11/15/07
Now’s the time to bag that big buck trophy
By Terry Madewell

JOANNE TAYLOR/Manning Times

Marty Jones shows off a trophy buck taken in Alcolu. Afteer 30 years of hunting this is Jones most impressive trophy.

I’ve noticed the cooler temperatures are having an effect on deer recently. The rut has kicked into high gear and the cold mornings and cool evening seem to be perfect for getting deer to walk. I actually am seeing fewer vehicles parked at hunting areas. Maybe some have harvested all they want to take for the year, or perhaps they don’t like cooler weather.

But now is the prime time to get that monster buck we’re all looking for.

Based on all reports it has been a very good season for most hunters. A lot of bucks and plenty of doe have been harvested. Granted, there are fewer deer in the woods now than there were then, quite a few of them have been harvested. But the rut in high gear and cold weather setting in, should get hunters on the prowl.

As is the case with all outdoor endeavors, patterns change as the seasons change. There are still plenty of deer in the woods and there are still plenty of big bucks roaming around. They may be a bit more educated than they were earlier and I’m not saying they’re easy to harvest, but they are available. For the several months of deer season, we’ve got very distinct patterns that include, for us here in Clarendon County, early season; pre-rut; rut; and post-rut. When the rut slows down most hunters seem to move on to other adventures.

We’re into the last six weeks of the season and this is the time when hunter numbers do indeed decline. But some of the biggest bucks of the season are taken in the last few weeks of the hunting season. But the key is you’ve got to change your hunting patterns if you want to continue to see deer. Some hunters get discouraged because they quit seeing deer, but it’s because they haven’t changed stand locations.

During the season the deer will relate to different stimuli. One is the mast crop. We did not have a good mast crop this season so acorns were not as much an important part of hunting strategy as usual. We had to adapt to that in many cases.

However there are some other places where acorns were and are still found. Those areas can be red-hot for deer, both bucks and does.

Now that the rut or the breeding season is into high gear, hunting the areas where the doe are located is a key to seeing more bucks. When the rut begins slowing down in a couple/three weeks, for the most part, you need to get back to finding good feeding areas as well as areas with good cover.

If you’re hunting areas with fall-planted crops such as wheat and rye, then look to these areas to begin to produce even better than in the pre-rut time frame. This is one of the best places to see deer now and really throughout the winter as other food sources become scarcer.

Another spot that now begins to produce very well are the clear cuts and areas that have been re-planted in pines and have two-to-four years of re-growth in them. These thick, gnarly areas are places deer love to frequent during this time of the year. The vegetation is usually as high or higher than their heads, which makes them feel safe. On those cold late November and December mornings, you can expect to see deer move into the areas where the sun splashes down, the sloped areas or fields with a southern exposure are the prime ones.

Of course, to compensate for the thick vegetation, I’ll use a climbing stand and get a bit higher than normal so I can look down into the thicket. Being high helped me take a buck recently. When I shot him, I could see him very well, but later as I climbed down the tree, dropping down only 10 feet or so put me in a position where I would not have seen the deer at all, had I not gone a bit higher. I was up perhaps 25 feet that morning, but sometimes less is okay, sometimes more is required. The topography and type of vegetation is the key. You simply have to be where you can see in it to be effective.

Some of the biggest bucks I’ve seen taken in South Carolina have been harvested during the last six weeks of the season and several of them were taken in clear cuts. I can guarantee you that my plans are to actually do more hunting in December than I have done in November. The key to any success, whoever, will be having a good game plan to take advantage of the areas the deer are using right now. I can’t hunt the places I hunted in October and early November and expect to see lots of deer now that the seasons have changed. They’ve moved on to greener pastures (literally in some cases) as the season has changed. To stay in the game and see or harvest deer consistently so must we.

For me it is my favored time of the year to hunt. If you dress appropriately, the cold, crisp mornings are great times to be in the woods. I’ll spot areas where I’ll return to squirrel hunt in a few more weeks as well as typically locate quite a few turkeys and other critters in the woods.

It’s the rush of adrenalin when you see a big racked buck sneaking through a cutover during mid-morning, or that deer stepping into a food plot just as it gets almost too dark to see late in the evening, that keeps me hunting in cold weather.