Bowhunting Mature Bucks

[ACCMan]

Years ago I used to bowhunt mature bucks, sometimes successful, sometimes not and settled for less to fill the freezer. Fastforward to my recent move to southern Va, where there are more mature bucks than where I lived in SC, in spite of being the dog hunting capital of the south.

Last year, mid season I located a big, mature 10 pt and hunted him a few times but he dropped off the face of the earth after dog season started. I was not sure if he made it through season, but got one pic of him a week after season went out.

This year previous to season coming in I located him travelling with two more bucks. After shedding velvet he left the other two boys and moved to another section of the property. I have been able to locate him repeatedly but when trying to hunt him he changes up and moves again. I historically would find a big buck, slip in a set, let it cool off and only hunt it when the wind was perfect. This doesn't work with him as I am certain he picks up my residual scent from placing the set, and he immediately changes up. He is also 95% nocturnal, and I hope with the upcoming rut he will begin daylight travel.

It seems I am going to have to adjust the way I used to hunt in order to just lay eyes on him. I think what I am going to have to do, once relocating him with a camera, is immediately remove the camera and hunt him high with a climber. I am sure if I followed my traditional approach of hanging a lockon he will again adjust and the search will be on again. I have also considered trying pop up blinds, well brushed in, for next year if necessary.

At this time it is cat and mouse because he knows he is being hunted. He is used to being pressured and has a masters degree in survival. I think it is sort of comical that he beds, at times, within 200 yards of a dog pen with 40 hounds in it. It wouldn't surprise me that he would go to the pen at night and torment the dogs.

This experience has reminded me of why I love to bowhunt whitetails. So far I have passed does and multiple juvenile bucks, the mature bucks are just a totally different animal. You just have to love how they can just become a ghost in the night.

 

[Catscratch]

Have you considered scenting up a spot you don't want to hunt and hunting a different spot? Map a spot that's good for your entrance and hunt, then contaminate the areas around it?

 

[ACCMan]

I never considered that, but will consider that as a possibility. I have him avoiding one area now, and will not go through that area until O dark thirty, but can hunt the fringe of that area 200 to 300 yards away and may catch him moving in shooting light.

 

[FarmerDan]

I know exactly what you are describing. Without knowing very specifically where you are i can offer little advice, and even if I could its value would be dubious. Everything you pointed out is spot on. I'd bet the chances, now, of seeing him in daylight are about zero. For me the best times, with a deer like that, are in the last 15 minutes before sundown blackout. If you are in woods, its about the time you can't see the pins on your bow sight. I profess to no great proficiency for calling. Quite by mistake I have called three monster bucks to, 1) five yards in front of my stand; 2) directly beneath me; and 3) 10 yards behind me. And it was at the time of the evening, the last week of October, when I couldn't see the pins on my bow.

If I were to describe the calling sequence, you'd laugh and/or take issue with me. It was dark. I was finished hunting. The bow was on the hanger. I was just blowing a long series of grunts, growls, and tending grunts just for the hell of it. I think it just pissed the literal hell out of these bucks. And here they came. Now I try it before absolute dark, but to no avail. My friend, the MASTER of buck calling looked at me in disbelief. He tried it and found himself eye-ball to eye-ball with Bullwinkle Moose. He shot. He missed. Just to be clear, there are many times we try it and might just as well be sucking on our thumbs.

 

[ACCMan]

To add insult to injury, the property, most of the summer was loaded with bears. We were in extreme drought and there is 3 springs that continued to supply water. I've learned that bears really change deer patterns. One side of his property had bears, and the opposite side separated by a road was bearless. You can hardly find deer sign on the side with the bears. The other side has, on the boarder has 4 residences, and that is where all the deer moved too. They are bedding almost in peoples yards to get away from bears, just shows how adaptable deer are. I've also noticed the deer do this once dog season comes in, as they bed almost in my pole barn beside my shop.
Dan, I am in Mecklenburg Co, Chase City, about 100 miles from you.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

If you ask me your best chances at this buck are over for the year. (Unless you have a late gun season and a food source) In my experience the best time to kill a mature buck that you are actively hunting is between the 25 and 31 of October. (In my area) Once more and more does start coming into heat all bets are off and their travel becomes completely random and you have to rely on luck more than anything.

 

[ACCMan]

If you ask me your best chances at this buck are over for the year. (Unless you have a late gun season and a food source) In my experience the best time to kill a mature buck that you are actively hunting is between the 25 and 31 of October. (In my area) Once more and more does start coming into heat all bets are off and their travel becomes completely random and you have to rely on luck more than anything.

I agree as there is no movement pattern once the rut starts. Our season lasts to Jan 5, so once the rut is over they begin to become a little predictable, but due to dog hunting here they are 100% nocturnal.

