Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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swiftni
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Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby swiftni » Wed Aug 10, 2022 2:08 am

Hi everyone, I found a buck that I would be happy to shoot. Not a total giant by Beast standards, but a good 3.5 year old that would make me super happy. He made his first appearance on a trail cam a few days ago.

I scouted this area thoroughly in the spring, and was convinced the best buck bedding was in the swamp on the west edge of the property I have permission on (blue outline in photo). Saw some decent buck sign coming out of the swamp and it seemed to make sense. I found doe bedding on the north edge of the property as well.

However, my cam data is showing that a majority of does are coming from the south out of bed, or heading south to bed. Suspected bedding is the yellow area in pic, I do not have access to scout that property.

Now, back to the buck. On 7/28 I had a pic of him at closing time heading north (see cam location in photo) which could suggest he is also bedding generally south (opposite of the suspected swamp bedding). My guess would be either he is bedding on the inside “U” portion of land that I cannot hunt, or along the very thick nasty hedge row bottom portion of the U I can hunt. Photo was on a west wind day.

Here are my questions: how would you go about obtaining more information on this buck? The field adjacent to the cam is completely hidden from roads to glass, and I’m worried about trying to access it through the woods because that seems too high impact for potentially low reward.

I could park behind the south industrial building and glass the overgrown field where I believe the does to be bedding, which I will likely do. I’ll also glass the road adjacent fields, but I don’t know how much actionable intel I will get out of that.

Would you look to put out additional cameras or do you think it is late in the game to be putting scent back in there?

I’m not sure the food status of the south block of woods I have permission on, there could be acorns dropping in a month or two, but I have not been seeing much acorn growth anywhere on the north end of the property.

I should note that season doesn’t open until October here, in case that factors into your thought process.

This was long winded, but I wanted to provide as much info as possible to try to get some additional suggestions. Thanks!
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Dellingerj
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby Dellingerj » Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:43 pm

I would suspect that he is bedding just to the east of your camera and making his way to the NE point of the field. Depending on what the field is and how long it stays green I think your best bet would be to wait until season and make a move to hunt him with a just off wind. Not sure how you will loop in there and stay out of his sight line and keep your sent blowing right to him, but if you can it may pay off early in the season. If it doesn’t pay off, and you feel it could be a low pressure area hunt it once more during the rut. Looks challenging and and fun. Good luck.
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swiftni
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby swiftni » Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:58 am

Dellingerj wrote:I would suspect that he is bedding just to the east of your camera and making his way to the NE point of the field. Depending on what the field is and how long it stays green I think your best bet would be to wait until season and make a move to hunt him with a just off wind. Not sure how you will loop in there and stay out of his sight line and keep your sent blowing right to him, but if you can it may pay off early in the season. If it doesn’t pay off, and you feel it could be a low pressure area hunt it once more during the rut. Looks challenging and and fun. Good luck.


This was my exact plan in my head! I believe that field is hay. Lots of oaks on that corner, but none have acorns this year.

I can loop in from the north on a SW or WSW (if I’m feeling dangerous) and should have a shot to the crossover point. The gravel-y looking area is completely fenced off so I do have a bit of a buffer to give an advantage on a just off wind where he can’t actually loop behind me.
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby <DK> » Wed Aug 17, 2022 4:19 am

I think you could definitely glass that field. Just go around to houses and those businesses and ask if you can walk through . I think you should glass bc that thick strip/ditch running through the middle looks great for bedding too.

Go out after a rain , walk the edge of the field and thick undergrowth spots (light green) and find the trails coming out. Find the big buck tracks and go from there.

As far as cams go - I would most definitely put one in that round cutout in the crop field (corner of your yellow line). I also like dropping them right where I find tracks coming out of the thick bedding. I also like property lines. At this point id go out on a nice rain day, set them and leave them until you hunt
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby swiftni » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:05 pm

<DK> wrote:I think you could definitely glass that field. Just go around to houses and those businesses and ask if you can walk through . I think you should glass bc that thick strip/ditch running through the middle looks great for bedding too.

Go out after a rain , walk the edge of the field and thick undergrowth spots (light green) and find the trails coming out. Find the big buck tracks and go from there.

