SANCTUARY: THE KEY TO TAKING TROPY BUCKS

The Gallberry Thicket

Editor's Note: Trophy bucks don't have to move when you're hunting them. Mature bucks can find and have everything they need and want after dark - food, water, sex, companionship, exercise and socialization - without traveling during daylight hours. Too, older-age-class bucks have learned they're more likely to encounter predators when the sun goes down. Therefore, a trophy buck has locating sanctuary - a place where he can stay during daylight hours and not have to contend with humans - as his number-one priority. You often can discover highly-productive natural sanctuaries if you learn how and when to hunt them. A gallberry bush looks like a low-bush huckleberry to me, with extremely-thick cover and a crawl space of no more than 1 to 2 feet underneath it. My hunting club had several gallberry thickets, ranging from 1 to 10 acres in circumference. These thickets also homed oak trees and other bushes. Most hunters considered these areas impenetrable, but we all knew deer bedded-down in these thickets because of the numerous trails going to and from them. Early in the season, one or two hunters would bag bucks moving to or from the thickets. But none of the hunters went into the thickets.

One day I decided to investigate the inside of one of the thickets. In most places, I could crawl around on my hands and knees. In a few spots, I had to crawl on my belly, and in a very-few areas, I could bend over and walk. I worked those thickets like a treasure hunter on a mission. I discovered several white-oak acorn trees that dropped acorns early in the season inside the thickets where the deer fed.

Later in the season, I located the deer feeding there on red-oak acorns. Around the red oak trees, I could see 10 to 15 yards in all directions. I waited until late in the year when I knew the older-age-class bucks would hold in the gallberry thickets during daylight hours to dodge the hunting pressure. I only hunted days when I knew the wind would blow my human odor out of and away from the thickets. One or two mornings each season, I'd crawl into the thicket before the sun came up and stay close to one of the red oak trees. Every season I took one or two fine bucks from the gallberry thickets. I limited the amount of time I hunted the gallberry thicket. I never shared how or where I hunted with anyone. I knew if I told my sanctuary secret to my hunting buddies and pinpointed the sanctuary, then that sanctuary wouldn't remain a sanctuary.

TOMORROW: THE PRICE YOU PAY TO TAKE BUCKS