WHERE THE PROS HUNT AT THE BITTER END
Midwestern
Bad-Weather Bucks
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.
Brad
Harris of Neosho, Missouri, a longtime, avid deer hunter,
prefers to hunt these sunny hillsides during the middle
of the day when the sun shines the brightest, the deer
movement peaks, and hunter pressure lessens. A little
knob on the side of a hayfield, not necessarily a major
mountain range, with a south-facing slope can become
a productive place to find a trophy buck when you hunt
in bad weather during the late season. "I wait
until 8:30 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. before I go to my stand
site,” Harris explains. Then I have the sun to
keep me warm, and I can stay in my stand during the
time the bucks usually become the most active."
Hunting secondary food sources next to bedding areas
has proven a productive tactic for Harris' late-season
hunting. Deer must feed every day. During bad weather
and intense hunting pressure, a trophy buck will feed
in places closest to his bedding site, even if the region
doesn't provide his favorite food. "Look for honeysuckle
vines, honey-locust leaves, blackberry bushes
or any other type of plant the deer will eat close to
its bedding area," Harris suggests. "You may
know of a clover or a wheat field nearby where the deer
feed, probably at night. If deer want to feed during
daylight hours when they know hunters can take them,
they must eat the food closest to their sanctuary, even
though that food may not be their preferred food."
Deer tend to follow the same types of feeding habits
during bad weather as humans. If you have to walk two
miles through rain, sleet and snow to eat a steak with
all the trimmings or go to a hamburger stand half a
block away to get something to eat, where will you go?
Personally I'll order a sack full of hamburgers and
run back to the house. Harris also emphasizes that no
matter where you hunt during the late season you must
use bad-weather conditions to allow you to approach
your stand undetected. "Older-age class bucks
have a higher sensitivity to hunter pressure than younger
bucks," Harris mentions. "I never approach
my big-buck stands unless I have a howling wind, a blowing
rain or fresh snow to mask the sound of my movement.
The less likely a buck is to hear, see or smell me,
the greater my odds for success will be for bagging
that late-season trophy buck." Our experts agree
late-season trophy bucks represent the toughest deer
to take. At the end of the season, you must hunt when
and where no one else does to find the trophy bucks
that have dodged other hunters all year.
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