John's Journal...

FOURTH AND 40 BUCKS

Grunt and Run

Click to enlargeEditor’s Note: Some people perform their best under pressure. When the last day of deer season and your last opportunity to hunt a trophy buck arrives, you must have the same dedication, poise and firm belief in your strategy as a star football player does in fourth quarter to bag your buck of a lifetime.

Bob Walker of Livingston, Alabama, has spent his entire life in one of the most deer-rich states in the nation. Walker doesn’t Click to enlargeremember a time when he hasn’t deer hunted or hunted almost every day. As a hunting guide at Bent Creek Lodge in Jachin, Alabama, Walker has developed strategies that produce bucks for Bent Creek’s clients. But on the last day of the season, Walker often looks for his own personal trophy buck to take. “At the end of the season in most states, hunters must take into consideration the rut, which will be occurring or just over,” Walker said. “Some tactics will put you on a level playing field with the trophy buck. Even if the dominant buck almost has quit breeding, he Click to enlargeremains very defensive of his domain. The tactic I use challenges his monarchy. I learned the strategy of grunt and run from another of my favorite sports - hunting spring turkeys. On the last day of turkey season when most of the hens sit on their nests, I cover a vast amount of ground and use the cutting call for the turkeys, hoping to find an active gobbler that will come in quickly. This tactic often produces a longbeard when no other type of calling will lure in these older, smarter birds. This same calling-and-running technique at the end of the season allows me to cover plenty of ground and find a big buck I can make mad enough that he’ll come into my gunsights.”

Click to enlargeWalker believes if you have pinpointed where a big buck beds, you’ll stay ahead of the game, just like the quarterback who knows who is the slowest defensive back and which receiver will have the best opportunity to catch the ball on that fourth-and-40 play. However, even if you don’t know where a trophy buck beds, go to the thickest cover on the property you hunt before
daylight with your tree stand, grunt call, rifle or bow, and follow this game plan.

TOMORROW: MORE GRUNT AND RUN WITH BOB WALKER

 



Check back each day this week for more about FOURTH AND 40 BUCKS...

Day 1 - Bucks At the End of the Season
Day 2 - Grunt and Run
Day 3 - More Grunt and Run with Bob Walker
Day 4 - Fool Them With Decoys, Scents and Antlers
Day 5 - Continue to Push


 

Entry 278, Day 2