Late season buck HELP PLZ!!!!

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Originally Posted by werner.reiche

That's a good reference book. Deer hunting info from Maine or Michigan (particularly the UP) has more in common with this part of Ontario (55A) than hunting info from farm country in southern Ontario would. But don't get too hung up on the specifics of Ontario deer. It's not like the Ontario deer are different.

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I agree deer behaviour is deer behaviour, but they do adapt. I hunt 79 and 87, never hunted big woods deer so I cant speak to that. In 79 there are a lot of small parcels around 10-20 acres, I estimate 50% of those are hunted so assuming a deer's core range is 640 acres that means any deer in 79 is being exposed to multiple hunters. Adjacent to 79 is 87, this is where the lot sizes increase to 100's and one I know of 1000's of acres per owner. I am quite sure there are deer in 87 that live their entire lives without seeing a hunter, and they behave very differently. Any deer big or small taken in 79 is a trophy in my opinion.

It's almost a catch 22 with this little of the season left
in my opinion you need to know if the deer live (on your property or on the neighboring land) if you have snow you can walk the perimeter hoping to catch tracks. here comes the catch 22 is you could potentially blow the deer out of an area if they have experienced human pressure and associate your scent with danger.
if you know where they live if the wind allows you set up on the highest traveled rout between where they live (bedding) and the bait. you probably won't get a ton of chances using this technique but in my opinion this is the best way to shoot a late season buck

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Originally Posted by DanE

It's almost a catch 22 with this little of the season left
in my opinion you need to know if the deer live (on your property or on the neighboring land) if you have snow you can walk the perimeter hoping to catch tracks. here comes the catch 22 is you could potentially blow the deer out of an area if they have experienced human pressure and associate your scent with danger.
if you know where they live if the wind allows you set up on the highest traveled rout between where they live (bedding) and the bait. you probably won't get a ton of chances using this technique but in my opinion this is the best way to shoot a late season buck

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yea I think because of the rain coming on Sunday I’m going to try and sit out by the feed till then and then on Sunday after a morning sit I’m gonna try and follow a fresh track and see if I can narrow in on one.

probably won’t get one but because of the rain coming nothing is going to be moving anyway so I may as well try my luck with the rain as cover.

rain can work to your benefit. they will still move around as I have shot deer in the rain just moving around, but agree they tend to not move as much , so going for a really slow quiet walk may be just the trick. Keep an I to the sides as I believe they will leave a trail then hook back a bit to watch for anything following them, this could be your chance.

Take up water foul. lol.

Don’t count on the weather forecast. You may get a stoppage of rain at the perfect time.

From the sounds of it you have been placing bait all season and probably have made sure there is always bait in place. It may sound counter intuitive but use less bait and let it run out semi regularly. If there is always food at a particular spot the deer figure that out pretty quickly. Once they know there is always food somewhere they often become nocturnal as they know it is a sure thing and why risk going in the daylight. Letting the bait run out regularly makes it unpredictable to the deer and they will check it at different times as it will be first come first serve and create competition for a limited resource.

Deer are pretty much creatures of habit. If you can tell which way they are entering your bait pile via your trail cams I'd hunt maybe 50 to 75 yds towards the area they are walking in from making sure you set up on the downwind side of where he'll come in from. Some times they'll hang up 25 to 50 yds down from your bait waiting for low light or even dark. Getting in there prior to them wandering in is a must... Good luck....

And I agree with what Species said...

One thing to add to those good remarks-DO NOT,ever ,walk on deer paths towards your stand/bait.Regardless if doe trail ,buck trail or whatever.
I see this mistake made countless time,and wondering,what the hunter has been thinking.
Go around,few 100 extra yards counts for nothing for YOU in the big scheme of things.

if you absolutely MUST use the path,then do it very short distance,very very sparingly.

If absolutely need to -try only to cross the path-but try to cross on the spot where you CAN shoot the deer,standing and wandering(for a very short time)what next

it amazing to me how some people set up stands. few years ago there were 2 other guys allowed to hunt where I hunt. they put a tree stand up between my to shooting lanes, where I have a ground blind, which they were well aware of. there was a deer trail that crossed both shooting lands. they put the tree stand up right in the middle of the deer trail, the ladder was right in the middle of the trail. they walked in the trail to get to the stand. needless to say there was no deer even seen at that location that year and it was the most productive spot and is again as they finally moved the stand. So yes do not walk on the deer trail, you can cross it but don't use it because it is easy to get to where you want to go.

A little unrelated but during the controlled hunt in 92B this year I watched a coyote out in the field. I could have easily shot him but decided to pass because I didn't feel like re-loading.. lol
Anyway, when the coyote hit the path, I walked in on he stopped on a dime and bolted out of there. It's amazing how good the sense of smell is on deer and coyotes.