Originally Posted by
BarnesX.308
You got that right. And trail cams only prove what we suspected all along.
The only thing about where I hunt where scouting is great, is that it is so vast that you are always discovering new spots. And those new spots get us away from the spots that we probably burn out over time. Seems that mine, my buddies' and my neighbors all have stands in a 200 acre area that is within walking distance to the cabin. These have been perennial producers and we always see game. Most are 1.5 year old bucks and doe....but these stands are our security blankets. Hard to deviate. Every now and then, we'll scout out a new spot that's a good mile away from the cluster of stands and it's red hot while it's new. Deer pattern us, eh?
The stand we over-hunt the most got a nice bear a few years ago.....so you never know. And you also never know what kind of buck will walk by the stand in the rut. I've seen big, mature bucks in our backyard during the rut. They go where the does go.
That is not to far off from how I do it. Don't get me wrong I have scouted out every bit of hunting ground I have. I just don't do it over and over or even every year, I leave locations completely alone on purpose. Its often a bust when I get there to hunt BUT I kill my best bucks in these spots almost exclusively.
I also have "sacrificial stands" that I over hunt to fill my need to be hunting. I hang my cameras and hunt these stands a lot. When the time is right I start hitting the stands I have not seen or touched in a year. These stands are where I do 10% of my hunting and have killed 85% of my mature bucks. They are all based on terrain.....no scouting, no cameras just knowing how,when, and where mature bucks are likely to be on their feet in the daylight.