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Big Woods Bucks
By Darron McDougal
The timber giant’s sudden appearance along the edge of a year-old clearcut interrupted the serene December evening.
“I hadn’t seen the buck previously,” Jeff Aulik, a whitetail expert from Wisconsin, recalled. “My shot was well placed, and when I backtracked him through the snow, I found he’d been following my footprints along the clearcut edge and right into the cedar stand I was hunting in. It appeared he’d been tracking me to learn what I was doing.” That 9½-year-old Wisconsin buck sports an enormous 8-point rack that drops jaws.
Aside from being a skilled whitetail hunter, Aulik is also a former professional target archer. In 1996, he took the podium at the IBO World Indoor 3D Tournament in Illinois. He also won various local and regional tournaments, and served as a shooter for Mathews.
Aulik’s love for archery and bowhunting led him to open J’s Archery Pro Shop in Antigo, Wis., from 1993 through 2001.
Suffice to say he knows his way around a bow. And he takes that same dedicated approach to hunting bucks in big woods.
Developing the Knack
Aulik didn’t just wake up one day and start killing big-woods bucks. He grew up in timber country and spent countless hours of his youth exploring northcentral Wisconsin’s vast timberlands.
While at his family’s cottage on Pelican Lake, Aulik tirelessly studied huge tracts of paper-company and national forests. He soon developed a knack for fooling big bucks. Now, with more than 24 record book bucks to his credit, Aulik has big-woods deer hunting down to a science.
Precautionary Measures
Like every successful hunter, Aulik gained much of his knowledge the hard way.
“At first, I didn’t give details enough attention,” Aulik admitted. “I commonly failed to play the wind, and that cost me many times early in my bowhunting career.”
Of course, Aulik now considers wind an important detail. “I used to trust scent eliminators on wrong winds, but it’s impossible to completely erase your scent to a whitetail’s nose,” he said. “There are certain stands where the perfect wind just never comes. In those cases, I play the wind as much as possible and trust my scent elimination regimen.
“Farmland bucks smell human odor almost daily, where big-woods monarchs rarely smell humans,” Aulik continued. “That is why scent control is so much more crucial when bowhunting the big woods. Big-woods deer are far warier than farm-country deer.”
Stand Placement Strategies
In farm country, you can hang stands in many places and see plenty of deer. In big timber, stand placement is more critical. If you’re even slightly off the mark, you won’t see, let alone shoot, big deer. Aulik picks out the perfect stand locations through careful scouting.
“I study aerial and topographical maps and do lots of walking at different times throughout the year,” he said. “I carry my GPS and mark the best locations so I can easily find them later.
“I usually try to locate bedding areas,” Aulik continued. “It depends on the overall layout of the land, but usually it’s at the transition between higher ground and a swamp. The most common bedding areas are tall grass or raspberry brush.”
Next, Aulik said you have to get close to the deer’s bedding without being detected — no easy feat. Also when hunting big woods, Aulik likes stands that can be hunted mornings and afternoons.
Food plays a central role in nearly every good whitetail stand. However, big timber rarely offers typical food sources like agricultural fields.
“Most of the areas I hunt have few oaks, so new growth and grasses are the main diet for deer,” Aulik said. “These foods are usually available right in their bedding areas. When that’s the case, I look for rub lines that lead out of the bedding. Those clues help me determine where to set up to catch the buck when he leaves his bedroom.”
Like farmland hunting, food sources change over time. “Deer maul clearcuts for a few years, then abandon them when the new vegetation diminishes,” Aulik said. “Acorns and wild apples tend to come and go, too. In the big woods, hike around to see what food is available and check for active deer sign at those places.
“Here in northern Wisconsin, stands of balsam trees have been dying off,” he continued. “When two or more big balsams fall, deer use them for cover. If the opening created by the fallen trees lets enough light through, new undergrowth will provide browse. Such spots can be great if you find them before someone else. They’re most productive when connected to higher ground by a narrow ridge.”
