Hunting game plan a necessity Various tactics can increase odds of finding, bagging a big buck

If the first four weeks of November deer season were to be compared to the four quarters of a championship basketball game, we would be into the third quarter. First-half results were fairly dismal and if the visitors, wearing bright orange uniforms, are to make any progress and come out on top this season against their annual nemesis, clad in brown and white, a new game plan must be tried.

It’s time to use the weather, an annual attraction for the opposite sex, and certain habits and routines to outsmart the wise and wily, four-legged contenders of the other team.

Tagging a whitetail deer in Maine requires a sportsman to match wits with a cunning game animal on its own home turf. A challenging feat at best, the odds decline further if the deer is a buck, and lower still if a trophy animal is the goal. Approximately 177,000 outdoorsmen hunted whitetails last year and only 34,046 tagged a deer. Although the 21,422 bucks set an all-time record, only one out of every eight hunters bagged a buck, and during a normal fall the odds are more like one in 10.

Winter conditions during 2001 were the most severe since 1982, leading to a reduced deer herd due to predation, malnutrition and starvation, and reduced fawn production. The resulting adjustment of “any deer” permits by state wildlife biologists make nearly half of the state and the entire “Crown of Maine,” bucks only this season. The adjustments were warranted, and our well-versed deer biologists make such annual adjustments with concern toward future hunting quality for all outdoorsmen in mind.

Regardless of the changes, woods-wise outdoorsmen can still put a buck in their sights if they utilize the weather conditions and whitetail mating season, known as the rut, to their own advantage. Statistically, the last two weeks of November produce the most bucks, and it’s no coincidence that the rut is peaking during this period. Old- time deer hunters with many years of experience in the vast North Woods proclaim loud and long that when you hunt can be more important than where you hunt. Over the last 25 years, my best success at bagging a buck has been during Thanksgiving week. Hunting during the rut definitely increases your odds.

There are several methods of utilizing the rutting instinct to get within shooting distance of a buck. If a sport can locate an area where several does are hanging out regularly, sooner or later a buck will show up. Bucks travel steadily during the rut looking for a doe in heat. Does generally stay in one small region, so it stands to reason that when several does are located, at least one will be in heat. One or more bucks will smell out the females and come calling, and a hunter in a tree stand or along a well-traveled deer trail will intercept the antlered suitor.

Use of doe in heat scents, of which dozens are commercially available, can actually bring a buck right to the hunter. If shooting is to be done from a blind or tree stand, a drip vial or cloth doused with scent is hung from a tree near a game trail that does have been using. The wind takes the scent far and wide to any wandering buck, and more often than not he will show up to investigate.

Whitetail hunters who can’t sit still and prefer to stalk and still hunt can soak a cotton ball or gauze pad in doe scent and attach it to their boot. As they ramble through the woods, they leave a scent trail for passing bucks to locate. Retracing the same path later in the day or the next morning may produce a close encounter of the whitetail kind. On several occasions, hunters returning to their vehicle a couple of hours later along the same trail, have shot deer coming right at them with their nose right on the ground following the doe-scented boot prints.

The use of deer calls is becoming more popular, and a doe-bleat call used at regular intervals by stationary sportsmen is particularly effective during the rut. Another sound-oriented gambit to draw bucks in, is antler rattling. Bucks are very territorial during mating season, and the sound of other deer fighting, or a deer rubbing his antlers and scraping the ground will always bring any other nearby buck to investigate.

Using rutting buck cover scent, and smashing a set of antlers together and raking the earth and any nearby brush every few minutes for half an hour will bring any buck within hearing to your set-up site. If no deer show up within 30-45 minutes, it’s time to move to another likely spot and put on the show again. Antler rattling works even better if the shooter is in a stand, or at least on high ground overlooking the next likely approach route, and a partner is several yards behind hidden in heavy brush making all the noise.

The crux of still or stand hunting, rattling and using deer scents is to be in an area regularly frequented by bucks. Thankfully, rutting bucks leave plenty of calling cards, and a good outdoorsman will learn to locate, recognize and utilize these signs. Some regions may only have three or four deer per square mile while a spot an hour away with better cover and browse will have 10-12 deer per square mile. Deer sign will tell you which one you’re visiting.

Look for a game trail and inspect tracks to see what size whitetails are traveling. Check for the frequency and size of droppings. Don’t be discouraged if lots of does are present, the bucks will come. Keep an eye out for scrapes, rubs and broken or scraped brush where the buck has practice sparred. Keep hunting areas with plenty of sign, because it may be one hour or one day, but the buck will return to check his territory.

Hope for snow. Even a covering lets sharp-eyed woodsmen discern fresh tracks and new sign, and trailing a deer after a shot becomes far simpler. Wounded deer are seldom lost when there’s snow cover, and that’s of prime importance to every sportsman.

No matter where you hunt in Maine or how experienced a deer hunter you are, chances of bagging a buck are far greater during the rut. Bucks, even the big bucks, drop their guard and their brains become somewhat addled with love. More active, less attentive whitetails are the reason the last 10 days of November produce more and larger bucks. We’re down to the last quarter and the game clock is running down for this season. Get out there, remember the new game plan, and enjoy yourself. Tag a buck or not, remember, it’s the challenge and enjoyment that count, and there’s always next fall.

Outdoor sports writer Bill Graves lives in Presque Isle. He can be reached at graves@polaris.umpi.maine.edu