Hunt the wind. Took me many many years to actually apply this but it works for mature deer. If you have a stand or multiple stands and the wind isn’t right, don’t go. If you climb up and that wind switches, climb down and leave. If you get busted by a mature deer I believe you’ve knocked your chances of killing him by half. They don’t grow old by being dumb. The buck my son is trying to pinpoint won’t show on feeding day or even battery changes in the cameras. Give it a day or two and he’s back to his normal pattern, and it’s Summer time. The time of year when they are least suspicious and in bachelor groups. His buddies will show up but he won’t.

If you’re just after does or young bucks just scatter more feed than your neighbor dead center and carry your rifle/bow and a box of ammo or a quiver of arrows and let them fly. Anything 3.5 or younger you could probably sit in your truck and shoot as they cross. Still didn’t read what you’re after, meat or trophy.

Wanna Be your absolutely correct you can not mask scent with all the gimmicks that are made anymore IMO late 70’s early 80’s hunted in the same coveralls I changed oil in it was all I had, always hunted the wind and always killed deer not the biggest just constantly was just a stupid kid at the time that went hunting

If i went onto that property unannounced. It would be my carcass being dragged out of there.

Swamp Wolf, you are right. Can't hit the inside of a barn with me in it. I will practice. Lol.

Reason for post. I trap and hunt a friends property. No one else hunts there, except for turkey. I don't turkey hunt, but, would mind trying it.
Yesterday i met the neighbor next door that has hundreds of acres. Him and my friend wants the beavers and otters trapped.
My friend doesn't tell who hunts his land except to say a friend. So, the neighbor has no idea its me. Some big bucks are in the area for sure. Tons of does he said needs to be removed. I killed 6 deer off my friends land last season, didn't even make a dent. This year, its hammer time.
I gained access to the neighbors property to trap beavers and otters and will be able to hunt before or after checking traps. He hates otters, which destroyed his trophy bass pond he created. Had bass up to 9 pounds (big for sc standards) and otters destroyed it all. Only dinks. So, he is peed off to say the least.
My friend wants deer thinned, but, neighbor trophy hunts. He even has a couple in the record books.But, my friend had a big boy standing in his driveway a week ago and called to tell me to be patient and shoots does after the rut.
Walking a thin line here, but, a line that is exciting and has great potential.
So, bucks, beavers, otters, and fish on the hit list. He has a couple more ponds that have beavers but no otters yet. So, it wants to make sure the otters stay out of them. Trapping for otters coming in December when prime. Beavers trapping in November when cooler, rut hits.
This could be a year when the stars and moon aligns just perfect.

Also, this year i will attempt to harvest a deer (does probably) with my dad's Win. 94 and his M1 Garand.
Stat tuned.
Thanks to all who replied.
Sarge

Your friend is right. We take does, if we don’t have a target buck, the first couple of weeks of archery season then again after the rut. The last 2-3 weeks of deer season we are literally filling the truck bed with does every few days. And yes we have folks waiting at the shop ready to fight over them, lol.
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but a buck on camera this summer and archery season may be on someone else’s property 5+ miles away during gun season and then return the following February. I got lucky and found a homebody, lol.
If your neighbor has big deer then you have big deer. With that said, I’d stick to what the neighbor is doing. If he’s taking does and only shooting mature bucks, then I’d do the same.

Some around here swear hinge cutting is the answer. I haven't tried it.

This is a great point and is something many people, myself included, are trying to improve upon.

1 solution some say is to wait until the rut to hunt certain stands.

Apples. I have apples and lots of them. These were initially planted on farmsteads 100-150 years ago and the bear, deer and grouse spread the seeds from there. Volunteer trees by the hundreds in and around pastureland abutting the big woods. They're a deer magnet. The trees look to be loaded this year.

As far as bedding areas go, I used to intentionally try to jump a buck in his bedding area during preseason scouting. I could usually jump him two days in a row before he'd vacate for a quieter place. He'd come back but it might take a week. Once I found him and his rub clusters/staging areas I'd leave him alone. That amount of disturbance won't make him permanently vacate his core area. I wanted to lay eyes on him and I often did. That was back before cameras became a big thing.

