Chasing bush bucks 2022

[Smoky buck]

Another stand up today and only 2 more to go. The last 2 I am holding out to see the results of a few cams.

After finding the 9pt dead I had decide choose a different location for my cousins stand. I opted to set him up in a location I have scouted that should be a travel corridor in the rut. In theory the split brow buck and a large 10pt I targeted last year should use this area come the rut do to how close it is to last year’s location. It will provide a better shooting opportunity then the previous area

Unfortunately I have only had a cam in here a short time and it doesn’t seem to be working right. So I am relying on sign and general knowledge of past seasons/sign

A scrape line has been started but I don’t know what kind of bucks are doing it. We did bump a buck with a decent frame well setting the stand

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The stand




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[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by stein

also enjoying this thread!

was out yesterday for my first time out in the prairies with my bow and stalked up on 6 muley bucks in a coulee, unfortunately no doe's for my general tag but what a rush!

Good to hear

Best of luck on the mule deer hunting. Chasing prairie mule deer through the the southern Alberta coulees can be exciting. After a few year break from archery I have finally picked up a bow again and will likely start scouting for new places to hunt mule deer next year.The fact the areas I hunted in the past are only open for does during archery now and the distance I can’t justify the fuel to hunt those areas without a draw

[Suzukisam]

I had a white tail buck follow me in my side by side today for 2 miles. He would run around me and stay within 20 feet and when I stopped he would stop and wait.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Suzukisam

I had a white tail buck follow me in my side by side today for 2 miles. He would run around me and stay within 20 feet and when I stopped he would stop and wait.

Odds are that buck won’t make it through the season

[Smoky buck]

The last ladder stand is hung and man do I hate these things but you need to suck it up and help family at times

This is an area I hunted a few times from the ground last year but never hung a stand in here before. Last year I called in a few ok 8’s but we did get a tank on cam after we were done for the season

The area is a transition from young poplar too thick to hunt to larger mixed timber. There is a communal scrape in the young poplars but the area becomes a large active scrape line during the rut.

This stand overlooks a few trails and an evergreen that was a major scrape last season

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The stand



Only had a cam on the communal scrape a short time early on but here is an ok 10 that was on it. I have put a new cam on the main trail the stand overlooks. I expect this area to heat up with a good number of bucks once the rut starts



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[Smoky buck]

And now for some pics from my other cams

The droptine at my wife’s stand is showing to be a regular and gave a better look at his rack



The next area is an area I scouted for early season archery elk and they are here. Unfortunately during November there is too much hunting traffic in the area and don’t want to risk exposing this location with tracks in the snow. So this buck is safe this year but this will be an area I will be targeting next archery season




Next on the list is the location where I had a close call with a cougar hunting on the ground last year. It showed some good bucks and numbers last year so I recently put a cam here. This guy has sparked my interest





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[Peebles]

Quality content. Thank you for sharing all of this.

[Dozer guy]

Just awesome thanks for sharing

[58thecat]

I say thumbs up but we need to see a cranker on the ground




Awesome thread and learning lots


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[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

I say thumbs up but we need to see a cranker on the ground




Awesome thread and learning lots


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Soon it will be time to roll the dice and see how it goes. I have a few days off at the start of November and may spend most of it helping a rookie that has shown a will to learn

True game time is November 12-24th

[Ronji]

Great posting.
Thanks for sharing. Best of luck to you. By the pictures, you are hunting in a great spot.
Share the final results
Good shooting

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Ronji

Great posting.
Thanks for sharing. Best of luck to you. By the pictures, you are hunting in a great spot.
Share the final results
Good shooting

I will be 100% honest with you it’s less about where I hunt and more about the time scouting to find the pockets within the area I hunt

There is a lot of people who think my area is poor. One of my favorite WMUs has poor harvest stats too. I cross paths with hunters in between locations or if I go for a warm up drive on cold days and many think all the big bucks are dead lol. Lots of guys complaining about seeing almost no deer

Where I find some of these bucks would shock a lot of people

The true point of my bush buck threads is to show people get out and put in the time to learn your area because there is plenty of deer hiding right under everyone’s nose

Pick an area and put in the time you will likely be surprised what you have been missing

[Smoky buck]

The rookie I have offered to help will actually be hunting totally different WMUs then me. I will be going to her area to help her find her own pockets and teach her how to call

