Trophy Bucks After the Rut

By Judd Cooney

My coyote howl shattered the stillness of a cold December evening. Every deer in sight took off, 40 or more whitetail flags flared. That was just the reaction I wanted. I slowly eased open the door on the rear of the blind overlooking the food plot and made my escape.

I had barely covered the few yards needed to reach a deep gully behind the blind when a real live coyote howl came drifting off a timbered slope above the food plot, adding unexpected authenticity to the ruse I had worked to sneak away from the blind undetected.

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I thought about how other hunters might react to the idea of intentionally spooking a herd of completely unaware whitetail deer that included seven bucks, two of which were 10-pointers that might score 160 or better.

No doubt outfitters look at things differently than the typical hunter. A couple of long-standing clients with late-season hunts booked to start in two days had made the decision to leave those deer unaware of my presence a no-brainer.

I slipped out of the draw that had hidden my initial retreat then hiked the final 200 yards through thick cedars to the far side of a ridge where my truck was parked.

Most whitetail hunters arrange their schedules so they can be out on the opening day of deer season whether they hunt with a gun or a bow. No doubt it is easier to ambush whitetails before they realize they are being hunted. A deer’s early season learning curve may even allow a hunter to get away with a mistake or two.

An equal if not greater number of hunters think the only time to really get serious about whitetail hunting is right before or during the rut when bucks are out and about trying to find and breed hot-wired does. Supposedly, that primal urge overrides the buck’s survival instincts and the general smarts that keep mature bucks safe the rest of the season.

I do like to have hunters on stand opening day. But I hate the rut. Once it gets underway, bucks can be and often are totally unpredictable, and that makes it virtually impossible to detect a pattern in their behavior that I might exploit.

Getting clients on bucks during the rut can be a crap shoot at best. There have been times when using a Ouija board would have been about as good a bet as trying to figure out what a particular trophy buck might do next.

Over the years I have seen a definite change in overall and not just individual buck patterns during the rut. I don’t feel the rut is nearly as well defined as it was before deer populations boomed across America. Other outfitters, guides and hunters tell me they see the same thing in their region as I see where our hunt camp and leases are located in Iowa.

An abundance of does means mature bucks don’t have to cover as much ground as they once did to find and breed estrous does. The rut becomes less intense and lasts longer than when a lower doe to mature buck ratio made the dating game more competitive for bucks.

Over decades of hunting, guiding and outfitting I have spoken with any number of like-minded enthusiasts who have seen monster bucks in trail camera photos taken at night before and during the rut yet never seen those bucks in the light of day.

One of America’s foremost whitetail biologists told me that he believes at least 10 percent of the true trophy whitetail bucks roaming any given area are virtually unhuntable during the rut because, for one reason or another, they become completely nocturnal.

He told me he had viewed dozens of nighttime trail camera photos of his largest buck to date before getting a shot. He had never seen it nor caught a single photo of it in daylight. No doubt trophy bucks tend to be the most nocturnal, and nocturnal deer make for tough hunting. However, what you see in night shots can help you cipher a pattern that helps you map out a hunt for during the day.

With the help of those strategically positioned trail cameras, my biologist friend narrowed the buck’s likeliest daytime hidey hole to a small patch of thick timber that he would not have thought capable of harboring such a deer.

When the wind and weather were finally just right, he waded a small stream to approach undetected and then still-hunted one careful step at a time through the woods before shooting the buck in its bed. All he saw before the buck leapt to its feet was a single antler tip wavering above seemingly impenetrable briars.

Yes, trophy bucks are tagged before and during the rut, but after the rut is my preferred time for hunting them. This is when patience, persistence and smart hunting most often pay for me.

Perhaps the biggest advantage an outfitter has over the individual hunter is in gathering pertinent information. It’s his full-time job to gain knowledge of the local deer and use it to help each client take a deer of choice. A reputable outfitter spends endless hours managing the hunting grounds, placing and checking trail cameras, glassing and observing whitetails at every opportunity.

During the season, a busy outfitter will have several hunters out at different locations on a daily basis, along with himself and possibly working guides all glassing other areas and gaining more real-time information. Thus, he collects far more pertinent knowledge than any individual hunter. That intel edge should only grow more pronounced as the hunting season progresses.

I feel that trophy hunters who don’t work with a guide or outfitter in most cases would be far better off spending more of their available time scouting and patterning deer rather than just hunting them, and that includes during the season. Gaining knowledge of daily deer movement and habits can reveal vulnerabilities in a trophy buck’s considerable defenses.

