HOW TO TAKE HOT-WEATHER BUCKS

Hunt The Water

Editor's Note: Biologists know the old adage that bucks don't move in hot weather isn't true. Bucks have to feed, bed and get water, regardless of the temperature. Bucks just move very little in hot weather. As the world experiences global warming, we'll have to learn how to hunt for hot-weather bucks during bow season. You can bag bucks with your bow in hot weather. The sportsmen interviewed this week hunt primarily in the Deep South for at least three or four months under hot-weather conditions each year and consistently bag their bucks every season.

Deer hunters in Texas and other western states have known for many years that water holes will draw in white-tailed deer. However, anytime you hunt in hot weather and especially in a drought, beaver ponds, flooded timber, small creeks and other forms of water will concentrate deer. Water provides several advantages for deer in hot weather.

They.
* will find the most luscious foliage around water during hot weather,
* know water offers a barrier that keeps out hunters and
* discover that acorn trees around water often still will produce nuts even in a drought when the mast crop fails in an area.

If you hunt a backwater slough of a beaver pond, many times you can use a pair of waders to get out into the flooded timber. Then you can put Bright Eyes, fluorescent-colored thumbtacks, in the trees as you go to your stand. Utilizing this tactic, you can follow the Bright Eyes in the dark through the water to get to your stand before daylight. During hot weather, bucks will feed on acorns that fall in the water. If heavy hunting pressure exists, they'll move through the water to avoid hunters. They'll watch or danger to come from the land and rarely look out into the water to see a hunter.

TOMORROW: SOLVE HOT-WEATHER HUNTING PROBLEMS