R.J. and forum

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:14 am

They do move a lot during the day in the rut phase. If you can pack a lunch and sit all day go for it. Our gun hunting gang saw 3 nice sized bucks during the rut, second week of gun season last fall. We saw all 3 of them between 11:00am and 1:30 pm on different days. All 3 were moving in areas that were not very thick, did not have much cover and offered a shot. We tagged 1 but missed the other 2.

Here's the 8 pointer my buddy shot at 1:00 in the afternoon on November 18th at a fence crossing he was watching.

R.J. · Post by **R.J.** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:37 am

Sweeeeeeet buck .... it pays to stay out there !

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:46 am

Hey Partikle,

Is that your house in the background on the left side?

Just kidding, what a buck!!

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:19 am

Allan wrote:Hey Partikle,

Is that your house in the background on the left side?

Just kidding, what a buck!!

That's it Allan, stop by for a cold beer some time.

That was at the Dacre weigh in near Renfrew Ontario.

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:17 pm

Thank's guys:

All this is very interesting. I have gotten a few good ideas from some of you and even a couple things from people I dont even know. There is one very good point that comes up over and over though. That is sometimes you need to hunt all day. Considering that for me this means, 1 hour before daylight to dusk, that puts the amount of time in the stand to about 13 hours.

Even with the softest cushions on my stand you can buy, my anus hurts just thinking about it. Not to mention my back. However I am going to attempt this at least a couple of days for sure.
There is a couple of other good suggestions I got as well, one from chris 4570, the other is moving my stand a little higher to 25 feet up instead of twenty. This will put me at the canopy level approx. creating a perfect cover zone. especially at different light levels, like morning, dusk , mid day, etc. All info you can give is always appreciated, I cant thank everyone enough.

John

QBoy · Post by **QBoy** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:39 am

Good topic! Very useful

pphoenix · Post by **pphoenix** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:48 am

QBoy wrote:Good topic! Very useful

I tottally agree

LoneWolf · Post by **LoneWolf** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:20 am

I have to agree with ecoaster in that changing your stand location frequently is key.

I fully agree here.

That's why I own 6 treestands. I don't like to hunt out of the same stand more than 2-3 days in a row.

Woody Williams · Post by **Woody Williams** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:46 am

How I do it… Your Mileage May Vary…

The big old mature mostly nocturnal bucks are hard to hunt. That is what makes it fun and challenging.

Two times of the year that you can kill him, hopefully.

Pre-rut and rut.

During the pre-rut he will be more vulnerable than any time except the rut itself. It is also a time when he is more predictable than in the rut. The closer the pre-rut gets to the rut the more daylight active he will get.

How to kill him? If you hunted him last year and know where he is bedding (approximate) then now is the time to set up your most comfortable treestands on his old scrape/rub line as close to his bedding area as possible without bumping him. Bucks use basically the same areas to scrape and rub in every year. Oft times under the very same low hanging branches. Set at least two stands for whatever the wind will be later on.

Find the remnants of his breeding scrapes. The breeding scrapes will be rather large and will not have any leaves in them. They are tended well after the rut. The secondary boundary scrapes are smaller in comparison and are left unintended and will have leaves in them. I never set right on top of a scrape but usually downwind form one a considerable distance, but still in sight of it. Bucks will sometime just scent check a scrape from a distance and not even approach them.

Plan your approach to your stands and do whatever clearing that you can to make it as noiseless and as scent free as possible.

Then you don’t go back in there until the latter stages of the pre-rut. Be as scent free as possible and plan to spend the whole day. Go in WAY ahead of daylight and don’t leave until dark-30. During pre-rut a buck will sometimes get up and go check his close in scrapes.

NEVER, ever approach one of his scrapes during the hunt. Take a good set of binoculars and check the scrapes from a distance.

Most of my bigger bucks were taken in pre-rut.

Rut is more unpredictable. He can be anywhere at anytime. His location is usually dependant on the hot doe(s) and not his cunning. In rut, I hunt where the does are and just hope that he is after the ones in my area. Setting up on doe hot spots and funnels are the best bet then. Basically it is the luck of the draw then.

Good luck… we need it hunting the big boys..

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:10 am

Woody Williams wrote:NEVER, ever approach one of his scrapes during the hunt. Take a good set of binoculars and check the scrapes from a distance.

Didn't LoneWolf put a few drops of Code Blue in the scrapes near his tree stand last fall when he bagged the 8 pointer? I think I would chance it if I had on clean rubber boots and didn't come in contact with any branches or growth around the area.

Woody Williams · Post by **Woody Williams** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:40 am

Partikle wrote:
Woody Williams wrote:NEVER, ever approach one of his scrapes during the hunt. Take a good set of binoculars and check the scrapes from a distance.
Didn't LoneWolf put a few drops of Code Blue in the scrapes near his tree stand last fall when he bagged the 8 pointer? I think I would chance it if I had on clean rubber boots and didn't come in contact with any branches or growth around the area.

