You Thought Bucks Were Wily

June 21, 2007

AND YOU THOUGHT BUCKS WERE WILY

Unfortunately, most hunters today have taken the fun out of their hunting by worrying constantly that they have to take a mature buck in order to be considered a “trophy hunter.” Taking a young buck or a doe is considered by many hunters less of a hunting achievement. That is very regrettable. Hunting for a buck or doe can be equally challenging and should be enjoyed and viewed as such. Hunting anterless deer not only aids in good deer management it also provides valuable experience for beginning hunters and even for long-time hunters. As the old adage goes, “You’re never too old to learn, and a mature, matriarchal doe can teach us all a few tricks! No one should be embarrassed about shooting does. It doesn’t mean you are any less of a deer hunter, in fact, it may prove the exact opposite!”

The trouble is most hunters are brainwashed into thinking that they have to kill big bucks to be recognized as valid deer hunters. What horse crap that is! Don’t let yourself be a victim of media overplay. Many pros who make videos, or who are on television or write magazine articles exalt the taking of a mature whitetail buck as being the most wily and savvy deer in the woods. As I have mentioned, the most mature bucks get that way because they inherit a gene that makes them afraid of their own shadows. Not a mature doe. She is destined to protect her family group and, by doing so, her senses are much more sharply tuned than a buck.

With that said, I want to be clear that big bucks are certainly crafty, but they don’t have anything over on a veteran doe who has made it through several hunting seasons. I believe that mature does are the most cautious deer in the woods. A mature buck only has to look out for himself, and even then, he becomes a knot head during the rut. Not so for a mature doe. She’s always on high alert, mostly because by instinct she knows she has to protect her offspring and other deer in her family group. Taking a mature doe also requires the hunter to get past more than the senses of a single buck. When you are hunting a mature doe you have to not only fool her senses but all the vigilant senses of the other deer she is traveling with. Have you ever considered the odds of that when your friends criticize you for taking a doe? Don’t let anyone tell you that a mature doe isn’t an ultra-wary deer.

As part of our QDM program on our farm, we plan to take at least four mature does (between 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 years old) each year unless there is a heavy winter kill. We have learned these does are hard to kill. Since our deer herd is fed a wide variety of crops including alfalfa, soybeans, turnips, chicory, sunflowers, and corn, the deer herd is healthy. Many of our mature does that we have harvested dress out around 155 pounds.

Over the last two years there were two does that we called Chubbsy-Ubbsie and Godzillia. Each of them had fat, low-hanging bellies and stood as tall as many of the 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 year old bucks. Two years ago my wife set her sights on taking Chubbsie-Ubbsie. Chubby, as I called her, could be seen contently feeding with her group in our fields all spring and summer. But soon after bow season opened she became a lot more cautious. On several occasions she gave Kate the slip. On other occasions her sixth sense told her something was up even though she couldn’t see or wind Kate and she vanished into the thickets. On another hunt, Chubby was within bow range but as Kate slowly raised her bow (after Chubby had passed her stand), the big doe knew something was wrong and blasted out of range doing warp 9.9. She stopped 75 yards away, looked back, made an alarm-distress snort, and with the rest of her group bolted in to the nearby cover. Chubby was proving to be quite the challenge. She continued to stay out of harm’s way all of the bow season and never showed up in areas that Kate was hunting. She instinctively knew that the hunt was on!

During the opening day of firearm season Kate posted on a ledge in an area of the farm where Chubby was rarely encountered. Sure enough, around 9 a.m. Chubby and her family group picked their way slowly through the heavy brush and cedars below Kate. With one clean shot from her Kimber .308, Chubby was heading to the butcher.

It turned out when we got to the butcher a biologist aged Chubby. She was 5 1/2 years old and dressed out at an impressive 163 pounds! That’s as large as most bucks dress on our farm. Godzillia was taken by Kate the following year during the muzzleloading season. Godzillia was so crafty that she gave most of us the slip from bow season through the general firearm season. Once again, Kate planned a hunt in an area that was not where Godzillia was normally seen. Around 10 a.m., Godzillia was traveling with five other deer, she emerged from my neighbor John Fritz’s property and passed through a patch of pines 50 yards from Kate’s stand. With the wind blowing Kate’s scent directly away from Godzillia, the doe came to an abrupt halt in the pines. She constantly scanned the woods for danger and she stood statuesquely in place while scent-checking the breeze. We had all seen her exhibit this type of behavior before, especially when she was about to enter the fields during hunting season. Sometimes Godzilla would remain motionless for fifteen minutes without moving a muscle before she felt it was safe to take her group into the pasture to feed.

The morning Kate saw the doe, Godzilla’s instincts told her something wasn’t right. According to Kate, she remained there frozen in place for nearly 20 minutes before feeling it was safe to move. As she left the pines she whirled, looked directly at Kate, snorted and was about to bolt when a .50 caliber slug from Kate’s Knight Muzzleloader dropped Godzillia in her tracks. She turned out to be 4 1/2 years old and dressed out at 157 pounds–clearly a savvy old matriarchal doe who met her match with Kate.

