I wish we could target a buck for " all season "but they get pressured and pushed out into other areas. October 1st has 100's of waterfoul hunters running all over the place. Our rifle season falls during rut. Hunting this open country with bow during that season sucks since driving deer is still the main method for rifle hunters. Saftey is also a big issue.
With all that said... we break up the bow season in 3 time frames for how we hunt maturebucks.
1st period- Summer scouting though October 1st. It is about the only time we can pattern bucks. I'll stick with this time frame.
LASTYEAR
The buck I was after.
We scouted and filmed him in August. 1st time hunting him when the wind was right... produced a 80 - 90 yardsighting. 2nd time hunting him...I moved close to where I hadseen him. I watched himwalk right by my spot I hunted himthe first time.
The next morning I ran into him on the way to my spot. Didn't take long to figure out why he came back early when the goose hunters started blast at daylight where he feeds. [:@] After that harvest took all my time. Tylerhad him in range ( 30 yards ) at the end of Septemberbut offered no shot.
The buck Tylerwas after.
We filmed himthe end of July. Saw him two more time before bow season while scouting. 2nd time hunting him, Tyler forgot his release as it was late and we were in a rush to get going. Hethought he had it in his pack. He had the buck walk by him at 10 yards. [
]I saw the buck the next time out at 60 - 70 yards. Tyler never saw himagain until he measured the rack for the guy that shot him during rifle season. 147 7/8 !! [&:]
2 YEARS AGO
Harvest killed my hunting time during the early part of the season.
Tyler had 3 encounters with his buck. All within 20 yards. First time he had a smaller buck walking along side him so Tyler had no shot. The next two times he was fighting with other bucks and no shotoffered.( edit ) forgot to say he sawthe buck6 times total while hunting him
3 YEARS AGO
I scouted up a big buck and got pictures the end of July.2nd time hunting him... I shot him at 12 yards.
Tyler was after a buckwe calledDagger. Saw him the first time at 70 yards but he got spooked by a truckdriving down a road and took off. Had another sighting but that was during rifle season with rifle in hand. Some nut on a 4 wheeler ( Boss ) was joy riding and scared him off. [:@]
I've got more but this is getting long.
Tim