How’s this possible?
Whitetail Deer
My neighbor, who hunts 150 yards from my border had this buck under his stand tonight. He told me he’s got tons of pics.
I’ve got 40 cameras and 35k pics so far since August and not one pic of that buck.
These animals never cease to amaze me.
It’s a fake. You can see where he glued up that antler on the deer’s right side!!
Left side is obviously cobbled together from Elk & moose bits….
That’s a buck with a LOT of character!!
Beautiful buck. A slammer.
It’s amazing to me that we get as many pics of them, that we do, sometimes. I’ve watched bucks on or near food plots or tree stands, with a camera on it, wandering all over the place, and never once walking in front of my cameras. Also have had bucks constantly in front the camera on one side of the farm, not a single pic of them, on the other side of the farm. Other bucks seem to be wanderers, and travel all over the place.
Rocky, he’s got 35 acres, I’ve got 130. Other than that they have identical characteristics. Except I have 30 acres of plots.
Do you have cameras on scrapes Pat?
Maybe he was coming through your neighbors place on his way to your's.
Crazy isnt it. I woukd almost rather not get a picture of a big one. Its usually a guarantee i will never see him while hunting. Meanwhile i see deer every year that i have no pictures of.
Go figure.
Cameras only cover a small portion. He could’ve been on you and you never knew it because he takes alternate travels than what you thought, with your camera placement. Do something different with your 40 cams. You’ll probably get a pic.
At least 8 cams on scrapes, I have over 35 bucks that are 2.5 with four that are 5.5 or older so far this season. The only thing he's doing that I'm not is putting out bait on the ground.
If you’re replying to me, Pat… do something different. Or… maybe he likes the bait on the ground and knows your tendencies?
Edit: or he likes the neighbors 35. :)
A buck I've been after this season that scored 170" last year was living on only 40 acres.
I knew the photo was cropped for a reason, kudos, he'll be around
Well, Pat….
You can do it the Easy Way, or you can do it….
The Cowboy Way.
Under his stand with him in it? If so why did he pass? Does he have something better he is after?
Him core area is your neighbors or somewhere else. He could be coming to your side just no pics yet. Just need him to start traveling with a doe over to yours. Nice buck for sure! That left side is awesome with that bladed brow.
Side question--how many times have you hunted there this year? And how many times do you think your neighbor has hunted? Just curious about the pressure, and if maybe he felt safer on the neighbors.
We have 20 acres in N Idaho. It had a creek that runs right through the middle. I have cameras on both sides. We have resident bucks that live on both sides of the creek. I can step across the creek right now. We have bucks on both sides that never cross.
He couldn’t get a clear shot. I’m very disciplined and surgical about hunting my ground. I’m not pressuring my ground at all. My mature bucks are rarely on his side. We share pics and he’s generally frustrated by that.
This is the first time he’s got a good buck that I don’t know about. And it’s surprising that a mature buck is hitting his bait in daylight.
“We share pics and he’s generally frustrated by that.”
Hmmm… :)
That buck is Amish. Word is out not to go on Pat's place.
So, are you happy for your neighbor’s good fortune, or are you butt hurt, Pat?
Matt
pat . are you hunting ny or Connecticut ?
Pat, there's only one picture of him that counts, get that one and then see how frustrated your neighbor is :)
I wonder if he's a loner. . . doesn't want to be around the other deer and mature bucks around your food sources. Has somewhere weird to bed where all the other deer ain't.
Living on your place with food everywhere and good cover may be like living in a big city. It's nice and convenient, but there are people everywhere. This buck may like the rural lifestyle. . . not as convenient, but not so many deer to contend with :)
As they get older they generally don't cover as much ground. They can live 90% of their life in just a few acres. I love watching those tracking studies. But ya, you'd never think it would happen like that.
When trying to figure out a mature buck and hunting for him they will soon make you realize that what you thought was possible soon becomes the impossible.
In 2017 I had a 3 year old buck on my farm that would gross in the mid 130's. I had dozens of pics of that buck in 2017 both daylight and after dark but yet I never laid eyes on him once when hunting. I found both of his sheds in the spring of 2018 laying side by side.
In 2018 I never had a single pic of this buck nor did any of my neighbors and no one ever seen him but yet in the spring of 2019 I once again found both of his sheds on my farm laying not 100 yards from each other. With a conservative spread I figured he would gross in the mid 150"s
In 2019 the same scenario was playing out once again. No pics or sightings until the morning of November 14th I was out for a scouting drive around the section when I finally laid eyes on him tending a doe in a horse pasture 3/4 of a mile east of my farm. 10 days later a friend of mine shot him. He grossed 172.
40 camera's and no pressure. How do you accomplish that? I can't run a couple of cameras without adding pressure due to the 3-4 times a year I pull cards and check batteries.
Im sure he is using cell cameras for this purpose.
Yes no need to go into the field and interact with the deer. All remote.
A camera for every 3.25 acres. Wow! That's some impressive surveillance. ;-)
Matt
if it's in ny turn him in baiting is illegal
Yeah totally agree, they are truly amazing....