As far as cams go - I would most definitely put one in that round cutout in the crop field (corner of your yellow line). I also like dropping them right where I find tracks coming out of the thick bedding. I also like property lines. At this point id go out on a nice rain day, set them and leave them until you hunt


That middle strip is THICK. Could definitely see a buck using that as bedding for either a E or W wind. I’ll have to get out there with binos a few times to see what I can gather. Should be able to glass from my truck in the parking lot.
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby szwampdonkey » Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:45 am

Hard to tell but it looks like you have a relatively small area that you can actually hunt? I had a spot like this once that was pretty small but surrounded by a few hundred acres of land that wasn’t hunted. Based on what i learned hunting less than 10 acres surrounded by untouchable hundreds of acres is the mature bucks will learn extremely quickly to completely avoid that small area if you’re in there much at all. No joke, i learned to hunt that small private parcel only a small handful of times a year, i stopped running cams, and stopped pre season scouting it. I simply went in during the season, set up on hot sign with the wind in my favor and then let it be for several weeks until i hunted it again. I saw WAY more deer hunting it less and basically letting it be.

I would suggest you do the same. I wouldn’t mess with more cams or try too hard to get more intel on him. I’d ignore it and just show up when you have a bow in hand and surprise him when you can actually kill him. You might see him and be just off, use that in season intel to adjust the next time you hunt. It’s hard to hunt a spot less but if you are concentrated in a small area it will be REALLY easy to burn it out. Going forward id only be in there when i could kill him now that you know he is there which is the only intel you really need in the end, the rest is hunting.

Hope you’re able to post a pic of him here this year, good luck.
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby swiftni » Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:02 am

szwampdonkey wrote:Hard to tell but it looks like you have a relatively small area that you can actually hunt? I had a spot like this once that was pretty small but surrounded by a few hundred acres of land that wasn’t hunted. Based on what i learned hunting less than 10 acres surrounded by untouchable hundreds of acres is the mature bucks will learn extremely quickly to completely avoid that small area if you’re in there much at all. No joke, i learned to hunt that small private parcel only a small handful of times a year, i stopped running cams, and stopped pre season scouting it. I simply went in during the season, set up on hot sign with the wind in my favor and then let it be for several weeks until i hunted it again. I saw WAY more deer hunting it less and basically letting it be.

I would suggest you do the same. I wouldn’t mess with more cams or try too hard to get more intel on him. I’d ignore it and just show up when you have a bow in hand and surprise him when you can actually kill him. You might see him and be just off, use that in season intel to adjust the next time you hunt. It’s hard to hunt a spot less but if you are concentrated in a small area it will be REALLY easy to burn it out. Going forward id only be in there when i could kill him now that you know he is there which is the only intel you really need in the end, the rest is hunting.

Hope you’re able to post a pic of him here this year, good luck.


Good point. It’s about 7 huntable acres, and I know that a guy and his brother hunt one of the adjacent properties. There is one other guy with permission to the piece we (my dad and I) have permission on, but I think he hunts primarily gun season.

I’ll probably throw a sit or two very early at this and see if I can get it done, and then move on to some back up plans. Hopefully I can at least get a sighting on him early like you mentioned and adjust for that second sit accordingly.
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby PK_ » Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:54 am

I don’t have much advice because October is a lifetime away in the deerwoods from right now as far as patterns go.

So my advice is two fold, 1) do not get attached to this deer he may move miles away before season opens. Continue to search for other target bucks from now until season. 2) try to run as many cams as you can if you believe you will be hunting that property for the foreseeable future. Run them thru the rut and try to nail down how bucks travel that property and use that intel for years to come.

This would be an example where you should be trying to pattern a spot not a buck. I am not trying to be rude, patterning a specific buck on 7 acres is possible but not nearly as likely as patterning/timing cruising bucks in that spot… especially for how this property lays out and Oct opener.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope you pattern him and put an arrow in him, but don’t get discouraged if he disappears or it doesn’t work out, because something bigger probably roams thru during the rut.

Good luck.
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swiftni
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Re: Buck Located, Scouting Suggestions Welcome

Unread postby swiftni » Fri Aug 19, 2022 4:19 am

PK_ wrote:I don’t have much advice because October is a lifetime away in the deerwoods from right now as far as patterns go.

So my advice is two fold, 1) do not get attached to this deer he may move miles away before season opens. Continue to search for other target bucks from now until season. 2) try to run as many cams as you can if you believe you will be hunting that property for the foreseeable future. Run them thru the rut and try to nail down how bucks travel that property and use that intel for years to come.

This would be an example where you should be trying to pattern a spot not a buck. I am not trying to be rude, patterning a specific buck on 7 acres is possible but not nearly as likely as patterning/timing cruising bucks in that spot… especially for how this property lays out and Oct opener.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope you pattern him and put an arrow in him, but don’t get discouraged if he disappears or it doesn’t work out, because something bigger probably roams thru during the rut.

Good luck.


Totally understandable. That is my plans with the few cams I have out there. It’s our second year with permission, and we got permission late before last season so scouting was very limited.

Keeping my fingers crossed, and options open.


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