Other equally hard to kill mature does on our farm have been taken by my cousin Leo, my son Cody, and Cody’s best friend Alex. All were tough hunts and proved as challenging as any buck hunt. Each hunter not only felt they helped with the herd management plan, but they also felt these does taught them more about deer hunting as well.

That’s because mature does often display buck-like behaviors once they know they’re being hunted. After many hours of observation, I determined that the only way I could kill this type of doe was to limit my hunts to days with a straight west or slight southwest wind. I also had to reposition my stand three times before finding a spot that put me in bow range of one of her preferred travel routes. When it comes to good deer management and QDM practices what’s the answer? Controlling the doe population and taking the right number of mature does from your hunting lands. Taking female deer is necessary in order to keep the herd in balance and the food sources as well. With whitetail population levels at an all-time high not taking some does on your land can lead to disease, heavy winter kills, and an unbalanced buck-to-doe ratio. It’s easy to see how and why we’ve come to understand the importance of taking anterless deer.

If you take up the challenge of taking a mature deer from the land you hunt, here are a few ideas that may help you in bagging the Chubby or Godzillia that inhabits your land. Plan to scout two or three days around preferred food sources in order to locate the larger bodied does on your land. Observe and note the big doe’s behavior. Try to find some type of body part or coloration of the doe that will help you identify her or any other does you want to harvest. Be sure to create shooting lanes before hunting season to help you ambush her. I have learned that while I never cut too much from my shooting lanes before hunting season it is wiser to make the least amount of cutting you can within a month or so of the hunting season. It is better to try to pick an opening rather than cut so much growth that it looks “different” to mature bucks and does. In fact, a mature doe will react more negatively to an over-cut shooting lane than a buck will. When the hunt starts, don’t hunt the same area or stand every day. Let it rest for two days before hunting it again which will help you keep the hunting pressure low and allow the deer to move more naturally.

When planning to take mature does it is crucial not to hunt the stand or blind unless wind conditions are favorable–as it is when hunting mature bucks. On the other hand, if you are hunting for any age doe than this suggestion isn’t as important. I can tell you that the mature does I have hunted rarely make the same mistake twice. That sounds like the behavior of mature bucks, doesn’t it?

Remember that when you decide to take a mature doe, it may be wise not to shoot the first one you see unless it’s a big bodied, mature doe. I have noted when I’m hunting (especially during the beginning of the season) that deer activity is pretty much predictable. Often buck fawns and yearling does are the first deer to emerge from the woods and enter the fields or the food plot. While a mature doe may come out any time, she is usually the last to come into the field. Patience pays off when you’re trying to outsmart the oldest doe of a large group of antlerless deer.

White-tailed does live in maternally related groups. They are often intricate and include deer that are of different social classes. The first three categories include fawns, yearlings, and young or first-time mothers. Then there are the “dispersers,” which are second-time mothers. These does usually take up residence as far away as a quarter-mile or more from where they were born.

he last group includes three levels of matriarchs and the senior gals. Matriarchs are prime-age does ranging from 4 to 10 years old. A doe doesn’t classify for senior status until she reaches age 12–which, in most northern areas of the country, is hard to find unless doe hunting is not allowed. Like bucks who reach six or seven years old, these does are almost un-killable. They have seen it all and haven’t survived by accident. Their senses are as sharp as any mature buck’s senses are. A hunter would have a better chance at taking a mature buck that dropped his guard during the rut than he would of killing a senior doe. Taking matriarchal does is the best management tool to deer management programs. They represent the pinnacle in physical fitness and health. Through many years of close calls and experience, they have become the survivors who allow a population to grow at its best level.

With all this said, hunters shouldn’t become fixated on taking only mature does or the fun goes out of the hunt again. Herd management can still be done when a hunter kills any doe from his property. Female deer quickly adapt to hunting pressure and rely on their inherent survival techniques to dodge hunters pursuing them.

To outsmart mature does as the season progresses, you will need to be flexible. Hunt the social areas, overgrown fields, the edges, and the fringes of cover as the season gets older. The most productive stands are in what I term as social areas but are often called staging areas. These are patches of thick cover adjacent to feeding areas. I have said many times that the late afternoon is usually the best time to hunt social areas. Deer congregate in these areas waiting for low light to arrive before moving toward the fields, apple orchards, and other food sources. A social area can be quite small in size. Sometimes it is less than an acre. But I guarantee you that both older does and bucks seek them and use them routinely.

Bowhunters often find that hunting the edge of a crop field can be frustrating because does enter the fields from positions that allow them to scan for danger well in advance. We’ve all seen them pause at the wood's edge and race out into the middle of the field and then begin eating. I believe this behavior demonstrates that they instinctively (there’s that word again), know they’re safer from the middle of the field where they can see danger approaching for long distances in any direction.

Mature does are even harder to kill in big woods. To get the most action when hunting mature does in large tracts of woods locate oak ridges, travel corridors, and clear-cuts–this is where you will find older does most of the time in bigger forest areas.

We hope you enjoyed this selection.
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