September 1 through ~October 20, mature buck pictures.... let's discuss

[alldaysit]

For those who get mature buck pictures between Sept 1 and October 20th or so, where do you get them on your properties (food, funnel, bedding?) and how often?

I've been getting mature buck pictures in August the past few years over food plots. Then the first week of September they disappear until the 20th or so of October. Typically about the 23rd or 24th is when multiple mature bucks show back up and start setting up rub and scrape lines/territories. It's a frustrating time running cams because I'm always wondering when they will show back up. I should just stay out of the woods and go fishing until the 3rd week of October.

Anyone else see similar patterns on there parcels? I'm in Northern Wisconsin.


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[John-W-WI]

I should just stay out of the woods and go fishing until the 3rd week of October.

My hunting buddy and I were just texting today complaining about nothing but doe pictures. 1000's of them. Barely any bucks. Literally 2 bucks so far this year (cams started about 6 weeks ago) that aren't last years fawns.

In a month or so it will be a totally different story.

We don't even consider hunting until approximately the 3rd week in October. If we do, all that happens is the mature does know where we are hunting and avoid us.

I think between the two of us last season we maybe hunted 10 days probably closer to half that. And we both were lucky enough to get a good one.

Less is certainly more, especially in WI where there tends to be a lot of pressure. Our farm is LOW pressure and it pays.

-John

 

[bigbendmarine]

In Northern Florida but have noted the same thing since owning my current property (for what it's worth pre-rut starts fast and furious the last week of October on my place with bulk of chasing between early November and mid-December).

With my home on my land I get to watch a good deal of activity first hand... sure I'll make a few folks chuckle with this analogy but I think its because the bucks go into isolation / hiding mid-David Banner to Hulk transition.

Mostly friendly, social, and gentleman like during spring and early summer while in bachelor groups and then looking to fight for does against prior buddies come fall. That short period in between is just... well... awkward! :emoji_ghost:

 

[alldaysit]

My hunting buddy and I were just texting today complaining about nothing but doe pictures. 1000's of them. Barely any bucks. Literally 2 bucks so far this year (cams started about 6 weeks ago) that aren't last years fawns.

In a month or so it will be a totally different story.

We don't even consider hunting until approximately the 3rd week in October. If we do, all that happens is the mature does know where we are hunting and avoid us.

I think between the two of us last season we maybe hunted 10 days probably closer to half that. And we both were lucky enough to get a good one.

Less is certainly more, especially in WI where there tends to be a lot of pressure. Our farm is LOW pressure and it pays.

-John

John, I sent you a PM.

Well thanks for sharing John. Looks like me and my neighbors aren't the only ones who have this situation.

I heard a rumor that they eat the freshly fallen leaves from trees during this time and they don't have to travel far for food.

I'm beginning to wonder how many acres a mature bucks daylight home range really is. I know it's published that a bucks home range averages like 640 non-square acres. But what percentage of that 640 is attended by the buck during the day, during hunting season between Sept 1 and October 20?


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[John-W-WI]

John, I sent you a PM.

Well thanks for sharing John. Looks like me and my neighbors aren't the only ones who have this situation.

I heard a rumor that they eat the freshly fallen leaves from trees during this time and they don't have to travel far for food.

I'm beginning to wonder how many acres a mature bucks daylight home range really is. I know it's published that a bucks home range averages like 640 non-square acres. But what percentage of that 640 is attended by the buck during the day, during hunting season between Sept 1 and October 20?


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I'm no expert, but here's my theory:

I've done a lot of habitat improvement. Great food, great cover, not too much human presence on most of the farm.

The does have caught onto this and take it over. Bucks won't put up with the social pressure of all the does. So they either stay away or only visit at night. The does have learned the humans aren't a big threat and are happy to stick around.

Once October is coming to an end the boys don't care anymore, they are a horny 16 year old at the dance full of girls. So they show up and spend much of their time on the same ground the does owned all season. The does aren't interested in the bucks quite yet, so they avoid the bucks (reinforcing the bucks ability to hang out on this "new" ground).

