|
Post by Bwoods11 on Apr 8, 2021 18:01:15 GMT -6
I have some good bucks that bed on mine too. I think if those percentages were the case, many more bucks would survive in Mn. I just don’t think it’s accurate.
|
|
|
Post by Bwoods11 on Apr 8, 2021 18:02:22 GMT -6
You could really manage for big bucks if there was only a 10% chance the buck would get shot by neighbor.
|
|
|
Post by MoBuckChaser on Apr 9, 2021 1:45:21 GMT -6
Key to holding dominant bucks or any good buck? Own or lease a bunch of land with the right dirt and stay out of it all year.
|
|
|
Post by Bwoods11 on Apr 9, 2021 8:17:58 GMT -6
I know cameras do not tell the whole story, but after comparing pics, my neighbors in Iowa and I talk regularly and have found some bucks are home bodies, and others travel miles. We have seen a few bucks stick to core areas of 60-80 acres...while others have showed up miles away.
Some of the success on small parcels will depend on what type of buck you have living there. I can only suspect that sanctuaries, and creating more thick cover/plus food will help keep him on the property.
|
|
|
Post by Catscratch on Apr 9, 2021 8:30:04 GMT -6
I know cameras do not tell the whole story, but after comparing pics, my neighbors in Iowa and I talk regularly and have found some bucks are home bodies, and others travel miles. We have seen a few bucks stick to core areas of 60-80 acres...while others have showed up miles away. Some of the success on small parcels will depend on what type of buck you have living there. I can only suspect that sanctuaries, and creating more thick cover/plus food will help keep him on the property. I agree with Mo that dirt has a lot to do with growing big deer. bwoods, my neighbor to the north (we share a fence) and I share pics often. We have very few bucks that cross sides. But... we both have plots, water, cover, and ag. However... a buck that I've had 3yrs of history with was shot on his place this year. It was the first time they had seen him and they never had a trailcam pic of him. The buck I shot this year had never been seen by either of us (except for the encounter I had with him a couple of days before killing) and neither of us had a trailcam pic of him. I'm guessing there is a decent chance he was someone else's target somewhere that roamed. Hard to count on them coming back, even the homebodies.
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Apr 9, 2021 8:35:49 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like.
Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require.
|
|
|
Post by Bwoods11 on Apr 9, 2021 9:18:54 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like. Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require. Good point. I have friend that has a farm in Missouri and he told me they get great trail cam pics, but most of the bucks live/bed on a pasture farm that borders it. Maybe that farm will never have the bedding necessary for the mature bucks?
|
|
|
Post by smsmith on Apr 9, 2021 9:21:00 GMT -6
I'll never have enough acres to "hold" any buck strictly on my property, much less a dominant one.
|
|
|
Post by Freeborn on Apr 9, 2021 9:21:31 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like. Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require. Have you been able to determine what some of those key factors are between your neighbors property and yours? When I compare my property to my neighbors they appear very similar on maps but then I have not walked my neighbors property.
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Apr 9, 2021 10:36:53 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like. Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require. Good point. I have friend that has a farm in Missouri and he told me they get great trail cam pics, but most of the bucks live/bed on a pasture farm that borders it. Maybe that farm will never have the bedding necessary for the mature bucks? Unless something changes on the neighbor I doubt it will consistently bed mature ones. Sure sounds like my situation which will be changing soon with new neighbors on the pasture farm. It will be interesting to see how the bucks react. Hopefully they are sloppy hunters.
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Apr 9, 2021 11:27:42 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like. Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require. Have you been able to determine what some of those key factors are between your neighbors property and yours? When I compare my property to my neighbors they appear very similar on maps but then I have not walked my neighbors property. They let me shed hunt it so I've been on it multiple times. It's blocks/draws of heavy overgrown cover with open ground, probably 50% cover on 95 total acres. They run cattle in there so the open areas get grazed short. The thick overgrown cover includes hedge trees, multiflora rose, some cedars, shingle oaks, grasses etc. In other words junk cover. The bucks seem to like to be at a higher elevation with wind over their back, a good open view to their front and bedded up against thick cover. We found a great buck bed on it in October last year when walking the property for potential purchase. I tried to laid an aerial but no luck. It’s right in a military crest on small point facing north. South wind bed, great view down below him for about 100 yds, his back up against a big hedge tree where the limbs actually created a nice canopy over the bed. A buck or bucks were using it consistently during that time frame last year. I know I took a picture of it but switched phones. The bed is on the south end of the property so unless the neighbors are very savvy with access the buck will wind them when the park and exit before they step foot from their vehicle. The most prime doe bedding I’ve ever witnessed is on the north of the same neighbor. I’ve mentioned it on here before but we have a blind on ours where we can monitor the bedding from distance and only hunt it during the rut. Does/fawns are up and down all day long browsing and the bucks aren’t far away with multiple bucks cruising through all day. This past fall one buck bedded down just to the north of the does and every time the does would stand up he’d get up and slide over to check them out before going back and laying down. Really fun to watch all the action. The actual cover/set up where the does bed is so unimpressive I rack my brain asking why. It’s quite open in there overall, so much so that you’d never say this is bedding let alone prime doe bedding. The conclusion I’ve come to is that is has browse, is has somewhat of a berm along the west side so some side cover which perhaps is more important than I gave it credit for. It also has some erosion ditches around it making it somewhat of a peninsula so they may feel protected there. Lastly, they don’t get disturbed there. It's entirely possible that both the does and bucks bed there because it has had little to no hunting pressure for decades other than farmers checking cattle etc. We’ve owned ours since 2012 but the former owner and friends pressured the heck out of ours since the 1980’s. It makes sense that in order for them to really take to a new sanctuary the one they have been using for decades would need to be blown up forcing them to find new bedding. If our new neighbors blow up the bedding we are ready for them!!
