You have the chance to harvest a buck nearly all season, but the best time to harvest a big buck is now! The rut or breeding season for whitetail deer, is just kicking off. Get ready, the big boys are about to drop their guard.
The hottest stage of the rut is just about to begin. This means it's time for you to throw the kitchen sink at ‘em. Be ready to use all of the tricks that you have learned over the years. For the new hunter, do all you can to learn new tricks and strategies. Sometimes a single change to your setup will make all the difference.
Sightings of bucks chasing does are picking up. I have seen and heard of many small bucks being spotted in pursuit of does in the past week. A few big buck sightings are also beginning to come in. As the little guys are in full swing running the does around, the big bucks are just starting to move during daylight hours. Local trail camera data also shows that the big guys are about to get stupid. The photos being captured of big bucks are getting close to legal shooting hours. These signs mean you should be spending as much time in the woods as possible.
If you are looking for a nice buck, you have to pass the small ones. For beginning hunters, I recommend taking a shot at a smaller buck if it presents itself. There are many things that can go wrong, and if you never try to draw on a deer and shoot, you will not know exactly what to do. In my early years of bow hunting, I missed a small buck, and only minutes later, hit a nice one. The mistake in yardage estimation was corrected on my second shot. As confident with your shooting as you can be, you still will miss from time to time. This even goes for the highly educated bow hunter. This is why I recommend taking the good shots that present themselves.
Be open-minded and try to learn as much as you can in your bow hunting lifestyle. Be prepared to think outside of the box. Sometimes you have to get tricky to get a nice buck. You can be successful using a combination of deer scents and sounds, but sometimes you need to be a bit sneaky to get your deer. I once heard an old hunter say that deer scent isn't the only scent that works in the woods. He was referring to human scent. He told me of how you can use an article of clothing to push deer. If the deer are piling into a swamp or thicket to bed in the morning and using more than one trail, get up extra early and place a sweaty shirt in a way that the deer will intercept the scent. They will avoid the trail, and will likely head your way to use another trail. He said you can also place the scent on the upwind side of a bedding area. and sitting on the downwind side. The deer can exit the swamp or thicket fleeing from your placed scent only to be intercepted by you.
