Trophy Buck Experts Share Their Best Pre-Rut Secrets

A heavy-racked buck steps into view. It’s the impressive whitetail you’ve been after all season. And there he is, 50 yards away and closing in. You’ve dreamed of this moment for years, and now you have the chance to seal the deal. For some hunters, opportunities like this may be attributed to luck. For others, however, it’s all the time spent honing their deer-hunting skills and focusing on the pursuit of trophy specimens that affords them such a shot on a somewhat regular basis. A few of those trophy-buck experts were kind enough to share their secrets to help you track and take down a giant this fall.

GO WHERE BIG BUCKS LIVE

The Hunting Beast’s Dan Infalt, a renowned public-land deer hunter, says it’s a mistake to think one is better off hunting a piece of private land. While many folks share the opinion that private tracts always have bigger deer than public grounds, that isn’t true. Firmly believing that one’s private lease is better than all others is also a flawed concept.

If your goal is to find the biggest deer year after year, you shouldn’t be married to any particular piece of land. Infalt says you should cast a wide net and select a multi-county area instead. Then, begin the intensive, year-round scouting process of finding spots with high potential located far from civilization—not just cities or towns, but also campgrounds. He emphasizes the need to drill down on areas with access that’s hidden or difficult and discouraging to most hunters. Focus on islands, funnels, oxbows, hidden saddles, overlooked pinch points and other spots that offer good odds of seeing deer and few, if any, hunters. Oddly, some spots close to roadways meet the requirements, as many people believe they’re over-hunted.

E-SCOUT WITH PURPOSE

Yes, electronic scouting is important. But it’s smart to do it in such a way that you’ll save time locating good hunting areas while also excluding all those unworthy of inspection via boots-on-the-ground (think homogenous habitat that would take long to pick apart).

Brian Murphy, a wildlife biologist for HuntStand, says e-scouting should begin with good maps. He points to the app’s various layers that allow scouting key habitat and topography.

Of course, e-scouting can also be more precise. A hunting app with the right features will let you search for bedding, feeding and staging areas, water sources and game trails, and help you find spots where you can access and set up within range of your target animal without being detected by the deer. For example, 3D and satellite or topo maps help you familiarize yourself intimately with the lay of the land before you progress to exploring your discoveries in person and can resort to running trail cameras and glassing from afar.

PICK A TARGET BUCK, OR DON’T

Because the game plans and required tactics will differ, Infalt also notes the importance of deciding whether you’ll simply hunt mature bucks or focus on a specific animal. He won’t hunt a spot just because it looks good on a map or in person. Instead, he finds a property that holds a desired mature buck and systematically hunts every spot where that deer could be hiding. He splits what he believes to be the buck’s home range into sections and hunts each one until he sees, spooks or kills that trophy whitetail.

Of course, hunting in this manner leaves a lot of scent in the area, so Infalt operates as if he were slowly “pushing” the target buck into the areas he hasn’t yet hunted. Eventually, he’ll come across that animal. Plus, continuously pushing deeper with each consecutive hunt is likely to make every outing better than the previous.

LET OTHERS WORK FOR YOU

Despite one’s best efforts to get away from hunting pressure, there’s no guarantee that you won’t run into other hunters afield. Infalt doesn’t let that bother him. In fact, he uses it to his advantage. After guessing where those other hunters are camping out, he’ll figure out the areas into which their presence will most likely push the deer. Of course, this requires an understanding of what deer hunters typically do and how bucks generally respond, which comes with experience.

KNOW YOUR BUCK

It’s crucial to remember that every buck is different. For starters, some have smaller home ranges and core areas than others. The National Deer Association’s Kip Adams says numerous GPS and radio-collar studies have proven that. And while it was considered a given that older bucks had smaller ranges than young ones, Adams says research shows that home-range size has little correlation with buck age. Some bucks do cover large areas and move plenty during legal shooting hours, but the more careful and reserved stick to confined areas and move little during daylight. Deer have personalities, so each should be treated and hunted as a unique individual.

STUDY TRAIL CAM DATA

Mark Drury of Drury Outdoors is as experienced as deer hunters come. He’s meticulous about running trail cameras and cataloging photos because he knows they will become paramount to his hunting plans. Studying historical trail camera photos, you can see what trophy bucks do year-over-year, learn their patterns and how they relate to the conditions, crop rotations and other factors. With that knowledge, you can almost predict exactly what a deer will do and when.