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Apr 9, 2021 11:54:49 GMT -6
In my experience creating a sanctuary or staying out of areas does not automatically equate to a mature buck bedding there or does for that matter. The Don Higgins of the world love to say just stay out and you'll have mature bucks bed there. Not that simple in my experience. We stay out of 90 acres of cover on one farm and the mature bucks still favor the neighbors for bedding. That piece is also a sanctuary but obviously has other key factors they like. Some properties just don't have the key factors that mature bucks require. Have you been able to determine what some of those key factors are between your neighbors property and yours? When I compare my property to my neighbors they appear very similar on maps but then I have not walked my neighbors property. I forgot to describe our farm in my long disseration. Our farm has creek bottom, a hardwood ridge that has been hinge cut around the military crest, 30 acres of CRP with wooded islands in it and a 8 acre draw on the west of it. The only place we get consistent buck bedding is in the draw on the west side of the CRP. All said, I'd rather have prime doe bedding because I'm a rut hunter and every buck in the area eventually checks out the doe bedding.
|
|
|
Post by Sandbur on Apr 9, 2021 12:06:15 GMT -6
Have you been able to determine what some of those key factors are between your neighbors property and yours? When I compare my property to my neighbors they appear very similar on maps but then I have not walked my neighbors property. I forgot to describe our farm in my long disseration. Our farm has creek bottom, a hardwood ridge that has been hinge cut around the military crest, 30 acres of CRP with wooded islands in it and a 8 acre draw on the west of it. The only place we get consistent buck bedding is in the draw on the west side of the CRP. All said, I'd rather have prime doe bedding because I'm a rut hunter and every buck in the area eventually checks out the doe bedding. That last paragraph fits my way of thinking. Leave them alone until Oct . 25-28 or so. If you have does, you will see more bucks than at other times. Of course, I haven’t hunted much at earlier times over the last twenty years...
|
|
|
Post by gsquared23 on Apr 11, 2021 19:55:13 GMT -6
Bucks are much choosier when it comes to picking their primary bedding, whereas every block of timber or cover next to a food source will normally have a doe family using it as long as there is a reasonable amount of safety. It doesn’t have to be perfect, does bed in a circle and use the combination of each other’s senses to stay safe and detect danger.
Bucks at least during the hunting season are normally loners and are looking out for number one. They are going to pick the most secure location with the least amount of pressure where they have both a sight, sound and most importantly a scent advantage, typically wind over the back, looking downhill. In flat areas, they prefer thick transition areas which will typically give them several advantages, again normally set up with a sight and smell advantage. The biggest bucks get the most advantageous spots. They (bucks of all age classes) probably all know where all the best beds are because they’ll use the area when they are grouped up before season, but when the band breaks up, the dominant buck will get his choice of the absolute prime spot. If you have good but not great spots but a low mature buck density (me), the big guys will not bed on you if there is something better out there, unless they’ve been pushed out of it. Don Higgins is right in that lack of human intrusion is the best chance to have mature bucks bed on you, but with limited acreage and a small mature deer population, it is by no means a guarantee.
It also seems mature bucks don’t bed “where they’re supposed to” in a lot of hunters’ eyes. They don’t need mature timber or trees at all. Thick ditches or rock piles in the middle of fields where nobody ever would think to look or walk are a great mature buck spot. And they’re more likely to be used on the farm owned by the guy that doesn’t do any TSI, or plant food plots or apple trees, etc, etc because guys like that (me again) are making weekly trips past those spots that otherwise might hold a good one. Habitat improvement very much can be a double edged sword. It does give a huge advantage to the guys with bigger properties: the more acreage you have, the smaller percentage of it you are disturbing every time you go over there.
|
|
|
Post by Foggy on Apr 11, 2021 23:30:10 GMT -6
Bucks are much choosier when it comes to picking their primary bedding, whereas every block of timber or cover next to a food source will normally have a doe family using it as long as there is a reasonable amount of safety. It doesn’t have to be perfect, does bed in a circle and use the combination of each other’s senses to stay safe and detect danger. Bucks at least during the hunting season are normally loners and are looking out for number one. They are going to pick the most secure location with the least amount of pressure where they have both a sight, sound and most importantly a scent advantage, typically wind over the back, looking downhill. In flat areas, they prefer thick transition areas which will typically give them several advantages, again normally set up with a sight and smell advantage. The biggest bucks get the most advantageous spots. They (bucks of all age classes) probably all know where all the best beds are because they’ll use the area when they are grouped up before season, but when the band breaks up, the dominant buck will get his choice of the absolute prime spot. If you have good but not great spots but a low mature buck density (me), the big guys will not bed on you if there is something better out there, unless they’ve been pushed out of it. Don Higgins is right in that lack of human intrusion is the best chance to have mature bucks bed on you, but with limited acreage and a small mature deer population, it is by no means a guarantee. It also seems mature bucks don’t bed “where they’re supposed to” in a lot of hunters’ eyes. They don’t need mature timber or trees at all. Thick ditches or rock piles in the middle of fields where nobody ever would think to look or walk are a great mature buck spot. And they’re more likely to be used on the farm owned by the guy that doesn’t do any TSI, or plant food plots or apple trees, etc, etc because guys like that (me again) are making weekly trips past those spots that otherwise might hold a good one. Habitat improvement very much can be a double edged sword. It does give a huge advantage to the guys with bigger properties: the more acreage you have, the smaller percentage of it you are disturbing every time you go over there. STOP with all the common sense! I gotta hunt the property I own. . Most of the mature buck in my area will bed on our neighbors land.....but they will seek out the does and food I offer. Jut mu 2 cents.
|
|