HOW TO FIND AND TAKE TROPHY BUCKS IN THE EARLY SEASON
WITH DR. GRANT WOODS
How to Find the Big Bucks on the Property You Hunt
 Editor's
Note: Our company has some property in Georgia that
we manage where we've kept very-thorough data there
for seven years to try to learn where the big bucks
live on that land. We've hunted this property intensively
and spread our hunting out over the entire area. So,
we felt like we knew where the deer were and what they
were doing. We took a map of our hunting property and
divided the land up into 1/8-mile sections (220 yards).
We made a grid on the map and gave each of those sections
a number and a letter. Then everyone who hunted that
property recorded exactly where they hunted on that
land and the number of hours they spent hunting in those
1/8-mile blocks. Each 1/8-mile block that had been hunted
for at least 10 hours was then highlighted on the aerial
map. The more the area was hunted, the darker the highlighter
we used. For instance, the 1/8-mile squares that were
hunted the most were colored black. The 1/8-mile blocks
of land not hunted at all would be clear. At the end
of seven years, by keeping these records, I was amazed
at the numbers of areas we'd never even hunted. We learned
that we'd directed those deer on that land to use the
travel corridors that we never hunted.  In
other words, the majority of the deer on the property
were consistently moving through the travel corridors
that no one ever hunted.
From this information, we've learned that if you hunt
the places no one else hunts, even on lands that have
a lot of hunting pressure, you still can see and take
the trophy bucks that no one else on the property sees.
If you have a lease and all the hunters on that lease
want to take more big bucks, then I suggest that you
get a map of the land you hunt, set up a 1/8-mile grid
on that map, and get everyone to mark where they hunt
and how much time they spend hunting there. Each season
every member of the club will learn more about where
everyone hunts, and more importantly, they easily can
see where they're not hunting. Those blocks not being
hunted probably contain the bigger and better bucks.
 My
company has used this system on several properties we
manage. The hunters and the landowners who hunt those
properties have been totally amazed to learn the amount
of land they're not hunting each year. If the hunters
on your lease or in your club don't want everyone to
know where they're hunting, I suggest that each hunter
keep a log each season of which blocks he's hunted and
the number of hours he's hunted in each. Then at the
end of the season, all the hunters can turn in their
logs, and someone in the club who volunteers can map
and chart all the hunting locations. Then the members
can see where the hunting pressure is and still don't
have to know where each is hunting specifically.
Another piece of property where my crew is paid to
harvest deer we've  kept
very extensive, precise records noting exactly where
we've hunted and how long we've hunted each place and
the number of deer taken there for the past six years.
We've been far more scientific about how we've hunted
than any hunting club ever will be. Even after hunting
there for six years and thinking we'd gone into every
nook and cranny, there's as many squares on that property
that haven't been hunted as there are 1/8-mile squares
that have been hunted. We average over 1,000 hours of
tree stand time a season on that land. Since our scientists
are very disciplined and try to scout hard and hunt
deep woods where no one else hunts, we've learned that
most of the white squares (the less-hunted places) on
this property are along road edges and access areas
that we use to get deeper into the property. I'm totally
convinced that the more daytime hunting pressure a property
receives, the less daytime activity in which the deer
will participate. That's the reason I say that if you
want to take a trophy early-season buck this season,
then you need to hunt the areas with fewer deer and
hunters instead of the regions with more deer and more
hunters. The places with fewer hunters will home bucks
that move more in daylight hours.
To learn more about Dr. Grant Woods and Woods and Associates,
you can go to www.deermanagement.net.
TOMORROW: YOU STILL CAN'T SEE THEM
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