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The Tale of a QDM Club by Dave Edwards
Own Your Own by Virgil Peritts
What Is TSI? by Matt Ross, QDMA
Native vs. Non-Native by Gabriel Karns, M. Colter Chitwood, Chris Moorman, and Dr. Chris DePerno
Oaks For Bucks by Chris Moorman
Go For Broke by Tony Hansen, Realtree Whitetail Team
Deer Season: A Time For Kids by Stephanie Mallory
The Need For Minerals by Brian Murphy, QDMA
Perlitz Ranch Hosts Youth Camp by Kelly Haydel
Timing the Rut With Fawns by Gabriel Karns, M. Colter Chitwood
How to add cover for deer by Realtree Whitetail Team
What percentage of a buck's antler development potential comes from the doe's genes? by Realtree Whitetail Team
Where were the bucks? by Team Realtree
Growths on Deer? by Team Realtree
How Many Teats? by Team Realtree
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Management Association
Recent Article
Go For Broke
Now what? For most diehard deer hunters, deer season is more than a few days in the woods. It’s a year-round passion that starts long before the October archery seasons roll in. And, for many, it extends long beyond the sweet days of November. Of course, for those of us still sitting on a few unfilled tags, there isn’t much choice. It’s either hunt now and hunt hard or sip on tag soup for the next 10 months. No, thank you. Been there, done that. Well, there is hope. The final few days of the season can be some of the best when it comes to finding mature bucks on their feet. But it’s anything but easy. For me, the key to late-season hunting is scouting for the best food sources and doing everything I can to not move deer of those fields. Hunt smart, hunt careful. That’s the key to finding big bucks in the late season. Well now we have just a few days left. So throw that advice out the window. If you suspect a buck is using a certain field, hunt it. Hunt it now and hunt it hard. Let’s take a look at three last-minute tactics that can pay off.
Hunt The Beds In heavily-hunted areas, deer will likely use food sources in the waning minutes of daylight. The mature bucks may still not be hitting food in daylight at all – especially if temperatures don’t stay bitter cold. Even then, without decent snow cover, there should be plenty of browse still available and hungry bucks can readily snack on lower-quality browse while they wait to hit the grain fields under cover of darkness. But add in some snow cover and they are far more likely to hit the fields in daylight. If you’re not seeing bucks on the food sources but believe one is in the area, now is the time to get aggressive. Move in close to the bedding areas for evening hunts. In the mornings, I will hang a set directly in the center or – or very, very close to – the bedding cover. The goal is to kill that buck when it comes back to bed. So you’ll need to get in early and you’ll need to sit until 11 a.m. or so. For whatever reason, deer don’t seem to make their way into the bedding areas until mid-morning during the late stages of the season. Where they are, I can’t really say. I don’t see them on food sources so I can’t say that they’re feeding late. But I seldom see deer moving in the mornings during cold weather until about 9 a.m. or later. So be aggressive. Get in that bedding area. You’re either going to kill that buck or blow him out of the area. At this point, what do you have to lose?
Get After Him If I see a buck with just a few days left in the season, I’m going to do everything I can to get a shot at him. And that includes trying to put a move on him. This works especially well when a buck hits a food source out of range. If I have the wind remotely in my favor, I’m going to climb out of my stand or exit the blind and do what I can to get close enough for a shot. You’d be surprised at just how much movement you can get away with when deer are hard on the food. Sure, the odds of getting close enough for a shot are long. But, again, what have you got to lose? In a few days, the season will be over. It’s a tough call. Do you wait another evening or two and hope the buck ends up within range? Or do you get aggressive and get after him? Well, there is one more option. Let’s look at that one.
Move and Stick The option I find myself using most during the waning days of the season is one of passive-aggression. If I see a buck enter or exit a field out of range and I still have a few days left to hunt, I won’t go directly at that deer just yet. Instead, as soon as the buck is well out of sight, I’ll get down and move my set directly to that area. The next time I hunt, I’ll hopefully be in the right position. You may have to move a couple of times to finetune but don’t wait. Late-season deer tend to stay on the same pattern once they start hitting food sources. Use that redundancy to your advantage. Now is not the time to simply watch deer. Now is the time to shoot them. Unless, of course, you actually like tag soup.