Targeting Mature Bucks
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Inverness, MS
Posts: 3,982
Targeting Mature Bucks
We all know that mature bucks are a different breed... I thought a thread talking about specific ways to hunt mature bucks would be interesting...
Let's get specific.... Not looking for "set up in a funnel between bedding and food"....That's too general and will work for ALL age classes of deer and is more ofa waiting game vs actively seeking out mature bucks.
Let's get specific.... Not looking for "set up in a funnel between bedding and food"....That's too general and will work for ALL age classes of deer and is more ofa waiting game vs actively seeking out mature bucks.
#2
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
Best advice I can give you is this
If you can create a sanctuary for the mature buck, don't hunt there until the Rut
Find a way to enter and exit your stands with out him knowing. For me witha doubt thisis what has made me more succesful.
Take the path less traveled, meaning it may not look like a great deer spot, but it might be a great mature buck spot.
WATER, often over looked, but he is going to be close to water access.
Other hunters, he is going to aviod them, use this to your advantage
If you can create a sanctuary for the mature buck, don't hunt there until the Rut
Find a way to enter and exit your stands with out him knowing. For me witha doubt thisis what has made me more succesful.
Take the path less traveled, meaning it may not look like a great deer spot, but it might be a great mature buck spot.
WATER, often over looked, but he is going to be close to water access.
Other hunters, he is going to aviod them, use this to your advantage
#4
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
ORIGINAL: Double Creek
Germ,
I agree about the water...... Big bucks LOVE to hang out in these hardwood swamps..... Very hard to hunt though!
Germ,
I agree about the water...... Big bucks LOVE to hang out in these hardwood swamps..... Very hard to hunt though!
John Eberhart
"If I am hunting pressured bucks I either take a boat, wear waders, or crawl to my spots."
#6
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Heaven is my home, temporarily residing in WNY :)
Posts: 6,679
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
ORIGINAL: Germ
You think he knows this
John Eberhart
"If I am hunting pressured bucks I either take a boat, wear waders, or crawl to my spots."
ORIGINAL: Double Creek
Germ,
I agree about the water...... Big bucks LOVE to hang out in these hardwood swamps..... Very hard to hunt though!
Germ,
I agree about the water...... Big bucks LOVE to hang out in these hardwood swamps..... Very hard to hunt though!
John Eberhart
"If I am hunting pressured bucks I either take a boat, wear waders, or crawl to my spots."
#7
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
ORIGINAL: Germ
Best advice I can give you is this
If you can create a sanctuary for the mature buck, don't hunt there until the Rut
Find a way to enter and exit your stands with out him knowing. For me witha doubt thisis what has made me more succesful.
Take the path less traveled, meaning it may not look like a great deer spot, but it might be a great mature buck spot.
WATER, often over looked, but he is going to be close to water access.
Other hunters, he is going to aviod them, use this to your advantage
Best advice I can give you is this
If you can create a sanctuary for the mature buck, don't hunt there until the Rut
Find a way to enter and exit your stands with out him knowing. For me witha doubt thisis what has made me more succesful.
Take the path less traveled, meaning it may not look like a great deer spot, but it might be a great mature buck spot.
WATER, often over looked, but he is going to be close to water access.
Other hunters, he is going to aviod them, use this to your advantage
I also love to hunt where the does feel comfortable (e.g. edges of bedding areas, water sources in thick cover, etc). Often in the rut it is the doe that will deliver an old buck right to you.
A smart buck will not venture far from cover in the daylight except for maybe a day or two a year when the hormones are too much for him to handle. Even then I have watched an old buck let does he was chasing in the cover go because he was not going to chase them into the open in the daylight. The doe would always come back for him though, which made me know he was the stud of the woods. I watched this brute from one stand while he walked < 10 yards from another stand of mine He had the tell-tale squinty eyes of an old buck.
#8
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
It's been my experience that a mature buck will be wherever the does are.........at that special time of the season. I don't target "mature bucks"....I just hunt where I think they're gonna be.
I hunt does......and watch for what's following them. I've yet to be disappointed in this method.
I hunt does......and watch for what's following them. I've yet to be disappointed in this method.
#9
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
"If I am hunting pressured bucks I either take a boat, wear waders, or crawl to my spots."
A few years ago I had to "drop one" when I was fishing and pulled into a spot on this island and there was a really nice trail on it. Just haven't been smart enough to go back and check it out.
#10
RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
ORIGINAL: Killer_Primate
Germ,
You must have forgotten to mention what kind of bait mature bucks like to eat.
Germ,
You must have forgotten to mention what kind of bait mature bucks like to eat.
Lighten up FranCIS
Mature deer eat the same as all other deer. They just mostly do it at night IMO.