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Unconventional Wisdom for Unconventional Bucks
By Tom Fassbinder
Hunting for a big mature trophy buck is a challenge that many hunters attempt annually. With so many of today's top hunters keying in exclusively on big bucks, in some hard hunted areas the intense pressure has created a new category of animal that I refer to as a super buck. These super bucks have developed survival instincts that place them beyond the framework of current conventional trophy hunting wisdom.
Before I go much further let me state that a mature whitetail is a master at avoiding human contact and any mature whitetail is a formidable foe in the game of predator and prey. Simply put, hunting any mature whitetail, whether it is a buck or doe is incredibly hard. But I believe there is a certain learned survival characteristic that exists in some bucks that make them super bucks. These unconventional super bucks are almost unhuntable. Remember, I said almost.
Super bucks are fully mature animals that have more than a few seasons under their belts. They may not have the highest scoring headgear in the woodlot but because of their age they often have a high degree of unique antler "character". A super buck's senses have evolved to a heightened level and their survival skills reign supreme. A super buck will not tolerate even the slightest bit of human activity within his core area. Earlier in life these same animals seemed to co-exist with the farmer, rancher or landowner and tolerated noisy equipment and the smell of diesel fuel nearby, but no more. Super bucks will not tolerate any human contact whatsoever and they spend their time in places where people simply do not and will not go.
Super bucks have transformed into a state of being completely nocturnal. Hunters rarely see them and sightings by landowners are even less frequent. Most hunters I know, in preparation for the deer season, typically quiz the landowner, mail carrier and nearby residents looking for clues as to what type of deer they are seeing in the area. This is often a good starting point when planning your season but if you are after a super buck you can just consider those visits a PR trip, as chances are that no one has seen the buck you are after.
How do you know he is there?
If no one has seen this obscure super buck how do you know he exists? Good question. I have known of two such bucks in my 28 year hunting career and in both cases I knew they were there because I had stumbled into both of them way off the beaten trail, in obscure places that no hunter using conventional hunting tactics would think to venture. Both times I was fooled into not further investigating the area and I now know it cost me the chance to kill two great bucks. My experience with a giant gnarly 6 pointer will best illustrate how it happened.
The first time we saw each other we were both so shocked that we almost came simultaneously unglued. I was on a very steep side hill that ran parallel to a flowing river. The river was 30 to 40 yards across and approximately 2 to 8 feet deep. Deer in the area crossed the river daily but typically at well established game trails that lead to shallow spots. This allowed the deer to walk most of the way across and swim only a few feet before reaching the opposite bank. I was intimately familiar with every nook and cranny in the woods I was hunting that day. While slowly still hunting on a faint secluded "buck trail"; through the deep woods something told me to leave the trail and venture down into a steep treacherous gully that lead to the river. I knew there was only one way into the gully and unless I wanted to go for a swim, only one way out. To this day I don't know why I snuck into that gully but for some reason I did. When I reached a point that was about a stones throw from the river a wide racked buck stood up and looked directly at me. His sagging cheeks and thick neck gave clues to his age but it was his ultra w - i - d - e six-point rack that drew my attention. Both antlers were twisted and awkward. Some wide bucks were known to inhabit the general area but this fella was the grand pappy. His inside spread was at least 26 inches, maybe wider. The absence of brow tines combined with the impressive width of his rack made this old boy an unforgettable picture. After a few brief seconds of me looking at him and him looking at me he finally turned and ran straight down the gully, jumped off a 10-foot high embankment hitting the river and causing a horrific splash. He then swam to the other side, scaled the steep 10-foot dirt embankment like an experienced climber and then turned to take one last look at me before he calmly vanished into a similar rocky gully directly across the river from the one I was standing in.
Two years later, as I still-hunted through the same area with my bow, the silence was broken as gunshots echoed from the other side of the river followed immediately by the loud splash of a deer taking to the water. At the sound of the shots I froze in a position about 50 yards from the mouth of the gully and began to try to determine where the deer that was swimming the river might appear when it reached the side I was on. To my amazement, after a few minutes the w - i - d - e six pointer suddenly appeared in the mouth of the gully. He was wet and muddy but safely on my side of the river. I watched with my binoculars as he passed by out of bow range. His six-point rack was thick, gnarly, twisted and still without brow tines. Its width was still solidly above the 24-inch range. His potbelly seemed to sag below his knees. At the time I wrote both sightings of that deer off as incidental contact. A buck of his age and wisdom would never choose such an un-cozy place as a damp slippery rocky gully to live out his life.
