Targeting Mature Bucks
 

We all know that mature bucks are a different breed... I thought a thread talking about specific ways to hunt mature bucks would be interesting...

Let's get specific.... Not looking for "set up in a funnel between bedding and food"....That's too general and will work for ALL age classes of deer and is more ofa waiting game vs actively seeking out mature bucks.

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

Best advice I can give you is this

If you can create a sanctuary for the mature buck, don't hunt there until the Rut

Find a way to enter and exit your stands with out him knowing. For me witha doubt thisis what has made me more succesful.
Take the path less traveled, meaning it may not look like a great deer spot, but it might be a great mature buck spot.

WATER, often over looked, but he is going to be close to water access.

Other hunters, he is going to aviod them, use this to your advantage;)

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

Germ,

I agree about the water...... Big bucks LOVE to hang out in these hardwood swamps..... Very hard to hunt though!

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

You think he knows this;)

John Eberhart
"If I am hunting pressured bucks I either take a boat, wear waders, or crawl to my spots."

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

Germ,
You must have forgotten to mention what kind of bait mature bucks like to eat.

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

I thought you guys in the midwest only had to set up in a field you planted and the Booners come ..... that's the way it is on TV;)

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

Water sources that abut bedding areas... my personal favorite.

I also love to hunt where the does feel comfortable (e.g. edges of bedding areas, water sources in thick cover, etc). Often in the rut it is the doe that will deliver an old buck right to you.

A smart buck will not venture far from cover in the daylight except for maybe a day or two a year when the hormones are too much for him to handle. Even then I have watched an old buck let does he was chasing in the cover go because he was not going to chase them into the open in the daylight. The doe would always come back for him though, which made me know he was the stud of the woods. I watched this brute from one stand while he walked < 10 yards from another stand of mine:( He had the tell-tale squinty eyes of an old buck.

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

It's been my experience that a mature buck will be wherever the does are.........at that special time of the season. I don't target "mature bucks"....I just hunt where I think they're gonna be.

I hunt does......and watch for what's following them. I've yet to be disappointed in this method.

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

You know Ihave been thinking about checking out some of the islands in our river system, and just haven't done it yet.

A few years ago I had to "drop one" when I was fishing and pulled into a spot on this island and there was a really nice trail on it. Just haven't been smart enough to go back and check it out.

RE: Targeting Mature Bucks
 

Dude it must be rough walking around with that huge chip on your shoulder.;)
Lighten up FranCIS;)

Mature deer eat the same as all other deer. They just mostly do it at night IMO.