richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
On 1500 acres. Heavily managed and photos of the bucks that are on the "shooter" list. Maybe climbing in a stand isn't enough. What say you?
20 shooter bucks.....
- Thread starter richmanbarbeque
- Start date
Blount County Hunter
Well-Known Member
tndrbstr said:
I think everyone is wondering the same thing, can you elaborate on what point you are trying to get at?
just hang in there
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
Many people that do not manage their land complain about not seeing good bucks. Here is a property that has been managed and has an abundance of shooter bucks. Most think that just because they have a large trac of land and don't shoot small bucks that big deer will be behind every tree.
Football Hunter
Well-Known Member
post some pics,especially the one in the field,Id like to see it
BSK
Well-Known Member
richmanbarbeque said:
Yup, one of the most common misconceptions going. Not shooting young bucks, or having a very large tract of protected land, does not guarantee big bucks on the meat pole. Now it almost guarantees having big bucks to hunt, but having big bucks and seeing/killing big bucks are two completely different ball-games.
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
Football Hunter said:
Btw, I'm not talking about cathole. I will try to pm it to you in the morning, tonight if I can figure out how.
Reemus Buckshot
Well-Known Member
BSK said:
We have 700 acres. We might shoot one immature buck a season total...I know of atleast 3 mature shooter bucks on the property, but I'll be damned...I haven't seen them again and don't know what tactics to use to find them.
Football Hunter
Well-Known Member
Sounds good,Whitby said it was really bigrichmanbarbeque said:
This may be what Rich is talking about.
Long story short is that this deer was 40 yards in front of me and I didn't get the rifle up quick enough on Thanksgiving afternoon. Rich had him dead to rights but got all giddy and goosebumped up :D
Long story short is that this deer was 40 yards in front of me and I didn't get the rifle up quick enough on Thanksgiving afternoon. Rich had him dead to rights but got all giddy and goosebumped up :D
BSK
Well-Known Member
That's a great buck!
BSK
Well-Known Member
Reemus Buckshot said:
Join the club Reemus. On average, we're going to have the opportunity to kill approximately 50% of the mature bucks using our hunting property each year, but we're only going to get one chance at those particular bucks. In essence, if we have 4 mature bucks, on average we will see only 2 of them while hunting, and each of those 2 mature bucks will be seen only once. You better make that opportunity count. Mature bucks are tough nuts to crack, and from what I've seen on other hunting clubs and private properties, we're doing great to see 50%. Most clubs/groups see far less than that.
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
BSK said:
Instead of a hunter I should be a guide. I have seen 3 huge bucks(countless other shooter bucks)on cathole that I have told the other hunter to shoot. Either that or I need to practice being selfish and shoot first then ask questions.
Football Hunter
Well-Known Member
HA!richmanbarbeque said:
Richman wanna go hunting???
:-)
:-)
Thats awesome.
Winchester
Well-Known Member
Great buck!
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
762hunter said:
Be careful your liable to shoot a big buck. Ha!
You should have shot....
That may have been the only time that any of us will lay eyes on him in the daylight. Its probably best we didn't shoot him...one of us would have strained a nut trying to drag that buck. He was by far the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen.
That may have been the only time that any of us will lay eyes on him in the daylight. Its probably best we didn't shoot him...one of us would have strained a nut trying to drag that buck. He was by far the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen.
Radar
Well-Known Member
Nice buck , guys ! I hope one of you gets a crack at him !
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
Radar said:
Crack at him? we both were thrown a gimme and choked like a couple sissies. Wish you were there at least someone else would had got a good laugh at us. :grin:
Quailman
Well-Known Member
Rich, you ever thought of taking up golf? That might suit you a little better. :grin:
richmanbarbeque
Well-Known Member
Quailman said:
Dude! That's rough. My feelings are hurt. I was thinking about you today, wondering if you have had a good season. :grin:
Btw, before Tyler was born I golfed on average of 2-3 times a week, dang diapers stopped that. Ha!