Late one season I spent three consecutive mornings and evenings glassing the same buck as he moved from an alfalfa field on neighboring property to a cedar hillside bedding area also on that adjacent property. The neighbor’s wife did not want anyone on their land, and there was no way to get within 300 yards of that deer unless we could figure out a way to sucker him off their property onto ours.

One of my clients, an experienced whitetail hunter from the South, agreed to dedicate his first several days in camp to tagging the 170-class monarch that ruled our neighbor’s land. The first two days the wind was wrong so taking a chance and spooking the deer was definitely a no-no. But after listening to my descriptions of the buck, the client passed on a more than respectable 150-class buck. I must admit knowing that added a bit of unneeded pressure to my planned gambit.

As late hunting seasons draw nearer to a close, deer start to become more herd oriented. The more you congregate the deer, the better your chances of pulling a trophy buck into the group.

Well considered food plots are ideal for congregating late-season deer. The judicious use of decoys and calling are other effective ways to con a buck into joining the party.

Sometimes it takes all three.

The morning the wind changed, I placed my hunter several hours before daylight on the far side of a harvested field in a valley bottom within plain sight of the distant travelway where I had glassed that buck repeatedly.

I set a scent-free forky buck decoy, doe decoy, and foam Feather Flex fawn decoy in the field. The fawn was staked so it would swing in a breeze adding movement to the decoy spread, but not so loosely that it might spin unnaturally in a gust and spook the buck.

After planting smoking scent sticks on both sides and one in front of the blind, I gave the hunter my rattling antlers with instructions to rattle every 20 minutes. If he saw the buck coming, he was to remain motionless and not make a sound.

Shortly after full light the buck appeared on the ridgetop where he stood locked in place watching the decoys. The buck did not move for half an hour. The hunter stayed motionless the whole time, but when instinct and experience both told him the buck wasn’t coming, he decided to try something that had worked for him in the past. He started raking the antlers down the backside of the big tree he was sitting against, movement the buck couldn’t possibly see.

Twenty heart-thumping minutes later, he shot the 174-inch buck as it circled the decoys nose in the air.

Savvy hunters know to place blinds, tree stands, and use existing hides where they can sneak in unnoticed before they hunt. This can be a necessity to get a shot at some bucks in some locations.

In my estimation, it is just as important for a buck hunter to get out undetected at the end of the day when a shot isn’t taken. Never count on getting a chance shot at a trophy buck. Spook him, and it’s almost always game over.

An effective ruse for an unnoticed departure is the use of a coyote howler as described at the beginning of this story. A few good howls and every deer within earshot is on the run thinking four-legged predator rather than two-legged. Give them time to depart, and you hike out unseen. A couple of squirts of coyote urine on boot soles right before hiking out won’t hurt, just don’t leave any of this scent in or near the blind.

Another trick that I use as an outfitter, one that two or more hunters might as easily employ, is to place blinds and stands where they can be driven right to in a truck, on a 4-wheeler or snowmobile.

Before hunting begins, I establish a pattern for the local deer to observe by driving past the stand and then returning on the same route in reverse. I start doing this long before any planned hunts.

Then, every time I do take a hunter to that stand, I follow the same route. I drop the hunter in the stand on the way out rather than on the way in. I figure any deer in the vicinity will stay focused on the vehicle, which is doing the same thing it has already done time and time again, and not notice the man in the stand.

It’s a known pattern that has never threatened the deer, and they have no reason to be spooked by that. Deer in farm country see people and vehicles all the time. The unusual sightings are what put deer on high alert.

Let a trophy buck smell, hear or see a hunter on foot in the vicinity of a stand that has either been deserted for months or recently appeared, and you can bet that deer will find somewhere else to be.

Our clients have taken many a fine buck within a few minutes of the vehicle driving away from the stand. Let deer pattern behavior that doesn’t appear threatening and use it to your advantage.

In the opening scenario, I took a client to the stand the next afternoon confident that no deer had seen me leaving the evening before. Late in the season, we never hunt food plots or feeding areas in the morning to avoid bumping or otherwise harassing deer still feeding in the dark.

After I dropped the hunter, I parked where I could glass another area. I heard one shot and figured he had downed one of the 10-pointers.

It was a 10-pointer, alright, but the rack scored 196, a phenomenal rack none of my guides, myself, or any of our hunters had ever before seen

Being good isn’t always enough; it pays to get lucky, too.

Add it all up, and you may appreciate why I find the late-season the best time to tag a trophy buck. The later in the season, the better the chances that such a deer will have revealed a pattern which can be turned to my advantage. Sometimes I even help establish that pattern.