Bigeclipse
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2012
- Messages
- 1,967
Hey guys. So I am in a situation with a nice sized buck and would like to hear maybe some ideas of what you all think, If nothing at least this will let me vent. On my father-in-laws property...there is a very nice buck who is very smart that we have been chasing for two years now. Last year i caught a glimpse of him. This year we finally figured out (at least we think) where his bedding and feeding areas are which are SUPER close together. What we think he is doing is eating in corn fields across the street (not our property). Then he exits the corn in the early morning, which is down hill from my fathers property, crosses the street onto our property which immediately turns into woods going up hill... he walks up this thickish wooded hill towards SUPER thick stuff where he beds, which is where I caught that glimpse of him last year. The reason we think all of this is two occurances. One happened two weeks ago during the rut, my nephew just spotted him as he was coming up the hill at 8am...then he trotted off into the very thick stuff. He was fiddling on his cell phone so by the time he saw him he couldnt get a shot. Just shows his in-experience and that he should have been paying attention haha. This past weekend on saturday...I sat on the hill about 50 yards off several deer runs that are very close together in a self climber. This time I spotted him coming up the hill but it was too dark to shoot...I could barely make out his rack but it was him for sure. So to give you a more clear picture, what I saw was in my stand...facing down the hill to my right about 150 yards I saw a black blob cross the street. It was him, he came up the hill about 40 yards away from me crossing in front of me and walked towards my left, which is about half way up this hill into that thick stuff. This all occured JUST before shooting light. Maybe 10 minutes. He is SUPER smart haha. The total length he travels to that thick stuff from the bottom of our street is about 100-200 yards depending on which way he chooses to go. The farthest you might be able to shoot is 50 yards, maybe 75 if you are lucky. We are super busy this weekend so we are letting the area cool down from hunting. I will be going after him this coming week, which will be muzzleloader. I think I am going to self climb into a tree that is RIGHT before the thick stuff and hope he comes my way just at shooting light. I am not sure how early to get out in the woods...obviously The earlier the better but the weather seems to be super cold next week so I also dont want to be shivering by the time he comes haha. I am thinking 1.5 hrs before shooting light should be enough for me to set-up with out him busting me due to noise and such, unless he comes even earlier which in that case it would be too dark to shoot anyways. The thick stuff is out of the question as we are talking MAYBE 5 yard shots at best (it is SUPER thick) in there haha. I believe it is towards the end of the first rut now because I think my nephew saw him during daylight (about 8am) due to it being peak rut but now he is coming earlier just around shooting light (I think he is back to eating and sleeping schedule) as opposed to chasing, but i could be wrong.
I have a bunch of trail cams, but I do not want to go into his area putting them around as there is zero time to let him cool off if we do spook him trying to set them up. The total area he seems to stay in is less than a football field (except at night when we think he is over in those corns fields which are STILL not cut). If they are cut next week, who knows what he will do, but if not I am going to take my chance. If we dont get him this year, I will for sure put cams out this summer to try and pattern him for bow season next year 
