WHERE THE PROS HUNT AT THE BITTER END
 Northern
Tactics
Editor’s Note: They've been chased, shot at,
cussed at, spooked and aggravated all season long. But
the biggest, the oldest and the smartest bucks on any
property you hunt have managed to survive until the
end of the season. These large, older bucks write the
textbooks young bucks study to survive. Some of the
nation's best hunters employ strategies that will take
these end-of-the-season bucks each year. These masters
of the hunt tell us their tactics for bagging late-season
bucks.
Many northern hunters consider Paul Butski of Niagara
Falls, New York, the owner of Butski Game Calls, one
of the nation's top deer hunters. The deer Butski hunts
have had sportsmen breathing down their necks all season
long. But Butski has learned some techniques that men
willing to brave the elements can employ to bag  the
bucks no one else takes. "Our gun season begins
around the 20th of November and usually occurs at the
end of the rut," Butski says. "Typically our
area has very cold weather and often snow at this time
of the year. Because of the extreme weather conditions,
most hunters will venture out only for an hour or two
in the morning and in the afternoon, spending most of
their daylight hours fellowshipping around a campfire.
Deer pattern hunters just like hunters pattern deer.
They understand that in cold and/or snowy weather, the
least amount of hunting pressure will exist in the middle
of the day. Therefore, the deer will move more frequently
in the middle of the day. Also, although the rut winds
down, many bucks still will remain mobile with hopes
of finding that last estrous doe. For these reasons,
I  hunt
all day at the end of the season."
Butski also searches for the thickest cover to hunt
in at the end of the season. "Deer look for places
to hide where no hunter will move into," Butski
reports. "Deer must remain in thick cover to survive
at the end of the season. You can improve your odds
of finding a buck to take by hunting a thicket area."
Butski starts to hunt these end-of-the-season trophy
bucks beginning in August and September. "I hunt
without my gun," Butski explains. "I find
the thickest cover I can. I go into those spots and
put up a tree stand to hunt from at the end of the season
where no one else can find it. I don't reenter this
area until the last few days of the season. When I do
come to this tree stand to hunt, I feel I have the best
chance of taking the biggest buck in the region because
he must hold there to have survived."
 Butski
also utilizes man-drives at the end of the season. "In
thick cover where I don't have a tree stand, I'll put
on man-drives," Butski comments. "Man-drives
remain one of the most-effective ways to pull big bucks
out of thick cover late in the season. But don't drive
the area where you've placed your stand if you plan
to stand hunt any more there during that season. I prefer
to hunt from my stands in the mornings and the afternoons
and drive the regions where I don't have stands in the
middle of the day." Butski usually has the opportunity
for a shot when he sees a buck moving ahead of him in
thick cover or when he jumps a bedding buck as he follows
the trails through thick cover. While extensively glassing
well ahead of the deer's track, Butski looks for deer
standing in the cover. If he spots the deer, often he'll
have to take a long shot to bag the buck. "Also
many times during daylight hours, the bucks will bed
down," Butski mentioned. "When I follow a
trail, a big buck may jump up right from under me. I'll
then have to take a quick, running shot." Butski
also tracks deer at the end of the season. "If
fresh snow covers the ground, I can spot a big track,
follow it and walk all day if I must get close enough
to take a shot at a buck."
TOMORROW: MIDDLE STATE STRATEGIES
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