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Pressured Deer Are EASY To Pattern

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    Excited to see this buck!!

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      Originally posted by GarGuy View Post
      A few weeks ago, I showed Jooger17 a spot way back behind a big thick bedding area in the DCNF where there are about 30 big whiteoaks. Its a pain to get in there but when the acorns are falling in that sanctuary, the bucks always cover it up.

      This evening He knew conditions were right and he sneaked in there this evening with carefull consideration to the wind. No stomping , trimming brush, hanging stands.. Just get in, set up quietly around 330pm. At 411pm a big 6.5 year old stud came stomping in , hooking bushes as he came. Here we are a full week into gun season in a heavily pressured part of the DCNF. The old buck came rolling in without a care in the world with the sun shining on him. He got a ride in Steves truck.

      Maybe Steve will comment here but that's the way its done. No sneaking in right at last light. Big buck stompin in! Congrats Steve.

      Congrats to him. Let's see the pics

      Comment


        Here's the link to the other thread with pictures of the deer

        Comment


          GarGuy, having grown up hunting deep East Texas, including some in the general area of your stomping grounds of the DCNF, I have read this entire thread through with fascination. I live and hunt in Ohio now for the last 10 years. Brought up a lot of questions in my mind, hoping maybe you can shed some light on them to the best of your ability.

          1) Is there any single characteristic that ALL of your "pressured" big buck hotspots have in common? Are they almost all centered around a thicket or a grown-up clearcut? What about something like a CRP field with head-high grass or a swamp with head-high clumps of swamp grass and alder type bush-thickets?

          2) What is it about a spot that makes you look at it, and without even setting foot in it, say to yourself "that is THE spot"? How often have you thought that, only to inspect it and find, for whatever reason, it wasn't as good as you thought it would be?

          3) Is there a "minimum" size that the thicket/clearcut needs to be, in your experience, in order to give those big mature bucks the security they need to feel like they can get up in the middle of the day, in broad daylight, and move around, as your many experiences show?

          4) You've said several places in this thread that you do the setting up of the shooting lane, etc., during the Summer when possible. Is that from blind faith that the spot will be good, or because you had some reason to know mature bucks were spending time there in the previous Fall season?

          5) In your descriptions of how you set up, you've indicated that you like to hunt the edge of the thicket/sanctuary, looking just into it from your stand or blind. You've mentioned single oak trees dropping nuts as being the deciding factor in several instances. What if you don't have something like that, how exactly do you decide where you're going to set up your shooting lane and stand/blind, just from the wind direction?

          6) In a few of the stories, you, or you and your father or you and a friend shot more than one mature buck in a particular spot within a short period of time. Why didn't the other mature bucks vacate the spot after the first one was killed? After all, this thread is about "pressured" deer. If you're hunting a relatively small area and you fire off a gun right in their "sanctuary", why has that spot not now become a "pressured" spot as a result of the gun shot and the scent/noise you leave and make getting the deer out of there?

          7) Are these magical spots you've had so much success finding, areas where those mature bucks spend a lot of time ALL YEAR LONG, or only during hunting season when the guns start blazing? And if they only spend time there when the guns start blazing, do they generally leave and go somewhere else from February on, after season is over?

          8) When you're corning these spots over a period of time of more than just a few days, how often do you go in to put out more corn, and how much do you put out at one time? In a pile or thrown like chicken feed? Do you only go put out more corn with a certain wind direction, or will you put out corn on a certain schedule no matter what the wind direction? When you go put out corn, how far away do you think those bucks are generally bedded from your corn spot? 50 yards? 100? Further? It amazes me that these mature bucks that are retreating to that spot because of human pressure, will tolerate you going in there regularly to put out corn and check cameras.

          9) It sounds like you've killed a lot of these bucks in early November, shortly after gun season starts. Obviously, that is during the rut, and yet your stories indicate groups of bucks together in these magical sanctuaries. What is your theory on why they will tolerate being in close proximity to each other at that time of the year (rut)? Sounds like you frequently see a lot of does at these sanctuary set-ups also?

          10) Is it almost "necessary" for you to be hunting an area with a lot of pressure in order to be able to find these little hot-spots with mature bucks stacked up in them like cordwood? What about an area of private land with lots of quality habitat and little hunting pressure? Are the mature bucks a lot more likely to be spread out in different areas rather than kind of bunched up in one little spot like it sounds with a lot of your spots?