Thought it just happens to me, maybe it's an Ohio thing...8^) But big buck shows up for a short period especially this time of year and never to be seen again... Can't count the times have seen a bruiser I hadn't seen before and never to be seen again, only seeing them once or twice... Personally I believe they travel further than most think, and if they survive arrows and bolts through Thanksgiving weekend, and not on their home turf at the time of gun season, it depends on where they are if they can run the firesticks gauntlet to get back to they're home sanctuary to survive another year....
I put a camera in a far far far corner of our farm that i've never had a camera before. The property line actually makes a small pizza slice shape in this area. I picked up the biggest bodied deer i've ever had on cam about 5 times in October alone. He's clearly old, and he clearly frequents that corner. He has a very distinct rack i can confidently say i've never seen on the rest of the farm. It happens no doubt!
40 cell cams on 130 acres is amazing! And I agree that it is amazing that deer hasn't been pic'd there once with that kind of coverage.
makes you wonder if it's photo shopped
I've heard the next vogue way of scouting deer will be high definition real time satellite imagery systems. Can anyone confirm this, and point me to the leading companies advancing this technology? I may have to invest, since old school reading sign and woodsmanship is clearly antiquated skills.
Matt
Matt you would be a hard guy to be around.
Nice buck Pat he may end up on you if a skanky doe is on your place.
We have about 1 cam per every 110 acres on the 550 we hunt. I feel so poor. Oh wait, I am.
That being said, I can count on one finger the amount of bucks that I’ve killed over the years, that we’ve got a photo of. That was my 2021 buck. There were about 3 pics of him, at night, about 1/4 mile from our camp. I killed him about a mile from there and first time any of us had seen him. The neighbor had a half dozen pics of him on his corn piles though, which he was full of. :)
Good luck killing him, Pat.
That's the thing about cameras, they can be encouraging at times but in reality, they don't tell the whole story..deer can walk right behind it or right by it at an angle and you never get a pic.
Does seem strange with that many cameras out, you didn't get a pic.
Is his left rear leg indented?
Simple Pat, he knows you will let the air out of him. (If you ain’t taking a boot pic when he walks by)
Over 5 years I got 1000's of picks of this buck on a mineral lick. I have a foodplot only about 50 yards away and never got a pick of him there even though it's very secluded and a MAJOR attraction to many deer.
Mr. Higgins mentioned that if you're not able to hunt the buck's bedding area, the likelihood of killing him goes down to 10% or something like that.
Mr. Higgins also stated that game cameras made killing bigs bucks almost easy. I admired him for admitting that.
Matt
I had a buck I was hunting in 2015-2016 that I knew was going to go over 200”. Vanished at the end of Oct in 2016 never to be seen or pic taken again. Started talking to a neighbor this spring. He shot the deer in 2018 and it scored 201” and was 8.5 years old. I scout like crazy from the road all over by my property during the summer, I shine pretty often (it’s legal and I’m not a poacher), I have cams, and I don’t pressure my ground. All it takes is a small shift and they can be on you or off of you. I’m still kicking myself for not knowing that deer was still around.
Cameras and their productivity really depend on topography. With sparse woods/ag areas they get that much better as travel is more defined. Big timber areas with miles and miles of timber on perfectly flat ground try and predict where a deer will move lol. Near impossible.
Just got my first pic of him on my side of the fence. 100 yards from my border and my neighbor has tons of pics.
Definitely him Pat, he’s a very unique buck, be awesome to put an arrow thru him! Good luck!
Waiting for your kill pic Pat
I’m wondering what kind of creature is in there that made your neighbor hold off on shooting him when he was under his stand, I think you’re withholding all the good pics from us Pat!
Now that he’s coming on your property is he your #1 buck on the hit list?
Looks like he's headed to the Amish neighbor's bait pile. ;-)
Matt
Opposite side Neighbor two properties down passed this buck 3x last year. We’re pretty sure it’s the same buck. Not 100% though.
He’s not my number one. My top buck is an 8 we call scarface. 5.5 year old resident. I have a 160” 12 and this buck is number 3. We think both the 12 and this buck are 4.5 years old. But I’ll shoot any of the three bucks.
God I love Ohio!!
I have 5 cameras on my biggest food plot, one is a cell cam and 2 of them are on scrapes. A couple days ago I was hunting that food plot and I watched this 3 year old buck walk out of the woods into my food plot. He walked in just to his right of one of my cameras. Once in the plot he turned right, walked down the edge of the food plot, worked a licking branch, continued along the edge of the plot and then turned right back into the woods 5 feet before he walked past my cell cam. He then paralleled the edge of the plot just inside the woods, behind the cell camera and continued behind another camera and passed within 15 yards of me before he continued on his way through the woods sniffing and searching. He managed to walk into my plot, walk along the edge and exit in locations that avoided 3 cameras. It sure seemed to me like he knew where the cameras were and was intentionally avoiding them. Who knows...?
Other way to look at that Mike is that he actually walked past 3 of your cameras. The fact that he walked past the back and not the front to avoid them would imply that he knows what they do, OR he doesn't like them going off. The lights or the sound.
But I 100% agree with the point you are making in that cameras only give us a sliver of the story.
I have deer that I don't think cross certain lines at least not on a regular basis.I bet he just stays home except maybe rut
Looks like another shooter!
Pat if he's not on your list can I have him? ;)