CONSIDER OTHER SOURCES

Phillip Vanderpool, a long-time hunting show host, stresses that it’s important to listen to experts and other hunters, especially those who are in the field and see things firsthand. Wildlife biologists, hunting guides, deer processors, conservation officers and your trusted hunting friends can all provide valuable intel, such as rut timelines, viable food sources, observed feeding patterns, etc., that you can factor into your decision making. Just make sure the information is relevant to where you’ll hunt.

FIND YOUR BUCK’S HAVEN

Deer use the landscape to their advantage, and Dr. Duane Diefenbach, a trusted whitetail biologist, says those advantages may be visual, audible or scent-related. He explains the tendencies of deer living in high country, for instance, include bedding and living on ridge lines to detect any dangers approaching from below. Which is why hunters who find a way to reach the ridges and get into the right spots undetected stand to tag some big deer.

UNDERSTAND DEER NUTRITION

Many people think deer are grazers that primarily eat grasses, but they aren’t. They’re highly discriminating yet quite flexible when it comes to their food choices. Deer will eat some 700 different plant species and, like cattle, they are ruminants. Their digestive system lets them consume large amounts of food in a short time and later regurgitate and digest it while bedded. This shortens feeding periods, allowing deer to spend more time bedded and scanning for dangers.

One key thing to keep in mind is that deer need very specific nutrients at certain times. In the fall, it happens to be carbohydrates. So ask yourself, where can deer get their carbs in the area you’ll hunt? Are there acorns or crop grains? Come winter, deer need to browse. Then, you’ll need to look for the best early successional cover that provides them with bedding and the plant life they crave.

DON’T SKIP WINDY DAYS

Many hunters swear that deer don’t move on windy days, but that’s another myth. Jessica Hepner, an environmental scientist with a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Penn State University, says she and her team discovered that deer actually move more during days with increased wind speeds. Research in 2015 and 2016 corroborates that fact; however, she says that does don’t seem to be as affected as bucks by windy conditions.

DON’T BUY THE OCTOBER LULL

As October arrives in the South and fall begins to unfold, some hunters expect the infamous lull to come along. According to Adams, there’s no data to support the fabled decrease in daily deer movement—during daylight or otherwise—in October. He says that research conducted in numerous states and regions all points to the same general conclusion: bucks gradually move more throughout the month of October than in September and during the summertime.

The lull is merely a misconception. Since October is a time of shifts in bedding areas and food sources, and many hunters don’t keep up with the changing patterns, it just seems to them that the deer aren’t moving as much.

HUNT FRESH SIGNS

The presence or lack of buck sign isn’t the be-all and end-all of a good hunting spot. But when you see it, it’s the confirmation that there’s a buck in the area. And a heavy concentration of big, high rubs is an indicator of an older buck. Nevertheless, Vanderpool says that the freshness of the sign matters, and urges sportsmen to hunt right then and there when they come across a fresh sign. Whitetail patterns can shift overnight, and when you have obvious, real-time intel, ignore it at your own peril.

BEAT THE RUT

Far too many deer hunters think of the rut as their season savior. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, especially for those targeting a specific buck, who quickly learn to hate the uncertainty and unpredictability the rut brings. Ani-Logics Outdoors’ Aaron Gaines subscribes to the urgency of killing target bucks before the rut kicks off. Because once those mating rituals begin, that big deer could be anywhere and all bets are off. So plan and prepare to kill big bucks in the early season or during the pre-rut, when patterns still matter.

STAY POSITIVE AND SHARP

When chasing mature bucks, you should expect hiccups, but be resilient and remain positive. There will be challenges along the way. Hunts will sour and deer will get away, but there will be triumphs that ensure it’s all worthwhile. Remember that negative thoughts will make it more difficult to overcome obstacles with vigor and remain sharp. Both are indispensable if you are to succeed in taking down the year’s best buck or your trophy of a lifetime.

Red Alert

A new hunting app puts the ability to blood-trail deer in your hands … literally.

Whatever you think about artificial intelligence and other tech advancements, hunting apps that utilize them are providing more benefits deer hunters than ever, incorporating features to help raise the level of your hunting success to greater heights.

The new Track N Trail app, for instance, turns a smartphone into a blood-trailing device. Besides alerting the hunter when blood is detected, the ground turns to muted blue or gray tones on the screen while the blood is highlighted in your choice of green, red or yellow, so even color-blind hunters find it easier to track.

In addition, the app offers training assets, as well as weather, mapping and other features you can put to good use before, during and after a hunt.

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• This article was featured in the October issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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