I wanted to harvest the buck and began hunting him the day following the first sighting. I never gave the gully another thought, thinking the buck had been temporarily pushed in there by another hunter and instead chose to hunt him in the surrounding thick brush and vine choked ridge tops. I now believe he only visited the places I was hunting well after dark and he returned to the gully well before first light. I am 100% certain that no other human being has ventured into that gully any time in the past 50 years, why would they? Despite heavy hunting pressure in the immediate area no one ever killed this buck and I believe he died of old age, at home, in one of the steep, rocky gullies.
My encounter with the second buck was in a similar location and one that any seasoned hunter with a modern day hunting magazine laying on his or her toilet tank lid would write off as insignificant to the pursuit of trophy bucks. The encounter was in ultra steep terrain with rock towers protruding on either side of the small grassy area. The buck's rack had a fairly normal left side with a large but basic 8-point frame. The right side held plenty of mass with 3 or 4 long thick brow tines emerging from the base. The long thick G-2 supported a beautiful five-inch drop tine with a unique curvature. This wasn't a buck for the book but it was a buck for the primeval spirit hidden deep within all of us. At the time I believed my first close encounter sighting of that buck was a fluke. One year later I again thought our second encounter in the same barren, billy goat steep area between the rock outcropings was also a fluke. I hunted for that buck in the surrounding oak ridges and crop fields. Neither I nor anyone else ever saw him again. However, since that time, I have taken several of what I feel are this bucks direct descendants as the unique antler characteristics passed from generation to generation.
(This steep narrow gap between two rock towers is the exact area where the author encountered the second buck. The ultra steep terrain is more suitable for a mountain goat.)
Now, with a few more years of wisdom in my portfolio, as I look back on the events surrounding my sightings of both of theses unconventional super bucks I am certain that they lived the majority of their adult lives in the obscure non-conventional locations where I had encountered them. The similarities of both locations are eerie. They were both close to water; both were primarily rocky areas among otherwise normal mid-west hardwoods and river bluff country. The terrain was much steeper and more treacherous than all of the surrounding area. I believe both bucks had adapted to very non-traditional core areas and they did not leave them during daylight hours. I believe both bucks were mostly nocturnal throughout the entire year.
These super bucks had adapted to areas in the wild where hunters simply did not bother to hunt. Conventional wisdom would tend to indicate that with plenty of hiding spots in the multa-flora rose choked draws in the surrounding area, no deer would choose to live its life in the area these bucks inhabited. In hindsight, just because my thinking was conventional it did not automatically qualify as wisdom! I decided that what I needed was a little unconventional wisdom to complement the conventional wisdom I already had.
Unconventional Wisdom
If I knew then what I know now I would not be writing about the one's that got away. In fact it is not what I knew that caused the problem it is more of what I did not know. The things I knew back then have yielded many great trophy deer. However, it is what I did not know that cost me chances at two more deer, and those two would have been extraordinarily unique trophies.
Today, based on my experiences with the two bucks mentioned above, my hunting style is now a little more unconventional. When I scout an area I not only look for places that trophy bucks would likely live, I also spend considerable time looking for places where farmers, landowners, loggers and hunters don't and won't go! I actively search for relatively small areas that have not been encroached upon by a human in years.
I look for steep secluded gullys or drainage areas filled with damp rocky ground. I look for places that present a single entry and exit point for human intrusion but might contain an additional avenue for an unconventional buck to escape unharmed. When scouting an area I now run through a mental checklist; would a farmer ever venture through this area? Would the landowner ever have a reason to go in there? Would Joe Hunter have any reason to enter the area? Answer no to those three questions and you can bet that I am going to give the area a closer look.
In Summary
When you begin forming the strategies for your next hunt do yourself a favor and apply a little unconventional wisdom to the conventional big buck wisdom that you already possess. I think the change could result in an unconventional trophy and a memory that will last a lifetime.