 

[FarmerDan]

I agree as there is no movement pattern once the rut starts. Our season lasts to Jan 5, so once the rut is over they begin to become a little predictable, but due to dog hunting here they are 100% nocturnal.

Actually, I think, and I can say this because there's no way to prove it one way or the other, the next 10 days might provide a great opportunity.
In Virginia, the black powder season started Saturday and runs until the 15th of November. There are more hunters in the woods, but the pressure is less extreme than what will come AFTER November 15. Agreed, that big boy might only roll in the dark hours and mostly bed during the day. He's been run by dogs and has expertly discovered the best hiding spots. Mecklenberg county has rolling land with plenty of short ridges where said buck can sit on top, ass to the wind, and face pointing the direction of the wind. Smell whats coming from behind and see what's in front. Danger, over the opposite side he goes.

Odd's are you have many small acres of clear cut, many acres of regenerating brush, briars, and softwoods along with acres of maturing pine plantation. Much of the old tobacco ground went int CRP, which has probably expired. In Virginia someone timbering land gets a tax credit for leaving hardwood buffers along perennial and intermittent streams. These areas are filled with both food and cover, and water.

The county still has enough ag land to support a good farming community. If you can put the pieces together, you will find bucks.

I don't know how you want to hunt. You will find opportunity for big bucks even in the dog season if you learn how we local dog hunters operate. We are out to the field later than we should be and back in the club house far too early. Need any more encouragement?

 

[ACCMan]

Dan, I'm just as motivated today as I was when season came in.

I've got a quick question for you. I am 68 and have seen a major change in deer sign over the years. I grew up in northeastern NC, about 30 miles from my present abode, and hunted this area up until leaving in 1983. Way back then massive rub lines were prevalent and scrapes were under every overhanging branch around a soybean fields. Fastforward to now, rubs are hard to find and scrapes get opened but never reworked. This is prevalent here and across the border in NC where I hunt. The bucksign is so slim that I wouldnt think it was worth hunting, but the game cameras show me the exact opposite. I used to find areas in soybean fields that bucks had fought and there was hair and blood all over the mashed down beans. I dont see any of this anymore and most of the hunters I have questioned are younger and don't remember seeing lots of buck sign as I describe it. It seems like there is no more rut frenzy any more, so what has changed? I still return to SC to hunt with friends and the rut frenzy is outstanding every year. So is the deer herd so out of balance that the rut is prolonged and no need for the frenzy? Has the prevalence of black bears and overabundance of coyotes affected the rut?

 

[FarmerDan]

The only thing I know Mr. ACC Man is nothing ever stays the same. From 1983 to 2019 the world has turned something like 36 times. The very make-up of land cover in Southside Virginia has probably changed a couple of times. Were there peanuts in Mecklenburg, then? None today. Growing tobacco made many a family vacation, or a kids college education. Very little now. The nature and attitude of the community has changed with the changes in not only agriculture, but also the disappearance of any light textile or furniture manufacturing. I hunt many counties in Virginia, Nottoway being the closest to you.
Where the local hunting population was composed of folks not 10 miles from where they killed their deer. Now, it's hard t find a local.

I hunt with a club that runs dogs. I started in the mid 1990s when there were many clubs and, sometimes, literally a hundred dogs in the same square mile. We would typically kill a hundred deer a year over 3600 acres. And it would happen year after year. I literally believed we could not hurt the deer population. In the mid 1990s we had either sex days the maybe 8 or 9 times a year. By 2010, 11, 12, 13, there were only two weeks in December (I'm playing fast and loose with numbers) where we couldn't kill either sex. Then, 2014 happened. We had been killing deer with abandon. Drought and hemorrhagic fever about destroyed the herd. I'm a reasonable and educated guy. I didn't think it could happen, but I think we could have nearly wiped out the herd where we hunt.

What does this have to do with your question? I don't know, but all of it has to be considered. I looked a Mecklenburg County deer kill numbers. In 1983 a total of 739 whitetails were reported killed in your county, a number head and shoulders above anything previously. Ten years earlier it was something around a hundred. Last year it was 1,833, down from 2,710 in 2013. Again, the point? Too many dynamics for me to figure.

Now, what do you think?

 

[ACCMan]

The only thing I know Mr. ACC Man is nothing ever stays the same. From 1983 to 2019 the world has turned something like 36 times. The very make-up of land cover in Southside Virginia has probably changed a couple of times. Were there peanuts in Mecklenburg, then? None today. Growing tobacco made many a family vacation, or a kids college education. Very little now. The nature and attitude of the community has changed with the changes in not only agriculture, but also the disappearance of any light textile or furniture manufacturing. I hunt many counties in Virginia, Nottoway being the closest to you.
Where the local hunting population was composed of folks not 10 miles from where they killed their deer. Now, it's hard t find a local.

