look at the 1st pic real close, at the top of his (closest deer) shoulder you can see a dark spot that is a hole where she hit this deer with an arrow. We have it on video and you can see the deer "duck the string" as the arrow approaches thus causing the high hit. We found the arrow 75 yds out with the broadhead broke off, no blood. She shot him on 9-29-08, all three bucks were there and they all stayed gone till 10-3-08. Now they are back and when the wind is right, they better say some prayers. They were there on 10-3, 10-4, 10-5, 10-6. She hunted today but they did not show during shooting hours.
Weekender, I have some questions about hunting over bait. I never see big bucks say 4 points or better on my bait pile. I have seen them arounf it like thirty yards away but never on it. I have a Reconx camera that is there and never leaves they just dont come, not even at night. I have not been very consistant with my bait in years past but this year I have not let it run out and still no big bucks on it. I saw 3 hudge bucks on opening day but they wouldnt come anywhere near it.Does it take say two months for them to feel safe to come to it? I have tons of does and small bucks that walk right up, and eat no question. Im not using a feeder im pouring the corn out on the ground, speading it around but never touching it with my hands. I also use sweet beats and sweet potatos. I have hunted the trails leading to the bait but there are so many it seems like its a one in twenty shot at picking the right one. Are they going to come in into the wind.? Please help.
pitch, there are lots of variables here.I have had feeders for 10 yrs or so but only in the last two have we started seeing good deer on them. One advantage in the feeders is the fact that we can leave the area scent free between hunts. We might hunt a stand three days in a row if the wind is right but might not hunt it for 10 days following. I killed two decent bucks off the same spot last year and saw another 2, one really good one. We put the feeder and stand out in early August and did not go back but one time to fill it before opening day. As far as the bucks coming into the wind, this is not the case. They have a preferred direction to approach and I think it is more cover related than wind. If they only come into the wind, I don't think we would ever see one. We hunt when the forecasted wind is coming from the feeder to the stand and that's about the best you can do. Of course it swirls at times, that's just NC for ya. If we get to a stand and it is blowing steady in the wrong direction, we leave. Also that same wind is in our face walking to this stand. I really feel like getting quality deer is more about location of the feeder more than anything else. We have other feeders that are rarely visited by anything more than 1 1/2 yr old bucks but have many more deer using them than this stand. We planned the location of this feeder from years of hunting the same general area. It has an appraoch path that the deer rarely use. We never prowl around the woods near the feeder. Basically they are left alone except when we hunt or track. I cut a brush free trail so that we don't rub on bushes going to and from the stand. I think your best chance of seeing a good buck will be when we get much closer to the rut and the bucks drop their guard somewhat. My guess is if you are seeing good bucks but they avoid your set, then they have smelled human scent in the area and it has caused them to avoid it. I would suggest spreading the corn in large area vs. what you would call a pile. When I put corn out manually without a feeder, I would cover an area at least 30 yds X 30 yds with say 50# of corn, so it is spread pretty thin. For what ever reason, this seems to help. Bottom line is if what you are doing is not working, you might need to change locations even though you are seeing lots of deer. At this stand where these bucks are, we don't see any deer more times than we do. At other stands, we might average seeing 5-10 per set but not see the bigger bucks at all.
I think these trail cams are the heat. We only check them post hunt, never make a special trip in just to look. Some may think it's cheating, but I really like seeing what the "inventory" is. Some say the flash spooks them but our pics tell me that it has little to no effect. We have been on stand early morning and late evening and seen the camera take pics of the deer with flash and have yet to see a negative reaction. We have ours set to only take 1 pic every 5 minutes. I think the burst mode might get a different reaction but don't use it. The wind is wrong today, so I guess I'll make some rigs, watch the Outdoor channel.
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