Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Unexpected kills

jlbuc10's buck got me to thinking...

How many good bucks get killed in unexpected places? A spot that gets overlooked and ignored for long periods of time.

Like jlbuc10, last year I was playing the role of guide for my daughter & her friend. I dropped them all off one morning before daylight at "the good spots" and just went around the corner and parked. I had a book I needed to read for a class at church so I picked me out a comfortable spot to sit and read while they hunted. I sat down and pulled the book out, but tt wasn't daylight good enough to read the book yet. That's when I spotted a very mature buck who walked up to within 50yds of me & got himself dead.

I also think back to a different hunt where I got hung up and was very late making it to the club I was in at the time. Someone was hunting a patch near the sign-in board off of the main road and I didn't want to drive past them at 4pm. We had another "patch" (to use the term loosely) right behind the sign-in box. It never got hunted. I decided I'd burn the last hour of the day there... and killed a fine 8pt that evening. Buck was the heaviest to come off of that property at the time.

Who else?

One of the largest bucks I’ve ever killed came from the sign in box on our lease. I kept noticing huge rubs there every year and decided I’d climb up and take a peak at who may be leaving them. I signed in, backed down the road and walked back with my climber. Had him dead by 8 am. 143” 10 that weighed 208. Beast of a deer.

the best place on any property is the spot that no one hunts for whatever the reason. Old bucks will gravitate to undisturbed spots.

Buddy and I joined a club near LaGrange Ga. At the first club meeting before that first season we talked to everyone we could to find out where no one hunted. Turns out it was a 40 acre clearcut beside the main entrance road. We killed 4 bucks that first season. The rest of the club killed five total.....

Yep. The one I let get away from me earlier this year was the first time I’d even been in there this year. No camera, no corn, just going off past hunts and experiences. If the timber doesn’t change, deer rarely change their patterns. Missed him by THAT much….

I have killed a lot of good bucks that were living behind houses. Close to the yard. Dogs barking, kids playing. They were used to it.

Yes it’s illegal, know of a big one that was killed in the woods between north and southbound lanes on I65 in Greenville many years ago. Guy saw him feeding a couple times so had someone drop him off.

I know where several 2-5 acre blocks are I’d pay to hunt 3 times a year with a bow… coming by late nights after coon hunting seeing some pretty nice deer moving in and out. And these blocks of wood/thick/mess are not a back road out in the sticks property

One place that I hunt is 80 acres in a neighborhood right on the edge of a small town. We have 3 stands there. A tripod on a gas line, a ladder stand in the middle of the property, and a ladder stand in the driveway of the property owners house. We see deer practically every time we hunt there. Several good bucks have come off that place.

Had a 4,000 acre lease one time in south bama. I found it by complete accident after being in the club for several yrs, but the absolute best place on the entire 4000 acres, to kill big bucks consistently, was a beat down trail that paralleled a blacktop hwy. That trail was only 25-30 yards inside the wood line, and 40 yards off the hwy. I'd park at our gate just off the hwy and walk straight into the woods. Everyone assumed I was parking there and walking down the road and killing them on a tripod that we had half a mile in, or walking in and taking another road down to big field. I'd drag them to the truck, load them up and then drive down close to the field or the tri-pod to leave tire tracks so that they thought that was where I had killed and loaded the bucks. To the best of my knowledge, nobody ever figured it out.

Last two years I killed a decent to me 8pt. Each in spots I figured to be good but NEVER hunted before. Little bit of know how with being there at the right time, the rut. Lots of luck though.

What Fred said

Lease I was in sold right before the season so I joined a new club but didn't have time to scout. Showed up one morning and the place I wanted to go was taken. There was a couple of hundred acres away from the main area that I noticed was rarely hunted at all so I asked the guys hanging around the sign in station if there was a stand over there. They said yeah but there weren't any deer over there and laughed when I signed in there anyway. I walked a long ways down the road without seeing a single track and only saw one deer that morning, but he was the biggest one off of that club in at least 15 years. There was about a week left in the season and that section was signed out morning and evening for the rest of that year.

Funny how that happens

I've done it all of the time on Public Land. You don't have to walk 3 miles to every time to kill a good buck. Don't get me wrong, many times you have to do what many won't, work for it. A lot of it is patience, paying attention to pressure(hunting pressure) and being there when it counts, (weather, wind, time of year). It helps if it is during or near the rut.

I had a beaver pond that I would hunt every year. It was overlooked because it was near a decently traveled dirt road and not a whole lot of public land to roam, small piece of maybe 60 acres. There were a few houses nearby; Dogs barking, neighbors talking loud, always some type of noise. Killed a nice 10 pt near all of that ruckus and the road. Little pocket of thick cover can go a long way with a mature deer. If he has water, food, cover, and a doe nearby, he is probably there.

X2 what Fred said. Ask where no one else hunts, laugh about it when they say it sucks, and then go hunt it. And keep your piehole shut if you see anything.

I always like the overlooked areas. Killed a nice 8-point several years ago in Georgia within walking distance of the lodge. Asked about the spot the night before and took a flier that it was a travel route between two big blocks of woods. I was back with a fresh pot of coffee brewing when my host returned from putting out another hunter. It wasn't a monster but was the biggest they'd killed on the property in three years of rebuilding it.

There is only 4 of us hunting 400 acres and I'm all the time telling them I going scout hunting. I put my climber or turkey lounger on and hike into the fringe areas where there are no stands. I have been able to kill a good buck every year for the last 10 years and most of the time it's a buck we don't have on camera. I do get a boring hunts from time to time but I'm always amazed at how everything changes in the woods after 3-4 years. A lot of areas that were to thick a few years ago open up and become hunt-able. This is also the best way to slip into bedding areas during the rut.

I’ve killed more deer on the days I debate even going in the woods than I do on those days that I’m like “weather’s perfect for hunting!”

Same for spots. I stopped using shoothouse and just ground hunt most of the time.

My Dad use to let everybody pick their spots then he would ease off the main road leading into the land and sit on the ground

One of the biggest I have ever seen was on our farm in a corner that stays too wet and we've got a briar patch about 1/8 acre. Right next to a county gravel road and a deep dtich. You could throw a burger sack out the window over into this little patch as you passed.

Sent my bird dog in there to flush a rabbit and out comes 4 deer one probably woulda pushed 170 inches. Watched it bounce off into the distance across my Uncle's pasture and over a rise never to be seen again.

If I had had a round of buck shot in my coat pocket I'd have never got it in the gun I just stood there with my jaw dropped watching I couldn't believe it.

One of the biggest deer I ever killed I hadn't even planned on going. The place I hunt floods bad, like really bad. The water had just went back down and it was hot and raining. My wife asked if I was going hunting, to which I replied no. She kept on about me going, so I finally said if you want me to go in this hot, rainy, muddy mess you can go too. She said what are we going to do with the twins (3 at the time) I said bring them too. I said I will show you why I don't want to go. We drove through torrential rain the whole way there. When we finally got in the shooting house it was 3:30, at 3:45 she said there's a 4 point wading through the water to our left. I looked and said that ain't no 4 point. I grabbed the rifle and shot and ended up killing a mid 140s 9 point.