Road Map to Whitetail Rendezvouses
Let the Does Do the Work
Editor’s
Note: Effective hunters utilize a combination of various
road maps to bag their bucks because they know that
four driving forces – food, water, fear and sex
–cause deer to move in a direction or toward a
destination where a hunter can intersect with a buck.
These outdoorsmen also understand that whitetails are
creatures of habit using the same paths and performing
the same routines every day, except when changes in
the weather and the availability of food affect these
routes. They are aware of the deer’s acute senses
– good hearing, a keen sense of smell and sharp
eyes. Although color-blind, deer can detect the slightest
movement of a hunter. Here are routes to follow that
will direct you to a whitetail rendezvous this winter.
Road Map #10: Find escape routes from fields and bedding
areas, and plan a spook-hunt. Many hunters disregard
bedding sites as places to meet a buck. Of course, the
chances of taking deer in the bed are remote. However,
by knowing where deer bed, a hunter can look for escape
routes (trails whitetails travel when they’re
spooked) because an excellent method for bagging a buck
is employing the tactic of spook-hunting. Bedding sites
can be distinguished by leaves or grass packed-down
in the outline of a deer’s body, or in soft snow,
by a depression in the snow showing dry leaves in the
bottom of the bed where the deer has scraped the snow
away. By mid-morning, the deer will have fed and bedded-down.
Although
the deer, a ruminant, can eat his fill in an hour due
to his compartmented stomach, he will bed down in a
safe place, regurgitate the partially-chewed food and
then re-chew it. One hunter can take a stand along a
deer’s escape route from the bedding site. The
second hunter can walk boldly into the bedding area
from the opposite direction of the first hunter to spook
a buck and make him run down the escape trail, into
the sights of the first hunter.
Spook-hunting also is successful on ornery field deer.
These deer are always standing in the fields when hunters
pass by, but never allow sportsmen to get within gun
range. I remember the soybean field buck I hunted a
few seasons ago. As I approached the field, I saw his
high rack and large body at the edge of the field. Each
time I approached, the buck left the field by an escape
trail. I tried taking a stand on this trail in the morning
and the evening, but the buck never appeared. However,
each time I spooked the deer from the field, he ran
along this trail. I convinced a friend to help me bag
this fine buck. We crawled up to the edge of the field
and saw the white antlers above the beans. “Give
me 30 minutes,” I told my companion. “Then
stand up and walk toward the deer.” During the
next 30 minutes, I circled the field, found the escape
trail and positioned myself 50 yards in the woods from
the field and 30 yards from the trail. “I should
be able to see the buck from here,” I thought.
As I looked at my watch, I heard the beans swishing
and saw the buck on the run. Twenty yards from the field,
he slowed his gait and began to walk down the escape
trail and right into the center of
my scope. I squeezed the trigger. The fat soybean field
buck dropped. By knowing the trail a deer utilizes to
escape danger, hunters may be able to more-specifically
pinpoint the crossroads where they will meet bucks.
Road Map #11: Locate the buck’s line of scrapes,
and take a stand in the center of the scrape line or
in the region between the scrapes and the feeding area.
Many articles have been written and much information
is available on hunting deer during the mating season
(the rut). One of the most-familiar tactics to taking
antlered whitetails in the rut is scrape-hunting. Scrapes
are pawed-up places in the earth with a strong urine
smell, hooked bushes and crushed leaves and twigs over
the scrape, which act like a stop sign for does ready
to breed. A doe will be in heat for 30 hours and then
come back in heat 28 days later. Bucks frequent these
places to meet willing does during the rut. So, scrapes
are spots where bucks will return to meet does periodically.
Oftentimes, the freshness of the scrape will reveal
the frequency with which a buck visits the scrape. One
of the best methods to determine the freshness of a
scrape is to pick up a handful of the pawed-up earth
and smell it. Since a buck generally urinates in the
scrape each time he checks it, a strong urine smell
will indicate a fresh scrape.
However, Dr. Skip Shelton of Mississippi believes that
scrapes aren’t always sure bets for bucks. “Suppose
a buck has a line of six scrapes, and the hunter takes
a stand close to scrape No. 3,” Shelton comments.
“When the buck comes to check his scrapes to see
if a doe is close by, he may find a female at scrape
No. 6. The buck may spend all day with this doe, walking
with her and waiting on her to stop so he can
service her. Finally, she stops on the second day. The
buck stays with her until the third day, hoping she’ll
permit him to breed her again. The hunter hasn’t
seen another deer in those three days. Maybe on the
fourth day, the buck is back working his scrapes and
stops at No. 1 scrape first and finds a doe. You can
see from this scenario that scrapes aren’t always
a sure way to take a buck during the time you plan to
hunt.”
Road Map #12: Discover does during the rut, and let
them lead you to a buck. Although scrape-hunting can
be productive, Bit McCarty, my hunting buddy in Alabama,
has found another route of hunting the rut that keeps
him in close contact with deer, and often within shooting
distance of a buck. “I hunt the does,” McCarty
says. “During the rut, the buck is looking for
does to breed. Oftentimes, when he finds them, they
aren’t ready to receive him. So, like any anxious
bridegroom, the buck waits to consummate the relationship.
By moving through the woods close enough to a group
of does to see them but far enough away for them hopefully
not to see me, I’ve found plenty of bucks during
the rut. If the buck isn’t with the does, he often
will be standing 20- or 30-yards behind or to the side
of them. Sometimes, I’ll see does feeding in a
field or a hardwood flat and catch a glimpse of a horn
in a fallen treetop or a patch of thick cover. The old
buck may be bedded-down close to the does so he can
watch his harem.” Utilizing these road maps won’t
work in all locations. However, you’ll be on a
straighter course to deer-hunting success and greatly
increase your chances of bagging a buck this season
by following this road map to white-tailed rendezvouses.
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