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Hunting Mature Bucks
It may sound obvious but when you
want to hunt the mature bucks, you need to hunt where they live!
You can have the best equipment, the
keenest eyes, know all of the strategies and techniques to hunt
deer, and be the best stalker around, however it won’t be any
good to you if there are no mature bucks in the area you are
hunting.
So where are the most likely spots
to find mature or trophy bucks?
To reach maturity or become a trophy
buck, the deer usually survive in:
·
Areas with light hunting
pressure
·
Areas with low to
moderate deer densities
·
Areas with buck to doe
ratios of 1:2 or 1:3
How can you find out the ratios or
numbers in the area? Scouting and Wildlife management agencies
will provide this information.
A statistic that usually goes with
these types of areas is a low hunter success rate. If this
figure is high it usually means a lot of immature bucks are
being taken each year – which is not what you are after.
In these areas with high deer
densities, the hunting pressure is usually so high that bucks
rarely grow older than 3.5 years. In some of these areas, 90% of
all antlered deer are shot each season.
If there is a high ratio of females
to bucks, the bucks are less likely to engage in competitive
rutting, so it becomes difficult to get them to respond to
rattling, calling, decoys and scrape hunting strategies.
Find an Area with Mature Bucks
These are some of the things you can
do to find out where mature bucks live:
·
Study the winter range
after snow melt looking for sheds
·
Review topographical
maps and aerial photos to find isolated areas where few hunters
go
·
Visit local taxidermists
and find out the trophy potential of the area, and the areas
where the big bucks have come from
·
Talk to farmers, rural
mail drivers etc to see if they have seen mature bucks
·
Drive the roads at dawn
and dusk of potential areas, looking with binoculars for large
bucks
Once you have narrowed your search
down to a few areas, it’s time to put homework in getting to
understand the area and where the animals are, and how they
behave. The trophy buck will require dedication, patience and
restraint for you to be successful.
A mature trophy buck is calmer and
less energetic than younger bucks. He has learned to lie low and
watches the patterns of hunters. Because of this he usually
makes most of his moves during the night.
However his weakness is the rut. His
normal patterns involve minimal movements between food, water
and his bed except during the rut when he will travel greater
distances and not exclusively at night.
This is your best time opportunity
to score your mature buck.
You will need to understand his
normal daily movements around food and water, and where the does
are living, as well as research his places of refuge when there
is any pressure.
Once you have this information, you
are ready to take him! |
