Don't know if I posted this before, but ...
This is from my Complete Whitetail Addict's Manual.
Patterning Bucks
After finishing the sport show circuit and doing a seminar based on my research of deer activity and weather conditions I was amazed to find out how may hunters wanted to take a 140 or better class buck yet were not hunting rub lines, scrapes, funnels or staging areas. My amazement was not that those attending wanted to shoot a good buck, but at when and where they hunted. I start off my seminars by asking how many of those present hunt the high use areas mentioned above, and how many archery hunters want to hunt during the breeding period of the rut. With attendance numbers of 200-500 in each seminar almost all of the hunters indicated they hunted during the breeding period. Less than 2 percent hunted rub lines, another 2 percent scrapes, 3 percent funnels and 3 percent staging areas. Many of the same hunters indicated they hunted each of these areas. About 90 percent of the hunters indicated they hunted food sources, and deer highways or crossings during the breeding period. I understand that because they see numerous bucks at all hours of the day hunters like to hunt these areas during the breeding period. But, if whitetail hunters want to have the best chance at individual trophy bucks they should hunt the rubbing and scraping period along rub lines, scrapes, funnels and staging areas.
Right Spot - Right Time
One axiom of hunting is - that in order to be successful you need to be in the right spot - at the right time. The time of the year when bucks are most predictable in their daily movement is during the rubbing and scraping phases, or pre-rut, before the breeding phase. The place where bucks spend the majority of their time during daylight (legal hunting) hours is their daytime core area - where they bed. One of the other areas where bucks spent a lot of time during the fall/rut is in areas where they can find does; in or near food sources or in or near doe core areas/bedding sites and along the trails the does use as they travel from their core areas to food sources.
During the pre-rut the bucks begin to travel to several doe use areas and food sources in preparation for the breeding period. Because most of the does don't come into estrus for a month or two after the bucks begin to rub - the bucks are not chasing does and they are quite predictable in where and when they travel. Because a buck's travel route generally follows the path of least resistance, but is governed by the need for security, it usually travels in heavy cover or low lying areas where it is concealed during daylight, and travels in open areas at night. By trial and error the buck finds the best travel route from its bedding area, leaving it in the evening when low light conditions tell the deer that it is safe to travel. The buck generally travels the same trail to doe use and feeding areas at about the same time daily, providing the weather is right. Once the does come into the bucks begin chasing them, staying with them up to three days, not following their rub routes, but following the does instead.
Because the buck leaves the bedding area during low light conditions, close to sundown, the farther it gets from its bedding area the more likely it is that the buck is traveling after dark. The buck, feed, rub, scrape and search for does throughout the night. They usually get back to their bedding areas before sunrise, often before legal hunting hours. However, some bucks may arrive home during legal shooting hours if they have been chasing does or feeding late. Because the buck is either in his bed or near it at dawn and dusk the place where it is most likely to be seen, on a regular basis (unless you plan to actually hunt the buck in its bedding area), is along the rub route near the bedding area, usually in the evening. To hunt the buck at this time and place you have to pattern it.
During my seminars I ask how many hunters have patterned a deer. To my surprise no more than 5 hunters in each of ten seminars raised their hands. This astounded me. I assumed that because both I the hunters I associate with look for rub lines and scrapes to a pattern buck and find its bedding area that most other hunters do too. This is obviously not the case. I don't know how most deer hunters locate the best places to hunt for bucks but if they are not patterning a buck they are missing the best technique for hunting trophy bucks.
There seems to be some mystique about how to pattern deer, especially bucks. The easiest way to pattern a buck is to locate its rub line and walk it backward to the bedding area. This is easily accomplished by locating buck rubs along the infrequently used buck trails. I say infrequently used because many hunters expect bucks to travel the same trail the does use, the deer highway where many hunters like to set their stands. In fact, bucks generally travel their own routes, separate from other deer. They usually travel these individual trails one time a day, travel them in only one direction, and may not use them daily. Therefore, rub route trails are infrequently used and may not even be recognized as a deer trail by many hunters. If you are on a trail that is worn down to the dirt it is probably a doe use trail and not a buck rub route.
