Holding mature bucks

[diamond hunter]

What is the single most important feature your farm needs to hold mature bucks? Food excluded?

 

[Andy S.]

Cover and security is king, hands down. 3-5 acre impenetrable thickets will do wonders for holding mature bucks, and they will be small enough that you will have a good chance of seeing the bucks in daylight if they get up to move. Treat these areas as sanctuaries and do not go into them unless you have to retrieve a deer.

 

[Mike Belt]

Couldn't have said it any better than Andy did.

 

[TNTreeman]

Cover and tranquility.

 

[rem270]

Agree with Andy.

 

[Smo]

Does and thickets!

 

[tree_ghost]

Cover and security is king

Yup


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[ZachMarkus]

What Andy said!


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[Snake]

Does and thickets!

Ditto on the ladies !! If you don't have them they will leave to find them .

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

Cover x 1,000,000. All the food in the world is useless if there isn't some good cover around. Low pressure is also very important IMO.

 

[diamond hunter]

OK,what type cover do you guys consider the best?

 

[lungpuncher1]

Low pressure is king.

I've seen studs lay up in crp or open woods. But put some pressure on them and they are gone.

They know where to bed and when to bed there no matter the cover. But you put alot of pressure on them and they are gone.

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[Jmed]

Cover and lack of pressure

 

[landman]

First you got you have mature Bucks.....

If your hunting management is right from the start you'll never have them

 

[cbhunter]

OK,what type cover do you guys consider the best?

3-10 year cutover is great. My personal preference is 20+ acres of fields that are completely overgrown with briers and such. I have seen/killed many of mature bucks out of those types of fields

 

[Ladys man]

OK,what type cover do you guys consider the best?

3-10 year cutover is great. My personal preference is 20+ acres of fields that are completely overgrown with briers and such. I have seen/killed many of mature bucks out of those types of fields

I agree but hate retrieving part of that lol

 

[Winchester]

Food and COVER is king!!

 

[Mike Belt]

High shoulder drops them in their tracks. Look for the sweet spot.

 

[southernhunter]

Low pressure is king.

I've seen studs lay up in crp or open woods. But put some pressure on them and they are gone.

They know where to bed and when to bed there no matter the cover. But you put alot of pressure on them and they are gone.

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x2 , mature bucks don't hang out where they are constantly threatened. Food and cover is great and very much needed but to me hunting pressure is the number one key to holding mature bucks and deer in general. I have seen mature bucks live in subdivision where hunters don't pressure them or in other words don't consistently interrupt their daily activities.

 

[Hollar Hunter]

Diversity and minimal intrusion

 

[catman529]

Grown up CRP field where the saplings get too thick to navigate, and stay the heck out of there. If a deer doesn't have a place it can hide when people hunt all around, it won't have a reason to stay there. Especially an older buck that would tend to be the most elusive of all deer.

 

[Mike Belt]

Areas like these also prove to be cruising grounds connecting timber to timber of fields. Hard to see into them but hunting the edges may be the ticket.

 

[Winchester]

Goes back to good cover, its a must and you need a sanctuary area that rarely or never gets disturbed by people to help hold Mature bucks.

 

[muddyboots]

I've been working on this. I can tell u it's not food. I'm
Starting to work on the cover. It's a few years in the making. Nwsg and a chainsaw.

 

[Ladys man]

If you have food and good cover you have does that also means you have bucks imo

 

[Hunter 257W]

Several million dollars to buy enough land helps more than anything i am aware of. Being that most of us don't have that, letting thickets grow up that you never hunt is the best thing as the others said. Of course the MATURE part is going to be mighty hard to achieve if you have many hunters in your area. All it takes is for one hunter to see the deer and they'll tell somebody else then they will hunt the surrounding area to death trying to kill the buck. I've about given up on any realistic chance of ever getting a 4 year old buck. They hardly even exist on my trail cameras. Still thickets are going to pay off in holding any and all deer on your land as much as any single piece of property can "hold" a deer