Giant bucks and racks! BULLPUP for deer!! How to hunt lockdown bucks

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The DeerBlaster culls the best of the whitetail interwebz every week for DIEHARD whitetail nerds…cuz it’s fun! And informative too. Then it “blasts” into your inbox.

Thx for reading! If you’re getting the DeerBlaster for the first time it’s probably because a deer-crazed buddy signed you up!

> “In 2017 he was a 140-class 10-point, so not the biggest buck in the world, but he was the biggest buck on my farm that year. So he had my attention. I had a few pics of him, and I actually saw him once from stand in late Nov. I didn’t know it then, but that would be the last time I’d see him a while.

> “Going into the 2020 season I just got really aggressive with camera placement and I moved cameras around a lot, looking for clues about where this buck lived. I own 20 trail cameras, and I’d say 12 or 13 of them were devoted to finding him.

> “I finally pinpointed where this buck was spending 90% of his life…But I knew that if I sat in the area I just wasn’t going to see many, if any, deer.”

Yep he sat there anyway! And after a few boring sits, Mr. Big appeared:

> “I grabbed my rattling antlers and hit them. He stopped in his tracks and turned to look my way. I remember thinking, Here we go, and then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a mature 9-point, and he was coming between me and Mr. Big.

> “I got lucky. Although 9-point never busted me, he was suspicious, but for some reason he slipped out behind me and Mr. Big never saw him.

>”I grabbed my bow and started looking for an opening where I could shoot. Naturally, the buck went into thicker cover, but I saw a small opening where I thought I could get an arrow through. When I grunted, he stopped with just his vitals in that hole, and I made the shot.”

Heck yeah! Amazing buck, congrats!

> If you ask anyone who is close to me, they will tell you I haven’t been the same person for the last couple of weeks anticipating this hunt.

> I’m not sure if I will ever kill another deer this big — he had a 26 1/4″ inside spread! — but even if I do, its hard to imagine it meaning more to me than this one does.

> All the time spent in preparation for this — the habitat management, the scouting, the target practice — all came full circle with the killing of this deer. I am a truly blessed man. All glory to God!

Word brother!

> To say our family has been blessed the last 2 evenings would be an understatement!

> Sunday evening Austin got a big buck we have been following we named Forks! Yesterday evening I got the beast we have also been following for years named Gauge!

> Still in shock as this is my first buck — after all the hard work, hours put in, all the bucks I’ve passed on waiting for the perfect opportunity for one of our monsters — it has paid off!!!

> And me being 20 weeks pregnant with twins shooting a record buck is just such a surreal experience — I was shaking, breathing hard, cried, felt like I was going to throw up all in one!

[Shoot we’d probably have all those symptoms just from being pregnant lol!]

> Thank you Lord for these beautiful animals!!

Huge congrats Cierra on an amazing deer and for taking your family deer hunting!

Kinda similar: In WI a new mom was out hunting a week after she brought her son into the world!

> Hunter Weber of Buckley, IL makes the rounds scouting for deer almost every day in Nov. Despite spending tons of time observing whitetails…he witnessed something last weekend that he’s never seen before.

> In an encounter that lasts just over a minute, a young whitetail buck squares up to a crossbred bull and charges. They exchange a couple blows and do a lot of posturing before both going their separate ways.

How cool is this! Didn’t think we had any more WWII vets left! We salute you and thank you sir:

> Robert McGrath participated in one of MO’s earliest permitted deer hunting seasons in 1947 and has been an avid hunter ever since. Semper Fi!

Both with a smokepole, both from the same spot:

> Scott Lowder hauled in this monster of a deer, a 16-point buck with a span of 25″. On the same day his son Kevin bagged his own big boy…his first buck, a 9-pointer.

Not a lot of public land in TX, so this 159 2/8 beauty taken from the Crockett National Forest is a stout:

Nearly 60K deer so far this year vs 55K last year.

2. WI opening gun weekend up 2%.

WI is also wisely choosing not to enforce the governor’s unconstitutional “statewide mask mandate” on hunters.

3. TN: Nov opening rifle season harvest up 2K.

> A total of 14,021 were shot ..Nov 21-22 compared to 12,022 in 2019.

4. VT hunting licenses up 20%.

Wow!

5. ID will have fewer non-rez hunters next season.

> …to address concerns from residents about hunter congestion in some areas. Starting 2021, nonresident hunters in most general season elk and deer hunts will be limited to 10% or 15% of the total hunters in each elk zone or deer unit….

6. ID: New/inexperienced hunters misidentify game?

> Hunting license sales in ID are up as more residents seek a way to safely get out of the house without contracting Covid, but that has led to inexperienced hunters misidentifying and killing moose and a grizzly bear….

