Great post. I guess you could say I have been a bit of a case study for this exact premise. I used to target “deer”, would go into good areas way too early & often and shoot whatever came past. Had great success, but rarely the encounter with an older buck. Then I slowly figured out if I was going to start waiting on older bucks I had to be less invasive. So I started hunting does in the easiest, least intrusive spots. Then when the time starts getting right, sneaking in the middle of bedding areas. This and setting up on travel corridors between them has given me my best chances as mature bucks.

Now granted I don’t think this tactic applies to every place out there. If overall deer numbers are lower, many times a hunter will have to work hard for a doe and have to be more intrusive and make the game much trickier. This is when all the other things like scent control & entrance/exit routes become critical.

I hunt bucks early and gear my setups for buck only. If I want to try for a doe, I will hunt areas that aren't real good early buck areas. Our buck areas get enough pressure from us without leaving more sign of our presence hunting does.

Waterfoul season is under way now. Buck and doe will feel that pressure withthe duck hunter running all over. We will hunt different areas that see less pressure from the duck hunter.

Rut finds most carrying a rifle with the General Deer Season going on. It really doesn't matter if the does are pressured in the spots I bow huntbecause they will be pressured by the rifle hunters during rut if they haven't alreadybeen pressured by duck hunters.

Our tactics change a lot during the season. The only thing constant is pressure now. There will be a lot of it!! [:@]

Tim

I hunt the does......and I don't mind saying so. Here's a thought......take what your woods is giving you. If MY buck/doe ratio was in synch.....I would probably take an early doe or two.....hunt the fringes of my core areas.....and "observe".......work my way "in" as the season progressed.....and leave a small but VERY productive area I have for the rut, exclusively.

As it stands, though.....my buck/doe ratio is severely out of whack......and I have a population problem. I contacted the wildlife bio and he told me to thin the herd. I'm doing what he thinks is best for the overall herd dynamic.

I've said it before....I "wish" I could hunt the way I wanted to .....in lieu of the way I NEED to.

If your situation is different than mine (and most everyones is unique)....then by all means hunt the way you want to. MY BEST CHANCE at catching an unsuspecting buck is to be where he is when he's off his game plan a little. In my opinion....that's chasing a doe, during the rut. I don't expect to see any real numbers of bucks until the chasing phase.....when they get off the food sources that I have NO ACCESS TO.

I have to keep the MAIN focus of MY season in the forefront. DOE REDUCTION.

That's why.....until the herd dynamic changes....I will continue to employ the practice of hunting the does. It's MY best shot at a buck......but by default, only.

Good luck to all.

I would disagree just bit in the logic behind this. I hunt does early. First 2 weeks of the season anyway. After that I try and hunt a different stand every time I am out. Just to get a read on the area before the rut. However during the rut I see bucks that I have never seen before. Yes I will see a local if you will but for the most part they are deer that I haven't had the pleasure of seeing. With this in mind would hunting does then educate the bucks if they are bucks from outside the core area? I understand the thought that a doe would be more causious in pressured areas, but will they?
I really only need them (does) to frequent the area in the early rut, when the bucks are seeking. During the rut when bucks are chasing I don't feel there is a whole lot of caution. They are being chased, they go where they go.

With this beiing said I have only shot one buck(147) in 15 years. I may have it wrong. Although I do see them.

I absolutely agree. The worst thing one can do in the early season is spook/educate an adult doe.

On my farm and my family's farms the deer bed in the same general areas. Hunting the fringes like I do means that sometimes I have does come by and sometimes I have bucks come by. The same goes for the entrance/exit points of the feeding areas. I don't save any stands just for the rut, but there are certainly stands that are better at different times of the year.

Different parts of the state that offer different terrain open themselves up more to hunting terrain features such as saddles, etc where bucks will tend to make their scrape lines and rub lines. I usually travel to these areas for the pre-rut before the chase phase starts and hunt these older bucks who are not so patiently waiting the does to come into heat. Come the chase phase I am back at home hunting the same bedding areas and travel routes I spoke of earlier.

Well, I can say this. I have, in the past, "hunted the does" for the majority of the season. It's killed me ZERO bucks, so I tend to agree with the logic behind what you're saying, and it's also something I've never thought of before.

One spot I have, I am able to hunt it extremely low key. There is no question I overhunted that stand last year, but I saw does walk w/in bow range almost every single hunt, and they never busted me.I did see a few bucks there, but nothing legal. It's a TERRIFIC spot, which is why I've decided to hunt it the way you speak of, this year. In other words, I hunted it the first day of season, and one evening a couple days later. I'm not setting foot back on that hill until Halloween.

Food for thought..... How often do you guys find a doe locking eyes on you perched in a favorite treestand? How often do you get the old head bob, hoof stomp?

They aren't doing it because they don't think something is wrong How many times do you feel that doe will eyeball your setup(s) before they skirt or avoid the area(s) all together? Even if they don't turn inside out high tailing it out of the area it was an encounter that they just got a little bit more education from. Like I said earlier IMO it is from a culmination of pressure and small mistakes.....

I would rather see no deer than a bunch and spookjust one, even fawns and yearlings...... They will be grown up one day as well, no need to start the education early on. We all know it is unavoidable to spook deer no matter how careful you arewhile en route to your stand or on the way out though. This is pressure that is unavoidable. Even the most carefully layed out entrance exit routes can backfire on you.

I believe thisto be truemuch more in pressured areas than lightly pressured areas..... In areas like mine chalk full of small acreages and even more huntersthe deer will seek out and find areas with little or void of pressure.... Mide as well be your hunting grounds
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MY opinion.....but everyone's area is different. Here are a "FEW" things that could influence one's "strategy":

1. Buck/doe ratio
2. Proximity to structures/dwellings (how used to human scent are the deer? How used to human interaction?)
3. Size of woods available to the hunter
4. Population of herd
5. # of mature bucks being hunted IN the area (not travelers)
6. Proximity of area hunted to bedding areas


these are just a FEW that each hunter has to weigh in his own circumstance....and then come up with his own game plan. Cookie cutter game plans are OK.....but they're too "cliche' " for me. Nobody hunts my woods, but me (figure of speech).

I guess I am not following the cookie cutter game plans part?