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.