This is bush hunting. Wife's buck, story, tips.

[Bushleague]

Me and my wife still hunted the thick stuff this morning. It was a new spot we've never set foot in, with a bit of luck (and over a decade of hunting this way) we were fortunate enough to have a nice buck on the ground by 10:30.

PA080253 by , on Flickr

Bush hunting gets asked about a couple times a season on here. While I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert, after 15 years of concentrating on bush hunting I feel that I have begun to take the luck out of it. This is not the dry, highly detailed manifesto I could peck out, so long as some poor sucker would listen. Instead its the story of a nice buck that my wife shot this morning, which highlights a number of lessons I've learned about timber hunting.

1. A ridge and an edge. One of the toughest things about bush hunting is wading through huge tracts of bush to try and find productive areas to concentrate on. I'd drove by this spot numerous times and always knew it would be a great area to hunt. Why? The best place to start your search is where an edge and a ridge meet, that is the "X" that marks the spot where your search begins. This was a big, densely treed valley on the edge of a huge burn that was logged extensively. The bush road runs on the top of the west side of the valley, I followed this road until I hit the point where the live timber started and we started hunting.

2. Irregularities and sign. So now we had a ridge and an edge, bingo! Well, not exactly, this is only where your search begins. What I start looking for next is irregularities, in both the edge and the ridge. For some reason these are often the pockets where sign is concentrated, and sign is what you are after. When I hunt a new area I move pretty quick until I find good amounts of sign, then I slow down and start still hunting. There's no point hunting where there are no animals.

3. Think positive. Things didn't go super well right off the bat. Theres a little bit of snow down, but things are still pretty loud when you are moving off the trail. As is often the case on all my most productive ridges, the wind was terrible, switching constantly, and the undergrowth was ridiculously thick. If you do a lot of reading, or watch enough wild TV, its supposed to be impossible to kill deer in these conditions, experience has taught me otherwise however. One just has to do their very best and have a little faith that at the point a deer shows up the variables will be in your favor. When things are looking truly hopeless I have a little trick I use, I ask myself what I would rather be doing. The answer is always "Nothing", once I realise that I'm right where I want to be I settle back down and do my best. This trick doesn't really work with my wife.

4. Loitering. We made our way far enough into the timber that the undergrowth thinned out a bit, the wind was still conspiring against us though. We were following a deer trail that had some fresh moose tracks on it, now I felt "in the zone." When one is on the sign one needs to get rid of the notion that they are going somewhere. Sure you are moving a bit, but this isn't a hike, it isn't really even a stroll, one simply loiters their way along waiting for something good to happen. Like killing a -30 day at West Ed Mall, or a vagrant wandering around White Ave. You've got all day, theres no rush.

So now we were in "the zone" frustrations slowly ebbing, all of the sudden I saw a horizontal line about 80 yards ahead. Any horizontal line in the bush is worth looking at, but especially so when its the only one without snow on it. Through my binoculars I could see it was a doe, the wind was dead wrong, I blew a buck call just to try and get her to leave without making a fuss. It seemed to work because off she trotted, another deer followed, no antlers there either. I could see another deer tucked behind a pine tree and was trying to put antlers on it when I heard a crash to my left. I looked over, expecting to see the moose who's tracks we had been following. Instead I saw a buck, high tailing it back the way we had come from.
I gave a shout and he pulled to a stop about 50 yards away, his head was behind a big poplar, a screening of brush hid most of his body, but through a little hole in the bush his shoulder was showing. I turned around to ask my wife if she wanted the honors, and saw that she was already lined up on him, a couple seconds and she touched off the shot.

We didn't have a very long drag back to the truck, but it was all uphill and nasty. Walking backwards, both hands on the antlers, heaving a big bodied buck over deadfall and through thickets, up the ever present steepness. Drag 30 yards, rest for half a minuet, repeat... unless it was a super bad stretch in which case it was more like 5 yards between breaks. A couple hours of this and we eventually had him in the truck. And that boys, is how bush hunting should be done IMO.

[JDK71]

nice work good buck

[1899b]

I only bush hunt and absolutely love it. Congrats on an awesome day. Nice write up and equally nice field pic.

[Scott N]

Nice buck!

