Years ago I was fox trapping in farm country. There was a farm that had a very small wood lot (maybe 2 acres) right behind the barn. As I was walking along the woodlot I noticed something shining in the woods. I stopped to investigate and was suprised when it was the antlers of a real nice 10 pointer who was bedding there. A little more scouting and I found a very heavy trail leading out of the back corner of the woodlot thru a swampy area into a large section of woods. It just so happened that this farm was adjacent to a good friends property. Since he bow hunted I told him about it and told him to go kill that buck. I don't know why ,but he never hunted there that I know of. Fast forward to rifle season. I stop at the local gas station and there is another friend of mine registering that same buck! I asked him about it and he tells me he was hunting the trail coming out of the swamp that leads to the little woodlot behind the barn. His stand was in the large block of woods where the trail came in. He never knew about the buck before hand. He said it came sneaking thru in the morning heading toward the little woodlot.

Old abandoned farm places are over looked allot by people. I'd pay close attention to them If I could hunt areas like them.

So what is the moral of the story, listen to you?

Ok, what's to learn

I'll ignore this. Happy holidays to you

Maybe nothing?
Maybe Schultzy has the right idea.
Happy holidays to you and your family.

Happy Holidays to you too, but what could I learn from that story other then if you tell me to hunt an area, I should hunt it? It wasnt meant in a mean way.

I think he is trying to say that the most unlikely places sometimes are the most obvious. It makes sense, the bucks arn't dumb they have never been shot at in someones back yard so why not stay there? The biggest buck i have seen in new jersey in 9 years of hunting was a 130"ish 10 pointer, he was feeding in my friends back yard every morning and evening eating the bird seeds and corn he threw out there. The buck was there at least 4 or 5 times a week for the entire hunting season he dissapeared in febuary after our season is over. Call it coincidence? I don't, they arn't dumb.

I guess what I was trying to point out was that some real dandy bucks can live right under our noses in very small patches of woods or other cover. Also that deer kept using that same bedding area until he was killed. (he was a deer that was very patternable) Though there was big blocks of woods in the area he found a tiny out of the way place to bed. I thought that there were a lot of little tid bits of info in the story. How about the guy that shot the deer. He had no idea he was actually in the perfect spot to kill the deer. Does this happen to us? If we scouted more could we find more setups like this? Maybe I was wrong?

Magicman is very smart man and if you listenand read between the lines there is always a moral to every story and Schultzy even told you what was meant by what magicman said. It took me 3 times of seeing mature bucks going into some tall weeds to investigate this year because it was only 50 yards off the road and the woods that were there ran along that road and were only about 80 yards wide and two hundred yards long so kinda like a 2 acre woods behind a barn and Bowtech you know what???? I shot my 163 10ptout of this stand while the Omish boys were having there driver take them home and laughing at me and Steve sitting so close to the road!!!! If just listen and try to read between the lines you just might learn something from some of these guys who have been around the woods a few times.. Walt