It will be teaching her to hunt the bush in her area and read sign because I know that this matters more than location

Yes if she has a tough season I will likely invite her to my area but long term I bet she starts finding quality deer in her own area

I can’t emphasize it more that what you see for deer in my threads is more about the effort scouting then location

[KazIce]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

I will be 100% honest with you it’s less about where I hunt and more about the time scouting to find the pockets within the area I hunt

There is a lot of people who think my area is poor. One of my favorite WMUs has poor harvest stats too. I cross paths with hunters in between locations or if I go for a warm up drive on cold days and many think all the big bucks are dead lol. Lots of guys complaining about seeing almost no deer

Where I find some of these bucks would shock a lot of people

The true point of my bush buck threads is to show people get out and put in the time to learn your area because there is plenty of deer hiding right under everyone’s nose

Pick an area and put in the time you will likely be surprised what you have been missing

That’s my biggest takeaway from these threads; there are white tails that many people simply don’t know about.

But I love following along. I get to learn something from the process.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by KazIce

That’s my biggest takeaway from these threads; there are white tails that many people simply don’t know about.

But I love following along. I get to learn something from the process.

And even with the level of scouting I do I am only scratching the surface on what is hiding in the bush. There is so much bush that sees almost no one.

Then add in the intelligence of a whitetail and you get old phantoms that no one sees. There are bucks that I don’t know if they could ever legally be taken by a hunter because of how they adapted to pressure. They really don’t need to come out into the open

But this is why I enjoy hunting bush bucks

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

And even with the level of scouting I do I am only scratching the surface on what is hiding in the bush. There is so much bush that sees almost no one.

Then add in the intelligence of a whitetail and you get old phantoms that no one sees. There are bucks that I don’t know if they could ever legally be taken by a hunter because of how they adapted to pressure. They really don’t need to come out into the open

But this is why I enjoy hunting bush bucks

So true, so true.

[Smoky buck]

Just to give you guys how far this addiction to pursuing bush bucks has gone

I just finished a 5 day set of nights, had a 2 1/2hr nap, now I am going to grab a Red Bull, go check some cams, and depending on how I feel pull my elk stand so I can move it in the next 2 days

No rest for the wicked lol

[Stinky Buffalo]

Haha, that's the kind of stuff I used to pull back when I was your age!

[aragor764]

@smoky_buck, thanks for this thread, by the looks of your pics we hunt a very very similar terrain! Do you experience bucks moving out of their usual spots in the past two weeks? I have been absolutely skunked in the past few weeks on the cams, seems like they vanished! I did however found a nice scrape in an area that looks exactly like your last pic there, if this area gets some good action I will most likely install a treestand like you did there next year. TIA!

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by aragor764

@smoky_buck, thanks for this thread, by the looks of your pics we hunt a very very similar terrain! Do you experience bucks moving out of their usual spots in the past two weeks? I have been absolutely skunked in the past few weeks on the cams, seems like they vanished! I did however found a nice scrape in an area that looks exactly like your last pic there, if this area gets some good action I will most likely install a treestand like you did there next year. TIA!

October generally sucks and often active slows along with daylight movement. If you are on does and scrapes the bucks you previously scouted will likely appear. If your early season movements were only food related without evidence of past rut sign they may have moved on. If the doe activity in the area has also died odds are you were on seasonal food

As you can see in my threads there is a good portion of bucks that just pass through and are never targeted by me

Just a heads up trail cam pics can be deceiving when it comes to showing the kind of bush. That pic you mentioned is on a hard transition and if the cam was turned around it’s mostly cottonwood and poplar. There is a scrape where the buck is standing is why it’s pointed that way. I am actually going to set this location today and will post pics later. It will look different then the cam pics

Ok when it comes to bucks sticking around here is my opinion

Some are just nomadic but they have a home range. They don’t really have a core area within their range though. They may have seasonal areas they hang out in but change often. Some just don’t stay put and are always on the move. You can’t really pattern theses bucks and you basically need to target travel corridors and does. I refer to theses bucks as roamers and this is a large portion of bush bucks. This is where history of scouting areas for multiple seasons pays off you start to key in on the trends on where these bucks appear closer/during the rut

As you see mentioned in this thread I have areas I set do to past knowledge

Now for the other kind of buck they keep tighter to a core area and travel less. You will almost always find a communal scrape near by. There will be plenty of old rut sign from past season. There will be a good population of does and not many other bucks once September passes. The area will have good feed all season and often a good stand of evergreens for when snow is deeper. They are always found in areas that provide all their needs with minimal disturbances. I refer to these bucks as home bodies and they are less common. Theses bucks are much harder to find but provide high odds if you do

Out of my locations this year only one buck maybe two are home bodies. They are in the same spot and I believe just recently the one buck may have pushed the other out.

