phishook

Do some places just not hold bucks? I' ve only hunted a few years now. I do the early scouting. I' m finding rubs, scrapes, bedding areas, fedding areas, and water. But all I' m seeing are does!

I use to have a better selection of places to hunt. But now that my father gave up farming, I' m down to one place. Every time I go out, it' s like clock work. The doe come out of the weeds where they bed, head for the watter and return to the horse weeds to bed.
I' ve seen more than 10 doe at one time. they come out in groups of three or up to seven.
Shouldn' t there be buck here? I' m tired of wasting tags!

kevin1

Phishook ,
is there something wrong with taking a nice tasty doe or two ? Our state allegedly has too many of them anyway , so you' d be doing a good service for the herd . I' ve personally found does to be just as challenging to hunt as bucks , maybe more so since you have more eyes and ears to outwit . I also think that does taste better than bucks too . You only get one buck a year for now , be patient . Sharpen your skills on the does for now , it will pay dividends you can see later . You' ll have meat in the freezer , and when that one buck crosses your path you' ll be ready for him .

phishook

i' m planning on taking a doe too, maybe two. I got my bonus permit. I' d just like to take a nice buck too.
I just hear stories of guys having to choose which buck they are going to shoot, and passing on 6-8 pointers for a bigger deer. When this is my 5th yr hunting and have only seen 2 spike bucks.
I' m going out scouting after lunch today. Might switch to a ground blind next to the woods, for the acorn drops. But, the only problem is the woods is off limits, I' ll have to drop' em quick.

LIVE2HUNTNFISH

My place sounds just like yours, we are overrun with scrapes and rubs and hardly ever see legal bucks. We see does on a regular basis and an occasional legal buck. A few years ago, I felt the same way you do, but I started hunting different areas of the property and began to see more bucks. I' ve found that hunting the places where you see the most deer does not always work seeing big bucks. Being persistent in hunting for a good buck will pay off,for example, this year my dad and I hunted 15 days while only seeing one mature buck and the next day we hunted we saw 5 mature bucks that day. We' ve done our best this year during a full moon, we hunted in the middle of the day and saw the most bucks between 11:30 and 3:30.......................GOOD LUCK!

robmack57

I don' t know about you all,But with my experience I learned if you have got doe hanging around your chances of seeing a buck are greatly increased. When them doe go into estrous( in heat,ready to bread etc.) You can almost be certain a nice muture buck is going to come by,so don' t give up be persistent.

Thunderdogg

I' m a lot like you are. I only have one place to hunt and all I see are does. There are tons of them, got my first one last Saturday (opening day of gun season here). Going out to get another then maybe a third down in Tennessee. I don' t mind just getting a couple does, always nice to take a buck though.

Thunder

webejonesin2

I have to agree with the rest, be patient, here in vt with out a permit you can not shoot a doe w/out a permit during rifle season. other then during bow season. i see more does then bucks, but just be patient, he' ll come into veiw for you. I would like to be able to take a doe just because there are or seem to be just as tricky as there counterparts. but permits are very hard to aquire here. They taste great too!! Good luk - happy hunting

txbowjunkie

If you' ve got that many doe, there' s got to be a few bucks around. Are the doe staying on your property or just passing through each day? Makes a big difference.

JeramyK

Are you seeing any fawns or yearlings with the does? That' s a good indication that a buck is out there somewhere.

phishook

They are definatly staying on the property. Perfect cover for them.