So in the end, we have bucks show up that we rarely see the rest of the year. As long as we haven't educated the girls (by hunting early and teaching them where our stands are), we get a good shot at the bucks.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, until they prove me wrong (again)

-John

 

[Nova]

I have had my best luck this time of year getting them at waterholes. Very few of them are day time pics though. Starting next weekend I will hunt observation stands just trying to find out where the big boys are and where they are going. Then I slowly start to move in on them.

I agree with John that you have to be careful not to spook does and especially not let the bucks know you are hunting them. We stay away from the prime rut stands, but do try to close in on the bedding areas. Close to the bedding is the best chance of seeing one in shooting light this time of year with them being so nocturnal.

Most of my cams right now are on mineral and waterholes just trying to get inventory.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I move all my cameras over scrapes come Oct. 1. I don't wait for fresh scrapes to appear I just hang them where the most heavily used scrapes have been year after year. I have two scent drippers that I hang and the rest just get cameras. It usually only takes about 4 or 5 days for the majority of the bucks in the surrounding area to find the cameras with the scent drippers. I generally don't refill the drippers because the bucks leave plenty of their own scent behind.

 

[alldaysit]

I have had my best luck this time of year getting them at waterholes. Very few of them are day time pics though. Starting next weekend I will hunt observation stands just trying to find out where the big boys are and where they are going. Then I slowly start to move in on them.

I agree with John that you have to be careful not to spook does and especially not let the bucks know you are hunting them. We stay away from the prime rut stands, but do try to close in on the bedding areas. Close to the bedding is the best chance of seeing one in shooting light this time of year with them being so nocturnal.

Most of my cams right now are on mineral and waterholes just trying to get inventory.

This is a good point. I didn't get to creating the waterholes like I wanted to this year. They are going to have to wait until next year.

I don't use mineral either. I've been debating on using it and have in the past. Maybe I should.


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[trampledbyturtles]

To the OP, not sure, wonder myself, and have been running cams for a number of years.

Maybe I'm taking the wrong approach, but I just don't think I'm placing my cams directly in their core area, almost on purpose.

By this time of year I have moved the cameras out of the thick cover onto the main trails. Can just drive up an change chip with out getting out of the vehicle. Will only check about once a month at that point. With a few specific pulls one right around oct 15 an another Nov1

Will start to pickup a lot of nighttime travel activity once they start venturing out of their core area. With only 160A most bucks can cruise the property in a night and more often than not can get the jist of where they may be bedding an when would be a good time to make the move.

Plus I believe with only 160 I am in Johns boat as well. Hold a lot of does on the property year round, and its just a matter of time till a few bruisers will filter in. Keep the cameras running as scent an disturbance free as possible an keep a running history to try an predict when some of them may show back up the following year like clockwork.

 

[Lee Haakenson]

I have the same thing in western wi. No shooters day or night on camera. All off a sudden Mid Oct, shooters show up. I also stay out 100% from mid august until mid october, so pressure likely not the issue.

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[S.T.Fanatic]

I should have mentioned the scrapes that I hang on and that are the best for getting daytime buck pics are the ones deep in the woods not the scrapes that you find on the edges of the timber. I have found for the most part the scrapes on the edges are used by button bucks and yearlings with little nocturnal mature buck use. I am in bluff country so in my case they are the ones almost always in the creek bottoms. Don't be afraid to hang a stand nearby and hunt it in the morning when it is raining an predicted to stop early in the AM. You can beat the swirling winds that are common by hunting them on a still morning. Once the sun comes up the thermal currents will carry your scent strait up in the air. More times than not the bucks will return to freshen their "breeding scrapes" when the weather breaks.

 

[gwm]

I get 95% of my mature buck pics on food plots and waterholes and get them fairly consistently during that timeframe.

