Pressured Deer Are EASY To Pattern

[TxDispatcher]

I finally got around to pulling cameras down today. Fiddy was only missing for a few days. He made it through and shed his horns Feb15.

Good deal! Hopefully he gets even bigger for ya

[GarGuy]

I cant wait to see what he will do next season. He is sure to consume a fellas brain.

Im all giddy about three deer this summer.

[GarGuy]

Im pretty sure I saw K3 saturday. Looks like his mass will be heavier than last year. Got something freaky going on off his left base again too. Ill give him another month and then see if i can get a few pics.

[monsterspike]

i gotta admit, fiddy has gotten on my nerves. if he lives another year, garguy, you will take his place on my nerves haha.

[GarGuy]

i gotta admit, fiddy has gotten on my nerves. if he lives another year, garguy, you will take his place on my nerves haha.

If it gets too bad, just put me on your ignore list. i know Fiddy made it though winter he turned 8 about two weeks ago i guess. We will see what he does.

[Landrover]

Eight???? Wow, now that is serious for East Texas!!!! Hey, any fish shooting going on. Jillian is home...….lol!!!

[Quackerbox]

I was glad to see something with some horn this weekend also.

[monsterspike]

If it gets too bad, just put me on your ignore list. i know Fiddy made it though winter he turned 8 about two weeks ago i guess. We will see what he does.

yeah i guess that couldve seemed a serious response. if you want him i hope you get him. if not, i hope to see his pics as a 9 year old. either way, i like the thread. thanks for it. God bless!

[Etxbuckman]

18 short weeks as of Saturday!

[GarGuy]

Let Me Tell Ya About Fiddy

If you followed my posts last year, you know a deer I called Fiddy just destroyed most of my season. He will be one off three target deer this year so I want to lay out a few of the mistakes and trials of hunting him.

The spot is one of the best sanctuaries I have ever hunted. Every year there are generally several monsters that show up. That is until we had two years of consecutive 100 year floods that ran all the deer out of there. Last year they returned! I recognized several mature deer that I had presumed dead but suddenly there was a GIANT 8pt on camera. I told before how he got his name of Fiddy.

Now Fiddy was crazy regular and the majority of his pics were in daylight. He was eating in a short panel pen where I piled out vanilla hand corn every three days. I have hunted the spot for years and hand it fine tuned. Loc on stand 30ft high and 18yds from the pen.. perfect cover for entrance and exit on the right winds. I showed the pics to Jooger and instantly he recognized the deer as one we called Pretty Boy. Pretty Boy was super regular for years but dropped off the map at four years old and it had been three years since I had seen him. It was definately him though although and I couldnt believe I hadnt realized it I just left his new name in place. Now I knew he was a seven yr old for sure.

This deer was going to be easy. He never missed a day through sept and often was on camera within an hour of me corning the spot. Bow season rolled around and as soon as the wind was right, I was there. Buck after buck showed but no Fiddy. I hunted every time conditions were perfect and passed a crazy bunch of bucks. I had a few sightings as he strolled through 70yds out but he never came to the corn even though I had pics of him there every dang day that I wasnt in the stand! If i hunted a morning and not the evening, he would be on camera for two hours that evening. Skip a morning and yep he was there till 10am. I wasnt busting the deer out but it was absolutely obvious that he knew when I was there.

That fact hurt my pride as I had the perfect approach and could get in with zero exposure except the base of my tree. I tried parking in a different spot, I tried getting dropped off, I tried another crazy extreme approach. I got in the stand at 3am by moon light and stayed till dark. Same result! This continued all of the month of Oct. Now keep in mind that ii am seeing deer every hunt and some dang nice mature deer. None of them ever busted me. One day in early November, a fresh front blew in. Stiff North west wind kicked in about 10am. Fiddy was often on camera late morning and mid afternoon so I decided to get in there at 11 and hunt the rest of the day.

As I sneaked up to the stand. I saw a small 8pt bedded in the feed pen. The wind was blowing an covered my movement but I had to expose myself to walk the next ten yds and climb the tree. I did. He jumped up and ran South, running right past a small group of young ash draped in vines. As he passed,, Fiddy stood up! 51yds on my range finder. He was standing in the vines looking the way that small buck went and had no clue I was there. I admit I considered the shot but the wind was howling and vines on his kill zone. I watched him for ten minutes through binos and got the shakes. He was so much bigger than I even thought he was. this was by far the best look I had so far. After a while, he just walked away the direction the small buck went and I noticed he all but disappeared in the vines. I hunted the rest of the day but he never came in although the small 8 came back and stayed all evening.

Frustration was compounded. I couldnt sleep at night. The next day, I went to look the situation over. I walked to where he was bedded and was amazed at what I saw. The drape of vines on those small trees were almost like a tent blind. Underneath, the ground was clean and packed where Fiddy had been laying for a month. the spot was perfect. He could sneak in there from South through a virtual tunnel of vines. he could lay there and watch the feed pen while totally concealed. The added kicker was, he could see me climb that tree every time and either sneak away or just lay there 40yds from me without me having a clue! This had to change. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

I went home and loaded my skid steer up. Yep, i bulldozed his little honey hole. I also built a 8ft high pile of dirt with a ramp on the back side. I put a tent blind on top and covered it with river cane. I knew he would still be checking my tree and I could now get in and out totally concealed. FIDDY DID NOT LIKE THAT! the other bucks instantly adjusted but Fiddy went MIA. A month went by with no Fiddy pics and I feared him dead. Then two days in a row he was there at 1pm.

The rest off the saga is pretty much posted here as he came and went the rest of the season. He finally settled back in in January after I killed a seven plus yr old I called LowBeam. Fiddy shed his horns on Valentines day. He is my number one target this year. He will be 8 this year and I cant wait to get a camera running so I can see what he looks like. I dream of him.. he consumes my thoughts. I have the absolute perfect setup ready to kill him. God I love this game...

To be continued this fall, Steve

[tbgascorer]

Good read GG. He will slip up, stay after him. I look forward to seeing a tailgate pic.

[jjaimes]

Get EM' GG!

[cram369]

Thanks for your stories there's education was they are fun to read

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[SaltwaterSlick]

I'm in for the hunt!! Can't wait!

[JayB]

Sat and watched you the entire time. Smart suckers!!!!