 A
BUCK PICKS HIS CORE AREA
Locating the Core Area of Northwestern and Southern
Bucks
Editor’s Note: If you can find the core of a
buck's home range, you'll enjoy much-better odds of
taking him, since he'll spend most of his time in daylight
hours there. But what does the core of a buck's home
range look like, what ingredients must that core area
have to hold a buck and how can you find or create a
core area to take more big bucks each season? To learn
the answers to these questions and others, we've interviewed
some of the nation's leading biologists and deer hunters.
Northwestern Bucks:
Michael Waddell of Columbus, Georgia, the host of the
"Realtree Road Trips" TV show on the "Outdoor
Channel," has hunted the Milk River section of
Montana for the last 9 years. "I believe that finding
the core area of really-big bucks is the most-critical
ingredient in taking a big buck, especially in the Milk
River region, where  generally
the trophy bucks will bed on the edge of the riverbank.
Probably 85- to 90-percent of the big bucks in this
region will have their core area on the river because
the river is thick with undergrowth. Too, right beside
these thick-cover sites, you'll often see large alfalfa
and oat fields, a few wheat fields and/or weed stubble.
Unlike many sections of the country, in this region,
we never go near the core area unless we're planning
to actually take a buck. We'll try to get on a high
point early in the morning or late in the afternoon
to watch for the bucks to come out and feed in the fields.
We usually want to stay about 1/2- to 1-mile away from
the bucks and watch them with spotting scopes and binoculars.
Bucks generally will come to a certain part of a field
and bed there, perhaps because one region may be better
irrigated or may get better fertilizer than another,
or, this portion of the crop may be healthier than other
parts."
Because Waddell and his team almost always hunt with
their bows, they must place their tree stands only 50-
to 100-yards away from the deer's bedding area. To minimize
his human odor, Waddell will wait until mid-day when
the buck's in his core area and go in a truck to the
place where he'll set up his tree stand. After setting
up a stand, he'll get back in the truck and leave because
he knows that since deer see and hear trucks and tractors
throughout the year, these vehicles don't scare the
deer.” We're careful not to spook the deer when
we're setting up or going to a stand," Waddell
comments. "We'll go to the stand in the truck and
climb up into the stand. Then when we're through hunting,
we'll wait to come down the tree when someone brings
the truck to get us. Ninety percent of the time, a trophy
buck's  core
area in the Northwest will be less than 200 yards from
where he comes into the fields to hunt."
Southern Bucks:
Preston Pittman, the president of Pittman Game Calls
in Pickens, Mississippi, has hunted his home state and
all across the South his entire life. He observes that,
"Security is what a southern buck 4-1/2 or 5-years
old needs to survive. In the South, to find that sense
of security, an older-class buck has to be in a place
where a hunter will rarely, if ever, threaten him. For
years, hunters have believed that to get to the regions
where no other hunter goes, they have to move deep into
the woods. The majority of the hunters don't want to
hunt where they hear the roar of traffic or see 18-wheelers
running up and down interstates. I'm convinced that
many big bucks live within rock-throwing distance of
interstates, highways, county roads, main roads leading
to camp houses and public-hunting areas -- all places
where you won't see hunters during hunting season. Generally
hunters will park in the same spots and go into the
woods from the same direction every time they hunt.
Some of the biggest bucks I've ever taken have had core
areas within a few hundred yards of these major road
systems. The land close to a main road usually has cover,
water, plenty of food and no hunting pressure -- all
the ingredients required for a very-productive hunting
area. One of the biggest bucks I've ever taken with
my bow, I bagged within less than 100 yards of Interstate
65.
 "Also
look for core areas of deer near garden sites and blackberry
patches close to homes in the country. I've taken big
bucks before that I know have spent their time watching
the lady of the house come out in the back yard to hang
clothes up on a clothesline, working in her garden or
feeding the dogs in the dog pen. Once a big buck learns
that people in certain places pose no threat to him,
that's where he'll set up his core area."
TOMORROW: DISCOVERING THE
CORE AREAS OF SOUTHWESTERN DEER
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