The reality of it is scouting whitetail bucks is gathering information from the sign old and new. It’s also reading the area/habitat trying to judge if it is suitable for attracting deer during the hunting season

In the end it’s not perfect and you are just making your best possible guess based on the information you gather. I have lots track of bucks for a long list of reasons death, hunting pressure changing movement, resource industry disruption, predators or I straight up just read the buck wrong. Even the best plans can go wrong

This is one of the reasons for multiple stand locations and not getting fixated on one buck.

[aragor764]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

October generally sucks and often active slows along with daylight movement. If you are on does and scrapes the bucks you previously scouted will likely appear. If your early season movements were only food related without evidence of past rut sign they may have moved on. If the doe activity in the area has also died odds are you were on seasonal food

As you can see in my threads there is a good portion of bucks that just pass through and are never targeted by me

Just a heads up trail cam pics can be deceiving when it comes to showing the kind of bush. That pic you mentioned is on a hard transition and if the cam was turned around it’s mostly cottonwood and poplar. There is a scrape where the buck is standing is why it’s pointed that way. I am actually going to set this location today and will post pics later. It will look different then the cam pics

Ok when it comes to bucks sticking around here is my opinion

Some are just nomadic but they have a home range. They don’t really have a core area within their range though. They may have seasonal areas they hang out in but change often. Some just don’t stay put and are always on the move. You can’t really pattern theses bucks and you basically need to target travel corridors and does. I refer to theses bucks as roamers and this is a large portion of bush bucks. This is where history of scouting areas for multiple seasons pays off you start to key in on the trends on where these bucks appear closer/during the rut

As you see mentioned in this thread I have areas I set do to past knowledge

Now for the other kind of buck they keep tighter to a core area and travel less. You will almost always find a communal scrape near by. There will be plenty of old rut sign from past season. There will be a good population of does and not many other bucks once September passes. The area will have good feed all season and often a good stand of evergreens for when snow is deeper. They are always found in areas that provide all their needs with minimal disturbances. I refer to these bucks as home bodies and they are less common. Theses bucks are much harder to find but provide high odds if you do

Out of my locations this year only one buck maybe two are home bodies. They are in the same spot and I believe just recently the one buck may have pushed the other out.

The reality of it is scouting whitetail bucks is gathering information from the sign old and new. It’s also reading the area/habitat trying to judge if it is suitable for attracting deer during the hunting season

In the end it’s not perfect and you are just making your best possible guess based on the information you gather. I have lots track of bucks for a long list of reasons death, hunting pressure changing movement, resource industry disruption, predators or I straight up just read the buck wrong. Even the best plans can go wrong

This is one of the reasons for multiple stand locations and not getting fixated on one buck.

Great advice SB! You are cheering me up a bit as thankfully my main area is two large traveling corridors, and it's been where I have been the most successful over the years, I will keep at it, keep us updated!

[Smoky buck]

The final stand is set and it’s just a matter of seeing if I am half as smart as I think I might be lol

The last location is where I called in the cougar last year and where the buck with a really dark rack showed up last check. This stand was a pain to set because the trees I wanted to use had a bend in the wrong spot or to big to get a strap around for my steps

The view I did trim a little after theses pics


The stand



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[Smoky buck]

I will still be scouting areas to possibly hunt off the ground this season. I will also have cams in locations to see if they pick up during the rut. This is something that is very valuable that many overlook once the season starts as it gives knowledge for future seasons

Cams will be checked less from here on out

[Smoky buck]

I only checked a small portion of cams and nothing ground breaking on them. Moved some into places better suited to hunt off the ground to add some options if needed

