Getting Shots off at big Bucks

[buckeyebowhunter]

Had a great hunt this evening. The last day of the Ohio bow season until September. I really didn't expect to see much other than maybe a few does and hoped to fill my last tag with basically anything that came by other than a small buck.

To my surprise with about a half hour of shooting light left I saw the biggest buck I've seen in years enter the picked corn field to my West. And he slowly began to work his way towards me so I prepared myself.  At about 35 yards from me he began to slow and just meander back in forth in the field.

Other deer,  mostly does worked their way around me but at this time my attention was on him and only him. But he never came any closer until finally it was too dark to shoot and my hands were ice cubes anyways.

As I climbed down I started thinking about how many times scenarios like that had happened to me and it seemed like a million. Instances where mature bucks were just 10 to 15 yards out of range for me to take a confident shot. Or came in right at last light. Or were behind some brush. Or caught a glimpse of me drawing. The list goes on and on. They're just soo good at getting away.  I guess that's what keeps me getting after them and it really makes you appreciate and respect the greats that get it done consistently like the Rothhaars, Gene and Barry, Mike Mitten and others we look up to. 

[beemann]

Yup ,  Im the king of 5 minutes too late.  Or you fool all the other deer but something alerts the jumbo and he moves out and you watch him till dark at a 100 yards. 

[JohnV]

Mature bucks often seem to “sense” danger is near even though the wind is good, you are sitting or standing perfectly still, you have concealing cover around your stand, etc.  They just know something is wrong and almost always make the best decision for how to get away from said danger.  No, I have no interest in buying a HECS suit!

[Orion]

I dunno.  I think we tend to remember the big ones that get away because the occurrences are rather rare.  Not that they got away, but that we see them at all. There just aren't that many big, mature deer around, at least not where I hunt.  It happens with smaller/younger deer as well, I think, but because it occurs more frequently and because in a lot of cases we weren't going to shoot anyway, it doesn't stick in the memory as much.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Here around home this year I was hunting an old 4x5 buck, super heavy mass, narrow spread.  I saw him twice in November, both 30-40 yards away in thicket areas with does. Never saw him in a shot situation. Then late season, the week before Christmas, I was hunting a bedding to food pattern I've killed bucks on before when the crop rotation is right for it. The stand is on the head of a draw 400 yards or so in from the crop field and a couple hundred yards from the bedding area. When it's cold and the wind is good sometimes I can catch a good buck headed from his bed right at dark.

I had a small buck come through early, then at primetime another small buck travelling through got to fooling around and hit my ground scent. I come up a draw at 90 degrees to the main draw the deer travel and climb a 40 ft steep cliff to get to the stand so the ground scent is out of the travel pattern, of course this pickle head had to get over too far and hit it.

The stand is in a little beech tree, several trunks and the leaves hang late, but the trunks are maybe 8 inches diameter, so not much cover.  So I'm standing there willing this little buck to go away, but he's just standing there 15 yards away looking around, and I hear a slow walker coming up the main draw.

I snuck a peek over my shoulder and there was that big 9 point 40 yards down the hill headed my way. He hit the correct trail and started working up the hill to me.  As soon as he got high enough up the hill to see the little buck he stopped and went on alert. He was 20 yards from me, pretty much head on, and 30 yards from the little buck. They just stared at each other for a couple of minutes then the big guy turned around and walked away back the way he came from.  I didn't see anything unusual in the small buck's posture or anything, but there was some body language there that told the big one something wasn't right.

The little buck hung around awhile, maybe 5 minutes more, then half trotted off.

I tipped my hat to the big guy and packed it in for the year as I had a trip with my in laws in a couple days.

I know when I'm beat!  😀

They don't get to 5 years old+ in high pressure areas without being pretty sharp.  I've hunted low pressure areas in the past, and I've seen old bucks that were mature and also not very smart.....but these bucks in pressured areas are another critter entirely.

R

[Larry Dean]

I find that old flat nosed does are even smarter, and often they have a pair of fawns to sneak away as well. I watched one with her young from a high hill last season. First she avoided two bow hunters, she moved her fawns to where they wouldn't be seen and then she laid down. The bowhunters never knew she was there. Then later a group of pheasant hunters with two dogs came into the valley. She took a low path with her fawns into the creek around the bend and vanished.

