Buckmasters Magazine

Five unconventional rules for bagging wise, old bucks.

If only deer hunting was like horseshoes or hand grenades.

Unfortunately, it isn’t, especially not bowhunting, where the line between success and failure is microscopically thin.

My one and only shot at the 12-pointer with double-split brow tines had gone up in smoke, and a neighbor bagged the buck two weeks later.

It was only after the season that I was able to review and regroup. As disappointing as the miss had been, I had actually done several things right to get that shot opportunity, and one of them was hunting his bedding area.

I can almost see you shaking your head in disbelief that I had the audacity to venture in-to a mature buck’s bedroom. But my experience last year, and others, strengthened my belief that you have to do what most hunters aren’t willing to do if you want to shoot bigger bucks.

There are a host of studies that support my unorthodox strategies for outsmarting wise, old bucks, so let’s take a look at five of my new hunting rules and the science behind them.

#1 - Hunt Deer Bedrooms

We’ve been taught to stay out of whitetail bedding areas. Deer know these areas inti-mately, so the thinking is you’ll never get a shot at a mature buck in its sleeping quarters. Once you alert a buck you’re in its bedding area, it will leave and won’t return for the remainder of the season. Right?

“Every deer has multiple bedding areas it uses for a variety of different reasons,” said Brian Murphy, a wildlife biologist and CEO of the Quality Deer Management Association. “They also spend a great deal of time in bedding areas.”

It makes sense to hunt where a deer spends most of its time.

One study conducted by Mickey Hellickson, a wildlife biologist and recognized authority on white-tailed deer, illustrates how much downtime deer have. Dr. Hellickson used GPS tracking collars to monitor the movement of bucks in South Texas brush country. He found that whitetails spend only 40 percent of their day on their feet and moving.

While I recommend hunting bedding areas, it is difficult to do so without being detected. That’s why I concentrate my bedroom efforts to two key phases of the hunting season. One is during the peak of conception, when bucks and does are paired up and breeding.

The other time is after the rut, when bucks are worn out and trying to recuperate from the physical stress of breeding activity.

Bucks can lose up to 25 percent of their body weight from the stress of the rut, and many hunker down in bedding areas immediately afterward to recuperate. Hunt bedding are-as to find bucks that are hunkered down and resting.

#2 - Be Careful with Game Cameras

Technology can be a blessing and a curse. Nowhere is this more evident than with deer hunters using trail cameras.

The biggest problem with trail cameras is they require you to set them up, adjust their location and check memory cards. In other words, they require a great deal of human intrusion in the whitetail world.

“I often tell people the biggest thing that saves more deer from hunters is a game camera,” said wildlife consultant Neil Dougherty (northcountrywhitetails.com). “Hunters overload deer core areas just to get a few pictures, which is really harmful to hunting.”

Dougherty helps hunters turn their ground into prestigious deer-hunting property. Based on his experience, the average hunter visits his deer hunting area 40 times each year to set up cameras, exchange memory cards, move cameras and take them down. That’s 40 times you’re subjecting deer to your presence, greatly increasing the likelihood of deer figuring out they’re being hunted.

No studies have looked at how the use of game cameras affects deer movement. Nonetheless, Dr. Karl V. Miller, a famed wildlife biologist and professor at the University of Georgia, believes most hunters don’t fully appreciate the effects of their activity on whitetails

“Many hunters underestimate their level of intrusion,” Miller said. “Deer are quick to learn where and when they might encounter humans, and they adapt accordingly.”

Instead of relying on trail cameras, glass fields and talk with local farmers and commercial drivers to locate areas where bucks hang out.

Use aerial photos and topographic maps to get intel on how deer use your property. A good aerial photo will enable you to find funnels, inside corners and other geographic features that affect deer travel routes. Use your topographic map to identify benches, saddles and other changes in elevation that limit deer movement.

Employ these nonintrusive scouting methods and restrict camera use to the fringes of your hunting area.

#3 - Don’t Focus on Rubs and Scrapes

For years, hunters and outdoor writers have extolled the virtues of rubs and scrapes.

As a result, many hunters sit next to fresh rubs or scrapes, believing the buck that made them will soon return to freshen them up.

Unfortunately, that expectation isn’t backed up by science. Take rubs, for example.

“There really isn’t a peak rubbing period,” Murphy said. “Rubbing activity might bump up a little bit a week or so before conception, but there isn’t a period of the hunting season where it dramatically increases.”

Science also has revealed that it’s rare for one buck to make a rub line. Instead, multiple bucks, including young bucks, are usually responsible for the group of torn-up tree trunks that has you so excited.

