We used to kill trophy bucks. Now, we harvest mature bucks. The game hasn\u2019t changed a whole lot, we just softened up the messaging to be more palatable to the general public. The truth is, we are all about big antlers and always have been. And, that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure whoever figured out they could use ochre to leave a record of their successful hunts on the walls of caves thousands of years ago<\/a> didn\u2019t care much about public perception. Oversized antlers and horns are common in cave paintings, and while it would be easy to say that stemmed from the connection between impressive headgear and pounds of protein per animal, I doubt that\u2019s the full story.<\/p>\n We just like big antlers and the deer that grow them. We also have a hell of a lot of blind spots when it comes to these critters. What makes this even worse is that we are also fed loads of propaganda around big bucks from folks who really want to shape the narrative that killing a large-antlered deer is a huge accomplishment, no matter what.<\/p>\n Pedestal Pushers<\/p>\n Quite a few years ago, I sat on a stand in south-central Texas with my head on a swivel. The feeder had just gone off, and the mesquite flat came alive. I had six bucks within bow range that morning that were all bigger than anything I\u2019d seen in my home state of Minnesota the whole season.<\/p>\n I never got winded once, and I was absolutely snowed in with deer. The buck I ended up killing had a few broken tines, but taped out at 130 inches. Killing him took less effort on my part than most squirrel hunts I\u2019ve been on.<\/p>\n We have been led to believe that all big bucks deserve to be put on a pedestal, and therefore, anyone who consistently kills them is pretty special. The truth is, a five-year-old buck who spends his whole life on public land in Georgia or Pennsylvania<\/a> just isn\u2019t the same thing as a five-year-old buck that was raised on a primo property in Illinois.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also true that if you\u2019re going to see a video on social media of a five-year-old buck responding to a grunt, or maybe charging a decoy, it\u2019s far more likely to originate on that babysat property than it is on the public ground<\/a> wherever. Because if you tried that shit on a five-year-old in Georgia, if you were lucky enough to see him, he\u2019d probably run away from you instantly.<\/p>\n The prevalence and general wariness factor of big bucks throughout the country is highly variable. You\u2019re probably dealing with a lower and cagier population than you think. You\u2019re also probably likely to believe that the top-age-class bucks you might have a chance at are out of play for most of the season. This again, is a message that often comes from an unrelatable source.<\/p>\n Movement Mysteries<\/p>\n Through radio-collared studies, deer researchers have watched in nearly real time, how mature bucks react to pressure. They don\u2019t seem to light out for safer pastures like a lot of people think, partially because in a lot of areas, they wouldn\u2019t be able to find a property near them that didn\u2019t have some hunting pressure on it. But it\u2019s also due to the nature of prey animals. Hiding in a familiar, safe spot is generally a better survival strategy than moving into unknown territory.<\/p>\n So, that\u2019s what they do. Then we don\u2019t see them, and we assume that the Lull is on, or the moon is working against us, or some other fill-in-the-blank reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n They do move, though. They just often restrict their movement to areas where they feel safe. <\/a>What this leads us to believe is that they must be mostly not moving, and when they do, they must be the most careful critters in the woods.<\/p>\n Yet, when you encounter a big one where he feels comfortable, he\u2019s usually not as wary as your average doe with fawns. This was something that just didn\u2019t sink in for me until I had enough dead, big ones under my belt to realize that their caginess manifests itself in limited, area-specific movement. And not a nonstop neurotic existence where they pick apart every tree and spend 20 minutes between steps checking the wind and listening.<\/p>\n Skill Level Truths<\/p>\n