Yeah I know the feeling. I like to actually see deer when I'm deer hunting, but I also like chasing big guys. They're not always synonymous. It's been my experience that old bucks seem to prefer solitude, space away from everybody else. Killing him usually means hunting where the other deer are not, which means a whole lot of inactive boredom for 30 seconds of rush.
I always hear about guys killing big bucks near the parking lot, places ignored or passed up by other hunters. It's places deer wouldn't normally be. I'm a firm believer if you're seeing a bunch of deer, you're probably not going to see a reclusive old fart hanging out with them. Sure you might see one cruise through if there's a hot doe, but where's he at the rest of the season?
My two core philosophies are:
1) Hunt where no one else has been hunting.
As I've detailed many times, before I start moving stands around for the next deer season, first I run a spatial analysis of hunting pressure over the last 3 deer seasons. What I'm looking for are holes in our hunting pressure - places no one has been hunting. These usually fall into two categories a) no sign to indicate deer traffic; and b) places too hard for hunters to get to (especially as the hunters on my place age and don't want to be climbing steep hills going and returning from stands). Once these holes have been located, a quick scouting trip to look over each location and a decision is made as to where to place a stand based on habitat and terrain in the area. The following year, when these "hole in the hunting pressure" stands are finally hunted, generally about 50% of them are total busts. But the other 50% are going to be the top stands for seeing the oldest bucks.
HOWEVER, that's about all that is seen from those stands! There's a reason little sign existed in the area - because the area sees very little general deer traffic. The location has become part of the movement pattern of older, more wary bucks because of the lack of hunting pressure, not because they're going to run into other deer in those locations.
2) Never ignore hot sign.
Hot sign is concentrated in given locations for a reason - because it is experience I high degree of deer traffic around the rut. Unfortunately, hot sign also draws a lot of hunter traffic. And hunter traffic is
usually the death knell of mature buck sightings. But not always. The rut can cause even the wariest of bucks do make life-threatening mistakes. Even after the hottest sign on my property has been hunted multiple times, I will still get mature bucks cruising through from time to time, even in daylight. I personally have shot several mature bucks near the hot sign locations even after it has been hunted repeatedly and recently.
So which of the two philosophies to follow? Honestly, I bounce back and forth and hunt both.
