I didntrealize every bowhunter didnttry to hunt a bucks trail or buck only trails? Especially outside of the rut.I can't imagine nottaking thisapproachall of the time in the early archery season? Even if your deer are forced to congregate on ag food sources or forced to live in and amongst each other due to struture or limited cover...I am sure bucks still pick and chose very selectively where they travel versus where a doe might walk with no worries. Especally and older buck that knows the negative consequences of doing so...

Here in the mountains, this buck trail onlyis my sole focus andall I do from from August 30th to the first week in Nov. ( actually all of my scouting takes place back in Jan/Feb/March and then from june till august) so can then narrow down and target specific bucks and only hunt where they live and only hunt where I believe they move during daylight hours based on the scouting/visuals I get of them, whether it be from glassing, filming, trail camera.

Really the only other evidencethataccounts for anythingto me for hunting a mature buck, especially a specific deeror a few different mature bucks outside of the rut is daylight visuals and where I find his sheds. I will not hunt a spot, insteadonly spots where abig mature buck likes towalk. Tryhunting a nice looking spot here in this huge country and your relying on luck and cirucumstance.

"Sign" really means nothing to me outside of the rut either.Bucks especially mature bucks do most of their moving at night. Thats how the big mature bucks in the mountains here operate anyway. Outside of actual visual daylight evidence, shed antlersprovide a second levelevidenceincludingsome absolutes but not totally. As long as the snow levels in the area were manageable by the deer, sheds almost alwaysidentifythe buckscore area. I believe this wholeheartedly as I have killed several 4 year olds and older within 500 yards of where I had found their sheds. I have also seen as many that I didnt kill using the same core area and I had a shed or two from them.

Now during the rut, I hunt does family bedding areasand travel routes (trails)to and from feed/water. This is the only time during the hunting season in the big wood eviroment that I hunt that mature bucks will RELOCATE from their core areas to set up camp in and on doe family units.

The mountains and big country here keeps deer densities very low and spread out. Old mature bucks here have nothing to do with doe family groups or even younger bucks outside of the rut pulling them together..

So in a sense when I say all I hunt is buck only trails ..its because here anyway its the nature of the beast... old bucks are very reclusive in these mountains and they sacrifice more favoreable terrain and easier food sources for the security of LESS PRESSURE ... in the higher elevations.

Hunting bucks here, outside of the rut with your bow means you kill them in their core bedding area or you will never see them.....nowif you want to see more deer..and you spend timehunting doe groups or young buck bachelor groups then thats fine but you wont see the big boys. On the flip side.. the 2nd 3rd and 4th weeks of NOV are completey different the big boys move down to the doe familys.

I've killed the majority of my oldest bucks outside of the rut and it only makes sense for the type of terrain and spread out low density deer herds that I hunt.