The nice tight 10pt I have been on since the start is still hanging around the area. I got lots of pics of him on the scrape near my stand. The buck with the kicker in this same location didn’t make an appearance. He did use a different trail when I had the cam near the stand so maybe he just doesn’t visit this scrape as often. Time will tell if he has been pushed out or not. I knew the possibility of one of these bucks moving on closer to the rut was very possible anyway

The 10pt

Now for the next buck he is a new one. This is a spot that I have set the last 2 years as well. I have not done any stand pics because I set the stand forgot pics and left a cell cam in this location. I shot the home body buck that was here but it gets a lot of traffic from bucks during the rut. The history of this location is the mature roaming bucks don’t appear till late October and really come in after the first week of November. Last year the first mature buck to appear was October 25 and this year the first one is October 27. This area has had multiple really nice bucks cruising this area every year during the rut

This is why history with an area and paying attention to past trends is important. If I was only using scouting knowledge from pre season this location would likely be passed on. This is why it’s good to leave a cam in some locations if the old sign is good because some areas really flip as the rut gets closer. Always think of future possibilities

So here is the new buck in the location I was blabbing about and I know others will start showing up.




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[aragor764]

Dude that 10point is a beauty

[Smoky buck]

Oh and October sucks almost everything is at night right now. This has been a trend every year. Lots of daylight movement in September and then again the last 3weeks of November. October is also a period of transition where food sources change and they start shifting towards getting ready for the rut. This scatters some bucks into different areas

So for those who like to take time off work to hunt whitetail in the early WMUs or bow hunt remember October SUCKS

But hey hunt when and how pleases you

Today I will be heading out to a new area to help a rookie locate some scrape lines to hunt. I will be setting two of my cams for her so hopefully she gets to see pics that motivates her for the upcoming long November sits. I will spend some time teaching some calling in early November. Crossing my fingers I can help find a decent buck to start this rookies future addiction.

I much prefer to help a rookie locate their own spots with them in toe learning the sign, what I am looking for and why. This provides them with their own pockets to hunt that they helped find. This way they have locations they can call their own and hunt as they please

Unfortunately we could not start earlier so we won’t get the depth of scouting I would prefer is not going to happen. So let’s see what can be found but I have faith I can help her locate a spiker or two lol

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by aragor764

Dude that 10point is a beauty

If your talking the one on the cabelas cam he is a very clean buck with no noticeable imperfections. He is definitely a shooter given the opportunity but in ways I also want him to out smart me. Looking at his face and body he still has a bit of a youthful look to him. Being in an area with high predator numbers and hunting pressure it’s a gamble if I pass in hopes he grows. Depending on my mood if I see him in person may have me torn if I should pass or just drop him without a thought

If you compare the two bucks in that post you can see difference in the face of the two bucks. The new one is definitely older in my opinion

[Pekan]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

If your talking the one on the cabelas cam he is a very clean buck with no noticeable imperfections. He is definitely a shooter given the opportunity but in ways I also want him to out smart me. Looking at his face and body he still has a bit of a youthful look to him. Being in an area with high predator numbers and hunting pressure it’s a gamble if I pass in hopes he grows. Depending on my mood if I see him in person may have me torn if I should pass or just drop him without a thought

If you compare the two bucks in that post you can see difference in the face of the two bucks. The new one is definitely older in my opinion

ALL of your camera bucks are shooters! This is such a great post.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Another stand up today and only 2 more to go. The last 2 I am holding out to see the results of a few cams.

After finding the 9pt dead I had decide choose a different location for my cousins stand. I opted to set him up in a location I have scouted that should be a travel corridor in the rut. In theory the split brow buck and a large 10pt I targeted last year should use this area come the rut do to how close it is to last year’s location. It will provide a better shooting opportunity then the previous area

Unfortunately I have only had a cam in here a short time and it doesn’t seem to be working right. So I am relying on sign and general knowledge of past seasons/sign

A scrape line has been started but I don’t know what kind of bucks are doing it. We did bump a buck with a decent frame well setting the stand

View



The stand




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Perfect, I like the available shooting lanes from the stand, will be there for opener

Can hardly wait to say big buck down......

Awesome thread and good luck!

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Perfect, I like the available shooting lanes from the stand, will be there for opener

Can hardly wait to say big buck down......

Awesome thread and good luck!

Ok but you picked the one stand I set for my cousin and he is basically a 280lb gorilla. If you can wrestle him out of the stand I am good with it