FORCE
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 and
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 small,
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 realize
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
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