How to Bag a Buck Deer Every Season
Day 2: Longtime Deer Hunter Kelly Cooper of Pennsylvania Scouts Before Other Hunters Even Think About Deer Hunting
Editor’s Note: To bag a buck every season, you not only must outsmart the buck you’re trying to take, but also you must hunt more diligently than the other hunters who are after that same buck.
 The key to taking a buck every season is not to attempt to bag a buck every season but to try and harvest one individual animal. Fictional character James Bond (see Day 1) doesn’t attempt to capture all the criminals but rather targets one specific bad guy, learns all he can about that individual and then surprises him at a time and a place when his adversary least expects him. Kelly Cooper of Picture Rocks, Pennsylvania, has met, surprised and bagged several bucks with his bow that have scored more than 125 points up to about 160 points on Boone and Crockett. “I don’t hunt deer,” Cooper explains. “I select individual animals to study and attempt to take.  I begin to hunt without a bow or a gun on July 4 each year. On that day, other hunters are eating barbecue and spending time with their families. But I go to work on the bucks.” By starting to scout before other hunters even think about deer hunting, Cooper will learn more about the bucks he hunts than any other hunter who will try to take those deer. According to Cooper, “The bucks still are in the velvet then. Usually they’re feeding and moving in daylight hours around fields and agricultural crops in my section of the country. By looking for bucks during the summer months, I can compare antler size, and I can determine which one of the bucks in a herd I want to hunt. Then as the season draws near, I learn all I can about that individual deer.”
 However, Cooper’s research doesn’t stop when he finds a buck to hunt. Cooper will locate six to eight big bucks to hunt during the season and then eliminate them one by one as opening day of deer season approaches – until he decides which buck is the very best for him to try and bag.
“Some bucks will be on lands I can’t hunt,” Cooper mentions. “Other bucks will become nocturnal as hunting season draws closer. But out of the six or eight bucks I’ve been studying, usually I’ll find one or two bucks that even as hunting season draws near, still will move during daylight hours. To get a buck every year, not only must you find bucks to hunt and learn all you can about them, but also you must target a buck to attempt to take that has a tendency to move during daylight hours as hunting season approaches and even during hunting season.”
Tomorrow: Dale Faust Reveals His Deer Scouting Techniques
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