How to Hunt Bucks Under Pressure Like Those in the Late Season
Tips for Taking Big Bucks in Public-Hunting Areas in the Late Season and Wearing Longleaf Camo
 Editor’s Note: To bag big, smart deer late in the season, you must do something that everybody else isn’t doing.
This older hunter on public lands (see Day 1 John’s Journals #543) had kept notes on when he saw the most deer movement, which was when he took most of his trophies during the late season. From his records, he had discovered that the majority of big bucks began to move just at daylight as hunters entered the woods, again around lunchtime when hunters went in and out of the woods and during the last 10 minutes of daylight when the hunters headed back to their vehicles. The deer apparently had patterned the hunters. “Two other times of major deer movement are important also,” he reports. “About 8:30 am to 9:00 am hunters who haven’t seen a deer generally decide to change stand sites. Then at 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, the hunters who haven’t spotted a buck after lunch will find another place to stand before dark. But some sportsmen who call themselves stalk hunters are in fact walk hunters who may cover 4 or 5 miles a day while hunting. So, I sit from before daylight until the evening is so dark I can’t see and let the other hunters run the big bucks by me.
“I’ve learned several keys about how to take big bucks in public-hunting areas. To be successful, you must do something that the other hunters aren’t doing. Since hunters train deer, to surprise a big buck, you must use a hunting tactic that no one else is using. Also I’ve realized that when hunters and deer are moving in the woods, if I’m still, I’m probably the only thing that’s still except for the trees. I understand that my own mind does more to prevent me from taking a deer rather than the other hunters do. My mind is constantly telling me to move, change stand sites,  come out of the tree, go to sleep and rest and/or find a smarter way to hunt. My biggest enemy in the woods is me. However I know that if I can defeat all the reasons that my subconscious gives me to come out of that tree, then I consistently can bag nice deer by doing nothing.”
This veteran hunter had discovered that hunters train deer. If you learn what the hunters are doing in the woods, then you know the deer are doing just the opposite. If you study the hunters and their movement patterns, you’ll better understand the movement patterns of deer. This key element of successful scouting for deer often is completely overlooked by most outdoorsmen.
Once a large number of hunters move into the woods, everything a sportsman has learned about the deer’s movement patterns during pre-season scouting changes. After feeling hunting pressure for 1 or 2 days, even young bucks avoid hunters. Older bucks respond much quicker to the presence of hunters. To more effectively take bigger deer in regions of high hunter pressure, the outdoorsman who hopes to be successful should spend more time studying hunters than he does studying deer.
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Tomorrow: How and When Deer Respond to Hunting Pressure and Using Preston Pittman Calls |
