phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
I posted some pics of this guy about 2.5 weeks ago. He came back again....and has gained some decent velvet in the mean time.
Split Brow Buck
- Thread starter phil@thesidehill
- Start date
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I'd soil myself if I had a deer like that on camera. We've seen some nubs this year, but we haven't seen racks like you've got yet. Our last cam pull was about two weeks ago, and I'm getting anxious to see them again. We're heading up early for the 4th, so we'll see if we've got something to offer back other than the 50th picture of our food plot.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
thanks! he's a good one for this area for sure. i'm not sure i know him from previous years or not....still a little too early to tell...even with that split brow....he may not of had it in the past or it wasnt as long as it is this year. Most years i get pics of decent bucks around once every month for the entire summer...so i'm hoping he may actually be a little more regular.....i'm looking forward to seeing his progress.
B
bat man
Guest
If all you get are nubs, what will your harvest expectations be this year?
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Tag soup for one more year.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
A dandy, and I would be happy to have him on my place. That split brow will make him easy to keep track of in the coming months too.
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phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
Thanks Stu! Hoping he sticks around for a while....I'd really like to see how he progresses.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
Thanks NH! I have a feeling that the split brow won't last so long once the velvet peels....but who knows maybe it does.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Phil - I shot a 10 pt. back in '95 that had a split brow. Got him on the last day at 12:30. It was real easy to tell which rubs were his - trees were GOUGED from the front tine. Keep an eye for uneven, gouged rubs when late Sept. / Oct roll around. I'll bet he wears it.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
Good point BnB!
the buck that grew the set of sheds i'm holding in the signature pic below left some serious shredded trees....he had some stickers on both bases and very gnarly beading on the bases...also the way his right antler stuck almost straight up and had the inside point allowed him to rub the opposite side of a tree up higher than the rub on the front side of the tree.
If this buck makes it to hard horn and is laying down rubs....i most likely wont see them until shed season....since i am only on 10 acres i dont see much ground until shed season when I have permission to walk the neighboring land.....and I pretty much dont walk anywhere other than my plot, tree stand, and cam locations outside of shed season....just trying to keep the disturbance level low.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
With your food plots and water hole drawing deer in, you don't think you'd see any rubs ??
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
yep i'll see some....but not many...maybe 5-6. not much to rub on in the direct vicinity of the plot. but there is one trail that i made through some young maples, hickories, and elms that usually gets a couple few rubs by about mid october....i can see that from my stand since its about 17yds away. The lay of the land and the type of vegetation makes it so that i probably only see about 1 total acre of land when i go onto the property....until the leaves drop ....plus i have alot of beech and they hold leaves longer. Once the leaves are down i will spot some rubs at greater distances while glassing for deer. Also "my" side of the hill is primarily doe bedding. Outside of the rut the local bucks don't spend a substantial amount of their time on my side of the hill.
When i run cams over the summer into the early fall i only get pics of bucks every so many weeks....like a 3-4 week interval. Its usually right around the period of time from October 20th to 25th that i start to see more frequent buck visits. Then the whole month of November is pretty frequent buck visits because of all the doe bedding areas around. As gun season rolls in i still have frequent buck visits because I stay off the property and the neighbors in general stay off the part of their property directly bordering mine because "its too close to town"....its completely safe though and is well outside of the PGC safety zones for firearms. They just falsely believe that there arent any deer on the town side of their property....and with 320 some odd acres they have plenty of other spots to hunt "away from town". So i believe several bucks pile onto my side of the hill as the gun pressure builds in the neighborhood because there is less pressure. Then as winter sets in i will get pretty frequent buck visitors because of the food and the southern exposure.
this split brow buck has now appeared 2 times about 2 weeks apart....whether or not he keeps about that frequency or not has yet to be seen.
I have been running cameras on this property now for about 9 yrs and this is the 6th year of doing improvements/plots and about the 5th year of using the same overall hunting/scouting strategy and i have noticed some very generalized patterns of buck movements.
I get pics of the same bucks (maybe 2-4 different bucks) maybe once every 3-4 weeks from June to early September. Then in early September through about October 20th i get very few buck pics...mostly occassional 1 yr olds that are dispersing. Then after about the 20th of October i start to get pics of some of the bucks i had pics of back in the summer...on my scrapes. From about late October to about the beginning of November (November 5th-8th usually) i continue to get pics of the bucks i had seen in the summer and they are usually checking/chasing does hard at that point. Then from about November 5th - 8th i start to see complete stranger bucks and none of the bucks from earlier. I assume the bucks from earlier/summer have now moved out to the farthest extents of the ranges looking for does and likewise the new bucks are bucks from other areas going on extended searches for does. At sometime around thanksgiving i start to see some of the bucks from earlier fall/summer showing back up again. These familiar bucks tend to stick around through the winter.
