buckman4c

Thanks NFA

QUEST #2: Hello all! Just wanted to update on my new quest and let you follow along. My new Quest is to kill a mature buck with a bow. I began scouting a new piece of property and as you can see, it's worth the effort!! The lay of the land is similar to that in which I killed the buck this past season. A high wooded ridge bordered by agriculture valleys. This particular buck has been giving everyone the slip. Since we last talked about tactics and strategies, I have changed my approach to one of aggression. These older, highly pressured bucks seldom expose themselves and I've come to the conclusion that hunting near as possible to their beds in bow season will be my new approach. With that said, I've scouted this new area twice and recorded my findings in a phone app.. In brief, both side hills are steep with rolling terrain. Very small hollows cutting up the side hill with rises in terrain between. So far, I've found countless bedding areas on both the north and south slopes. But I have also found a "funnel" between boulders and gaps in the bedding, heavily traveled side hill trails that connect bedding areas and a few ascending and descending trails full of rubs. I also found a bench with very little bedding but a heavy trail running it's length. The bench is about half way up the mountain. At this point, I've established: (1) buck bed of the many I found which I can access and hunt without blowing off the mountain. The funnel and the bench as pre-rut/rut stand locations. I however haven't found a bedding location which made me believe it is the one used by this buck. I still have a considerable amount of area to cover. I'm scouting a one square mile area in which this buck was captured on camera. I've been watching "Dan Infalt" and "The Hunting Public" to educate myself on their approaches to buck bed hunting but not many of their hunts occur in large mountain terrain. I know you NY fellas have plenty of experience in big ridge country. Anyone willing to share their approach to hunting a buck bed or buck bedding areas? Look forward to continuing the "Quest" for mature bucks!!

Have this all messed up. Reply found in previous post.

Pretty good estimates for looking at a pic.. Aged at 4.5, grossed 132" (22" main beams). I'm happy regardless. Thanks.

WNYTRPR, Man what an awesome buck!! Do you have pics from previous years on this buck? Looking at the pics, in the second one, he appears to have a sway/dip in his back which is a good indicator of an older buck. Based on photo's I've seen of some older bucks, he could be 6.5 plus. If so, his antlers will probably start going downhill. But who really cares, exceptional buck!! Hope you kill this monarch!

Thanks for straightening me out gjs4. Don't believe I mentioned his age. What's your guess on age of the buck? Antler score isn't a reliable source for aging but what do you think his racked grossed?? I'll tell you I "guessed" mid-120's and I was wrong.

Depends how big the buck is. I've read stories where hunters killed massive bucks that crossed property lines and it was a huge hassle trying to legitimize the kill. Or, they lost the buck because of trespassing.

As a follow up, here are more of the details: My scouting last winter and previous notations put me on to this area. I had been going past it to hunt another area and noticed over the years very consistent larger buck sign. I scouted it some last winter and took note of where the sign was located. My bow season was interrupted frequently by reasons I need not explain so my outings were limited. However, I bow hunted close to where I eventually killed him because of the big buck sign that was popping up and in the same locations I had previously found. I then killed a doe in rifle two days prior to killing him several hundred yards away and while getting her out found fresh rubs and scrapes had been worked. When we did our still hunt, I had several factors working in my favor. #1. The deer had been harassed all week from gun pressure in the valleys. #2. Up to that point in the season, I had only come across (4) other hunters all season, so that particular area wasn't being hunted nearly as hard. and #3. We still hunted a north facing ridge with a light SE wind. Knowing deer prefer to safely lay high on a ridge with the wind at their back, especially having been pressured, I knew there would be deer on that side. I just didn't know what deer and exactly where they would be hiding out. There are a few small points, benches and thick patches of pine, hemlock and rhododendron which I know they bed. While working across the side hill, I could feel the light wind perfectly pushing my scent down the mountain. The wind stayed consistent and the majority of deer went above me and didn't know I was there. A half rack 3pt. and this buck showed up just after a large number of deer had cut up and on to the top of the mountain. The bucks stayed on the side hill at the military crest instead of following the group on to the top. Neither buck had any idea I was there. The legal 3pt. appeared first and I watched him for a good couple minutes before I heard the big buck coming in behind him. The friend who was still hunting toward me while I worked toward him would end up killing his first buck a couple days later 200 yards below where I killed mine when it broke out the side of a drive in the valley. I'm anxious to see if another mature buck moves into or is already using this particular area for next season.

Been a long time! I finally knocked down a mature buck here in my home State of Pa. Killed him the second Monday of rifle season. Friend and I still hunted toward one another along the "military crest" of a ridge. He bumped a bunch of deer and this beauty came along. Forty yard quartering to shot with the .270 dropped him in his tracks. Elated to say the least! A lot of luck involved but I did work hard to create some luck. Want to thank everyone for their input back when I started this topic. Sorry the photo came out sideways. I tried fixing it but had no luck.

If youth hunters are exempt from new AR rules, they could kill both those bucks.

