TROPHY BUCKS: TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY

Hunt The Invisible Trophy Buck

EDITOR'S NOTE: Regardless of where you live, how much money you make, how much you hunt, and how few bucks you've taken, you can find and harvest a trophy buck. But unless you have the very best of luck, you'll probably have to pay to hunt a trophy buck. The less you pay to take a trophy buck, the less likely that you'll discover one. The more you pay, the more likely that you'll bag that buck of your dreams.

Often no one sees the real trophy bucks, and no one really knows that they live on a property, whether it's public or private lands. Although you may not have to pay dollars to hunt these bucks, you'll have to scout for numbers of hours to discover these bucks and then determine where and how to hunt them to take them. Always search for trophy bucks in places where no one else ever will think of looking for these bucks, particularly where no one ever hunts. A big briar patch that grows near the gate you have to go through to get on to your hunting lease probably never gets hunted. Hunters assume that any deer living in that thicket become spooked every time a hunter goes in and out of the gate. However, if a buck lives in that thicket, he's learned that hunters moving through that gate pose no threat to him, just like the farmer on the tractor doesn't. Therefore, he can live undetected in that briar patch until he dies of old age. Bucks have learned the difference between noises of a hunting sportsman and a non-hunting outdoorsman.

Bucks can live close to hunters and/or to human noise without becoming spooked and getting spotted. Some of the biggest bucks harvested in this country more than likely live within 200 yards of someone's back or front door. If you doubt that big bucks live in suburbia, observe the road kills going to and from your work each day. But obtaining permission to hunt suburban trophy bucks presents the biggest challenge.

According to Jim Crumley, the creator of Trebark camouflage, "A new movement has come about for urban hunting. As deer herds in suburbia have continued to grow, deer have eaten up residents' lawns, flowers and shrubbery, and automobile insurance premiums steadily have climbed -- due in part to the number of deer/vehicular collisions. Bowhunters have made some steps to initiate bow-hunting opportunities within the city limits in some states. In Fairfax County, Lynchburg and Roanoake, Virginia, committees have been set up to study the problem of growing urban deer populations and how to control them. Fairfax County, Lynchburg, and Blacksburg, Virginia, all have initiated early bow seasons to take place inside their city limits. This season will begin a month earlier than the regular bow season, and the local police department will issue permits and control the harvest of suburban deer populations. We all know that hunting works as the best control for the management of a deer herd."

Also, big bucks can and do survive on public-hunting grounds but usually hold in isolated and remote cover where no one ever hunts. To find and take these trophy bucks, you have to out-hunt the other hunters and put in the hours of scouting and learning the land that other outdoorsmen won't invest. But, if you enjoy locating a big deer as much as taking a big deer, and you like expending more time than money, these first two methods offer the cheapest way for bagging a trophy buck.

TOMORROW: RAISE YOUR OWN TROPHY BUCKS EVERY SEASON