[catnthehat]

Well done!
Most of the hunting I do is still hunting and stalking in the bush, by far my favorite for the last - wholly crap I just did the math, yup 50 years!.
I hate tree stand hunting and have only done it twice I think, once for bears and once for white tails in 248.
Cat

[DiabeticKripple]

finding the right "ridge" and then a well used game trail has been my go to as well.

the trick is to walk SLOW. and after 3-5 steps stop and take a big hard look around.

i have snuck within 30 yds of multiple does and bucks and they had no idea i was there.

another good trick is to sit 50yds downwind of the ridge where the game trail comes out at last light. makes for a nice easy shot.

[triguy]

Nice! Thanks for sharing the story!

[bucksman]

that was a good read, thanks

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by 1899b

I only bush hunt and absolutely love it. Congrats on an awesome day. Nice write up and equally nice field pic.

X2, I pretty much will not hunt agricultural areas or sit in a blind anymore. The odd exception is made when calling moose or elk.

Some people exclusively hunt with a bow for the challenge, I wander big timber. I know far more good bow hunters than good timber hunters. By that measure, and my own experiences, I consider still hunting or tracking big timber at least as difficult as hunting big game with a bow, using less challenging methods in more favorable terrain.

[Swamp hunter]

Isnt this just hunting....period? Every thing else is driving, waiting and so on.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Swamp hunter

Isnt this just hunting....period? Every thing else is driving, waiting and so on.

I dunno, I feel that good stand hunters etc do plenty of hunting. They just do most of the actual hunting well before the shot is fired, and in easyer terrain there might be less boot leather burned per animal.

I wouldn't go so far as to claim that my own methods are the only that count as hunting... their just the best is all.

[West O'5]

Great bush buck,congrats!
Stillhunting mixed timber/rolling hills/hardwood ridges with a good dose of rattling mixed in when it feels right and good shooting lanes open up downwind is by far my favourite way to hunt Whitetails.
“Nothing else I’d rather be doing”,you betcha....that’s my happy place.🙂

[bessiedog]

Great post!!!

We need more posts like this!!!!!

[wildwoods]

Best thread I have seen here in months. Congrats. Thanks for the tips and hope you tag a big one for yourself this year too! I've been predominantly a stand hunter. And yes the work is out in long before the shot via intel and analyzing cameras/patterns/movements. I've been thick into moose in 248 and believe I will tag one this year using the still hunting method. It's a blast.

[dmcbride]

Thanks for sharing, love the big bush.

[roper1]

My son has been pushing bush for me since he was legal. Funny how many times I hear a boom before I see him Nice pics & write-up, thanks for sharing!

[coyotekiller]

Great post! Congrats on the buck

[Brbpuppy]

Great thread, thank you for sharing your experience. Grats on the beautiful gift.


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[Howard Hutchinson]

Great story and great buck. You're very good at sharing and explaining the details. Thank you.

[husky7mm]

Nice job, great share. Heard a surprising amount of people sighting bucks near does already this yr.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by husky7mm

Nice job, great share. Heard a surprising amount of people sighting bucks near does already this yr.

My own observations on this have been a bit mixed this year. I've noticed for a long time that the first snow in October always stirs the bucks up for a few days, the rut isn't actually on but they get excited. This year we had our first snow in mid Sept, sure enough scrape lines popped up even though it was pretty early. The bucks were still in bachelor groups however, so they cant have been that serious. On Saturday I saw two mature bucks still together, but the buck we shot today was checking out does.

On the flip side, I remember 3 seasons back where the weather was warm and we had no snow until the last week of Nov. We saw mature bucks in groups even into the second week of November that year.

In short, I don't think the weather affects the actual rut. But it can sure affect how the bucks act in the pre-rut. This year is looking like there will be some exciting pre-rut action.

[shr970]

Great story thanks for sharing

[alpineguy]

Nice Whitie.........thanks for posting

[JohninAB]

Nice deer and write up. Thanks for sharing.

[chain2]

Thanks for posting. I appreciate the effort and thought given in your words. congrats chain

[sns2]

Nice work. Thanks for sharing!

[Ronaround]

Great Chocolate horned buck. might look real pretty on the wall.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Really enjoyed your story and pic! I always enjoy learning from those with more experience than me.

[Zuludog]

Thanks for sharing your story, tips and pictures.

[58thecat]

Great buck, great write up only addition to this is when I wonder through the bush I carry a pack and use the gutless method to get the deer field dressed, debone the meat, keep the parts required legally to identify the tagged deer and carry the deer out, sharp fillet knife makes it about a 30 minute job start to finish and one person can easily carry a deer out this way, a lot less sweat and grief getting out.

Or if close enough I have my sled in the truck.

Beauty buck for sure and a great hunt.