Quailman
Well-Known Member
richmanbarbeque said:
Sorry. Forgive me for that comment! :grin:
I've had a pretty good season. Killed a nice 4 year old 10 ptr. in Illinois and passed up several 3 year olds in TN. It's been a strange year for deer movement though, with very little rut activity that I've seen.
Things are really busy for me right now. Work is extremely hectic, and we just started on our new house, so I have very little time for anything else.
Hope you're doing well also. I was hoping to see you kill one of those nice bucks off your property this year. The season is not over, so get out there and make me proud!
BSK
Well-Known Member
Quailman,
Did you also experience the poor observable rutting activity in IL? I've been hearing it across the MidSouth, but wondered about the Midwest.
Did you also experience the poor observable rutting activity in IL? I've been hearing it across the MidSouth, but wondered about the Midwest.
Quailman
Well-Known Member
BSK said:
BSK, yes, we really did. We archery hunted the second week of November in Illinois, with daytime temps in the mid to upper 70's, and I saw 15-20 deer per day (not bad). However, I only saw 2 mature bucks the entire week, and the only chasing was by immature bucks. We went back up for opening weekend of gun season, with the weather much cooler, but we saw very little rutting activity at all. This is typically the time of November when mature bucks are moving all day and actively seeking does.
I saw the only mature buck out of our group that I ended up shooting on the first day. I killed him at 11:45 a.m. as he was scent-checking a bedding area. Even though weather conditions were optimal for daytime activity, we saw very few deer during the 3-day hunt.
Our trail cam pictures showed plenty of deer numbers as well as mature bucks, but very little daytime activity. Our peak of daytime activity (based on trail cam pictures) was the 13-18, which followed the first major cold front during November. Of course, I was back home in TN at that time! ;)
We were back up for the second gun season last Fri.-Sun., and things had not improved. Even with the frigid temps, deer sightings during daylight hours were way down.
Football Hunter
Well-Known Member
And stop pulling for the cowboys HA! :)Quailman said:
BSK
Well-Known Member
Sounds like what I'm hearing all over the region Quailman. Our peak of the rut was clearly defined by scrape activity going dead and orphaned fawns seen wandering around looking lost, but we did not see the first true estrus chase. Only yearling bucks pester-chasing. Plenty of older bucks on trail-cam, but very few shooting opportunities.
The only real "positive" thing we observed was the amount of scraping activity. Simply wild scraping activity. Individual older bucks would hit the same scrapes every night, and some scrapes were being hit by 3-4 older bucks per day. And for the first time ever, hunting scrapes before the peak of the rut was actually quite productive. We saw quite a few older bucks working scrapes during hunting hours.
The only real "positive" thing we observed was the amount of scraping activity. Simply wild scraping activity. Individual older bucks would hit the same scrapes every night, and some scrapes were being hit by 3-4 older bucks per day. And for the first time ever, hunting scrapes before the peak of the rut was actually quite productive. We saw quite a few older bucks working scrapes during hunting hours.
Quailman
Well-Known Member
What you described BSK is basically what we observed as well. During our archery hunt, we saw the standard progression of the rut, with the exception of mature buck sightings. The first 2 days, doe groups were common but quickly transitioned to single does and orphaned fawns by weeks end. Scraping activity and overall buck sign was as intense as I have ever seen, and it slowly declined during that week as well. All signs pointed to what we hoped was a great week of hunting, but it never happened.
I'm still trying to figure out what happened?
I'm still trying to figure out what happened?
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
Think I have "part" of the answer for my hunting area in Stewart Co., and maybe BSK's down in Humphreys.Quailman said:
Over the past few years we have done major habitat improvements, in terms of increasing year-round deer forage, not to mention a diversity of new cover habitat. The deer are healthy and well-fed, and no longer can be considered "acorn dependent" herds in these areas. But then we had a good acorn crop, actually a huge acorn crop in my area.
The deer movement was simply greatly decreased due to an over-abundance of food. Know there is more to it than this, but think this has been a major factor. When the does are moving less, the bucks don't have to move as much to find them.