Even a fresh rub line gives you little information about bucks in the area. A buck that made a so-called signpost rub might be back to rework it in a day, a week or never.

While science has shown that mature bucks make more rubs than young bucks, that doesn’t mean a mature buck is the architect of the rub you’re sitting next to.

Similarly, science has disproven many beliefs about scrapes.

A study conducted at the University of Georgia found that 80 percent of all visits to scrapes occurred at night, and that most scrape lines were created by several bucks. Just like hunting near buck rubs, setting up near scrapes could be a waste of time.

I’m not arguing that you should completely discount fresh deer sign, but don’t base your entire hunting strategy on rubs and scrapes. Put stands 100 to 200 yards away to catch bucks that might come by to scent-check these deer communication devices.

#4 - Hunt a Stand While It’s Hot

One of the hotter deer hunting topics is overhunting stands. After bagging a deer, conventional wisdom says you should rest a stand to give the area time to settle down.

That sounds logical, but it could cost you even more success.

In a study of 37 bucks in South-Central Louisiana, then-graduate student Justin Thayer and Louisiana State University Professor Dr. Michael Chamberlin monitored how bucks responded to hunting pressure. They found most didn’t leave an area once bullets started flying. Instead, they reduced the size of their home range, where they spend 95 percent of their time, and stayed hidden from hunters.

“Many times we’d find a buck bedded down less than 50 yards from a stand occupied by a hunter, but the hunter never saw the deer,” Thayer said.

A more recent study led by Dr. Stephen Webb found similar results. Hunting pressure resulted in less movement during the day by Oklahoma bucks, which confined their activity to familiar territory.

“We found that deer were using the same areas, but smaller in size, during Oklahoma’s rifle season,” said Webb, a landscape ecologist for the Noble Foundation. “They tended to stay in areas they were most familiar with.”

Bagging a deer at a particular stand is no reason to stay out of it for a few days, particularly during the pre-rut, when bucks are on the move looking for estrous does.

Former graduate student Gabriel Karns placed GPS collars on adult bucks living at Chesapeake Farms, a large agricultural research area on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He noted their movement every 10 minutes and found that 63 percent of all bucks collared made at least one excursion, or ventured at least a half-mile from its home range for a minimum of six hours, during breeding season.

On average, bucks that took these excursions were gone 10½ hours, and more than half traveled during daylight hours. In other words, if a buck you’ve been hunting has left your area, it likely will soon be back. Further, you never know when you might see a strange buck wandering through on excursion.

Whether it’s because your stand is next to a deer super highway or a bedding area frequented by does, a stand is likely hot for a reason. So keep hunting there!

Wear scent-control clothing and douse your stand area in scent-killing spray to reduce the amount of human stench you leave behind. And never, ever stay in a stand if the wind has turned against you.

#5 - Stay Put During the Rut

While you should continue to hunt a hot stand until it goes cold, it’s also important to keep hunting a cool stand that’s in a great location, especially during the rut.

Because every day of the rut is precious hunting time, it’s natural to want to move if you’re not seeing a shooter buck. That move often leads to another ... and another. That’s what I call stand hopscotch, and it will cost you.

I’ve already cited studies that show many bucks don’t leave their home ranges during the rut. In addition to the Karns study, research from Dr. Mark Conner and James Tomberlin found that bucks that go on excursions during the rut return to their home ranges within 24 hours. That means your buck is likely in your hunting area at any given time.

Because the size of each buck’s home range varies, it might take it a day or two to cruise its territory, while another buck might take three or four days to return to your hunting spot.

If you play stand hopscotch, and it’s like closing your eyes and throwing darts at a map to guess where a buck will be at any given time.

Assuming you’ve done your homework and the stand is in a good location for cruising bucks, your odds are much better if you stay put and let the bucks come to you.

That’s especially true if you’re hunting near doe bedding areas.

Recent work by researchers at Penn State University included placing GPS devices on both bucks and does. While bucks roamed farther during the rut, does did just the opposite.

“The thinking is that because it’s breeding time, females want to be found, so they stay put,” said Dr. Duane Diefenbach, study leader and adjunct professor of wildlife ecology for the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University. “On the other hand, males want to breed as many does as possible, so they go looking for receptive females.”

Finally

It’s been said that the definition of stupidity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

If your hunting strategies aren’t yielding results, it’s probably time to change tactics.

Give these unconventional strategies a try, and you’ll likely get more shot opportunities at mature bucks. Then all you have to do is hit what you’re aiming at.

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