Youth hunters should be exempt from AR. Although I support AR's, it doesn't hurt the objective whatsoever for the youth to harvest bucks by the current rules. In fact, it is suggested that harvests should involve all age classes of bucks to some degree. AR protects a majority of yearlings but not all, very few 2.5's and "almost" none of older age classes. They would contribute to the harvesting of younger age classes and of those older bucks which don't meet AR criteria. In their minds, if explained properly, will believe in their contribution toward managing the resource. The youth are the future of the sport and however you want to look at it, many are part of todays instant gratification society. A parent or mentor must work very hard to create a burning desire in todays youth to carry on the tradition of deer hunting. They are our future. Allowing them to harvest their "first" buck no matter the size, to learn the ways of the deer hunter etc. are very important at the early stages. Sure, some have that built in burning desire and would carry on with or without AR but many, maybe most, need a little extra push or incentive. Let them learn, let them harvest and by the time they must follow AR, they will be better prepared to meet the challenge and understand "why" if appropriately informed. Just my humble opinion on youth hunters and AR.

Some good "arguments" being made from both sides of the fence here. I will only add that based on scientific result thus far, AR and HR (herd reduction) were much needed in PA and that it has improved both the scientific result and hunter satisfaction. Although many hunters in PA will tell you HR wasn't needed to the degree it was carried out. Anyway, as I also said previously stated, I'm not sure AR is needed in New York. I said this based on your harvest statistics. Your harvest rate of 1.5 year old bucks is very close to 50% of the kill. Ours of last year was 41% but that has been our best year to date (since 2001 when AR began). The whole premise behind AR in Pa as being argued was to create a more balanced age structure and better sex ratio. Traditionally, with AR in place our buck kill in years past was 50% for both age classes (1.5) versus (2.5 plus). The biggest difference I see between NY and PA is prior to AR. Here in Pa our annual buck kill consisted of roughly 75% being 1.5 years old. On top of that, according to data, we were killing close to 80% of all available bucks. This had things extremely scewed toward more doe than buck. You apparently don't have the same problem. So, AR may not really be needed although I personally like them.

SCOUTING UPDATE: I'll "try" not to make this post too extensive. Good luck with that!! We received an inch of snow, Thursday into Friday ending about 5:00 pm. I hit the are I'm scouting at 9:30 Saturday morning (yesterday). The wind was NW 10-15, clear and sunny. I began by walking the military crest of the south facing ridge. There's a bench 3/4 the way up the ridge. I found (2) obvious bedding areas and two different trails leading on to the bench. Closer to the point that drops into a hollow I found another bedding location on the bench near the top. I also found (2) beds lower on the point. Working north along the slope of the hollow, I found another bedding area in and amongst some pines. Continuing North, I went to the north ridge and checked a high spot to the east of a saddle (the hollow feeds almost to the north ridge and creates a saddle). The high spot was another bedding location. I then walked west along the north ridge line through the saddle. The east edge of the saddle is thick with pine and rhododendron. A couple more beds found in this location. From there I continued west and dropped down to a bench. There was very limited fresh deer sign along the bench but I did find a rub line heading north and down toward the cuts. This would also be North of a high point along the north ridge. I then circled up on to the high area and found additional bedding. This high spot has a south facing slope above the rhododendron flat. This is the location the big buck rub line would indicate to be one of his bedding locations. As suspected, the "bridge" travel area I spoke of previously is nearly smack dab in the middle between as I count (6) bedding areas. My phone app. was especially helpful at showing the big rubs as being in a "line", how the bedding areas are distributed and concentrated deer sign of tracks, feeding etc.. The one thing that is going to be most challenging is once again the wind. At some point I will have to get up in a tree or two with prevailing winds to see what happens. I was hoping by getting in there at the time I did, I would also "feel" the thermals. I did on the south facing slope feel the calmness and lift. In other areas though it was unpredictable and couldn't tell. I imagine snow effects thermals as well?? When I was on the flat and neared the high spots along both side hills I could feel the wind switching. I actually got a lesson on this as I was slipping toward the north ridge. The wind was NW (in my face). But when I was about 80 yards from a high spot and saddle, I could feel the wind switching. I used my binos to check a "brown" spot and saw a doe standing on top of the high spot. She just stood there looking and looking, nose up. She knew something was amiss and kept searching until I finally walked toward her and she and another that was bedded behind trees bounded over the ridge. Despite finding all these beds and checking just about everyone of them I didn't find any sheds nor during my walk did I find any unusually large prints. I found suspected buck prints slightly larger than others with dew prints but they weren't obviously larger. One other thing I unfortunately did find was a game camera. I knew I wouldn't be alone in the area with it being public but at least I have an idea of a trail he focused on for last season. Probably the most important lesson I learned was how I should be able to access this area from multiple points and disturb the least number of deer. At least I think so anyway. Now I just need to find the time to climb a tree or two with a smoke bomb or milk weed especially in the "bridge" area to see how the wind and thermals react.

Another great post and thanks for the compliments.