Realistic Tips for Bagging a Trophy This Season

Feature Story by CHESTER MOORE

LISTEN: (5 minutes, 06 seconds)

 

FISHERMEN ARE KNOWN for their tall tales, but deer hunters are equally as liberal with exaggeration and hyperbole.

We are also prone to thinking we have it all figured out when in fact the deer have us pegged much better than we understand them.

Here are some tips on keeping things in perspective when deer hunting and realize each hunt is an opportunity and few of us will ever shoot the type of deer you see on hunting television programs unless we can afford to go to the mostly high-fenced ranches where such deer dwell in large numbers.

Let’s take advantage of good opportunities presented to us.

Bird in the Hand: If you have an opportunity to shoot a decent buck, take it. Don’t wait around for the mythical 40-point buck of your dreams because chances are it will not come out. East Texas hunters would be wise to take the first legal buck that steps out. Your best shot at getting a buck is on opening weekend or during the rut (it is sweet if they coincide), so take the opportunity that comes your way.

I’ll never forget passing on a huge, older six-point buck on our family’s old McCullough County lease. It was during bow season, and I had it eating only 10 yards away for 15 minutes. I knew there was a big eight-pointer around, so I waited.

Well, the bigger buck came out, stuck his head out of the bushes, looked on the trail right past me and bolted.

A bobcat was coming down the trail and spooked it.

Don’t let a bobcat spook a nice buck away from you. Take the safe, ethical shot and enjoy some fresh backstrap this weekend.

Timing: You can’t kill a deer if you’re not in the woods. If you get to your blind early and let things settle before they start moving and then stay until dark your odds of scoring, go up astronomically.

Several studies show that most large bucks that haven’t turned nocturnal move between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when hunters are back at camp. Don’t be at camp. Be in the woods if possible.

You might even want to consider setting a timer on your feeder (if you have one) to go off about noon. I can pretty much guarantee you no one else in the area will, and it could give you a needed edge.

Don’t Stink: If a deer sees you it might leave. If it hears you, it might bolt away and come back. If it smells you, it is over. The nose of the whitetail is incredibly sensitive and is their first line of defense.

Position yourself downwind of where you think the deer will come and use scent eliminators. A small dose of a masking scent does not hurt either.

Frontal Issues: Deer hunters love to hunt after cold fronts but according to Ken Swenson of the Swenson Whitetail Ranch in Orangefield we might be missing out before fronts arrive.

“Our deer absolutely increase their eating in a big way before a front arrives. A couple of days in advance, they eat heavily and then it slows down after the front comes,” he said.

His deer are captive and fed high protein diets, but they are still whitetails and go through all the same cycles as other deer.

“This certainly made me question my thoughts on cold fronts and deer,” Swenson said. The observation makes sense as animals instinctively feed in advance of plummeting temperatures. 

Buck Brush: Texas bass fishermen love to fish in coralberry or “buck brush” on reservoirs when water levels are high. The name should give it away but the thicket it creates along with the nutrition it provides makes it a favorite among deer hunters in the region.

Another good one is yaupon (the bush that produces the pretty little red berries).

Humans consider it a nuisance, but deer love it. Yaupon thickets are decent places to hunt. 

If you can find yaupon on the edge of a field, you will see deer feeding on it fairly frequently. It’s something that is easy to key on for hunters and is more readily identifiable than many other plants in the field.

Moments: There are few things more peaceful than being in the woods. After all, that is what it was like in the beginning. There were no asphalt roads, cities, and technological gadgets. It was just the creation and its incredible majesty.

Never let the drive to shoot a big buck deter you from enjoying the sight of a red-tailed hawk swooping down to take a rabbit or a beautiful red cardinal sitting on a limb outside your stand.

If you will only be pleased by pulling the trigger, then your happiness will be fleeting. If, however, you choose to take in your surroundings and be thankful for the little things in the woods you will have a sense of joy that lasts far beyond the day’s hunt.

Now, if that big buck does come out, your day will be all the better.

—story by CHESTER MOORE

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