Over the next four years the giant whitetail eluded hunters.
Feeding at night, he changed bedding sites and kept to small, dense tangles near timber.
Opening day came again.
Whitetails prefer “edge” to deep woods. Brush lots, river bottoms in prairie states can deliver many bucks.
They moved slowly and paused often, avoiding the straight, steady step bedded deer monitor so easily.
They wanted bucks to move, not lie tight.
Several draws later, theyd bumped one buck.
Whitetail deer number over 30 million in the United States. Eight of the top 10 typical bucks have been taken since 1965!
He had vanished like a wisp of brown smoke.
As Dwight stepped near, the briars erupted.
An enormous buck rocketed through the grass toward the ridge-top.
To avoid hunters, pressured bucks may leave woody cover and “easy places” for tall grass, briars and cattails.
I found his back in my scope … and heard my slug smack home.
The buck skidded sideways [then] melted into the sky-lined oaks.
Dwight scrambled and clawed his way up through the brush.
Ease along prairie coulees just below their top. Pause to glass often. Watch to the sides and behind!
The deer was dying.
The inside beam spread of over 30 inches was the widest in whitetail records.
I killed my first buck about then.
East or West, hunt cover up- or crosswind, stop often. Low-power binocular focused close, look low.
It wasnt a big buck.
Decades would pass before I shot one that brought any more than a shrug from a taxidermist.
But I despair not.
Low scope power helps you aim quickly. Accurate, lightweight rifles like this Model 2020 Waypoint help you hit!
They kill 6 million of the 30 million whitetails dodging about forests, brush-lots and cornfields.
Very few really, a handful qualify for B&Cs all-time records list.
Expectations
If you never see such a buck afield, you have plenty of company.
Still hunting the edge of thick brush, the author jumped this deer at mere feet and got the shot.
But where big bucks live, there are also lots of deer, right?
While Texas hunters kill half a million deer annually, few appear high on B&C lists.
Also, Texas is huge; deerdensitiesare more modest than those in Midwest states.
But their harvests dont equal those of Pennsylvania.
Ditto for the best five bucks in the four most productive counties of both Illinois and Minnesota!
Not to be dismissed are the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In 1992 Milo Hansen shot B&Cs top-ranked typical whitetail on his Saskatchewan farm.
This world-record buck upstaged the deer killed by James Jordan in Wisconsin in 1914.
Whitetails have spread west, into prairies and forests once inhabited by mule deer.
Now Kansas yields many whitetails, and some of the biggest.
[Want to ensure you bag a buck?
ReadTop 10 Tips to Improve Your Deer Hunting Accuracy.]
And theyre increasingly common.
Eight of the top 10 typical bucks have been taken since 1965, half those since 1990!
Even where heavily hunted, bucks grow old.
No wound was found on a dead buck near a Missouri road in 1981.
Its non-typical antlers set a new worlds record!
Sources
Now,ourodds of finding such a deer may not be growing.
When I was a lad, hunters headed for camps in Michigans Upper Peninsula.
Lately, L.P. farms have produced most of that states big-antlered bucks.
But much of this property is posted.
Across the Midwest, farmers are planting forage to grow big deer.
They then lease hunting rights or reserve them for family and friends.
This trend is good for deer and records books, not so much for access.
Planning a hunt, consider access first!
Texas is 97 percent privately owned.
Of the 112,500 deer shot in Indiana in 2021, 93 percent died on private land.
Any access can help you shoot deer.
Marginal habitat can hold them after opening-day pressure.
Ask permission early in the year.
Volunteer labor on farm projects.
Tell landowners youll mind gates and wont drive off-track, disturb livestock or leave evidence of your hunt.
Scout discreetly to avoid alarming deer and annoying landowners.
Set your stands early, with minimal disturbance to the sites.
And it helps you see better because youre motionless.
In typical cover, a moving hunter will rarely spot a motionless deer first.
[Be sure to readSeven Top Still Hunting Tipsby Bill Vaznis to get the drop on a buck.]
Shadows erase deer by breaking up their profiles.
To cut through this veil, look between and beyond what isnota deer.
Your eye cravesdeerfeatures: the glint of an eye, a white tine, a tail flick.
To see more deer, youll look for whats not obvious, for subtle shifts in line and texture.
Magnified Goals
Even in the woods, a binocular can help.
Focus at 20 or 30 yards in cover.
A binocular is most valuable sifting detail within shooting range, not helping you spot deer beyond it.
Its often less productive than being still; but each step opens new country.
My 735 B&L binocular hangs on a short strap so it comes to eye with minimal motion.
Its broad, bright field doesnt bob about when, after a climb, Im winded.
Its low-power lenses offer great fielddepth, so details appear in focus far into the brush.
Panning, you glimpse a watercolor landscape quickly, see nothing clearly.
Still-hunting or on stand, look close first, then far.
A deer unnoticed nearby is a chance lost.
Deer far away are less likely to take quick alarm.
Engaging other people, driving and at computer screens, were used to looking straight ahead.
Deer are shorter than commonly assumed.
Bedded deer lie ankle-high, their ears and antlers at knee level.
Deer use depressions to further lower their profiles.
In Plain Sight
Whitetails prefer low second-growth for bedding and foraging.
They thrive at woods-edge, where sunlight is unimpeded.
Prairie whitetails make do with very little woody cover.
The broad drainage beside me had none.
Two deer bounded into view.
The earth disgorged the bucks again.
My crosswire caught his ribs, and a .270 bullet followed.
Even land that appears barren can hide deer that have learned to use its fissures.
Bucks shun places that draw hunters.
[Improve your deer hunting with our articleHow to Hunt the Wind.]
As the last cartridge fell into his hand, a buck launched from underfoot and dashed away.
That deer endured the season in the creases of a cow pasture!
But long shots there arent necessary.
My average poke comes at around 100 yards.
He was not there.
Instead, hed bedded in grass below me.
He jumped up and jetted off.
I declined to fire.
[Catch our articleWhat Should You Do When You Jump a Buck.]
That could have been hunts end.
But far down-slope, near a brushy creek, the deer slowed.
Odds for a second chance were slim, but I retraced my arc into the valley.
Then: the tip of an antler!
I bellied ahead to thinner grass until I dared not continue.
A glimpse of movement or a shift in the breeze would send the deer off for good.
I touched the trigger and exhaled.
Then he was up, a tawny streak filling the scope as the rifle recoiled.
He was a splendid whitetail, better than I deserved that morning.
He reminded me that big deer have learned to live in small places.
That perseverance can balance blunders.
And that theres no better place to be in the fall than in whitetail country with a rifle!
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