Get Agressive – It’s Time To Go On The Offense With Whitetails

by bill winke
“Discretion is often the better part of valor when deciding how much pressure to put on the buck you’re hunting.” “Being too careful is usually better than being too aggressive.” We’ve all heard them, and while these statements are certainly true, it is possible to get too cute with a big buck and never really hunt him. I did that several seasons back and learned my lesson well.

I knew where a huge 12 pointer was spending part of his time. My buddy had seen him at sixty yards from his bow stand the year before and said he was the biggest buck he’ll ever see – a real world-class hog. The farmer had seen him a couple of times during the summer and a logger saw him cross the road into my hunting area during the season. I only hunted that buck two or three times, never getting very far out on the long brushy point where he bedded. I truly think I was careful to a fault. I was so afraid of spooking the buck that I suffered from paralysis by analysis. Sometimes you have to take a few chances. You’ll never kill a big buck if you don’t hunt him!

When To Go On Offense
Ok, so how do you hunt a big buck in his core area; how do you decide when to make your play? Jim Hill is one of my hunting buddies and a highly successful trophy bowhunter from the Minneapolis, MN area. Jim has made taking monster bucks a habit. In 1992 he took a gnarly 160′s class buck from a medium-sized property in a heavily hunted region of his home state. A year later he took another huge buck, again scoring in the 160′s from a completely different area. And then in 1995 he took an unbelievable third 160+ buck from another Midwestern state.

Jim likes to hunt individual trophy bucks and was hunting these particular deer when he got them! Jim’s secret to success is to hang back and observe, scout carefully, spend a lot of time thinking, and then move in when the time is right.

Passive hunting is best early and late in the season when deer are patternable. But during the rut it pays to become more aggressive because bucks travel long distances and may only remain in your hunting area for a short time.

I asked Jim what he looks for when deciding the time is right to switch from defense to offense. “Basically, if I know (rather than hope) the buck is in a certain area I go in after him. Your odds are never high when hunting a big buck, especially if he isn’t there! But your best chance of taking a real trophy is when you first realize he’s in your hunting area. That way you don’t contaminate things needlessly by hunting the core area at the wrong times. You give him every opportunity to show up and then you go in after him.” Jim’s advice sounds simple but you would be surprised how many times people hunt an area hard before the most productive days of the season. Of course, the hardest part of Hill’s approach is knowing when the buck is around.

Make Sure He’s There First
Continuing, Hill adds, “I rely on a lot of second-hand information. Usually the farmer or a neighbor has seen the buck recently. Farmers are outdoors a lot during the fall hunting season harvesting crops, and they know where the deer are. I also look for big tracks going into cover but not coming out. Tracks crossing open fields and soft gravel or dirt roads are easy to spot and carry a lot of valuable information – like when, what, how, etc. If I don’t know a buck is in one of the sanctuaries, I stay out of it and wait. Some seasons it never happens.”
  
Low Impact
It’s very possible to hunt and hunt hard without alerting the deer in the area. A big factor in your ability to mask your presence is scent-free clothing and scent-blocking clothing like Scent-Loc

The big 12 pointer Jim took in 1992 is a classic example of his hunting technique. “I was hunting a farm in western Minnesota that has a sanctuary on it,” he said. “It’s an island in the middle of a swamp. I had left this spot alone all season, hunting other parts of the farm.

“I knew this big buck’s prints because I had hunted him for two years, and they were huge! The farmer told me he had seen the buck cross an open field heading toward the swamp from a big section of CRP grass to the north. I couldn’t find his tracks heading back north so I knew he was still around. I could have hung back and tried to play with him but now was the time to go in after him. The approaching rut could take him away the next day and I would never have another chance.

“I put on my hip boots that afternoon and snuck through the reeds in order to get on the island and into my stand. Once the first deer activity of the evening began, I started rattling. Just as soon as the tines touched together I heard the buck walking through the water toward the island from his bedding area on one of the several root clusters that form hummocks out in the swamp. The big buck kept coming until he was 32 yards away. That’s where I shot him. I really don’t think I would have gotten the buck without moving right onto the island with him, but obviously you have to be extremely careful not to be seen, heard, or smelled. I’ve been using Scent-Lok clothing for years now and feel it improves my odds of hunting a spot like this without ruining it,” stated the veteran.

“If I feel like a big buck is still using an area after several days,” Hill added. “I’ll continue to put the pressure on him. If you know he’s there, that’s the absolute best time to try to take him.”

Be More Aggressive During The Rut
Buck behavior changes as the season progresses. Early and late in the season they’re somewhat patternable around their food sources. However, during the rut everything is chaos and there’s neither rhyme nor reason to their movements. What the bucks are doing is a great indicator of how aggressively to hunt. For example, during the peak of the rut you can push a whole lot harder and hunt more sensitive areas than you can before or after.

Think back over all the rut hunting you’ve done. How many times have you seen the same big buck more than once at this time of the season? I can only remember three times and I ended up arrowing two of those bucks the second time I saw them. In every other case I’ve never seen a trophy more than once. This should tell you something: when you see a big buck, do everything you can to get him that day or even that hour because you may never get another chance.

Suppose you see a big buck cross a field as he heads into a thicket in late morning. Get over there and carefully put up a stand on the most likely exit route the buck will use to leave. You may get lucky and he’ll come right past later in the day. Do your best to be stealthy, but even if you spook him there’s very little lost. He probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near your hunting area the next day anyway.

“You can hunt sanctuary areas harder during the peak of the rut than at any other time.”

You can hunt sanctuary areas harder during the peak of the rut than at any other time. I start hunting bedding ridges around November 4 every season in my part of the Midwest, because the local bucks that have been using them all summer and fall are probably off somewhere else. And the bucks I see are much more likely to be nomadic cruisers. As long as I do my best to get in and out clean, who cares if I accidentally spook one of them – it’s likely a one-shot deal anyway.

Just keep in mind that you’ll eventually educate all the does too, which can have a negative affect on your buck hunting during the rut. When you start seeing fewer and fewer does from your stand it’s time to back off or move on.

Conclusion
Trophy whitetail hunting is a balancing act between too much pressure and too much caution. During most of the season it makes sense to keep your distance from the places where you think bucks may be living and hunt their travel routes in and out. But, there are two situations in which it pays to be aggressive.
 When you know a big buck is using a particular part of your hunting area and the rut is closing in, your risk vs. reward will never be better. It’s worth the risk of contaminating the area by hunting it when you know the buck is there and may soon be leaving.

The second time is during the peak of the rut when bucks aren’t staying close to home anyway. Many of the bucks you run into at this time are nomads – here today, gone tomorrow. You’ll rarely see the same one twice. If you spook them by putting on the pressure, so what? At least you gave it your best shot. You can actually be too careful at times like these and let opportunities slip away.