Use the "Right Angle"
If you cannot find a buck rub route (for some reason), but you do know where there is a heavily used deer trail, that trails probably used by does and fawns. To locate a buck trail or rub route, take off at a right angle to the doe trail, and look for a very lightly used trail, that somewhat parallels the doe trail, but is farther up the hill, down the hill, in heavier cover, on the back side of a hill or fence line, in a more low-lying area, or in a more secure location. If it has rubs on 1-2 inch saplings or brush along the trail, spread out from 1-2 feet to several hundred yards apart, you have found a buck rub route. To find the buck's core area, walk the rub route in a direction away from a fo0od source, or toward a wooded, hilly or otherwise secure area, where a buck can bed and move about freely without being detected during daylight hours.
Hunt The Point of Origin - The Point of Interaction - The Ending Point
If we understand, that at least in some parts of the whitetail range, ;whitetail bucks use traditional (year after year) seasonal home ranges during the fall, which are also there fall breeding ranges; and if we realize that the travel route of a deer generally follows that path of lest resistance, but that travel tendency is often overridden by the need for security (especially with bucks); And If we realize that after two or more years of use on a traditional fall home/breeding range, a buck has located the most easily used trails in secure areas; and if we understand that bucks often leave their core areas, and return to their core areas - based on the available amount of light each day; then we understand that bucks in some parts of the whitetail range use the same core areas on a fairly regular basis, and that they bed in that fall breeding range core area, and often use the same trails on a fairly regular (daily timeframe) basis; we can then use that information to pattern a buck and predict where to find it at semi-specific times in particular places each day (providing the weather conditions are approximately the same each day).
We also realize that the three most predictable places and times to locate an individual buck are: 1. The Point of Origin, where the buck leaves the core area in the evening as the appropriate light factor approaches (as the sun goes down and it gets darker) in the evening, 2. The Point of Interaction , where the buck enters food sources that does use in the evening, and where they leave from in the morning, and 3. The Ending Point, where the buck re-enters the daytime core area as the appropriate light factor approaches (as the sun comes up and it gets light) in the morning. We can then setup in those locations (an hour or more) before the bucks gets there to take the buck when it comes by.
If there are other Points of Interest to a buck along its trail travel or rub route (such as rubs, scrapes, doe core areas, water or food sources, staging areas; and if we know where there those areas are (by either seeing the buck use them at particular times or by using a trail timer; then we can also set up in those locations (before the bucks gets there) to take the buck as it come by.
But, we have to realize that the farther away the buck gets from any of those points, the more likely it is to be less predictable as to time, and to exact location, because it might come across an estrus doe, which it follows, or a rival buck, which it might spar or fight with, chase off, or be chased off; or it may come across something that alarms it (a predator or hunter, or a dead deer or anything else); in which case it may turn around and go back, it may wait awhile and continue, or it may take a completely different route. So, the closer we get to each of those points, without spooking the buck, the better our chances to see the buck at those specific locations, at approximately the same times (in relation to sunset or sunrise), on a semi-regular basis (1-4 times each 7 days).
Knowing that bucks often have scrapes along their rub routes, and that those scrapes are often in or near doe trails or doe core areas, I like to hunt along buck rub routes, near the first scrape they have outside of their daytime core area, as they leave it in the evening. I hunt between the first scrape out of the core area and the core area, because if I hunt closer to the second or third scrape, the buck may meet an estrus doe at the first scrape, and it may never get to the second scrape, because it follows the doe, which may not use the same travel corridor the buck normally uses.
Knowing that bucks are most predictable in their daily movements along their rub routes, during peak scraping, which often occurs in the middle and northern latitude states during the last two weeks of October and the first week of November, that is the time frame I like to hunt bucks near scrapes along their rub routes. And knowing that the bucks will often use the same travel trails, corridors and rub routes during peak and post rut, I know that I can still hunt near those areas at those times.
God bless,
T.R
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Topic: ANOTHER WAY to Pattern Bucks??? (Read 1459 times)
