"Bucky"?

[Oakbuck]

With all the good advice on glassing here's a related question. You hear a lot of successful muley hunters talk about an area looking "bucky". What do you look for in a "bucky" area? Or when you sit down on a high ridge to glass, what areas do you focus on first? Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[Kirby]

Bucks

Kirby

When in doubt, floor it.

Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you find a big stick.

 

[Oakbuck]

Thanks Kirby, I'll keep that in mind.

Anyone else? Is it the terrain? Vegetation? Lots of does? No does?

 

[tufferthandug]

The most "Bucky" spots I have found are when you are hiking up into steep country with the odd bench. Myself, I've been in many situations where you work your butt off to hike a good hill, you get to the odd flat spot on the hill and there's an empty deer bed next to a tree. Them buggers watch you fight your way up that darn hill and before you notice 'em they slip away.

I don't know if that's what you mean by "Bucky" spots, but I try to watch what's going on way up the hill when I'm hunting.

 

[ridgerunner]

I look for steep areas, small pockets of openings that are surrounded by either cliffs, timber patches or brush patches. Most bucks I see are close to these areas. Water nearby never hurts either.

 

[PronghornHunter]

Thick and heavy with water close by. For me it's not just the look of an area but that certain feeling you get when you walk into an area and you just know it.
I call it that "tingly feeling"

 

[BCBOY]

Knowing "Bucky" areas comes with experience. You hunt a certain type of terrian again and again, you typically will see bucks in the same looking stuff, regardless if it's your first time looking at a mountainside or your thousandth time. As the season progress' "bucky" can change. In the terrain I hunt, in the summer, it can be up in the granite faces where the bucks are searching for the cool breezes to keep the bugs off them. In early Sept, it is in the subalpine where the bucks are searching for alpine veg that hasn't been toasted by the frost yet. In the late season, it is the steep fir ridges and aspen types that just call out "Big Buck".

 

[Oakbuck]

Thanks for the replies. Every time I hear the term it sounds like "bucky" is some sorta sixth sense. Not really easy to pin down to a specific terrain or vegetation or elevation and it seems to mean different things to different hunters.

I live about 9 hours away from my "new" Nevada wilderness hunting spot and quality scouting time is hard to come by. So I'll be backpacking in solo for the first three days before the muzz opener to do my only scouting this year and don't want to waste time glassing areas that aren't likely to be productive.


Oakbuck