How to Take the Buck that Nobody Else Can Bag
Hunt 'Em Backwards
 Editor’s
Note: Bucks of legend, those seldom seen and mostly
nocturnal, that no one can take but that everyone chases
have developed reputations of having almost supernatural
powers over the years. Here's a look at how some of
the nation's deer hunters successfully have pitted their
skills against the bucks with the big reputations.
Michael Waddell of Columbus, Georgia, hunts the Encinitos
Ranch in Texas. He once hunted an oat field there where
several other hunters had spotted a 130-class, 10-point
buck. "I’m in videos for Bill Jordan and
Team Realtree," Waddell reports. "Each time
we spotted this buck, he'd come out in the greenfield
so late in the afternoon that we couldn't get the shot
at him and be able to film him for the video. We'd never
had  any
luck seeing that buck in the mornings when we hunted
that same field. I decided the buck must be feeding
in this oat field at night. I thought if I could get
into the field early enough I might catch the deer returning
from the field where he fed to the thicket where he
bedded. Everyone else had hunted the deer on the edge
of the field. In the last week of the season in January,
I went back to that oat field in the afternoon to set
up for the next day."
Waddell hoped he'd have enough light to take the buck
 with
his bow and arrow and to capture the kill on video in
the early morning. At the lower end of the field, the
opposite end of the field from where the buck usually
came, Waddell hung his tree stand in a small clump of
trees out in the field. Waddell left his camera, bow
and arrow there overnight. Long before daylight the
next morning, Waddell sneaked into the field and quietly
crossed the open field under the cover of darkness before
climbing into his stand. "Just as dawn began to
break, I saw the buck coming from his feeding area and
heading back to where he bedded," Waddell says.
"The deer gave me a 30-yard shot ,
and I took him." Waddell's success came because
he prepared his tree stand site the afternoon before
he planned to hunt, and he took his time and reached
the tree stand before daylight, moving carefully to
avoid spooking any deer on his way. Too, Waddell hunted
in the middle of the field -- backwards of the way everyone
else had hunted the elusive buck. By waiting on the
buck to return from his feeding, Waddell then not only
had enough light to see and take the buck but also enough
light to video the hunt. Often when you hunt a buck
at a time and a place opposite from where anyone else
has hunted him before, you'll have an opportunity to
take the buck other hunters can't bag.
Tomorrow: Hunt Little Places
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