FOURTH AND 40 BUCKS
Grunt and Run
Editor’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 remember
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 remains
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.”
Walker
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
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