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John's Journal... Entry 158, Day 5

CAREFUL BUCK MANAGEMENT PRODUCES BETTER BUCKS QUICKLY

Trophy Bucks and the Secrets to Harvesting Them

EDITOR'S NOTE: In three years, Mark Drury, founder of M.A.D. Calls, a division of Outland Sports in Neosho, Missouri, and active member of Mossy Oak's Pro Hunt Team and video producer, went from having few if any deer on his 2,100 acres of land, to producing 150-point-class Boone and Crockett bucks. His amazing story demonstrates what quality wildlife management can do for a deer herd when sportsmen willingly invest the time and money to produce better bucks. In 2001, Mark and his brother Terry harvested five bucks that scored 150 points or better from property almost completely devoid of deer three years earlier. Can you accomplish this feat on the lands you have to hunt? Let's see what the Drurys did to the land to produce trophy bucks.

Mark Drury's wife, Tracy, drew a hunting tag for Iowa this past year. They decided to wait until the end of the season when the big bucks should really be moving to let Tracy try and bag a trophy buck. On December 26, the daytime high was 20 degrees. They decided to hunt the same shooting house where Jared had taken his buck. Because the weather was so cold, and there was so little green forage, Drury thought that the bucks would be coming to the BioLogic Fall Attractant he'd planted. Even though plenty of beans and corn still were in the field, Drury was betting that the Fall Attractant would be the preferred food of the bucks at that time of the year. That afternoon, Tracy shot a tremendous 8-point. The buck grossed 147 on the B&C scale. However, its rack had a broken G1 point. If the point hadn't been broken, the rack would have made it a solid 150 buck.

"Not only do you have to provide food and cover for the deer to produce trophy bucks, but you need to spend as little time as possible on the property during hunting season," Mark Drury explains. "We only hunt this property for a few days during bow season. During gun season, we aggressively take the does, but we try and harass the bucks as little as possible. We only take the bigger bucks. We also let the wind dictate where we're going to hunt when we take a trophy buck. We only hunt from the shooting houses and stands that will ensure that the deer never will smell us on the stands. We scout all year long, but we learn the most about our property in the late season, when all the deer are hitting the food plots. We learn where the deer come into the fields and where they exit. Then, during bow season, we scout the trails that lead to the green fields to try and determine an ambush point away from our green fields. We usually only harvest eight to 10 does, which I realize is not enough. But, we're only harvesting three to five bucks per year. I believe that we easily can take two deer a year that will score in the 140s to 150s and two deer a year that will score in the 160s to 170s."

Let's recap what the Drurys have done to their land. They...

* don't take any buck until he's at least 3-years old.
* have sanctuary areas and plenty of cover on their property for the big bucks to hide.
* don't go into those sanctuaries, and push out those big bucks.
* hunt the fringe areas of the heavy cover. Under no circumstance do they penetrate that cover.
* don't depend on one food source. Deer like to browse. They enjoy variety in their diet. Instead of planting one crop each season, they plant several crops so that the deer have diversity in their diet and a wide choice of foods to eat.
* make sure they have plenty of green food sources during the spring, summer, fall and especially in the winter. During the fall, they provide some type of grain that not only serves as food but also as cover.
* protect the land by patrolling your property, and keeping poachers out.
* get their friends and neighbors to help patrol their property. Poachers will kill your bucks, and poacher pressure can run deer off your land just like hunter pressure can. You must be willing to make a commitment to be relentless on poachers.
* aggressively harvest does.

Drury emphasizes, "I don't believe you can ever take enough does off your property. Your neighbor's does will produce all the bucks you need. Right now we're trying to take two does for every buck we harvest. But I think we're going to modify our management program to take three does for every buck."

To learn more about M.A.D. Calls, call (800) 922-9034 or visit www.outlandsports.com. For information about Drury Outdoors' Videos, call (800) 990-9351, or visit www.druryoutdoors.com.

 

 

Check back each day this week for more CAREFUL BUCK MANAGEMENT PRODUCES BETTER BUCKS QUICKLY ...

Day 1 - How The Process Begins
Day 2 - Drury's Planting Regiment
Day 3 - The First And Second 150-Point Bucks
Day 4 - More Trophy Bucks
Day 5 - Trophy Bucks and the Secrets to Harvesting Them


John's Journal