John's Journal...

The Best Week for Finding a Trophy Buck

Recognize the Different Types of Classes, and Realize How the Rut Affects the Home Range

Click to enlargeEditor’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 mClick to enlargeay 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 maClick to enlargey 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 RangeClick to enlarge
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


Check back each day this week for more about "The Best Week for Finding a Trophy Buck"

Day 1: Know the Best Day to Bag a Buck
Day 2: Do Your Homework, and Know You Have A Trophy Buck To Hunt
Day 3: Understand the Does' Secrets, and Hunt Between the Honeymoon Suites
Day 4: Recognize the Different Types of Classes, and Realize How the Rut Affects the Home Range
Day 5: Where to Find Thick-Cover Sanctuaries

 

 

Entry 386, Day 4