AR Bowhunter

I can say that I got a look at 4 mature whitetails last year. Before anybody says anythingthat is the first year that that has happened to me. Most years if I see one I feel like I accomplished something. Seeing an putting your hands on them is abig difference.No, don't get a mature buck every year or every other year. But I do put some deer meat in the cooler with the does.

bwhunter501

Its never really easy. Thats why they call it hunting, not killing.

rybohunter

Depends on where you live
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Aw come on, someone had to say it[8D]

My serious answer is that it depends on way too many variables to make a blanket statement. It depends on the cards you are dealt. Now sometimes you can change those cards, but for those who can't then you need to have your poker face a little better than others.

Sometimes it is more work to find a suitable area that contains a mature buck, than it is to kill the buck itself. Walking/scouting hours and hours may be fun an enjoyment to some, but hard and next to impossible for others to accomplish. Accessing areas that a mature deer frequents can be tough too. Parcel A may be visited by a mature buck 3x over the course ofanentireseason, where as parcel B has a mature buck on it 75% of the time. One is obviously going to be easier to hunt than the other.

Regardless of location somethings are constants. Wind/scent play. stand selection/frequency of hunting. Having the mindset that only a mature buck will do. Being a ghost getting in and out of the woods. And not succumbing to buck fever/murphy's law.

I think the work part of killing mature bucks comes from finding them or accessing areas that contain them(even if its just an educated guess that they are there). Once that is done I think there is more discipline than work involved in actually killing the deer. (barring places where you need to go way back/way steep/way thick to get to)

To sum up, there are some things that are held constant when pursuing mature bucks, the rest is in what you have available and whether or not you want to change the hand dealt to you.

jmbuckhunter

I am not saying i will kill one every year, tho that is my goal. But I think where I hunt in IL it is getting easier. More neighbors are letting the little ones walk, and we have killed a bunch of does the last few years. I keep getting more mature bucks on trail cameras each year, and have seen some really nice bachelor groups this year. I believe there are more big bucks in the area now than there has been in the past. But it is still not going to be easy to kill amature buck every year.

If I could hunt the entire woods by myself I think it could be done on a consistant basis. But I also have the guy who rents the house on the farm and a neighbor with 2 sons that hunt it. So the deer do have a little pressure on them once the season starts.

mlo31351270

Where I am from there few bucks that make it to three years years old. It is alot harder when you are hunting so few mature bucks.

mobow

How easy is it?





Hell if I know........[&o]

jmbuckhunter

Why are you even here?

Oh wait a minute, I hope you are here trying to learn something.

mobow

Good point.........[&o]

davidmil

Well it's not all the rocket science that some would lead you to believe. You have to have mature bucks to hunt and the time to put in. After that you do need some skills and in some locations a lot more patiences than in others. I think people have gotten to caught up in all the big TV celebs and the places they hunt. There are not places like that available for most. If we've spent any time in the woods or glassing at all we have a basic idea of what's available. Then you set your standards and be patient. If I try to measure my kills by Iowa or the Milk River or other exotic places I'm destined to be disappoint hunting here in NY on hard hunted public land. So relatively speaking... for me where I hunt it's pretty much impossible. A guy 30 miles down the road might say it's not that tough. If I got to hunt the Drury or Lacoski lands I'd tell you it isn't hard at all to shoot them. Growing them is another thing. I personnally am not going to buy the land, pay NY taxes and spend the money to plant food plots. Especially when it's very obvious the genetics won't ever get me the same quality deer that Tiffany gets to hunt.[8D] I prefer to take what mother nature dishes out and go hunting. It's suppose to be fun.

Many people simply don't have the time to put in... folks are different. Take for example GMMAT... He doesn't have the time to empty is PM mailbox so you can't talk to him. Me, I empty it now and then... but I have the time.

LouisianaTomkat

I am kinda like mobow on this one. I have yet to even kill a deer with a bow. (just started last season) I have however taken them with a gun. I believe if you have the right skills, mindsight, DEER, and a lot of patience, and a place that is not overly pressured, you can probably consistently take mature deer. In areas where the pressure is nuts, then you are hunting a whole different animal. I can tell that from my own experience. Wanna talk about nocturnal bucks. Let your land be totally surrounded by gun hunters, turkey hunters, and people planting food plots, and generally stinking up the woods yearly, and see how your luck runs at even seeing one of these deer. It's all relative.

LT