this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

i live across the street from a 50 acre bean field, next door to a 200 acre cornfield, and behind me is a 2.5 acre white clover and chickory plot surrounded by timber in the IL river bottoms...now why am i only seeing small bucks and does? i have seen probably 300+ deer this summer, but no bigantlered bucks-where could they be?

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

in the staging areas till dark comes is my guess.........if its legal, after dark spot light the field to see if any mature bucks came out to feed

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

Rest Assured...I bet dollars to donuts, they are there. They don't get big by being stupid.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

i know wat u mean i havent seen hardly any bigbuck deer around my place
of course my dog did kill 1:eek:

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

well good food is only half the equation, how is the age structure? Is there a lot of hunting pressure? you wont be seeing a lot of big bucks when they all get shot as crotch horns.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

Well if you are just talking about what you have seen this summer then you wont see any big deer, I mean they shed alot of weight when it gets hot. As it starts to cool down those scrawney red deer you see sweating in those feilds now will fatten up, and the same thing with the racks, wait till they start to shed their velvet.

As long as they are not having too much pressure put on them, hunting farmland like that in IL they cant help but to get bigger by the time fall rolls around.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

your dog sounds scary!!

yeah they are probably there you just need a trail camera.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

...mean dog...

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

Big bucks are around , Just dont sea them as often , Thats how they get that way.[8D]

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

yeah tell me about she is wacked out and she weighs like 50 lbs. its amazing and i actually saw part of the kill

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

there is absolutely no other people that hunt any of the land around me, only 5 people have access and only i use it often...but whoever said that they probably come out only at night-i think is right, because ive seen 1 good one 3x (same deer)and he runs through my yard at dusk and occasionally i see him in the bean field after dark when i turn on my driveway light

but yesterday i got bored and took some spraypaint and a hatchet and hopped on my 4-wheeler to look for good spots for some stands/blinds, and some of the buck tracks i found on the edge of that corn field were 5 INCHES LONG! i had to check my pants...so thanks u guys, nowi know theyre there

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

i saw a nice 140 class typicalin the bean field thursday around 730-i know theyre there, thanks again guys

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

If your place is like mine, I see lots of does, fawns, and a few small 1 1/2 yr. olds during the Summer and early Fall. About the last week of October, the buck gates open and I startseeing olderbucks, some good ones, til about mid December. You will start seeing larger bucks when the pre rut and rut gets closer.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

I agree with superstrutter, bucks are not moving much yet.. Once the pre rut starts up you will start to see them appear again. Here it is the same thing with mostly yearlings and a few does with lambs showing up right now. I wouldn't worry about it to much. Once the weather starts cooling down and the pre rut starts the bucks will start moving again.

RE: this just baffles me-a lack of good racks
 

yes i have seen an inordinate amount of large does and fawns, with 1-2.5 yr old bucks scattered about, i sure hope the big bucks show up-cuz i know theyre there, cant wat for the rut!