          11) Are your best spots generally productive in this way year after year, so long as they remain "hidden" and a sanctuary"?

          12) Do you ever have 2 different of these magical sanctuary spots a few miles apart (or less) where you find a particular mature buck or multiple bucks are using BOTH of them concurrently?

          13) Are these bucks still leaving the sanctuary at night, just holing up in there during all daylight hours?

          14) Any reason you think these same tactics wouldn't work in the Midwest U.S.?

          Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to really understand your system in hopes that I can apply it to our southern Ohio bucks.
          Last edited by Joshua Flournoy; 11-09-2014, 05:16 PM.

          Comment


            Wow,awesome thread. Thank you sir for taking the time out to type up these hunts. I cant wait till you tell the next one. Let me know if you ever need someone to round up some wood for your campfire.

            Comment


              Best thread I've read in a long, long time, thanks for sharing guys!!!

              Comment


                Originally posted by jooger17 View Post
                The biggest part of this comes in finding them after deer season when they've been pressured the most. Go in and find their beds, with any luck you'll jump him and see him. Commit that spot to memory and you have 9 months to decide how to tweet it to where you can hunt it.

                When you find a bed, the bed in itself will tell you what direction wind to hunt him.

                Almost none of this will be learned in a days scouting trip. My favorite DCNF stand took me 3 years to put the puzzle together. When I did, I put an arrow in a 160's giant.

                Every time you walk into the woods you need to be able to write a 2pg essay on what you learned... Even if you don't see an animal.

                It's easy to get disgusted when you get your teeth kicked in day in and day out. The biggest mistake I see is guys not having the confidence to leave a spot because they're getting pics of "him" every NIGHT. He won't be fat from where you're getting pics. You have GOT to find where he lives, not where he's going.
                That last sentence is where the hammer meets the nail!

                Comment


                  Extremely well thought out questions and each requires a detailed answer. I may tackle this a few at a time.

                  Originally posted by Joshua Flournoy View Post
                  GarGuy, having grown up hunting deep East Texas, including some in the general area of your stomping grounds of the DCNF, I have read this entire thread through with fascination. I live and hunt in Ohio now for the last 10 years. Brought up a lot of questions in my mind, hoping maybe you can shed some light on them to the best of your ability.

                  1) Is there any single characteristic that ALL of your "pressured" big buck hotspots have in common? Are they almost all centered around a thicket or a grown-up clearcut? What about something like a CRP field with head-high grass or a swamp with head-high clumps of swamp grass and alder type bush-thickets?

                  2) What is it about a spot that makes you look at it, and without even setting foot in it, say to yourself "that is THE spot"? How often have you thought that, only to inspect it and find, for whatever reason, it wasn't as good as you thought it would be?

                  3) Is there a "minimum" size that the thicket/clearcut needs to be, in your experience, in order to give those big mature bucks the security they need to feel like they can get up in the middle of the day, in broad daylight, and move around, as your many experiences show?

                  4) You've said several places in this thread that you do the setting up of the shooting lane, etc., during the Summer when possible. Is that from blind faith that the spot will be good, or because you had some reason to know mature bucks were spending time there in the previous Fall season?

                  5) In your descriptions of how you set up, you've indicated that you like to hunt the edge of the thicket/sanctuary, looking just into it from your stand or blind. You've mentioned single oak trees dropping nuts as being the deciding factor in several instances. What if you don't have something like that, how exactly do you decide where you're going to set up your shooting lane and stand/blind, just from the wind direction?

                  6) In a few of the stories, you, or you and your father or you and a friend shot more than one mature buck in a particular spot within a short period of time. Why didn't the other mature bucks vacate the spot after the first one was killed? After all, this thread is about "pressured" deer. If you're hunting a relatively small area and you fire off a gun right in their "sanctuary", why has that spot not now become a "pressured" spot as a result of the gun shot and the scent/noise you leave and make getting the deer out of there?

                  7) Are these magical spots you've had so much success finding, areas where those mature bucks spend a lot of time ALL YEAR LONG, or only during hunting season when the guns start blazing? And if they only spend time there when the guns start blazing, do they generally leave and go somewhere else from February on, after season is over?