I hunt with a club that runs dogs. I started in the mid 1990s when there were many clubs and, sometimes, literally a hundred dogs in the same square mile. We would typically kill a hundred deer a year over 3600 acres. And it would happen year after year. I literally believed we could not hurt the deer population. In the mid 1990s we had either sex days the maybe 8 or 9 times a year. By 2010, 11, 12, 13, there were only two weeks in December (I'm playing fast and loose with numbers) where we couldn't kill either sex. Then, 2014 happened. We had been killing deer with abandon. Drought and hemorrhagic fever about destroyed the herd. I'm a reasonable and educated guy. I didn't think it could happen, but I think we could have nearly wiped out the herd where we hunt.

What does this have to do with your question? I don't know, but all of it has to be considered. I looked a Mecklenburg County deer kill numbers. In 1983 a total of 739 whitetails were reported killed in your county, a number head and shoulders above anything previously. Ten years earlier it was something around a hundred. Last year it was 1,833, down from 2,710 in 2013. Again, the point? Too many dynamics for me to figure.

Now, what do you think?

Mecklenburg Co never produced peanuts, don't find peanuts until Franklin Va. Tobacco acreage has been cut drastically, but most of that farmland now produces soybeans or corn. Lots of logging so mast crops are smaller, but cutovers are great deer habitat with lots of browse and cover. To my observation, the herd is much smaller than the mid 80's, and in my estimation the doe harvest is too great. Opening day of gun season here is doe day. There is a 200 acre property directly across the road from me. The local dog club always hunts it on that day and honestly it sounds like a dove shoot. Things may be changing as last year during black powder the first week there were 12 deer killed, mixed bag of bucks and does, and this year not a shot has been fired at a deer. My game cameras show very little deer movement versus last year this time. I am in contact with a hunter in South Boston and his observations reflect mine, little deer movement. I am wondering what effect the drought had on the herd and could it be delaying the rut.

On a bright note I had one daylight pic of my big buck on Nov 2. I backtrailed him the other day approximately 100 yards closer to his bedding area and hung a camera. The trail he is using is not being used by any other deer. His movement should pick up when the rut triggers and my chances should increase. The wind will be perfect tomorrow and I will be in a tree.

 

[FarmerDan]

Go get him....!

 

[Peplin Creek]

When he becomes more predictable again. Setup on him one morning right in the bedroom. If you know where he’s bedding. It’s super aggressive but that might be the only chance you get.

 

[FarmerDan]

Did you find him? Did you get him?

 

[ACCMan]

I am still on him. I hung a lockon in one location and he has shyed away from that location, only night pics. I have a climber 300 yards away where he is exiting the bedding area and getting pics of him coming through there. It looks like the climber is the ticket as he picks up lockon's. I have hunted him 3 times out of the climber, passed other deer each time. Maybe he will make a mistake with the impending rut, plus gun season pressure. You have to respect mature whitetails!

I did see another monster last week dogging does on my place. He stayed in thick stuff and never gave me an opening to get an arrow to him. Last week was a rut spurt, should turn on shortly.

 

[g squared 23]

I think your constant camera checking and stand moving is tipping him off that you’re after him. Leave The camera at the food source, take a guess on where he is bedding or traveling, put a stand on your back and go hunt him the same day. If you hang a stand, he will smell that you were there and will avoid that area when you go and hunt him. But by moving your camera and then hanging a stand, you’re giving him two opportunities to figure out you were there.

If you’re hunting the typical dark to 10 and two until dark, he might have you patterned and might be checking does during the middle of the day. Try going out at 9 o’clock with a stand on your back and sitting 10 until dark in a new fresh spot. My brother got cold and walked out from his stand this morning at 10:30 and saw a huge 10 pointer walking along the field edge.

I shot this buck at 1:18 in the middle of the day this past Sunday. This was the first time I ever hunted the spot, put a stand and sticks on my back and set it up during gray light. Best buck of my life and I am now sold on the mid day thing. Learned these tactics from the hunting beast forum, I would check it out for a different point of view other than sitting on a food source. Good luck!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ACCMan]

Congrats on that buck, and by the way, he is much nicer than the one I am after.

I am hunting the bedding area fringe. The bedding area is 15 acres of 20 yr old planted pines. There is a travel corridor that I am set up in with the climber.
The majority is thick with a mix of small hardwoods, can't go in deep without making tons of noise. I am not going in to check cams. I'm using Cuddelink and have 3 cameras sending pics to a home unit close to where I park. I'm not moving or hanging any more stands for the rest of the season, but may float with a climber.

Congrats again on that buck.