kaizen leader
Well-Known Member
Here are four bucks that came to visit my honey hole. I've got doe, bobcats, yotes, squirrels, rabbits, and coons pretty regular but not bucks. Then these show up. I love watching my edge camera.
I'm not so sure bucks 'hide', as in LOOK for a hiding place... but rather by default get pushed to an area they feel secure and don't encounter anything they deem a threat. They stay there until they get pushed out (by humans, other deer, other animals, etc) and stay in a new spot until they get pushed out from there. No reason to leave what had become their safe space except to search for a mate if there is adequate food, water, and comfort available.
Yeah, that's the excuse I'm going to use! Much better than "we suck at hunting older bucks!" We have very, very few older bucks that live on our place full-time. Being a doe Mecca, I may only get 4-6 bucks living on our place in summer, and most are yearlings. All the old guys only show up for the rut, and 95% of their pictures will be at night. Where do they actually live? I have no idea, but not on my place!Killing a buck that doesn't live where you're hunting is akin to buying a winning raffle ticket. Sure it can happen. The odds are stacked heavily against you but the sun shines on a dog's @$$ every once in awhile. On the flip, killing a buck that lives where you hunt should be fairly easy.....or at least as easy as killing a big buck can be. The trick is recognizing the difference and accepting it.
We have very, very few older bucks that live on our place full-time. Being a doe Mecca, I may only get 4-6 bucks living on our place in summer, and most are yearlings. All the old guys only show up for the rut
Oh, you said a mouthful there! I've got 35 years of detailed data from a single property and I'm still trying to figure out the deer's ever-changing patterns. Then change the habitat and all the patterns you've been figuring out change once again.It's like trying to put together a puzzle where the picture is always changing.
I disagree, well at least during the rut. For the most part, bucks killed during the rut, especially the mature bucks, are not killed on their "home range", but out looking for does. So your chances of killing a buck that does NOT "live" where you hunt are much greater than killing a buck that "lives" where you hunt.That pretty much sums up the way I see it, too.
IMO there are two types of bucks. Those who live where I'm hunting and those who do not. Knowing the difference is easy. If he's showing up on cam all the time during daylight and dark then he's living very, very nearby. If he's only on cam every so often and usually at night, then he lives somewhere else and you caught him passing through.
Killing a buck that doesn't live where you're hunting is akin to buying a winning raffle ticket. Sure it can happen. The odds are stacked heavily against you but the sun shines on a dog's @$$ every once in awhile. On the flip, killing a buck that lives where you hunt should be fairly easy.....or at least as easy as killing a big buck can be. The trick is recognizing the difference and accepting it. If the buck isn't living where you're hunting, every time you hunt you are adding another pile of human pressure to the spot. It can quickly become a downward spiral.
I disagree, well at least during the rut. For the most part, bucks killed during the rut, especially the mature bucks, are not killed on their "home range", but out looking for does. So your chances of killing a buck that does NOT "live" where you hunt are much greater than killing a buck that "lives" where you hunt.
why do so many bucks get killed that you hear any or some of the following:
we have never seen that buck,
we never got a trail cam pic of that buck,
we don't know where that buck came from,
for the most part the neighboring hunters kill the bucks I get on camera,
we had a great buck on camera or a several bucks on camera, but we never see them during the rut,
During the rut, I believe you are way more than likely to kill a buck that "lives" somewhere other than you are hunting.
Myself and several friends I know almost prefer to not see any bucks using the area we actually hunt (so long there are good bucks in the area in general)
before the rut (which is basically the month of November) because we believe a buck is more likely to show up from a neighboring property than to actually see the buck that "lives" where we hunt. Those that use cameras that I know, basically discount the bucks they get on camera before the end of October to November.