where do the big bucks go

  • TonyPagliai1
    Iowa City, IA 52245
    Posts: 59
    #200465

    At my place if I don’t get a deer in the first 2 weeks I won’t see a nice buck again until the rut fires up in late Oct. Do the bucks tend to hang out more near their bedding area and not move as much? Early in the year I hunt the corn field/hay edges and an old apple orchard and always see them but near the end of Sept. they are gone. I was thinking they may be hanging out in the woods feeding on acorns but that means a very long walk up a very large and steep hill Normally I just take that time to do a little last minute fishing and some duck hunting so life isn’t really that bad Thanks

    Michael

    Brad Juaire
    Maple Grove, MN
    Posts: 6101
    #57187

    Bucks are easy to pattern when they are in velvet. Once they shed, they break out of their bachelor groups and sometimes relocate to neighboring properties. Then they settle down again and you see them while you are hunting early season. By the end of Sept., odds are they know they are now being hunted and start to move only at night. And sometimes food sources change as well (acorns, crops get harvested etc…) and the bucks spend more time in the woods near their bedding area. Once late Oct. comes around, they move more again in daylight and make more rubs and scrapes in order to establish their pecking order and eventually start seeking out does.

    robstenger
    Northern Twin Cities, MN
    Posts: 11374
    #57203

    Yep, what he said!

    Come late September bucks are in their bedroom very early(before light usually) and don’t’ get out of their bedroom until very late ( around dark). Most of the time, your stand needs to be fairly close to a bucks bedroom from late September to Mid October if you want a crack at him. However don’t get too close or get busted, as you might push him off your property altogether.

    TonyPagliai1
    Iowa City, IA 52245
    Posts: 59
    #57205

    That’s what I thought and there is not a good way to get close without getting busted, the hill is straight up on all sides and when i go up one side they go down the other. I have just been leaving them alone until the rut. The dogs are getting pretty irritated with me by then anyway for not hunting with them so early Oct. gives me a chance to change gears for a bit.

    robstenger
    Northern Twin Cities, MN
    Posts: 11374
    #57206

    Quote:


    The dogs are getting pretty irritated with me by then anyway for not hunting with them so early Oct. gives me a chance to change gears for a bit.


    I hear ya there. I get my dog out the first few weeks of pheasant season, but then he sits at home for most of Novmber and he is rev’d up and ready to explode by Thanksgiving.

    mossydan
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa
    Posts: 7727
    #57256

    Ive tried to pattern big bucks for as long as I’ve been bow and shotgun hunting and I see a couple things that they do that the younger bucks don’t consistently every year. Right now I think there still with and around the younger bucks and does in general and the whole herd, a month from now it will start gradualy changeing.
    Younger bucks come from about anywhere but its where they are laying and feeding that I think patterns the big bucks. Big bucks seem to be every other place but where the younger bucks frequent the most. A couple farms I’ve hunted you could sit about anywhere and grunt in small bucks and they would show up from about any direction. It seems to me that big bucks do things differently most of the time. The stories I’ve heard in the past about guys accidently jumping big bucks and when they have patterned a certain buck they’ve had thier eye on makes me believe that after they have dropped thier velvet and it starts getting colder they lay along fence lines that are out of the way and those little single secluded areas where they feel safe. A couple reasons why I think that thier there is thier not going to be bothered by humans, have a vantage point where they can see and smell anything moving for thier own protection plus as the rut gets closer where they can spot does.
    They don’t like to be bothered by other younger bucks and they don’t want the hassel of competeing with the younger bucks so I think with a few more years of experience they know those vantage points. I also think that a big buck changes his resting areas frequently when he has to rest.

    So what I do is look at all the places where I don’t see as many younger bucks, fence lines along feeding areas, hilltops or bottoms that are secluded with enough cover to hold them. A buck might lay in an area where he can see one direction and use his sense of smell the other, I don’t think it matters much to him just as long as he can feel like hes laying in an area where he feels safe. When the rut gets close I look for those out of the way places where he can feel safe and look for does all at the same time, especially when theres heavy weeds, Ive kicked up some nice bucks that were bedded down in heavy weeds. Theres alot of other scenarios and these are some of the places I look at especially in an area where theres rubs and scrapes halfway close by.

    lick
    Posts: 6443
    #57257

    from what ive seen one of them ends up at brads house

    witte
    West Salem, WI
    Posts: 428
    #57286

    I’ve noticed that during that first couple weeks of Oct when I don’t see the big guys much, if there’s an abnormally cool night forcasted – I get out there! They seem to perk up and get up a little earlier.

    Dave

    mossydan
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa
    Posts: 7727
    #36918

    Ya Witte, those first nights with a heavy frost in October and early November really turns them on. Those early mornings where you can look on the ground and see their hoof prints in the frost. If you get a late light rain where it makes things damp or wet the bucks go nuts chaseing the scent of what a hot doe left from her hoofs on the ground. Moisture on the ground plays a big part when it comes to a doe leaving her scent on the ground. Dry ground doesn’t collect and hold scent like moist ground does.

    One time I seen a younger buck chaseing a does scent that he got wind of and it was amazing. His nose told him he was smelling something and his nose hit the ground. He found the scent she left and he was so intent on following this does scent it looked like a bloodhound with his nose to the ground. He took off following it and you couldn’t have pulled his nose off of this trail. He ran so fast that his front legs were out in front of his nose and his back legs were right behind his front legs. He circled a little bit and finally found the trail she left behind and took off like a rocket following her. Wet or moist ground holds scent alot better then dry ground because it collects it then disperses it better.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.