Finally saw a great buck this year.....

[BuckSutherland]

And I whiffed. Hunt NE Cass county in MN. My brother and I were sitting on my land Tuesday morning. We had west wind/rain/snow. It sucked sitting there. All of a sudden I hear him(my brother) grunt a few times and I see a few does downwind in some thick stuff. All of a sudden this monster for our area comes flying out of nowhere and is 25 yards out in the wide open wanting to kill me. He was making noises and pissed like I have never seen before. Him and the dominate doe were locked onto me. Couldnt move a muscle. Watched him slip further and further away. By about 50 yards away I finally have a chance to position for a shot. Soon as I look through the scope its nothing but fog and snow. FML. I end up taking a pretty horrendous shot (which I will regret for a long time) and watch him flee the property at Mach 1. He would have easily been my second biggest ever. I thought Maybe 130-140" buck.





He was moving all over our property from at least Nov 1-Nov 6 when I shot at him. Doubt he will be back.



Also had several other bucks hitting scrapes on our land. That has been rare the last few years. Had a chance to shoot a pretty decent 8 pt. I think he will make a huge leap next year. I attribute all the increased buck activity to stopping these worthless food plots. They turn our woods into a doe mecca and the bucks stay out.


Also had the brakes go out on my truck while at deer camp and some asshole decided to peel my cam lock box open and steal my trail camera off a heavily used scrape on public land. I hope that bastard gets an asshole eating parasite.

Hope to get up next weekend and try to get our daughter her first buck. She could have shot 25 does already, but she wants a buck. Poor kid could sure use it after the last year of hell she has been through with major health problems.

 

[Rubee]

Does are buck bait

 

[bowhunternw]

Dang, I seem to have trouble finding bucks again after screwing up on them. Maybe a new one will move in if you have a pile of does though.

 

[bowhunternw]

Would have been fun to see what was on the scrape. The times I have put a camera on one, it seems to be mostly does that visit them. Of course there was always a few bucks mixed in.

 

[bueller]

Don't give up. Much like you I took a very low percentage shot at my best buck a couple years ago. Clean miss and I know that because I walked my woods that afternoon and all the next morning looking for blood or a body. I went back hunting in the afternoon and found the wind had blown my seat cushion into a scrubby tree and I made a ton of noise getting it out. Climbed into the stand thinking I had not only missed a good one bit ruined my land for the year during the process. 5 minutes later tops the same buck appear 50 yards in front of me, I think he was bedding and stood up. This time he didn't get away.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I'm not too discouraged about not getting the deer. I have grown accustomed to very poor hunting so this year has been good with 3 nice buck sightings on my land. Actually I'm really pretty excited about how this season has played out, except for losing that camera and not getting my daughter a deer YET. I think she is up to 10 or 11 sits with me in 2 years. Probably average 3.5 hours on stand and she has yet to see a legal buck. Last year in her sits we probably average 15 deer every time out. All does/fawns. This year I watched a deer slip into a swamp bottom at first light. She couldnt see it. That was it for opening day. Sunday morning we saw a lone fawn. Her grandpa brought her home for school and I stayed and started seeing deer right away. The little spot I had picked for us on state land had 11-13 bucks ranging for spikes- a few nice basket 8s and 9, 10. Thought for sure we would get something there cause there was more activity there than any other spot have had in 5 years of running cams. They were constantly there all day fighting, hitting mock scrape, etc. Hopefully we can get back up with weekend.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Well the season is over. Went back up for Fri-Sunday morning. Saw another great buck on our property although I had no shot I got to watch him for several minutes. He was a very nice 8 pt. Do not have him on camera yet. He evaded me into the brush and never came back out. Serious case of buck fever. He was going on the wall.

That made 4 great buck sightings for me this year on my land. 3 of them wall mounts and the 4th will be next year. Prior to this year the last time I saw a buck was 2012, before we messed with food plots. More cover + less food seemed to equal more buck movement, especially daytime. I know of 6 days good bucks moved on ours during the season, during hunting hours. We had ZERO sightings from 2013-2017 with plots. Very pleased with this year.


64 hours on stand this year
36 deer seen
4 bucks
1 shot taken
0 dead deer
1 tag for breakfast.

Oh and the bucks hammered my mock scrapes this year. Please God give a mild winter cause next year could be awesome. Lots of survivors up by me.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Lots of grouse too, and the neighbor told me that the other neighbor had a huge ten point in the backyard. Very likely the deer I tried to tag is alive and well. That's good to hear and leaves no doubt in my mind that I made a complete miss.

 

[Bszweda]

I am not much of food plot guy, but I think secure cover is the most important thing to have on your property for mature bucks. If you have large enough food plot, which holds deer to end of season then you’ll be over run with deer. However how much money and effort does planting 10 acres in food plots cost.

 

[BuckSutherland]

We have 40 acres. There is a 6 year old 40 acre clear cut south of us and the remnants of a 70 acre alfalfa field just to the north of us across the road. We have about 1-1.5 acres of food plots. We also have maybe close to an acre of clover trails, and our land was select cut logged in 2012. We have lots of browse and a good amount of cover that is getting better each year. I'm not interested in seeing does and fawns like we did with food plots. I am interested in secure areas where the best bucks in the neighborhood will move in daylight. Mission accomplished in a big big way this year.