 WEIRD
PLACES I'VE FOUND BIG BUCKS WITH RAY EYE
Trolling for Bucks with Ray Eye
Editor’s Note: Ray Eye has hunted deer for more than 30 years and
has been a member of Hunter's Specialties Pro Staff since 1985. This week
Eye will tell us about weird places where he's found big bucks. To take
a trophy buck, you need to locate a big buck in a region where nobody
else is looking for him. Many times these little overlooked spots can
and will produce that dream buck you've searched for your life. After
reading about where Eye has discovered big bucks, start searching for
overlooked honey holes this season to take the buck of your dreams.
About 90% of the bucks I've taken over the past
30 or so years, I've bagged while hunting from the ground. I'm certainly
not opposed to hunting from a tree stand, and I've hunted from them quite
often. However, I feel that whether I'm turkey hunting or deer hunting,
being on the ground and calling deer or turkeys is the most-effective
way to take them. When you're on the ground, the call is coming from the
ground. When deer are walking through the woods,
they walk on the ground, not through the treetops. Therefore, I believe
that a call coming from the ground sounds much
more natural and much more believable than a call coming from a tree. I also know that deer move when they call. Very rarely will you see a
deer stand in one place and call and call and call
and not move. I've learned that when I'm moving and calling I can attract
more bucks, cover more ground, locate more bucks and take more bucks than
I can if I'm sitting in a tree stand. I like to use a three-grunt series,
pause, then give one more grunt, then wait, look and listen for 10 to
15 minutes. If I don't hear or see any deer, then I'll move slowly and
quietly to another calling spot and repeat the same process.
One
of the real secrets to make this tactic work for you when you're moving
from calling spot to calling spot is to move slowly and quietly and try
not to spook any critters. Using this technique, I was hunting a ridge
a few years ago, and I had given two different sets of grunt calls. About
50- or
75-yards away from me, I saw a twig moving on the side of a tree. At first
I thought a bird had left the limb and shaken the twig, or perhaps a squirrel
had jumped off this little sapling and caused this twig to move. But as
I continued to watch, I noticed that not only the twig but also the entire
sapling was moving. When I put my binoculars to
my eyes and looked at the sapling, I brought the binoculars down toward
the ground and saw a nice buck beating up that sapling with his antlers.
As I continued to watch, the buck had his ears back, was bristled-up and
was walking stiff-legged toward me. When the buck stopped, I blew the
grunt call again, and  he
beat up another sapling and marched within 30 yards of me. So, I took
the shot. Most hunters don't realize how effective
a grunt call can be, especially when you're on the ground and moving.
If you have the opportunity to watch a buck that's grunting, you'll see
that most of the time he's moving when he's grunting. He may stop, grunt
and then start walking again. But generally a buck won't stand in one
place and grunt and grunt and grunt.
As I mentioned, I'm basically a three-grunt-call-pause-one
grunt-type caller. However, during the rut, I'll give those little short,
hard and fast grunts that some hunters call popping or clicking. If you've
ever watched a buck chasing a doe during the rut, he's usually giving
those short, fast grunts. That's why I use the popping-type grunts during
the rut. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that a grunt call is the
magic bullet that always makes bucks come in to where a hunter is. I've
grunted deer before and had them turn and walk away from me. But, I've
been so successful grunting and moving for so many years, that I've come
to believe that this is one of the best tactics I can use when I'm hunting
on the ground and moving through the woods. I think if you'll try it you'll
see it works for you, too.
 Just
walking through the woods and calling isn't the ultimate hunting tactic.
You can't use this strategy and forget everything
else you know about deer hunting. You still have to hunt into the wind
slowly, stay as scent-free as possible and be as quiet as possible. I
believe that using the Tru Talker as I move through the woods gives me
the advantage of seeing more country, learning more about what the deer
are doing and where they are doing it and greatly increases my odds of
taking a buck. While I'm hunting, I'm also scouting. I'm not just standing
on that one spot where I have my tree stand placed to produce the deer.
Another tactic I use when I'm moving and calling
bucks is a tactic I've learned from turkey hunting. If I'm calling to
a buck that's out in the field, and he starts moving away from me, or
he's just plain ignoring me, but he's walking or feeding toward one direction,
I'll back away from the field's edge. I'll circle the buck, get in front
of him and start calling to him in the direction he wants to go, just
like I will if I'm calling a turkey. I've found that often several of
the strategies I use for turkeys are deadly effective for hunting bucks.
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