How to Take the Buck that Nobody Else Can Bag
Remove the Hunting Pressure
Editor’s
Note: Bucks of legend, those seldom seen and mostly
nocturnal, that no one can take but that everyone chases
have developed reputations of having almost supernatural
powers over the years. Here's a look at how some of
the nation's deer hunters successfully have pitted their
skills against the bucks with the big reputations.
Tad Brown had a problem. Every morning
as the sun started coming up in the woodlot where he
hunted, Brown saw an elderly man hunting on the ground
50 to 70 yards in front of him. Then every afternoon
when Brown went to his stand site, that same hunter
would sit in that same spot. Brown had scouted intensively
and knew because of the rubs and the deer tracks he'd
seen that a big buck lived in that region. "I'd
just moved to Auxvasse, Missouri, and I really didn't
have another place to hunt," Brown, a part of the
company that also owns Kolpin Outdoor Products, M.A.D.
Calls, Lohman’s Calls and Flambeau, recalls. "The
only spot I could find was a piece of property where
the landowner allowed his family and neighbors
to hunt. That's the place I'd scouted. But the old gentleman
hunting in front of me didn't seem like he was going
to budge, and I didn't have another place to go."
Although Brown spotted some small bucks and does, he
felt certain a nice buck lived in those woods. To avoid
the other hunter, Brown hunted in the middle of the
day, but he still didn't see the buck he wanted to take.
“Finally, I decided I'd just get elbow-to-elbow
with the other hunter," Brown explains. "I
noticed that the elderly man would leave the woods about
5 to 10 minutes before dark to reach his vehicle by
nightfall. One afternoon, near the end of the season,
I remained on my stand until dark.
I watched the old man get up and leave the woods. Before
he'd gone 100 yards, I spotted the nice buck I'd hoped
to see. That 7-point buck came down the trail where
I'd expected him to and went right past where the old
man had been sitting. When the deer stood at 30 yards,
I took him with my muzzleloader. This 3-1/2-year-old
buck scored 107 points on the Boone & Crockett scale.
He was the biggest buck on the property, according to
the landowner. I'm totally convinced that the buck was
watching that older hunter. When the buck saw the man
leave the woods, he felt safe enough to leave the thick
cover and come down the trails he’d normally run
after dark." Most of us know that hunting pressure
can move deer out of an area. In this instance, with
the removal of hunting pressure, the buck moved quickly
back into the region.
Tomorrow: Hunt 'Em Backwards
|