I took two weeks off of work and have been bow hunting in my stand from daylight to dusk. I have an API climber and have been rotating stand locations depending on the wind direction. I hunt mostly funnels that are between harvested grain fields and known doe bedding areas. I set up fairly close to the bedding areas but not so close as to scare off the does. I also have several stand locations on heavy timbered ridges that I have seen a number of really good bucks on during my scouting with field glasses.
I am seeing a good number of bucks each day,
and have made the following observations from my stand locations here in Southwest,Ia.
From daylight until 11:00 a.m. I have seen very few bucks. What I did see were young bucks with small basket type racks, forkies, and spikes.
From 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I have seen several lone bucks traveling by themselves apparently seeking does, not large bucks, but larger than my morning sightings.
The greatest number of larger racked buck sightings occurred between 1:30 and 2:45 p.m. I have passed on six of them that would score 135-145 during this time frame.
Buck sightings from 3:00 p.m. until dark have been 0.
I know there are some very large bucks in the area that I hunt, I have been scouting them for most of the summer and fall. I can only guess that there are fewer does to breed right now and the big boys are holed up with them while the smaller bucks continue to search. Any thoughts?