Really hope they don’t mean deer-hunters shot a moose and a bear thinking it was a deer??

Taken on a DIY pack hunt 👊 in AK, measures 108 1/8:

Free shipping on orders over $99 for sweet American-made knives like this one:

> In its 2020-2021 hunting regulations guide, DNREC suddenly banned semi-automatic pistol-caliber rifles for deer hunting.

11. NSSF launches Hunt S.A.F.E. program.

> Focuses on promoting secure firearm storage and preventing unauthorized access.

12. PA: Hunting/shooting biz protection bill sent to governor.

That governor is more nutty than an oak tree — he’s probably the reason for the bill in the 1st place:

> Shall never be limited or shuttered in their ability to carry out business during emergency situations.

13. Europe: Czech hunter’s rifle “stolen” by deer?

> The deer, frightened by a dog, ran toward one of the hunting party, tore his sleeve and caught a strap of a 0.22 Hornet rifle on his antlers.

> The new bullet promises to push effective range to new extremes while delivering a more lethal blow on impact.

> The new app is powered by data and artificial intelligence and is the company’s second app. The first is HuntWise.

> “…goes beyond weather by combining tech, science and 30 years of insight, knowledge, and experience, to create the most powerful deer-prediction algorithm the market has ever seen….”

3. Bushnell Bone Collector 850 rangefinder.

> …large objective lens and all-glass optical system that deliver more light to the eye for a brighter image….

> …a generous fill weight and stops arrows up to 500 fps.

6. Golden Estrus Gel stays stronger longer.

> …can last for days or even weeks depending on application sites and weather conditions.

> RFB stands for “Rifle Forward-ejecting Bullpup”….

> Sighting-in the rifle was done at 100 yards and I had this rifle hitting 1″ groups using an ATN Thor 4 [scope] after just a few shots. I was consistently getting very tight groupings and I ran through roughly 100 rounds, primarily to ensure I was comfortable with the rifle’s functionality.

> This rifle comes in just over 9 lbs, and with the added Thor 4 I was pushing more than 10 lbs.

> …excelled over an AR-10 in the maneuverability category because of its compact design. Had I been running the 18″ barrel, I would have had an even easier time getting in and out of the trucks we were using….

> Over the course of 3 days I experienced near-perfect performance from this rifle. …on the 2nd night I short-stroked the action right before taking a shot…clearly was not the rifle’s fault.

Looks like you can get one for about $1,200 online, if you can find it in stock. Outdoor Hub’s video review is here.

The “lockdown” is when bucks pair up with willing does and seem to disappear. But Grandview Outdoors says that doesn’t mean those deer are un-huntable:

> For most of the local deer population, the rut occurs in the same timeframe every year, and a phone call to a local biologist can confirm those dates when lockdown is likely the highest.

> The standard period for the lockdown disappearance was approximately 48 hours, but that too has variables. You’ll also find studies that conclude some breeding may only last for 12 hours, but on average, expect the lucky couple to copulate off and on for a minimum of 24 hours.

> Jumpstart your luck by scouting for love nests. You may see the beginnings of a 48-hour hookup in a food plot, but…the pair are apt to retreat into seclusion. …think off-grid. I use my HuntStand hunting app to peer down from above in search of an area that a pair may use to socially separate.

> One of the most used terrain features is open country. In the Midwest or East, a pair may take up a brief residency in a brushy opening or overgrown uplands. Think about utility clearcuts or livestock pastures.

> In the West and Great Plains, whitetails routinely abandon riparian zones for pronghorn openness. Cattle pastures and sprawling basins….

> Other areas to scout include abandoned farmsteads, isolated woodlots, slivers of wetlands and anything that just isn’t defined as “normal” or highly-used by the local deer population.

> A ground blind set up several weeks in advance of lockdown will be as ignored as a tractor left in the field…. Trail cameras monitoring locations while you hunt another also boosts the discovery of “whitetail lovers”….

> You do have another option: You can lockdown in your favorite hunting stand. The odds are with you that eventually, a buck will return to a food plot or field edge in search of another estrus doe.

> …bucks may not show themselves on a field edge. They may simply ghost on the inside perimeter of timber for a downwind scent check….

> …during the breeding period, your location could see reduced activity on food hotspots. “[Does] get tired of being hounded and pursued by every buck in the area, so they are warier to visit these locations as readily.”

A LOT more good info at the full post.

– That’s a text from NY deer brother Phillip Pless to his wife. He’d invited his wife and kids out to wave to him while he was in his treestand but told ’em to stay away because of this deer, which might be a new state record: