The Best Week for Finding a Trophy Buck
Recognize the Different Types of Classes, and Realize
How the Rut Affects the Home Range
Editor’s
Note: Famed baseball announcer Dizzy Dean once said,
"If you done it, it ain't braggin'." And friends,
I've done it. I've found the magic week to hunt deer
that increases my odds for bagging a trophy buck. You
don't have to bet on moon charts, tide charts, soothsayers
or any hunting aids. But you can bet on experience from
top biologists and hunters. Read on to learn how to
down a buck during the best week of the year.
During the peak of the rut, does elude bucks for two
reasons. When flirtatious and coquettish, they want
to increase the bucks' desire to breed. Too, they may
try to escape from a suitor they don't consider desirable.
"If a doe is ready to breed with a buck, she may
run 30- to 40-yards away from the buck and then circle
back to him," Dr. Keith Causey, former professor
of wildlife science and a wildlife researcher at Auburn
University in Auburn, Alabama, reports. "She doesn't
really intend to leave her core area but is being flirtatious
and coquettish. If a hunter sees a doe run a short distance,
then circle back to the buck, or, if she runs a short
distance and waits for the buck to catch her, then you
know that this doe wants to be bred by the buck you
see. If she's willing to let the buck breed, he's likely
the best buck in the area. Usually does select breeding
partners based on body weight and antler size.”
However, if you see a doe run full speed for 100 yards
or more and never stop to wait on the buck or circle
back to the buck, then this doe probably is avoiding
the attentions of an inferior buck. "Does will
run through the woods as fast as possible to escape
being bred by young or inferior bucks," Causey
says. "This phenomenon explains why you'll often
see little bucks chasing big does, and then two or three
minutes later you'll see a really big buck coming down
the same trail, chasing the same doe. Most of the time,
if a doe is running as fast as she can away from a buck,
though the buck may be a nice 8-point, he may
not be the biggest and oldest buck in the area."
For this reason, if you hunt the best week of the season
to take a trophy buck, you may need to make some very-quick
and difficult decisions. Should you take that nice 8-point
running behind the doe or wait to see if a bigger buck
follows behind him? If you don't shoot that 8-point
behind the doe now, that doe may not be in estrus the
next day, and you may not see a bigger buck behind her,
if you hunt in the same place tomorrow.
Realize How the Rut Affects the Home Range
The doe shrinks her home range during the peak of the
rut to help the dominant buck find her when he comes
looking. During the breeding season, the dominant buck
increases his home range to locate and breed more estrous
does. Because bucks expand their home ranges and move
into territories they don't normally frequent, they
will fight with other bucks. Most of the all-out buck
battles that occur during the peak of the rut will happen
in thick-cover areas where does have laid-down strong
estrous scent, and two bucks arrive at the same place
wanting to breed the same doe at the same time. Therefore,
just because you see a big buck in one of these thick-cover
honeymoon doe sites, you can't assume that's the only
trophy buck that will frequent that place during the
peak of the rut. Since a dominant buck doesn't have
a well-defined home range during the peak of the rut,
several mature trophy bucks may come into the same doe
sanctuary during the same day.
"The place you're least likely to see a trophy
buck during the rut is on a green field," Causey
cautions. "Green fields draw yearling bucks and
does during the peak of the rut. If you've been watching
a green field all season, as the peak of the rut approaches,
you'll notice the older does move away from the green
field and often will vanish from the green field for
several days. If you can locate where those does go
and where they hold, you'll discover a spot where the
chances are extremely good for taking a trophy buck
during the best week to hunt."
Tomorrow: Where to Find Thick-Cover Sanctuaries
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