By Tom Fassbinder
Hunting for a big mature trophy buck is a challenge that many hunters attempt annually. With so many of today's top hunters keying in exclusively on big bucks, in some hard hunted areas the intense pressure has created a new category of animal that I refer to as a super buck. These super bucks have developed survival instincts that place them beyond the framework of current conventional trophy hunting wisdom.
Before I go much further let me state that a mature whitetail is a master at avoiding human contact and any mature whitetail is a formidable foe in the game of predator and prey. Simply put, hunting any mature whitetail, whether it is a buck or doe is incredibly hard. But I believe there is a certain learned survival characteristic that exists in some bucks that make them super bucks. These unconventional super bucks are almost unhuntable. Remember, I said almost.
Super bucks are fully mature animals that have more than a few seasons under their belts. They may not have the highest scoring headgear in the woodlot but because of their age they often have a high degree of unique antler "character". A super buck's senses have evolved to a heightened level and their survival skills reign supreme. A super buck will not tolerate even the slightest bit of human activity within his core area. Earlier in life these same animals seemed to co-exist with the farmer, rancher or landowner and tolerated noisy equipment and the smell of diesel fuel nearby, but no more. Super bucks will not tolerate any human contact whatsoever and they spend their time in places where people simply do not and will not go.
Super bucks have transformed into a state of being completely nocturnal. Hunters rarely see them and sightings by landowners are even less frequent. Most hunters I know, in preparation for the deer season, typically quiz the landowner, mail carrier and nearby residents looking for clues as to what type of deer they are seeing in the area. This is often a good starting point when planning your season but if you are after a super buck you can just consider those visits a PR trip, as chances are that no one has seen the buck you are after.
How do you know he is there?
If no one has seen this obscure super buck how do you know he exists? Good question. I have known of two such bucks in my 28 year hunting career and in both cases I knew they were there because I had stumbled into both of them way off the beaten trail, in obscure places that no hunter using conventional hunting tactics would think to venture. Both times I was fooled into not further investigating the area and I now know it cost me the chance to kill two great bucks. My experience with a giant gnarly 6 pointer will best illustrate how it happened.
The first time we saw each other we were both so shocked that we almost came simultaneously unglued. I was on a very steep side hill that ran parallel to a flowing river. The river was 30 to 40 yards across and approximately 2 to 8 feet deep. Deer in the area crossed the river daily but typically at well established game trails that lead to shallow spots. This allowed the deer to walk most of the way across and swim only a few feet before reaching the opposite bank. I was intimately familiar with every nook and cranny in the woods I was hunting that day. While slowly still hunting on a faint secluded "buck trail"; through the deep woods something told me to leave the trail and venture down into a steep treacherous gully that lead to the river. I knew there was only one way into the gully and unless I wanted to go for a swim, only one way out. To this day I don't know why I snuck into that gully but for some reason I did. When I reached a point that was about a stones throw from the river a wide racked buck stood up and looked directly at me. His sagging cheeks and thick neck gave clues to his age but it was his ultra w - i - d - e six-point rack that drew my attention. Both antlers were twisted and awkward. Some wide bucks were known to inhabit the general area but this fella was the grand pappy. His inside spread was at least 26 inches, maybe wider. The absence of brow tines combined with the impressive width of his rack made this old boy an unforgettable picture. After a few brief seconds of me looking at him and him looking at me he finally turned and ran straight down the gully, jumped off a 10-foot high embankment hitting the river and causing a horrific splash. He then swam to the other side, scaled the steep 10-foot dirt embankment like an experienced climber and then turned to take one last look at me before he calmly vanished into a similar rocky gully directly across the river from the one I was standing in.
Two years later, as I still-hunted through the same area with my bow, the silence was broken as gunshots echoed from the other side of the river followed immediately by the loud splash of a deer taking to the water. At the sound of the shots I froze in a position about 50 yards from the mouth of the gully and began to try to determine where the deer that was swimming the river might appear when it reached the side I was on. To my amazement, after a few minutes the w - i - d - e six pointer suddenly appeared in the mouth of the gully. He was wet and muddy but safely on my side of the river. I watched with my binoculars as he passed by out of bow range. His six-point rack was thick, gnarly, twisted and still without brow tines. Its width was still solidly above the 24-inch range. His potbelly seemed to sag below his knees. At the time I wrote both sightings of that deer off as incidental contact. A buck of his age and wisdom would never choose such an un-cozy place as a damp slippery rocky gully to live out his life.