Have everything the deer need on your property. Dense cover, food (food plot), water, a mineral lick. Deer will hit a variety of food sources but you can't always have what they like best at all times so a food plot that produces all year is best. Something like clover. Other plot options may draw them better during hunting season but clover will help hold them on your property. The water source does not have to be a clear running creek, a mud puddle will do as long as it is consistent. Making a mineral lick will help pull them to you and it and the other things will help keep them on you.

Here’s a buck we had on camera a month ago…


He was at the bottom of the red line where the pin is…

Now he’s at the top pin of the red line. A straight line between the pins is .98 miles so say a mile away.


That’s a lot of acreage to move. The point is he may be gone by the time archery season even comes in. He’s quite shy about the camera now. Your deer may be a mile away and your neighbors deer on his far property line may take up residence in your section. Provide what they need and they’ll show up.

Happens every year and very frustrating. Give them feed and a safe place to hide with low impact and your chances increase. Still some wonder off and someone else gets lucky. That’s hunting period

True. Same thing goes for rifle hunters too.

I don't know about other places, but down here, the State gives the bowhunters a month of hunting prior to gun season.

IMHO Bow hunters have ruined hunting as it was.
The all mighty antlers are what's most important .
Just like government , screw the population , I want big buck antlers and will do anything to get them.
Power and glory is all that matters, screw the little people they're just in the way!
Lease up all the property around them , charge $20,000.00 to even more to hunt a week on a few acres where the deer are basically trained to be at certain spots .
I just love it when I hear about such setups , and a neighbor gets a nuisance or crop damage permit . and shoots those Big bucks and dumps them in a ditch.

Hunting was for survival , not for the now days profit .

Dont wander around where they want to be and they will stay

A deer can and will easily move a mile or more just overnight. A lot of folks have a concept or idea in their head that deer (bucks) don't travel like that, except during the rut. I've known many bucks that bedded a mile or more from their main food source, even during summer. Learned that since using cameras back in the early 90s (CamTrakkers). Deer home ranges are odd shaped and all vary. Some are long and linear...others are more circular.

If you're getting consistent pics of a mature buck that is arriving at your baited area/food source an hour or more after dark and he's leaving an hour or more before daylight......well, dont get your hopes up that your gonna ever see him in legal shooting light. You might, but odds are against you.

I have photo documentation of 2 mature bucks that were on my place a few years back. One got his pic taken at 10 pm (he was at my bait EVERY NIGHT for weeks in October..always leaving about an hour b4 light)...next morning he was killed by neighbor...1.1 straightline miles away...walking across a pasture....alone...no does.

The other buck was similar. Got his pic at 5 AM....neighbor shot him at 830AM same morning. ....1.3 miles away....in a burned clearcut.....also alone.

My property was thicker, had many more food plots, and way more bait that either of the neighbors. There were more doe groups on my place too. So, go figure.

A mile or 2 is nothing to a whitetail. Just get that thought out of your head. They stroll that far casually and daily....

Buy the neighboring properties

That’s why you don’t hunt a food/bait source. Those are just for inventory. Get him there and start backtracking. Find his bedding area and set up between.

Summer home range is supposed to be very small and on some places it is. The other plantation my son works and hunts have ragweed fields you could hide a tractor in and the only way you’d see it is from the air, lol. Those bucks bed in that and don’t have to move until late evening. Set your food source and camera away from that area by at least 150-200 yards. Does and young bucks show up way before dark, mature bucks show up right near dark or after. But, he left his bed long before then. Hunt the edge of that bedding area and you’ll get a daylight shot.

Unfortunately or fortunately our plantation has divided up areas for each of us. My deer I killed last year was seen and caught on camera the year before by two other hunters. Last year no one had his pics except me. I realized in order to kill him I could only hunt when the wind was perfect. We “thought” we were certain where he was bedding, but NEVER got his pic there so we figured he was coming from the creek area.
Turns out we were right all along when he showed up on one of the cameras right before daylight heading in the direction we originally thought he was bedded.
The placement of a climber 200 yards from the bedding area and 300 yards from the camera lead to his demise.

Yes I hunt mature deer. Yes mature deer will sometimes have some nice antlers. So yeah, I’m an antler hunter. If you ever find a deer you want to take and concentrate solely on that deer it changes you. I have yet to determine if it’s for the better or worse, but when it all comes together you truly appreciate the hunt and those antlers. Watching deer grow and mature is something I enjoy and I realize it’s not for everyone. If I just wanted to “fill my tags” with any legal deer I could do it in 2 days…10 does and 2 bucks. We do shoot does, we have to for management purposes, but I may not kill a buck this year or the next. We have mature deer that won’t score and those will be taken out, I may shoot one or get one patterned for someone else. An OLD buck I watched for several years that didn’t have a tine over 6” ended up being taken and scored 141” and he was just an 8pt. I hate to admit it but I used to get jealous of others success. Now I’m completely opposite. Heck I found sheds trapping in another hunters area and took them to him and told him when you kill him this year, I’ll give you the sheds to go with your mount. I showed him exactly where I found them and where I thought he was bedding. I can’t wait to start seeing pics of him and hope I’m there when/if he kills it. It will be his biggest and should be in the 150’s range as a 9pt.

So all those jealous or angry at antler hunters, just remember anytime you kill a nice deer, someone somewhere, was watching and letting that deer grow hoping they’d have a chance at it. They ain’t born with huge antlers and it takes a good 4.5-6.5 years to get that way.

I'm going to take a dissenting position. OP has fallen into a dream world.....not one but two very good properties with lots of benefits. Substitute guy with trophy wife and 5 hot daughters and all he asks is to leave the trophy wife alone.....daughters and all the rest fair game. Smart guy would avoid trophy wife at all costs.

I live on 10 acres, and we get overflow of deer from property across the road. They use my place all the time......lots of damage actually, but always at night. The guy who has permission to hunt farm across the road took two massive bucks off the 320 acres across the road last fall. Only hunting 80 of it. He tells me there are at least 15 other hunters he knows of that were after those two. He knows who they all are and where they hunt. So odds are, the neighbor already knows all about you. Should you actually lure the bug guy he is after onto your place to harvest, and he finds out about it. Could go one of two ways. Could congratulate you.......or could fire you and you lose it all.

I'd take advantage of all the deal has to offer until such time as he warms up to the idea of you getting in on the trophy too.

Edited to include.........on our big farms, we have the food sources and travel routes. Adjacent properties have the bedding areas. One of our guys took an ill advised shot at a massive buck that only crippled him. He escaped back to neighbors property,. Nephew followed him in to try to find him, was caught in the act. When neighbor found out what happened.........got into a bad argument that almost ended in a fist fight. He knew about the buck and had been after him all fall. What set him off was knowing buck was crippled and lost. Really bad situation that will still be going on this fall.

BTW, this plays out same way all the time. Know a guy who is a trophy hunter in MO ozarks. They all talk and all know where these deer are and many are after them. One guy notorious for sneaking in where he doesn't belong and shooting them. Is thought of with about same level or regard as used toilet paper.

It is a known fact as a buck gets older he roams less. Biologist have collared and monitored mature bucks that for months might never travel a half mile. If they have water food and cover they won't. The 191 twelve point I killed I had him on 1 cam and 1 cam only. He was living on a 110 acre farm but never went in front of any of the other 6 cams I had out. The deer stayed on a 18 acre thicket that I never walked thru until the day I killed him. I put out a cam on October1 checked it by driving a tractor to it November 3 . Hung a stand on that same day (ladder stand put up by my son for the guy that thinks i'm not allowed to hunt) Had daily pics of him headed to a pond and back. Honeysuckle was the main forage. And briars of course.

You want deer to flock to you ? Stay off of the property. Let it grow up. Put a ladder stand up so you can get in and up no noise. Cut a lane to the stand with dr trimmer or 1 pass with bush hog on Sept 1 EVERY YEAR . Let that be only activity. I know this works did it for 20 years on my inlaws farm. Normally i tagged out 15-20 minutes after daylight on opening day. Had one stand I called 15 minute stand There was 9 deer taken out of it by me , my son, and hunting buddy, over the years. LONGEST anyone waited was an average of 15 minutes.

Deer is an over sized rabbit.

All bucks DO NOT act like this ^^^ As a matter of fact that is the exception.

Even the older bucks that have gradually reduced their home range as they aged are not easy to find and figure out.

If you happen to find one it's pretty easy to down him....just watch the wind and commit the time.