Warb and Gooch found this buck by bumping him out of his bed. Watch this breakdown to see how they managed to find this deer and hunt him down in a short time frame.
Key Questions:
How far did the deer go when spooked?
How far away did we kill the buck from the initial spot where he was spooked?
How were current conditions used to our advantage during the hunt?
How to hunt deer in big timber on acorn feeding patterns?
Are morning hunts worth it in mid October?
Habitat Overview
Mature hardwood timber in rolling hills along a huge reservoir. Some of the red oaks are dropping acorns but they are sporadic. There's very few pockets of "thick" cover or vegetation. Bucks are bedding at the tops of bowls in strategic areas with a wind advantage close to available acorns.
Adapting to Changing Conditions
This is another hunt where situational tactics played a tremendous role in our success. The first two days we hunted this spot were poor conditions for deer movement. We bumped this buck out of his bed around noon on an 80 degree day with strong South winds. We used the high winds to scout through this area with less intrusion and surprised this buck in his bed. As you can see in the video, the buck either hears or sees us but has no idea what we are. In this situation, the deer was less likely to leave the area after being startled by something unknown. If he'd have smelled us, the story could have ended much differently.
Buck Bedding
We say this often but it cannot be overstated. Mature bucks choose to bed in areas where they have multiple advantages away from human scent. After spooking the deer the day prior, we again used the morning winds to our advantage in order to sneak in under the cover of darkness to a remote bedding area approximately 400 yards from the spot where we spooked the buck. Our guess after spooking the deer was that he'd relocate nearby to a more "remote" bedding location. This small "bowl" in between the two ridges was the closest likely bedding area so we set up over it before daylight.
This is one of the few occasions where our guess was correct. But when it comes to hunting mature bucks in October, you only have to guess right once in order to have success.
-Finding the buck was #1
-Mobile hunting different bedding areas kept us a step ahead of the buck