I wanted to harvest the buck and began hunting him the day following the first sighting. I never gave the gully another thought, thinking the buck had been temporarily pushed in there by another hunter and instead chose to hunt him in the surrounding thick brush and vine choked ridge tops. I now believe he only visited the places I was hunting well after dark and he returned to the gully well before first light. I am 100% certain that no other human being has ventured into that gully any time in the past 50 years, why would they? Despite heavy hunting pressure in the immediate area no one ever killed this buck and I believe he died of old age, at home, in one of the steep, rocky gullies.
My encounter with the second buck was in a similar location and one that any seasoned hunter with a modern day hunting magazine laying on his or her toilet tank lid would write off as insignificant to the pursuit of trophy bucks. The encounter was in ultra steep terrain with rock towers protruding on either side of the small grassy area. The buck's rack had a fairly normal left side with a large but basic 8-point frame. The right side held plenty of mass with 3 or 4 long thick brow tines emerging from the base. The long thick G-2 supported a beautiful five-inch drop tine with a unique curvature. This wasn't a buck for the book but it was a buck for the primeval spirit hidden deep within all of us. At the time I believed my first close encounter sighting of that buck was a fluke. One year later I again thought our second encounter in the same barren, billy goat steep area between the rock outcropings was also a fluke. I hunted for that buck in the surrounding oak ridges and crop fields. Neither I nor anyone else ever saw him again. However, since that time, I have taken several of what I feel are this bucks direct descendants as the unique antler characteristics passed from generation to generation.
(This steep narrow gap between two rock towers is the exact area where the author encountered the second buck. The ultra steep terrain is more suitable for a mountain goat.)
Now, with a few more years of wisdom in my portfolio, as I look back on the events surrounding my sightings of both of theses unconventional super bucks I am certain that they lived the majority of their adult lives in the obscure non-conventional locations where I had encountered them. The similarities of both locations are eerie. They were both close to water; both were primarily rocky areas among otherwise normal mid-west hardwoods and river bluff country. The terrain was much steeper and more treacherous than all of the surrounding area. I believe both bucks had adapted to very non-traditional core areas and they did not leave them during daylight hours. I believe both bucks were mostly nocturnal throughout the entire year.
These super bucks had adapted to areas in the wild where hunters simply did not bother to hunt. Conventional wisdom would tend to indicate that with plenty of hiding spots in the multa-flora rose choked draws in the surrounding area, no deer would choose to live its life in the area these bucks inhabited. In hindsight, just because my thinking was conventional it did not automatically qualify as wisdom! I decided that what I needed was a little unconventional wisdom to complement the conventional wisdom I already had.
Unconventional Wisdom
If I knew then what I know now I would not be writing about the one's that got away. In fact it is not what I knew that caused the problem it is more of what I did not know. The things I knew back then have yielded many great trophy deer. However, it is what I did not know that cost me chances at two more deer, and those two would have been extraordinarily unique trophies.
Today, based on my experiences with the two bucks mentioned above, my hunting style is now a little more unconventional. When I scout an area I not only look for places that trophy bucks would likely live, I also spend considerable time looking for places where farmers, landowners, loggers and hunters don't and won't go! I actively search for relatively small areas that have not been encroached upon by a human in years.
I look for steep secluded gullys or drainage areas filled with damp rocky ground. I look for places that present a single entry and exit point for human intrusion but might contain an additional avenue for an unconventional buck to escape unharmed. When scouting an area I now run through a mental checklist; would a farmer ever venture through this area? Would the landowner ever have a reason to go in there? Would Joe Hunter have any reason to enter the area? Answer no to those three questions and you can bet that I am going to give the area a closer look.
In Summary
When you begin forming the strategies for your next hunt do yourself a favor and apply a little unconventional wisdom to the conventional big buck wisdom that you already possess. I think the change could result in an unconventional trophy and a memory that will last a lifetime.