Pursuing Individual Bucks (FTPO)
If there was one chapter from any of my five books that I would consider to be required reading for every aspiring trophy whitetail hunter, it would be a chapter from my first book, “Aggressive Whitetail Hunting”. That chapter is entitled “Pursuing Individual Bucks”.
In my opinion, one of the costliest mistakes a deer hunter can make is singling out one buck and then dedicating every bit of his available free time to just that one deer. From what I’ve seen, this mistake is seems to be more common among people who are just getting into the trophy hunting end of this sport. But I’ve also seen even veteran hunters fall into the trap of hunting just one buck. Heck, it even happened to me some years back. And trust me, it was one of the worst experiences of my deer hunting career.
I can’t stress enough just how special mature whitetail bucks really are. It doesn’t matter how big an area you’re hunting or how many different stand sites you’ve scattered about their home range. If you spend every bit of your free time scouting and hunting only one of these amazing creatures, there’s an excellent chance he’s going to have you figured out long before you figure him out. In short, the harder you hunt, the smarter he’ll get.
The biggest reason many hunters decide to dedicate all their time to a single big buck is because these animals are becoming increasingly more difficult to find. So once hunters learn the whereabouts of a true giant whitetail, many of them absolutely refuse to even look for any other big deer. In their opinion, doing so is just a waste of time and energy anyway.
I doubt seriously if the root of any hunter’s problem is the lack of big bucks in some of the areas they’re hunting. The way I see it, the problem for most hunters is that as soon as they find one big buck, they quit looking for others. Having the option of being able to split your time with even one other big deer is definitely in your best interest. And that’s a fact!
Hey remember, hunt hard, but always hunt safe!
