twildasin

Very nice Greg! For some reason when you post I always read and pay special attention to the post. I always find that you know the ins and outs and provide lots of information. Keep it up I enjoy learning!

tsoc

Great post Greg! I am always looking for buck sign and faint trails down wind of Known doe bedding area's,as well as expecting olderbucks to be traveling in thicker cover down wind of trails used by doe's and young bucks.Putting the pieces together is rewarding when it comes together with a nice buck on the ground.

MarquetteMagnum

I have had a trail that is used by bucks only. I have never seen a doe on it, This trail is used mostly before rut and it is a small trench with a verry little stream running through it. I will see the same bucks useing this trail untill rutt

shed33

I didntrealize every bowhunter didnttry to hunt a bucks trail or buck only trails? Especially outside of the rut.I can't imagine nottaking thisapproachall of the time in the early archery season? Even if your deer are forced to congregate on ag food sources or forced to live in and amongst each other due to struture or limited cover...I am sure bucks still pick and chose very selectively where they travel versus where a doe might walk with no worries. Especally and older buck that knows the negative consequences of doing so...

Here in the mountains, this buck trail onlyis my sole focus andall I do from from August 30th to the first week in Nov. ( actually all of my scouting takes place back in Jan/Feb/March and then from june till august) so can then narrow down and target specific bucks and only hunt where they live and only hunt where I believe they move during daylight hours based on the scouting/visuals I get of them, whether it be from glassing, filming, trail camera.

Really the only other evidencethataccounts for anythingto me for hunting a mature buck, especially a specific deeror a few different mature bucks outside of the rut is daylight visuals and where I find his sheds. I will not hunt a spot, insteadonly spots where abig mature buck likes towalk. Tryhunting a nice looking spot here in this huge country and your relying on luck and cirucumstance.

"Sign" really means nothing to me outside of the rut either.Bucks especially mature bucks do most of their moving at night. Thats how the big mature bucks in the mountains here operate anyway. Outside of actual visual daylight evidence, shed antlersprovide a second levelevidenceincludingsome absolutes but not totally. As long as the snow levels in the area were manageable by the deer, sheds almost alwaysidentifythe buckscore area. I believe this wholeheartedly as I have killed several 4 year olds and older within 500 yards of where I had found their sheds. I have also seen as many that I didnt kill using the same core area and I had a shed or two from them.

Now during the rut, I hunt does family bedding areasand travel routes (trails)to and from feed/water. This is the only time during the hunting season in the big wood eviroment that I hunt that mature bucks will RELOCATE from their core areas to set up camp in and on doe family units.

The mountains and big country here keeps deer densities very low and spread out. Old mature bucks here have nothing to do with doe family groups or even younger bucks outside of the rut pulling them together..

So in a sense when I say all I hunt is buck only trails ..its because here anyway its the nature of the beast... old bucks are very reclusive in these mountains and they sacrifice more favoreable terrain and easier food sources for the security of LESS PRESSURE ... in the higher elevations.

Hunting bucks here, outside of the rut with your bow means you kill them in their core bedding area or you will never see them.....nowif you want to see more deer..and you spend timehunting doe groups or young buck bachelor groups then thats fine but you wont see the big boys. On the flip side.. the 2nd 3rd and 4th weeks of NOV are completey different the big boys move down to the doe familys.

I've killed the majority of my oldest bucks outside of the rut and it only makes sense for the type of terrain and spread out low density deer herds that I hunt.

wallhangr

I started a thread a while back about hunting where sheds were found and found it strange that I got responses like " I hunt where I know the buck will be, not where he was". Thought everyone would be using that info as well.

GregH

I remember that! You know, sometimes the buck likes to be where he's been!

wallhangr

You bet, already planning on going back to where a ghost was spotted a couple times last year. Would love to find his sheds, had what looked like a light bulb hanging from one side.

Swift Arrow

Yeah, where I hunt at on public land there are scrapes and rubs all over the place. But the most oppurtunity that I had was a grunting back and forth with a LOUD grunt from straight out in front of my tree stand, I almost called in a small spike but he wouldn't come in any closer than 60 yards. I think I freaked both of them off by grunting too much. My other oppurtunity was when I noticed mama doe with baby doe and button buck. I called in the button while ma and his sister ran off in the opposite direction. I had my bow drawn back and the button in my sights but passed on the shot. It seemed toeasy and I didn't really want to take a button buck. Of course I caught heck for it later back at camp.

MOTOWNHONKEY

Just a tid bit that I have learned is that a mature buck will utilize cetrain buck trails during certain winds. Say you have a south wind blowing. The dominant buck will use the northern most buck trail to give him the optimum use of hes ofactory superiority. On a North wind he would choose the southern most buck trail. This has been fact on my hunting grounds and gives me an extra edge in knowing witch trail to set up on.

GR8atta2d

Greg,

I know the buck trail theory is infact true in many instances. Now let's think about this for a minute. Can one be created?

Suppose I have a really thick area going into (and out of) a bedding area. I want to purposely funnel the deer to a local that lends itself to a treestand set. I know I could go in and cut a trail that many deer would use. But under the buck trail theory would I be well served to cut a secondary trail (not as open as the first) parralelling the better trail?

I knowthe 3 main placeswhere entrance and exit to this area are used. 1 I have a stand 1 is a rural road border with no access to the other side (at this point) and 1 is the above mentioned area where an area would have to be "created" due to low vegatation and lack of climb-able trees. This trail could easily steer does and lesser bucks into the area I need. I'm sure of that, but I need some big boys to feel comfortable and secure in using it to.