John's Journal...


Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams

Day 1: Start Scouting the Day after Deer Season Closes

Editor’s Note: “Stay with the process, get better every day, do everything right each day, and the outcome will take care of itself,” is a gospel Coach Nick Saban, head football coach at the University of Alabama, preaches to his football team daily. Each year, his teams produce the opportunity for being champions. The result of Saban’s gospel has been three national championships and three SEC championships. This type of philosophy also will produce older-age-class deer year after year for hunters.

Click for Larger ViewClick for Larger ViewIf you start scouting the day or the week after deer season closes, you’ll have a tremendous advantage in taking an older-age-class buck the next hunting season. You can walk deer trails, find out where the deer are going and where they're coming from and not be concerned about spooking the deer. You can move into late season bedding areas and see where the deer are bedding. You can begin to devise a hunt plan as to where to set-up your tree stands or your ground blinds to take an older-age-class deer late in the season next year. Also, you can locate and possibly jump mature bucks and see which bucks you have left after the season.

Always carry your GPS with you, make notes on where you pinpoint mature bucks, and mark those spots as waypoints. Also, mark stand sites you want to develop and prepare before next year’s deer season opens. Plan not to hunt from those sites until the last week or two of deer season in 2015 - 2016. Put out trail cameras along the deer trails you’ve identified to learn what bucks have survived hunting season. Based on their antlers, you can begin to develop a hit list of the bucks you want to take the next year. To better be prepared for the 2015 deer season, catalog the trail camera pictures that you get after the season. Make sure you note where the pictures of the mature bucks that are left on the property you hunt are located.

Click for Larger ViewClick for Larger ViewScouting for a week or two after the close of deer season is a process you can use every year to locate mature bucks during the late season for the following year. This process gives you the best chance to take those bucks next year in the last 2 weeks of deer season. A lot has been written and reported on how to scout before the season. However, pre-season scouting only may be effective for the first 2 weeks of bow season – until mature bucks begin to feel the first wave of hunting pressure and therefore change their movement patterns and possibly become nocturnal. Early season scouting doesn’t tell you where older-age-class bucks will be at the end of that season. So, by scouting at the end of the season this year, you can develop a game plan to take mature bucks that most of the hunters who hunt where you hunt never will see. If you follow this system of late season scouting each year, you’ll drastically increase your odds of taking mature bucks that other hunters may not have seen on this property during daylight hours.

To learn more about deer hunting, you can get John E. Phillips’ Kindle eBooks, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties,” (John’s latest book), “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows,” “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property,” “How to Take Monster Bucks,” and “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro,” or to prepare venison, get “Deer & Fixings.” Click here on each, or go to "www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

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About the Author

John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors. Click here for more information and a list of all the books available from John E. Phillips.

Tomorrow: How to Legally Steal Your Neighbor’s Buck Deer


Check back each day this week for more about Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams"

Day 1: Start Scouting the Day after Deer Season Closes
Day 2: How to Legally Steal Your Neighbor’s Buck Deer
Day 3: Stick with the System and Don’t Focus On the Results to Produce Mature Buck Deer Where You Hunt
Day 4: You Have to Build Bodies and Train the Athletes or the Deer for the Most-Productive Programs
Day 5: Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams

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Entry 803, Day 1