Make tracking trophy bucks smarter not harder

Every hunter wants to bring home a trophy buck, but tracking trophy bucks for the uninitiated and even the seasoned hunter can often end in frustration, and what this guide to tracking trophy bucks is intended for more than anything else is to increase your enjoyment and increase your chance of bringing home the at times elusive and “rarer than a bigfoot” trophy buck.

In order to be successful tracking trophy bucks it is essential to understand the different times of the year, from the rut in the fall to the period in the spring when the females give birth to the young, where and how deer travel between their rutting grounds and which methods are best at attracting deer to your locality. If one uses calls it is essential to understand the different tones of deer grunts and calls and know how to vary or change the pitch in order to attract the big guys when tracking trophy bucks.

 Tracking trophy bucks is not for the faint hearted because you will need all your guile and stamina, because hunting and tracking trophy bucks means you are on their patch, and they are intensely attuned to their environment, and let’s face it they have to be in order to survive in what can be an intensely hostile environment. They can sense and smell the slightest thing out of place and you won’t get a second chance once they are spooked.

Another thing to know about deer is what they eat and where there is a food source; deer love acorns and in the fall when the fruit of the oak tree is being shed, deer can smell them from a long way off. If you have a set of rattlers, setting down close to where there is a collection of oak trees and rattling, one can have a lot of luck with this kind of strategy.

Follow the trails and see if there is a confluence at any point, a place where several trails meet; finding one of these will give you a head start on tracking down that all elusive trophy buck souvenir from your hunting trip. If there is a confluence, it means many deer pass that one spot, maybe not every day but regularly, and because deer tend to stick to the same feeding area and the same territory, sooner or later one of the big boys is sure to pass by.

Keep as quiet as possible, that goes without saying; deer have finely tuned and acute hearing and can hear the slightest noise, and anything which is alien to its environment will send a warning signal loud and clear, something like “get the hell out of here quick”.

Hunting is a way of getting back in touch with nature, a way of emulating the natural behaviour of our ancestors, but it isn’t something which comes naturally to everyone. If you need a little help, or indeed are interested in seeing how other people go about tracking trophy bucks our best selling guide is here and available now.