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By Dan Infalt
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"There are no magic gizmo's, no pixie dust, no easy way to consistently
produce huge bucks. You just have to do the work. You have to do the scouting."
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It was a full two hours before
dark, when I heard the 1st deer coming through the cattails. Slurp, Slurp,
his feet made the unmistakable rhythmic, sound only feet getting pulled
out of muck can make. It kept getting closer, till finally a 140 class
ten pointer emerged into a creek that separated me from the bedding area.
The buck crossed the creek right where I expected, the turned and headed
right at me. I was a mere 6 feet of the ground in a natural blind formed
near the union of several huge limbs in a gigantic willow tree that sat
alone in an otherwise treeless environment, I got nervous, as I looked
directly into the eyes of the beast. It felt like he was starring me down
even though I new he did not know I was there. Finally at 7 yards from
the tree he turned with the trail and quartered away He stopped at 10 yards
to work over a primary scrape offering me a perfect shot. As he walked
away, I questioned my decision to let him go.
Just a few days earlier I had seen a much larger buck cross the creek
on the same trail, and work this same scrape, as a matter of fact I had seen
him several times since the summer. I could not put my tag on a lesser buck,
until I gave this buck a worthwhile effort.
I could still see the ten pointer working over some unlucky dogwood bushes
in the distance, when a ripple in the creek caught my eye. The buck had slipped
in while all my attention was focused on the 10 pointer. I felt foolish for momentarily
loosing my concentration enough to lose the ability to hear this one coming.
It only took a glance to recognize the buck that had filled my thoughts and dreams
since the 1st day I seen him. His massive 9 point rack was dwarfed by the biggest
body I had ever seen. He crossed the creek and turned facing me, my nerves and
emotions were going nuts. If it was hard to look the ten pointer in the eyes,
this was nearly impossible. I kept focused as the slob buck hit spot 7 yards
away where the trail finally turned away from me. He stopped facing me head on,
put his head down, smelled the ground, then raised his head starring right at
me. I wondered if he was hearing my heavy heart beat, but after a short look
he just flicked his tail and followed the trail, When he started working over
the same licking branch the earlier ten point had worked, I eased my bow back.
The arrow was perfect. The buck jumped, looked around then just fell over with
a loud thud, and a little kicking.
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"it should be said that I believe a hunter seeking
a mature whitetail should spend far more time scouting than hunting."
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The 162" score did not do justice for this monarch. His main beams
were nearly 30 inches long, and carried there mass all the way to the blunt tips.
His tines had circumferences as big around as most bucks bases. You can't just
throw a score onto a buck like that. When Lee Gatzke and I, finally got the monster
out of the swamp and back to camp, we were amazed when it bottomed out my 300
pound weight scale after field dressing. This buck had to be near 400 pounds
alive. I have crossed paths with a few unlucky bucks that scored higher, but
this would be my best buck, the one that meant the most.
The moral of this story
is not just to brag about my favorite buck, Instead, I would like to share the
scouting that was involved in getting this buck.
First of all, it should be said that I believe a hunter seeking
a mature whitetail should spend far more time scouting than hunting.
Scouting for me, never really starts or stops, its kind of always
going on. Its funny how your ears tune into anything hunting related or having
to do with the where abouts of the next monarch. Any way, after hearing about
some great bucks some people had seen in a certain area, and seeing some huge
sheds another guy had found, I decided to check out this new property. It started
at home, looking over plat books to determine land borders and owners, and viewing
aerial photo's to find starter points. I started driving around this particular
swamp, looking at the trails and tracks in the snow, and also looking at how
the local hunters accessed there hunting spots. I walked the land completely,
starting in January and completing in march. I looked for the food sources, buck
bedding areas, doe bedding areas, travel funnels, rubs, significant tracks, etc.
I learned how the bucks traveled this land. However, even more importantly, I
learned how other hunters hunted the land, I found the trees they hunted out
of, the permanent stands, there parking spots and travel routes to and from there
stands . This was then mapped out, and when I compared the travel and bedding
of the bucks to the travel hunting of the hunters, I was then able to find overlooked
areas where big bucks could find some peace on this property. As usual, one of
the best spots was right next to the road only a few hundred yards from the main
parking spot. The bucks were bedding in cattails mixed with small trees and dogwood
bushes on the other side of a creek within a stones throw from the road. All
the hunters walked down the path a way then some turned off and set up, some
went to the middle of the swamp and set up. But nobody, walked along the road
and set up near the parking lot. It was one of the few spots these bucks had
not felt human invasion. The best part was that if I parked my truck just right,
I could see into the staging area, and view the bucks as they staged after leaving
there bedding area just before dark. Of course this had to be done covertly.
I would make believe I was reading the paper and never wear hunting cloths or
have hunting stickers on my truck as I did not want to tip off other hunters
to where the bucks are. Occasionally all summer I would glass the bucks seeing
all the bucks that came out of the bedding area and how they moved around the
staging area. At the same time I was watching other bucks in other areas as back
ups. I needed a good wind in order to hunt this spot, and once the season came,
it was a waiting and watching game until everything was perfect. By watching
deer like this, I had learned that a good wind is not necessarily a wind blowing
away from the bedding area. This is because the deer would naturally come out
much later, or use a totally different exit when the wind was not in there favor,
but with the proper cross wind, that was close to being in there favor, I could
slip in and get the job done. Moral of the story. 300 hours scouting 1 hour hunting.
There are no magic gizmo's, no pixie dust, no easy way to consistently produce
huge bucks. You just have to do the work. You have to do the scouting.
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