Mature bucks don't play by any rules!

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dipper

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You can do everything in the world to make your property better, this is an example of how mature bucks xjust don't play by any rules. My property is down by the blue arrow, and I can hunt the yellow shaded area.
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I've been seeing a 5.5 year old on this field daily, he basically just stands I ut in the field where the red dot is. It's like he is watching over his flock of does. as you can see this is a small area, roughly 30 acres of cover. Far less quality cover. When I drive down the road I can see easily too the purple dots.
The one crucial concept here is pressure. This deer is surrounded by homes, and roads, but he has no problem showing up in broad daylight. No one hunts here, and the sob knows it.
He's got rubs all over adjacent to the field. I'm pretty sure I saw this guy last Thursday on my place, but I can't say for sure. I gotta hope he gets some urge to spread his seed a little, cause the rut hasn't really been noticeable yet in my area.
 
Dipper ... looks like he has some good difficult to access marsh down by the river. May mean he has escape cover that would be very hard to access which creates a sanctuary.

Hopefully he will get stupid and look for a long distance affair ... :)
 
Not trying to jump on you, but I'm gonna jump on the term. What is escape cover? Where's he gonna escape to, he's surrounded by people? There's no where to go!
I did some driving around this morning, instead of hunting. He's got a new rub right by the road. I also tried to get permission to hunt a little sliver of land and no one was home. There was a little yearling out there dogging does, so he might have temporarily relocated.
I'm gonna check some cams this morning.
 
He's also got over 200 prime acres with the whole nine yards of habitat, sanctuaries, and light-non hunted land. big bucks don't always read the scripts these deer experts try to write.
 
Guaranteed that deer holes-up in the bottoms of that river to the south. He likely needs no "escape" if it is lightly hunted. Your most likely spot for an encounter would be on the edge of the bottoms in the yellow area you have permission to hunt. Get a wind out of the N/NE so it blows your scent across the river and set up a stand in a likely funnel. If you had that deer on your place to the SW, he is crossing right near the bridge on that road somewhere. I would at least set up a camera on a well traveled trail in that area.
 
Not trying to jump on you, but I'm gonna jump on the term. What is escape cover? Where's he gonna escape to, he's surrounded by people? There's no where to go!
I did some driving around this morning, instead of hunting. He's got a new rub right by the road. I also tried to get permission to hunt a little sliver of land and no one was home. There was a little yearling out there dogging does, so he might have temporarily relocated.
I'm gonna check some cams this morning.

Dipper ... didn't mean to be cryptic ... "escape" cover can be bedding, non-exposed browse, low point/change/inaccessible area of topography.

I've seen bucks jump out of a field and run multiple fence rows to escape being viewed in an open field. I have also observed bucks jump 50' out of the field and almost immediately slow down and stroll one in a tree line. If that buck has a comfortable back drop to disappear to, he has his "escape" cover ... someplace he feels comfortable with.

Good luck with him ...
 
The current state record non-typ archery buck (259") and the record 6 pt (158") were taken in Waukesha county about 6-8 miles from my house.

Scattered farms, sub-divisions, and pretty heavy human pressure, just not hunting pressure.

How long would these abnormally large bucks survive in the traditional hunting community?
 
You guys must not have been listening to the experts on the dark side. Layered bedding, buck beds, it's micro analyzed to the pubic hair.
I 100% agree with you guys, and disagree with the buck theories these deer experts talk about. That's the point of my thread. I've got 200 acres of scripted habitat across the road, that's seen little to no pressure.
Another point is, you can do absolutely nothing habitat wise and have great hunting. There's clover out in that field they eating on, but that's it.
Tree I'm waiting for the call on my subdivision buck. I've got a guy who lets me hunt his lot, but he only calls if there is a stud he is seeing. I've scored there in the past.
We all throw out these terms and techniques we use to get deer to use our property, but at the end of the day deer will do what they want.
 
All I will say is that on my place without the rut I would more than likely never see a buck older than 2 1/2 years old. Not saying it's a good thing, not saying I like it - just pretty much a fact.
 
Gonna be making a move tonight. Doe preference has moved across the road where one of those snow fence strips of corn was left. I actually saw this buck one of the last days of muzzleloader out there with does in the same exact spot.
My stand location is the white dot. Heavy trails are red lines, with a really fresh scrape between me and the road.
I know your state is azz backwards, but this is not conventional hunting, at least in my area. Mature bucks hardly cross county highways, especially in daylight.
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I will see about 30-40 cars whizzing by, and I'll be over 100" feet from the road, more than double the legal distance. Haha
This will be the second buck I pursue right from a road. My first was a 175" giant I had multiple encounters with. That buck preferred a state highway. That buck was eventually poached by a local pot head who shot it with a rifle and had his son tag it on our first youth hunt.
With the full moon I'm sitting in a funnel till 2. I've been seeing good movement between 10-1.South wind, so it's game on! He wasn't with them last night but easily could have been staging off the road making those rubs and scrapes....
 
Sounds like a good plan dipper, if he is bedding in that river bottom as I suspect, he will be coming up those trails near the road to scent check those scrapes and then loop back to the east to check that woodlot on the other side of the field. I am assuming your entry is along the east property line of the land you have permission on and from the north off that road. Good luck and I hope he plays nice for you!
 
My entry is 60 steps off the road, that's from the west. You never know its all luck from here. It's my best scenario so far this year. Mature bucks are slim this year, at least so far
 
No better funnel than a road crossing
 
No better funnel than a road crossing
For the wily whitetail, yes.;) If you are talking mule deer or pronghorns, you find a hole in the fence and you can darn near leave your gun in the truck and just slit their throats as they crawl through the fence hole.:eek:
 
dipper......GET HIM. Good Luck. Wet snow falling here right now. Nasty
 
Dipper, this is a very interesting thread to me, because there is a lot of human presence on two sides of my place. The other two sides are far from being a wilderness area - just some wooded hollows with mostly hay fields on the ridge tops. It's not the greatest habitat by any means.

My tower blind is less than 150 yards from where the county road ends at my gate. Once when I was hunting, a bunch of the neighbor's relatives came in from the city and they spent an hour at the end of the road taking baby pictures and doing what city folks do when they get a taste of the country. I watched deer moving normally in one direction that day and baby pictures in the other...LOL.

Good luck and keep us posted. I hope you nail him.
 
The plan worked out so to speak. All the deer staged on the green field, and made their way to the corn as planned. I had a decent buck at 20 yards breeding a doe. The game played out but the ole boy never showed. my luck he was probably on my property working it out there. That's why they call it hunting. Was a lot of fun and that's what counts
 
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