How do you know that...
10-26-2008 | 07:36 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,161
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From: Milwaukee WI
How do you know that...
you are in a mature buck's core area?
Well, I guess nobody really knows for sure unless he's somehow glassing the buck day in and day out, but how do YOU know when to back off? I bumped a buck the other day trying to get as close to what I thought was a buck's corearea. Is it just an intuitive instinct refined by years of hunting or are there physical things you look out for indicating that you are getting too close to a wallhanger?
Well, I guess nobody really knows for sure unless he's somehow glassing the buck day in and day out, but how do YOU know when to back off? I bumped a buck the other day trying to get as close to what I thought was a buck's corearea. Is it just an intuitive instinct refined by years of hunting or are there physical things you look out for indicating that you are getting too close to a wallhanger?
10-26-2008 | 07:53 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 0
From: Northwest suburbs, Illinois
RE: How do you know that...
Common sense really will ultimately let you know.
Look for the presence of sign.. ie rubs etc.
But the number 1 thing I use is my sense of smell. Older whitetail leave BIG beds.. and when you smell them and you're in their bedroom.. they stink. A musk thats easy to recognize.. and seemingly only carried by the older bucks with established (if you could call it this) bedrooms.
I don't know if you do any shed hunting.. but if you do.. the next one you pick up thats fresh from that spring.. smell it.
Their beds smell like those sheds.. only muskier. Once its in your nose.. it's there forever.
Look for the presence of sign.. ie rubs etc.
But the number 1 thing I use is my sense of smell. Older whitetail leave BIG beds.. and when you smell them and you're in their bedroom.. they stink. A musk thats easy to recognize.. and seemingly only carried by the older bucks with established (if you could call it this) bedrooms.
I don't know if you do any shed hunting.. but if you do.. the next one you pick up thats fresh from that spring.. smell it.
Their beds smell like those sheds.. only muskier. Once its in your nose.. it's there forever.
10-26-2008 | 08:06 PM
#3
Thread Starter
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,161
Likes: 0
From: Milwaukee WI
RE: How do you know that...
I did not see any rubs plus this was a marshy area with small pockets of thickets. The bucks around here just started scraping too so I didn't see any that day. Making my way through the tall noisy blades of grass I kicked him up when I got within 40yds. Before this happened, I did start to feel like I was gonnabump somethingand should've stopped pressing forward, but there was a tree just 30yds deeper in thatI had my eyes on.
10-26-2008 | 08:10 PM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 0
From: Northwest suburbs, Illinois
RE: How do you know that...
ORIGINAL: Hoytail Hunter
I did not see any rubs plus this was a marshy area with small pockets of thickets. The bucks around here just started scraping too so I didn't see any that day. Making my way through the tall noisy blades of grass I kicked him up when I got within 40yds. Before this happened, I did start to feel like I was gonnabump somethingand should've stopped pressing forward, but there was a tree just 30yds deeper in thatI had my eyes on.
I did not see any rubs plus this was a marshy area with small pockets of thickets. The bucks around here just started scraping too so I didn't see any that day. Making my way through the tall noisy blades of grass I kicked him up when I got within 40yds. Before this happened, I did start to feel like I was gonnabump somethingand should've stopped pressing forward, but there was a tree just 30yds deeper in thatI had my eyes on.
Take heed of the wind direction and what it was when you busted him. WRITE IT DOWN somewhere. He will likely be back with the same.. now think of a plan in which to get him. Sometimes it takes a year.. but always remember that direction for that bed.
He felt safety with that wind.
10-26-2008 | 08:10 PM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,161
Likes: 0
From: West Ky.
RE: How do you know that...
ORIGINAL: dukemichaels
Common sense really will ultimately let you know.
Look for the presence of sign.. ie rubs etc.
But the number 1 thing I use is my sense of smell. Older whitetail leave BIG beds.. and when you smell them and you're in their bedroom.. they stink. A musk thats easy to recognize.. and seemingly only carried by the older bucks with established (if you could call it this) bedrooms.
I don't know if you do any shed hunting.. but if you do.. the next one you pick up thats fresh from that spring.. smell it.
Their beds smell like those sheds.. only muskier. Once its in your nose.. it's there forever.
Common sense really will ultimately let you know.
Look for the presence of sign.. ie rubs etc.
But the number 1 thing I use is my sense of smell. Older whitetail leave BIG beds.. and when you smell them and you're in their bedroom.. they stink. A musk thats easy to recognize.. and seemingly only carried by the older bucks with established (if you could call it this) bedrooms.
I don't know if you do any shed hunting.. but if you do.. the next one you pick up thats fresh from that spring.. smell it.
Their beds smell like those sheds.. only muskier. Once its in your nose.. it's there forever.
10-26-2008 | 08:50 PM
#6
Typical Buck
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 959
Likes: 0
From: North Dakota
RE: How do you know that...
I smelled that smell just yesterday when my nephew and I were walking along a field edge along kind of a ditch with tall grass....we walked over there and sat down because we saw a bunch of deer in the field, and boy was it strong. He must be bedding down in the ditch...
10-26-2008 | 09:12 PM
#7
Thread Starter
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,161
Likes: 0
From: Milwaukee WI
RE: How do you know that...
ORIGINAL: gri22ly
Thats right, you can smell it from 20ft away. This is a big bucks bed, I've not seen him in daylightyet.[:@]I hope he makes a mistake soon.
Thats right, you can smell it from 20ft away. This is a big bucks bed, I've not seen him in daylightyet.[:@]I hope he makes a mistake soon.
See, I don't want to have to come to an empty bedbefore Irealize that I'm in a buck's core area. I want to be able to know when I'm close so as not to bump him out of his bed. This way I can setup close by and wait for him to move at last light.
