go and the "randomness" of that travel. I followed 3 different mature bucks this year. All of them were daytime travel. They all moved quite a distance, 1 was 3 miles on a steady walk before I stopped following. They are certainly not bothered by the distance they walk. The travel as mentioned was also very random. They may move to a generally desired location but they have nearly unlimited ways to get there. It's not like the swamps in SE WI where I live as the bucks generally use a standardized way of travel but up there they have pot hole swamp one after the other, then thick whips, then more swamps etc. They use it all.

The second thing I noticed was the deer/ bucks are not nearly as concerned about scent as the deer I've hunted in my local area. I hunt a lot of very pressured land. I used to think that deer get used to human smell even from hunters but this year lead me to now believe that particularly the mature deer don't get used to it, they get smart from it. Up there however I've noticed even mature bucks walking right down the same trail that I walked an hour prior rubbing up against trees and leaving scent. This buck simply didn't care and this went on for a half mile. I also had a 2.5 year old bed right below my stand that I hunted in that morning. He didn't care. I'm not sure if they are condition to be on alert for predators such as wolves, bear etc but they sure didn't care about human scent much at all.

I can't draw any absolutes from these observations however I found this very interesting although maybe not specifically helpful lol.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:32 am

Killtree wrote:You got the 1st pic of him Nov 1.
When did you get the last pic and are you still running cameras in the area?


The last picture we got of him was on November 12th. We pulled our cameras before rifle season due to those wandering hunters who may have sticky fingers. We then put our cameras back out in other locations in December and never got a pic of him. Upon learning further information, we're not sure if he's a local. This may be his rut spot which brought us to wondering where his home is. Often times I hear that hunters will brag about getting a giant on camera in July, August, and September. Then October rolls around and that giant disappears. The hunter has no clue what happened and is pretty frustrated. I think I'm on the other end. I think Rome shows up in October and November and this is his breeding grounds. The best way to confirm this is if I see him next October/November.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Tim H » Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:37 am

PK_ wrote:I would hunt over that scrape 31st, 1st, 2nd.


I think next November I will be sitting in a tree directly over this scrape. There is only one possible tree to hang a stand and I was unsure as to whether it would work as far as concealment. I was worried that I'd be sky lit. After talking it through with my hunting partner we believe it's doable and it will work. I'm sure I will have a stand in this tree next season.
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby EdC » Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:40 am

from the pic your showing there's snow on the ground, any possibility of back tracking
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Re: Using Beast Tactics to Kill this Buck

Unread postby Killtree » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:00 am

My best educated guess is that he is there for the ladies, but who knows.
I would feel much more confident about killing a buck I have pics of in June than I would November.
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