Starvin Larry

By now,you already know the deer’s movements,where his bedding area is,where his main food and water sources are,and the trails he follows to get to and from each.

Starting around the 3rd week of October-or just prior to start of rut where you live-find a field edge that has small trees along it-no more than 3-4″ in diameter.

Place you stand/blind so you have a clear shot in the close vicinity of the multiple fake scrapes I’m going to tell you how to make…

Make a your own fake scrape line,pick trees that have at least one branch that’s in reach of a deer-as the bucks use it as a licking branch.

You want your scrapes to be no closer together than 10 yards,any place where woods meet field edges works, a place where a brush field meets an agricultural field is  better,a place where a tree line meets an ag field is the best.

Using a rake,and/or garden claw,scrape away all the leaves,twigs,rocks,and debris from an area about 3′ in diameter-doesn’t have to be exact-3-4′ is fine,use the garden claw,make long marks in the dirt,so it looks like the antlers from a buck made the marks,go front to back,and side to side. It should look sorta like an oval tic-tac toe game.

Since bucks piss in the scrapes when they make them-be sure you drink a lot of water before you head out to make your fake scrape line-once you have made the scrape-“mark your territory” by pissing in each scrape.

As it gets closer to the rut-late Oct/early November here in NE Ohio-start putting 8-10 drops of doe in heat urine in your fake scrapes,as it gets closer to the peak of the rut-increase the amount of doe in heat urine you put in the scrapes,and add a few drops of buck urine to them.

Adding the buck urine will piss off the dominant buck -(pun intended)-the dominant buck is the one you want to shoot,he’s biggest,strongest,healthiest buck in the area. The younger ones will all be challenging him in pre-rut,and the early part of the rut.

From pre-rut,up until the rut starts is the best time to rattle- using real antlers is more effective than using any of the fake products/ methods.

This is also when you should be using a grunt tube-use it sparingly-deer aint like elk-they don’t bugle to challenge each other. There’s a plethora of You Tube videos on how to rattle and use a grunt tube-watch as many of them as you have time for-you’ll see many different techniques,find what works best for you-and use it.

Pay close attention to when the peak rut is in your location-because 28 days later-all the does not bred during the main rut go into estrous again-the bucks will be following them just like during the main,and first rut.

Again-pay close attention-as in another 28 days-there’s another,much less active rut.

These are the times of the hunting season when you have the best chance at getting a really big buck.

There’s a lot of people who could care less about antler size-I’m one of them-I’ll shoot a doe-it’s meat in the freezer.

Tips and techniques on how to harvest does will be in a future post.

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It’s now August 4th,bucks antlers are almost fully grown,covered in velvet.

Soon,they will start making rubs-they scrape the velvet off of their antlers beginning late summer/early fall.

You need to find these rubs-as they rub their antlers on small trees/shrubs,usually well hidden from human eyes-they are showing you their territory,there’s usually a lot of rubs in the same area.

Once you’ve found some rubs-set some trail cameras near them-(if they are legal in your state)-

Follow the tracks-you can follow them this time of year-it just takes some time,and a little work in the woods/fields.

You should be able to determine the direction the deer is coming from,and the direction he is going to.

This is going to lead you to 3 things-his bedding area,his water source,and his food source.

First follow the tracks in one direction,if you lose the trail,keep heading in the direction the deer was heading,remember,deer use the same trails for many hundreds of thousands of years. They follow the contours of the land,and every time they move,they are looking for one of those three things,bed,food,or water.

Make a few 10-20 yard circles from the last place you saw tracks keeping the direction of travel as your center line,you will find the deer’s tracks before long.

Don’t go more than a couple hundred yards in each direction at first-mark the last place you found his tracks with some surveyors tape-so you can see it in daylight.

When bucks make rubs,it’s usually late in the day,often after dark,so chances are he’s heading towards his bed from the rub. Since you are going to be looking for his tracks in the daytime,follow his tracks backward-you want to know where he’s been-you know where he’s going.

You need to backtrack him until you find where his food source is,and where the water source is between his food and the rubs. Finding the food source is more important at this point. Once you have found his food source,you already know two of the three things you need to find-most of the time a buck will move in sort of a circle-he gets up,wanders along slowly,eating a little bit as he goes,the first place he goes is to his main water source.

From there,he may hit more than one food source,but his main food source will be the one closest to his rubs.

What you have to do is head into the woods in mid to late afternoon,go to his rubs,then try to backtrack him to his bedding area-because he’s not gonna be in it in the afternoon-he’s already up and moving for the day.

He’s gonna bed down in a place where he has a view in almost every direction,often it’s just down from a ridge,on the south facing side of a hill. ( the south-facing hill side is not as important to him in the warmer months). Once you have backtracked him to an area where he can lay down on a hillside with a view,start looking for deer beads-they are just a depression in the leaves or grass,it may take you a few hours,or it may take you a few days.

Just be sure to go nowhere near the rubs late in the day-try to do most of your scouting in mid-afternoon.

When you’ve found his bedding area,start following him away from it-in a direction not towards the rubs. Most bucks will have more than one area where they make rubs-the bigger areas are the ones done late in the day-just before dark-the smaller ones are the ones he makes in the mornings.

Only go a couple hundred yards at first,keep doing the same thing in both directions-before too long,you will have his whole daily travel route figured out,you will end up with a route that is sort of a circle-maybe more of an oval-but it will start at his bedding area,and end at his bedding area.

Since you’re figuring out the deers movements now-it’s not going to matter if you kick him up as he’s resting in the afternoon,or if you get too close to his morning or afternoon water source,or even if you walk too close to the bean field,or corn field that he’s feeding from because deer are used to hikers in the woods in the warm months-they don’t see people as all that big of a threat-later in the fall-they start getting more high-strung and jumpy for two reasons-one is that bowhunters are shooing arrows at them-the other is that they know the rut is coming soon,so they’re gonna finally get laid.

This is why you figure out the movements of a few of the bucks in the places you hunt.

You will have an advantage over other hunters in both bow season,and rifle or shotgun season which also carries over to the late muzzleloader season.

Quite a lot of them will be home grilling steaks,ribs,burgers and hot dogs,washing them down with copious amounts of beer while you’re out in the woods patterning deer movements.

You should have at least one sand or blind near the buck’s bedding area,one on his trail between his main food source,and his main area of rubs,and one on the other side of his bedding area. The last two stands would be better if they are near a water source.

Even if you don’t get a deer during archery season-having a stand on either side of his bedding area will work to your advantage in gun season-use the one that’s along the trail he uses after he gets up in the morning in the mornings-but you have to be in your stand or blind long before legal shooting light. (you have your trails cleared before bow season-remember part 1?)

Because you are in your stand in the dark-the other hunters will spook the buck-and he’ll walk right past your stand.

Use the stand on the opposite of his bedding area for afternoon hunts-except when acorns are dropping-then you want your stand/blind to be near a stand of mature oaks.

I’ll continue with getting ready for hunting season articles up ’till hunting season stars-then I’ll be out hunting myself…

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