John's Journal...

Click to enlargeFORCE THE BUCK TO COME TO YOU

Cause a Buck to Come Out of Thick Cover

EDITOR’S NOTE: Many people write about how the older-age-class bucks will conceal themselves in thick cover during hunting season. Historically, hunters have used man drives the most effectively to get these big bucks out of thick cover. However, a man drive may disturb deer for a half mile in all directions if not conducted properly. Donald Spence Click to enlargeand his wife, Jody, of Monticello, Mississippi, operate some of the most-effective man drives I’ve ever seen.

“We can put on 20-man drives in a day,” Spence says. “We locate Click to enlargesmall, thick-cover areas where we believe bucks will hold. Jody will move quietly to take a stand on one side of the thick cover, while I slip to the back side of the cover. We like to hunt briar thickets, honeysuckle patches, cane thickets or heads of woods with thick-cover areas n their centers. I walk a zigzag pattern from one side of the cover to the other. Occasionally I deliberately will snap a twig or clap my hands sharply one time. I want the buck to Click to enlargerealize I’m in that thick cover, but I don’t want him to know exactly where. I prefer to have the wind at my back. Then my human odor will drift in front of me and alert the buck to my presence. I don’t try to spook the buck. I just want to gently nudge him out of his thick cover and get him to walk toward Jody.”

Most of the deer look back at the driver as the animals walk out of thick cover into the area where one of the Spences stands. Because the Spences make little noise in their drives, they can hunt thick-cover spots relatively close to each other. After Donald Spence completes a drive, he’ll rendezvous with his wife, pick another area to drive and become the stander while Jody drives.

 TOMORROW: CUT A PATH


Check back each day this week for more about FORCE THE BUCK TO COME TO YOU

Day 1: Block Trails and Build Invisible Trails
Day 2: Make a Brush Funnel
Day 3: Cause a Buck to Come Out of Thick Cover
Day 4: Cut a Path
Day 5: Build a Honey Hole

 

 

Entry 332, Day 3