                  8) When you're corning these spots over a period of time of more than just a few days, how often do you go in to put out more corn, and how much do you put out at one time? In a pile or thrown like chicken feed? Do you only go put out more corn with a certain wind direction, or will you put out corn on a certain schedule no matter what the wind direction? When you go put out corn, how far away do you think those bucks are generally bedded from your corn spot? 50 yards? 100? Further? It amazes me that these mature bucks that are retreating to that spot because of human pressure, will tolerate you going in there regularly to put out corn and check cameras.

                  9) It sounds like you've killed a lot of these bucks in early November, shortly after gun season starts. Obviously, that is during the rut, and yet your stories indicate groups of bucks together in these magical sanctuaries. What is your theory on why they will tolerate being in close proximity to each other at that time of the year (rut)? Sounds like you frequently see a lot of does at these sanctuary set-ups also?

                  10) Is it almost "necessary" for you to be hunting an area with a lot of pressure in order to be able to find these little hot-spots with mature bucks stacked up in them like cordwood? What about an area of private land with lots of quality habitat and little hunting pressure? Are the mature bucks a lot more likely to be spread out in different areas rather than kind of bunched up in one little spot like it sounds with a lot of your spots?

                  11) Are your best spots generally productive in this way year after year, so long as they remain "hidden" and a sanctuary"?

                  12) Do you ever have 2 different of these magical sanctuary spots a few miles apart (or less) where you find a particular mature buck or multiple bucks are using BOTH of them concurrently?

                  13) Are these bucks still leaving the sanctuary at night, just holing up in there during all daylight hours?

                  14) Any reason you think these same tactics wouldn't work in the Midwest U.S.?

                  Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to really understand your system in hopes that I can apply it to our southern Ohio bucks.

                  Comment


                    Number 1. There IS in fact a single characteristic all these places share. They ALL have a feature that continually EXCLUDES human influx. Sometimes its a swift stream, sometimes a terrible briar patch, an uncrossable fence, or in my more recent private sanctuaries....NOONE is allowed.

                    Comment


                      Numbers 2 and 3- I like at least 20 acres but many are much smaller. However if they are really small, its really difficult to bunt them without busting the deer out. Do I miss sometimes? Sure, but if it has all the characteristics, its almost certain to blow up once the pressure gets on. many times , I will corn a spot right inside regularly and have just a little traffic. Doesn't bother me at all because they know where that corn is when the pressure gets on.

                      Some of the very best spots were fund by blood trailing a wounded mature buck. A gutshot deer will almost always go to his sanctuary if he can. Many of these spots are set up on a natural food just inside and when I know there are say..whiteoak acorns, I will slip in and hunt it when conditions are perfect with zero scouting. This is absolutely the most productive method but my recent addiction to hunting specific deer has led me away from it. Almost a guarantee to see a mature buck but he may be a 135 8pt. That's exactly what Jooger did last week. He went into my sanctuary in the DCNF totally blind, set down by a tree watching the whiteoaks and shot a 6.5 year old at 411 pm.

                      Comment


                        Great thread GarGuy!! Awesome stories, thank you for sharing them with us!

                        Comment


                          Glad to see this going again. I've been waiting on your posts. Hopefully a kill story later in the season

                          Comment


                            4,5,6- I look for a spot around the edge that gives me an advantage. A spot I can get into with the wind right and out of without the deer knowing it. There has to be some feature that helps, a busy road, grown up fence, deep creek, etc.

                            I find lots of key spots hunting sheds in Febuary.

                            On the issue of killing multiple deer from these spots. Sometimes a deer can be killed and removed without disturbing the spot. Especially with a rifle. you might have noticed the mention of killing them in their tracks when possible to prevent blood trailing. Sometimes, killing a deer will end the spot for the year. heck , sometimes one spell of swirling wind will ruin the spot for the year.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by hardtner View Post
                              Glad to see this going again. I've been waiting on your posts. Hopefully a kill story later in the season
                              Im obsessed with a particular deer...again... May end this season with all my tags.

                              Comment


                                Number 7and 9- They use these spots all year long and are very familiar with them. When the shooting and woods stomping starts especially on public land, its much like a public bomb shelter when the air raid siren is going off is coming. Deer that don't particularly like each other will live in very close proximity during the day. They also want to feed during the day but wont venture out of the bomb shelter yet feel perfectly comfortable feeding within.

                                I RARELY see does in there. I see at least 5 to one bucks when Im hunting these setups.

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