 

[Buckly]

I get mature bucks on camera in July. Always in the white clover and usually mid day. I assume to stay away from doe pressure. Once the velvet comes off I don't get any mature bucks back on cams until mid October. Then they can be either on pinch points or food and that lasts up until December 1. The rest of the year, all I get are 1000's of pics of doe and small bucks. So I have fined tuned the cams now and only put them out when I have a chance of getting bucks on camera. I don't need to see pictures of the same doe and fawns every day for months.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I start to get mature buck pictures over my turnips and radishes this time of year. When the neighbors beans start to yellow. I actually have one hitting a mock scrape right now as well. Before I started planting turnips and radishes, I wouldn't get any mature buck pictures until the rut. Once oct 1st hits those bucks stop using the plots though. That's when scrapes are key for me. Most pics are at night so I don't bother hunting until one of them shows up in daylight Somewhere on the property, then i start to put the move on very carefully, getting more aggressive right before the rut, I have found that the bucks that I have on the property tend to leave for rut, and new ones show up. I think they get action on the early does that come into heat and then start to get antsy and go look for other doe a mile down the road.

 

[bueller]

I get them during that time period on food and travel corridors but nothing real consistent. Even running multiple cameras on smaller acreage I've never had enough "intel" on a particular mature buck to truly identify a pattern of where he will be and when he will be there.

 

[g squared 23]

It's certainly relative to the size of each property and where each's relative strengths and weaknesses lie.

Like most I get very little buck activity during this time, likely because I keep cams on the edge. I assume the bucks are back in the cover eating acorns. I don't run cameras back in this area because it would create too much pressure and getting a picture of a buck at night is not helping me hunt them. Any cold front around October 24 triggers daylight mature buck movement and that's when I really start to pay attention to my cameras.

We see the same group of bucks until about Halloween and then normally pick up one or two different ones and lose what we've had up until that point.


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[tynimiller]

Bucks in velvet for the most part from all our years of observations seek heavy cover and native brows. Spring time/Summer is extremely chalked full of brows available for the bucks and large ag fields at least in our areas are relegated to night time feeding for the most part with the brunt of bucks' days spent in and around solid bedding cover that either has or borders great browsing areas.

My New22 (bought last year) has some incredible bedding areas (especially not that I uncongested portions to actually make them usable)...they are collections of wild pear/honeysuckle bushes/serviceberry and many other mixtures...native grasses (and bad things like fescue too of course) make up the landscape of the bedding. Then just contiguous to this is a winding with island blocks of cover clover/chicory plot. All summer long especially from about the August till now frame just a plethora of bucks have discovered this awesome forage area just mere feet from a bedroom option.

I plan to mimic this same concept on the other side of the property near about a 2 acre bedding area with an adjacent .5 acre clover plot and install cover surrounding it.

However, my parents Homestead property for over a dozen years simply is not a buck spot this time of year...outside a few yearlings every now and then. Bucks release back into the bottoms or fallow fields bordering alfalfa until about late September or so each year. No worries as we know it is all common.

 

[Plottin'booners]

I get most of mine right now on spots I kick to the dirt and pee there myself. Along field edges, logging roads,or around apple trees or any spot that has a branch that just seems right. As soon as the bucks shed the velvet they show up fighting and establishing pecking order and hitting my scrapes.

 

[alldaysit]

Ok, today I confirmed two rubs right next to my perimeter access roads. One was on a 2” tree and another was a big fella on about a 7” tree in a fence line thicket. My cams are picking up lots of small bucks and two shooters identified in the past week. Still no noticeable rubs from the stands.


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[S.T.Fanatic]

Ok, today I confirmed two rubs right next to my perimeter access roads. One was on a 2” tree and another was a big fella on about a 7” tree in a fence line thicket. My cams are picking up lots of small bucks and two shooters identified in the past week. Still no noticeable rubs from the stands.


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I have seen less rubs this year than ever before and also more scrapes than ever. Not sure why this is but....

We also usually have some new bucks showing up by now with some decent age to them but have yet to see anything new yet this year. Easily our worst camera year to date. Running 6 cams on 380 acres.