A Crash Course for Hunting Big BucksBy Ronnie Hemsworth
To consistently harvest mature bucks on
public land or private land, for that matter, you must hunt smarter and harder
than all the other hunters out there while outsmarting the wary old bucks as
well.
Preseason:
Get maps and learn them. Find the pinch points, food sources, water,
and ridges. Get on the ground and walk it; know the land like the back of your
hand. Learn the structure, cover, and topography; and find the trails, scrapes,
rubs, and bedding areas. Go shed hunting in the winter and run trail cams in
the summer and try to learn as much as you can about them. Exercise in the
summer to stay in shape. Get your bow professionally tuned and set up to fit
you. Make sure your guns are dialed in and check it periodically through the
season. Hone your shooting skills from different positions and situations and
with different obstacles (remembering to watch arrow flight and not line of
sight) and distances. Run short sprints before shooting to simulate adrenaline.
Get so you don't have to worry about the shot.
Once
season starts:
Do not pick one spot and hunt it all
season. Deer are too smart, and doing that not only gives yourself away to
them, but it also gives yourself away to other hunters. Don't look for a
perfect spot. If you do find one, deer won't be there and you can almost
guarantee that other hunters will be. Go deeper to the spots where others won't
venture. Get a blind and a mobile stand and pick 6+ spots. Never decide where
to hunt until the day of—basing your decision off of deer movement and wind
direction. Hunt high deer movement areas (hunt does to kill bucks), and use the
old grunt tube to draw them in close, if need be. Keep changing it up so the
deer can never pin point you. Hunt the places no one else does, because that's
where the big boys go. Save your time to hunt on cold snaps and the few days
after them. Hunt the rut! You’ll typically want to hunt the first two weeks of
November the hardest.
In the stand:
Hunt as long as possible. You'd be
surprised how many bucks move between 10-3 on cool days! Remember that deer
heavily use the senses of sight, smell, and hearing, so control those factors
as best you can.
Smell: Use scent killers and keep your
outer layers in a bag full of leaves and never take them out. Wash your under
layers in scent free detergent. Try to layer your clothing to prevent sweat.
Hunt high spots staying away from holes and low spots where the wind will
swirl. Hunt the wind! The use of scent drippers, cover scent, scent attractant,
and hunting scrapes can be effective.
Sight: Hunt with cover both in front of you
and behind you to break up your silhouette, and stay in the shadows, if
possible. Use appropriate camo. Limit movement and wait for deer to look away
or be blocked before drawing. Use a decoy (I've never done this but would like
to).
Sound: Make sure your stand uses felt to
eliminate sounds. Remove debris from ground when using a blind. Wear quiet
clothes. Sit still. Use grunt tube to bring them in close. Make sure you have
blind spots where the "grunting buck” (you) might be. If a buck comes in,
he will be looking for a real deer. Rattling antlers can work, too, but
sometimes being quiet is best.
During
late season:
Stalk during the day and hunt food sources
at dusk (my favorite way to hunt). Be stealthy. The deer will be herded up in
bunches, and that's a lot of eyes, ears, and noses to outsmart!
Lastly, be patient! They say it takes an
average bow hunter five years to kill his first deer. That’s because it takes about
that long to learn the stuff listed in this article the hard way—by making
mistakes. I beat the average, and it only took me three years. I just made five
years’-worth of mistakes in those three years. :) Hard work pays off!
Photos by: Eric Locker
