I've hunted my whole life n I hardly ever see mature bucks outside of the rut unless it's very early in bow season...I'm not talking full blown rut but a couple weeks before and then from there on until the end of season...basically all January till end of February...that don't stop me from hunting December but I've only killed 2 that's on the wall during December
This is my situation I have 170 acres of Hardwoods and 30 in Hay fields. Bucks especially the mature one just simply don't "live" there. I'm eat up with does and the bucks will start showing up around Christmas until the end of the season. this year i have 17 different bucks that have shown in the last 2 weeks. mostly all at night until the last few days. my land is also surrounded on 3 sides with about 3000 acres of private land that hasn't been hunted for deer in 25 years so I'm not really worried about the neighbors killing off the bucks. it would be nice to see bucks year round but me and my son have managed to kill at least 1 mature buck each since I can remember