Scouting Cameras
Like many whitetail experts, Aulik uses cameras to piece together the big-buck puzzle.
“Trail cameras are a huge asset in the big woods,” he said. “They let you know when a buck is traveling along a certain edge or through a given funnel. They can frustrate you, too. Sometimes, people capture a monster buck on a camera but never see it while hunting. Nocturnal behavior is commonly the culprit, or it could be the buck is spending most of its time on an adjacent property and isn’t making it to your stand until after dark.”
Aulik also said bucks uncannily skirt his trail cameras. With that in mind, don’t assume a big buck isn’t present just because you don’t see one on camera.
Take care when swapping out memory cards, and don’t barge in. Hunt your way to them, and don’t touch vegetation as you walk. The more scent you leave around the camera’s immediate location, the less likely big bucks will waltz past it.
Stir Some Jealousy
Aulik isn’t afraid to call when he’s posted over buck sign.
“My best success has come from hunting areas with big-buck sign, then conducting calling sequences,” he said. “I’ve grunted and rattled in dozens of bucks over the years, and nothing rivals the rush of a rut-raged buck charging in.”
Patience plays a big role, too. Many calling sequences can go unanswered before a buck responds. During the rut, periodic calling sequences increase the odds that bucks traveling through the area will hear you. Bucks move around during the rut and might be within earshot one minute and gone the next. By rattling throughout the day, you increase your odds of pulling one in.
Aulik also has sparked action by run-and-gun rattling where he moves about, sets up on the ground and rattles. After waiting a period with no responses, he picks up, moves to another location and repeats the sequence. This approach is particularly effective when hunting near a bedding area.
In the Timber Again
Another key to success in big woods is to be ready for anything. Aulik said his assumptions have been proven wrong often enough that he’s learned not to take anything for granted.
A battered old 8-pointer he took a few years ago is a perfect example.
“I’d been sitting in a pocket of balsams and cedars in the middle of a 3-year-old clearcut since daybreak,” he recalled. “I rattled once not long after settling in. It was a clear, cold morning. It rained the night before, and then temperatures dropped. Accessing my stand was extremely noisy.
“Around 10:30 a.m., I heard antlers rattling,” he continued. “I remember thinking it had to be another hunter; it just didn’t sound authentic. I was actually kind of irritated. Just in case, I decided to run through my sequence of grunts and rattling, then hung the antlers back over a branch and waited. Nothing. As minutes passed, I became more convinced it was another hunter and not a buck fight.
About a half-hour passed before Aulik heard something walking through the crunchy, frozen grass.
“As it got closer, I was convinced it was the other hunter coming to investigate. In fact, it sounded so much like a human that I didn’t even grab my bow. Finally, I saw deer legs through the brush. The buck was walking slowly and methodically, stiff-legged and obviously looking for a fight.
The veteran hunter was able to stand without being detected as the buck walked along the edge of the thick trees. Steam was blowing from its nose, making it seem menacing and angry. The buck wasn’t on a trail, and Aulik hadn’t trimmed brush in that direction, but he finally spotted an opening.
“When I shot, the deer bolted, ran uphill and stopped just 10 yards away,” he said. “I was sure the first arrow hit well, but I decided to shoot again.”
The buck ran into the swamp and eventually went out of sight.
“I let him be until about 3 p.m.,” Aulik said. “He’d expired in a bed about 100 yards past where I’d last seen him. Fresh cuts and blood covered his ears. Obviously, he was one of the bucks I’d heard fighting that morning.”
Finally
Hunting in big woods presents a big challenge due to unrelenting hunting pressure, lower deer densities and the nocturnal nature of the deer. Still, as Aulik proves, you can take bucks from there regularly if you’re careful and pay attention to details.
Even with extra care and dedication, big woods yield lower odds of success than farm country. Those wary timber ghosts will beat you more often than not, but coming home empty handed is part of the learning curve. When that happens, pick up your hat, shake off the dust and think about what went wrong. Eventually you’ll start laying down some big-woods bucks.