HOW TO TAKE HOT-WEATHER BUCKS

Cut The Grass To Attract A Buck

Editor's Note: Biologists know the old adage that bucks don't move in hot weather isn't true. Bucks have to feed, bed and get water, regardless of the temperature. Bucks just move very little in hot weather. As the world experiences global warming, we'll have to learn to hunt for hot-weather bucks during bow season. You can bag bucks with your bow in hot weather. The sportsmen interviewed this week hunt primarily in the Deep South for at least three or four months under hot-weather conditions each year and consistently bag their bucks every season.

Wesley Ashcraft of Birmingham, Alabama, hunted just outside of town on his aunt's small farm. A few years ago, Ashcraft noticed a deer trail that led from an old garden spot through Johnson grass back to a small creek. A 2-year-old clear-cut bordered a 30- to 40-yard stretch of hardwoods through which a small creek ran. Ashcraft had taken a stand in a tree halfway between the old garden and the creek bottom the year before during rifle season. He had seen bucks moving along the creek bottom but never could get a shot. The bucks never used the trail leading from the garden spot back to the creek bottom during daylight hours. The following summer, Ashcraft had an idea about how to bag a buck with his bow. He knew he needed to get the deer in close. He bush-hogged a 6-foot-wide path from the old garden spot past the tree where he placed his tree stand. A month before bow season, he noticed tracks along the path he had cut.

Ashcraft never had hunted deer with a bow until almost 10-years ago. But on opening day of bow season with temperatures in the 90s, he left work early and hurried to his aunt's farm. According to Ashcraft, "Just before dark I saw a storm coming. The sky got gray, and I spotted a big thunderhead in the distance. As the storm approached, I decided I shouldn't remain in my tree until dark and get wet. I let my bow down. As I bent over to pick up my bow, I looked through the bush and spotted a buck at the end of the bush-hogged trail I had cut. I couldn't believe cutting the grass and providing a trail for the bucks had worked." Ashcraft had practiced with his bow and felt confident to take a shot to about 30 yards. He had planned a tree-stand shot, not a shot from the ground. He hoped to take a spike or a 4-point buck. However, the buck coming straight to him would score 140 points on the Boone & Crockett scale.

A quartering wind blew from behind Ashcraft. As the buck approached, Ashcraft knew he would have to make the shot at 30 yards or else the buck would smell him. As the deer continued to close ground, Ashcraft began to doubt his hunting ability. "I realized I only could have a head-on shot, and I didn't want to make that shot," Ashcraft commented. "I knew if the buck kept coming, he'd stand so close I couldn't miss him. But I thought I had watched the buck for so long and had so long to think about the shot that I'd still probably miss him. At least 100-different things went through my mind as the deer headed my way." Preparing for the head-on shot, Ashcraft drew his bow and began to raise up just over the cover. He had to move some limbs out of the way to take the shot. When the buck came within 30 yards, fate dealt Ashcraft a winning hand. "The wind changed direction and started blowing straight from behind the buck," Ashcraft reported. "I knew he couldn't smell me because he kept coming straight toward me.

When at full draw and looking through his peepsight, Ashcraft suddenly couldn't see the buck when a leaf fell between his peep and his pinsight. Although he had to move a limb on the bush, his luck held. Just as he got a clear-sight picture of the buck, only 15-yards away, the buck turned broadside. Then the big buck presented Ashcraft with a dream shot as the buck quartered-away and almost stood still when Ashcraft released the arrow. The buck jumped, ran about 25 yards and then piled-up in a heap. Ashcraft took his trophy of a lifetime on his very first bow hunt and utilized a strategy many hot-weather hunters enjoy throughout the nation of cutting trails through grass. Creatures of habit, deer prefer to take the path of the least resistance when they move in thick cover during hot weather, many bowhunters have learned they can cause deer to pass by their tree stands by cutting paths through that thick cover for the deer to travel. You actually can funnel deer into your tree stand by cutting trails the length or the breadth of the cover. You can make deer leave one trail and walk your man-made trail if your trail allows the deer to move through thick-cover areas easier than the trail the deer already had established. In hot weather when thick-cover regions have plenty of food, the deer don't have to come out of the cover to feed. If you can make paths that allow the deer to walk in thick cover easier, you'll often cause deer to come to you.

TOMORROW: HUNT THE WATER