I would just as soon as not take any chances leaving my scent around his scrape. Like I said -"Your mileage may vary."

I wear rubber boots (LaCrosse Burly Aphas) but nothing is foolproof..

LoneWolf · Post by **LoneWolf** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:07 pm

Partikle wrote:
Didn't LoneWolf put a few drops of Code Blue in the scrapes near his tree stand last fall when he bagged the 8 pointer? I think I would chance it if I had on clean rubber boots and didn't come in contact with any branches or growth around the area.

You got it Partikle!... You have a good memory.

I also dragged a scent drag from one scrape to the other as I was hunting a scrap-line with my stand right in between two active scrapes that were about 80 yards apart. And the buck came and made a scrape and licking branch on the tree I had my stand set up in the night before I shot him. Like I said, the scrape at my stand wasn't there when I first set my stand up in the tree the night before.

I somewhat agree with Woody here, but that's if someone doesn't know what he's doing (no pun intended). You need to know what you're doing. If you don't know what you're doing and you get careless, such as in stepping in the scrape, or getting too close to the scrape without a cover scent, not wearing rubber boots, etc, that would certainly throw a curve ball in what you're trying to do.

You just have to make very sure of this. As long as you make it a strict point to take the proper precautions required not to spread any human-scent around his scrape and licking branch, or any of the surrounding branches and area for that matter. If you do it right, it will work.

Here's what I do when I'm working a scrape line with urines. I always wear rubber boots and put racoon urine on them as a cover scent, I also make it a point to wear rubber gloves when I work with scents. That buck I harvested last season isn't the first mature buck I've harvested that way, and it won't be the last.

R.J. · Post by **R.J.** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:02 pm

John : Good info from many sources ! ... Lot's of experience behind the reply's !

Woody wrote :

Your Mileage May Vary…

Exactly ! .... there are tons of articles written on hunting mature bucks .

I enjoy reading all and trying different things each season .... that's what keeps it interesting !

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:22 pm

R.J. wrote:I enjoy reading all and trying different things each season .... that's what keeps it interesting !

No me. I just get frustrated that I was out smarted by a 4 legged animal again and it frustrates me so much I keep swearing that I will get him next season.

I think if it was easy and you bagged a big buck every year it would not be as addictive as it is. Then again maybe not, Lonewolf and Woody seem to bang them down every fall and make it look easy but they keep coming back?

LoneWolf · Post by **LoneWolf** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:45 am

Partikle wrote:I think if it was easy and you bagged a big buck every year it would not be as addictive as it is. :

Partikle,

That's the addicting part... The more big bucks you outwit, the more you want to outwit!...

First off, I was strictly a meat hunter and didn't care if I shot a doe or a buck, as long as I had meat in the freezer I was happy. If I shot a big buck while trying to put meat in the freezer, it was nothing more than just icing on the cake for me. I had never really tried to ouwit big bucks and challenge them on their turf, under their rules . I started matching my wits with big bucks when they started to allow us more than just one tag. At least one of my tags is kept for a big buck, the other tags are to fill the freezer. And if I get my big buck that's great, because I have the head to mount and hang on my wall as a way of honoring the animal, and bringing it back to life so to speak. That said, there is too much negative thoughts and talk associated with trophy hunting about hunters that hunt only for big bucks. And the really sad part is that it's coming from other hunters.

I used to hunt with firearms right up until 1996. I gave it up because I was no longer getting the satisfaction I was after from harvesting an animal with a firearm. I found it was too easy, and there was no challenge in it for me. But you will never hear me condemn hunters who choose to hunt with firearms, NEVER...

Here's what keeps me going back looking for big bucks.

To hunt for big bucks and trying to out-smart them on their home turfs is everything but an easy task. At times it can become very frustrating for us hunters. That's right, even for the best hunters out-there. You have to expect to be busted, cause not everthing goes as planned everytime. There are times the buck will come from the wrong direction of his regular travels and come out behind you catching you by surprise. And by the time you see or hear him he's right under you and you can't move because he knows that something just doesn't feel right.

And there are times it's the doe that busts you and blows outta there like a bat out of hell alerting every deer in the area counting the big buck that may be following her, sometimes the wind will swirl all of a sudden at the wrong time for you, but the right time for the buck, you can get busted reaching for you urine bottle, your stand may creek as you're shifting your weight. The truth here is, I can go on and on about ways that will get you busted. But when you finally succeed in harvesting that buck you've been hunting/challenging for 2 or 3 seasons, that my friend is pretty exiting. Especially when you accomplish your goal with archery equipment!... That's the rush I'm after!...

LW