[dnovo]

I can relate but my story turned out differently. I hunted a spot end of October where I have a stand about 100 yards away but I had found sign here and hung a stand where I had never before. Different wind than usual coming hard from SE blowing from me to a pasture 40 yards away.  After I was in the stand I spotted a new scrape about 20 yards S of me. 45 minutes before dark I look and a nice buck is in the scrape working it and the overhead branch hard. He finished and started  ok’ing my way.  Now I don’t have many lane options to shoot. He really took his time, stopping and looking. He got to 7 yards but there was a lot of old cedar branches between us. He stopped there and just stood. As I watched him I could see his body language change. No way he could smell me but I could see him starting to tense. I found a little opening in the branches and shot him.
I’m sure if I had waited for him to move he was going to leave. My best buck ever. 6 1/2 year old

[Blacktail42]

From just watching a mature deer vs a young buck tells me I am out of their league. I don't have any issue getting shot close to younger deer but the granddaddies  know how to take their  time, inspect everything that looks off and keep their distance when they are unsure of what is in the general area. My only chance at what I would call a mature buck was spoiled by a damn branch. As the buck was approaching my stand he needed to duck under a branch to get through, as he lowered his head to clear the branch he looked right up at me, busted.

[Tedd]

Yup. I hear you. So many ways I haven not killed a big buck. I've been closer to getting big bucks more times than is statistically possible. 

[buckeyebowhunter]

Ryan, thanks for the story. I shot two does this year with big snuffers. They are devastating.. when is someone going to make them again? I'm down to about 8 of them Haha.

Tedd, that gave me a good chuckle. And I feel your pain.

[GCook]

I've killed three six and a half and older bucks.  None of them score great but all are trophies.  One rifle, one compound and this last season one with a recurve. 
The one this last season was what we call a cull.  8 point, short tines, but great mass and main beam length.  Fed around the oak a bit giving me plenty of opportunities at the outside of my confident range.  Then after 20 minutes or so he got in close.8 to 12 yards.  Took another 15 minutes or more to actually be still in a mostly broad side position and . . .
Yeah, I've had a few close encounters at great mature bucks that somehow didn't happen.  But that is what makes it so sweet when the stars align, the adrenaline is controlled until that arrow is all the way through the ribs and the mule kick and run you know is gonna be short . . .
If it happened all the time and was easy it'd be like a participation trophy.  I'm still waiting for that 6+yo 150+inch buck for that last spot on the livingroom wall.
But if it never happens I'll go to my grave having enjoyed the hunt for him.

[TIM B]

It all boils down to a couple of minutes or a couple of yards it seems…..
Tim B

[MnFn]

Good thread Robert.
My most memorable big buck is one I probably mentioned awhile ago. A doe and fawn were on a trail that sort of made a wide loop around my treestand. I was in a big old oak.

The two deer came by easily in bow range, heading out to a corn field.  Then I heard a buck grunting back behind me.  Coming along trailing the doe. I thought I had this one.

But instead of following the trail, he cut across the loop and ended up right behind my tree.  I am pretty sure he got a little scent from me even tho the wind was right.

He stood there, so close I could have spit on his back (if I could get around the trunk). Then he backed up like a train locomotive on a track.  About ten- fifteen yards and then snuck off towards the corn.

On the five minutes too late thing, I was talking to a game warden friend of mine and he said he thought more trophy bucks get taken “5 minutes” after legal hunting time than before.

[Larry Dean]

I have found in my55 years of deer hunting that mature deer, either does or bucks, can be super duper atomic powered motion detector devices. It matters little on how slow you can move, they will see it. I have personally found that when the time comes to shoot, get on with it, don't dilly dally and trust yourself. Of course, many modern methods do not advocate fluid or fast shooting, that takes time and intensional practice.

[GCook]

MnFn, that's why I find most game wardens to be the most distasteful law enforcement people to deal with.  They treat you like a criminal even if you haven't done anything illegal.

[Skipmaster1]

I find that I rarely have mature bucks in that situation. Generally I either see them
A very long ways off, or I’m getting a shot. Usually it because I’m hunting in tight pinch points. Does, especially really old does really seem to have a sixth sense. Probably because they spend more time in a smaller core area and know it so well. In the last 2 years I’ve killed a 10.5 year old doe and a 9.5 year old doe on public land. They were incredibly weary.