Germ

John Eberharrts 2007 buck

GregH

My main method for hunting mature bucks is setting up in a funnel between two doe bedding areas during the rut. The reason being that these locations (there's that word again) put the most mature buck traffic right in my lap. A good place to start is with a creek bottom.

I use other methods as well......

Early season feeding pattern.

Do your homework and find a big buck during the summer and early fall. Find a prefered food source where the big buck comes to eat. Watch him until season opens to make sure he's still using the food source and set up a stand(s) for wind direction. When the conditions are right hunt the evening and kill him. Some states open later than others and are not conducive to this method because batchlor groups break up and return to their home ranges while they prepare for the rut.

This is a great way to get a mature buck. However, one thing that I have noticed is that the older, top end bucks tend to stick to themselves and go to feed usually after dark, by themselves. For these guys, see next method.


Locate a big bucks bedding area.

Through scouting, finding tracks and/or observation stands, locate a big bucks bedding area and wait until around Oct. 20th (give or take a few days) and when the wind is right, hang a stand about 100 yards from his bedding spot and kill him when he comes out.

I've found that mature bucks stay quite nocturnal once they've dispersed from their bachelor groups. I've noticed that around Oct. 20th, they seem to get antsy and get out of their beds earlier then normal and head to the fields in search of does. Usually they show up 5-15 minutes before dark. As the action starts heating up towards the very end of the month and the start of Nov.,They'll start roaming earlier and soon, they'll bed wherever they ended up from the night before. They don't even know where they'll end up. that's when you switch t funnel hunting. (See above).

Late season big bucks

I see some of the biggest bucks of the year during the tail end of Nov. and the first two weeks of Dec. Things are tougher to hunt these days but a food source in the evening is key. Find one that attracts lots of does and fawns. Be careful so that all those sets of eyes , ears and noses don't bust you

GMMAT

Valid points....and I'm sure they're sound methods. We all have to adjust to what we have, though.....and I have access to neither of these. That's the only reason I hunt the way I hunt.....and why you others hunt the way they do. The bucks where I hunt......"summer" and "winter" in different locations.

Everybody's woods are/CAN BEdifferent.

I wish I could hunt this way.

GregH

What do you mean............ miles apart? More than 5-10 miles?

Why? Up here in the extreme north this summer range and winter range happens because of extreme weather conditions. Why do they do it down there?

Charlie P

I tell you what Germ their are a few spots where bucks are seen and then they just disappear. I'm really starting to wonder how many of them take a little swim to their sanctuary on these islands. They are thick and knarly because when the river floods they get alot trees and stuff deposited on them.

The best thing about these places is that when you look them up on atax map they are noy owned by anyone, not even the state as far as I can tell.

GMMAT

I never said "miles" apart. Those were your words.

I have access (in my hunting area) to NO ag. crops. I have access to NO bedding areas. Down here....in ths South....they eat ag. crops in the summer and mast crops in the winter. Since I don't have access to where they're eating ag. crops....I RARELY see a buck (much less a mature buck....which is even more rare) until all the ag crops have been harvested.

Where they're hanging out in the summer and on up into Oct, here.....is different from where they're hanging out in the later deer season months. This is fact.

Germ

Charlie

I have killed all my mature bucks but 1 where it floods every year and is thick and nasty. The only waytoo these spots is by boat.

I have a 10 ft John boat with 50lb thrust Eletric trolling motor. Best 500 bucks I ever spent. In Ohio I am hunting public ground. I bring my boat with me.

Charlie P

So it would be safe to say a good place to Target a mature buck would be in are's where no one wants to go cause it's knarly.

The guy that owns a lot of riverproperty he owns a concrete company and garvel pits let's me put my rowboat in on his property. My son saw a huge buck that lives in a strip of Bamboo and thicket. His wife won't let anyone in there.

GregH

Darn right those were my words, that's what I'm asking.... miles, feet, inches..... how far?

Do you only have one spot? Or for example is it like you have a 40 acre spot of all woods and they feed and bed outside of your spot?

In northern Wis. they yard up and can travel miles to do so. Just wondering what exactly you are talking about summering and wintering in different locations in a southerly state where the weather is much milder than up here.

twildasin

I do the same I target the does during that special time but other than that I hunt my funnel and put in as much time as possible!