Buck Holes

Search for what I call buck holes, which are tangles of honeysuckle or wild rose on ridges, cedar or pine thickets, brushy beaver swamps … you get the idea. A buck hole doesn’t have to be large or even remote — just a thick spot other hunters overlook. A grassy ditch near a back road, an overgrown hog lot behind an old barn or a similar neglected spot can hide a big buck. Scour an aerial map for such pockets or strips of cover. Check the edges of a thicket or swamp for trails pocked with big tracks. Look for rubs and late scrapes, which are signs that a buck has moved back in there to evade hunters and breed a last willing doe. When you find a mother lode of fresh sign, stop right there. You don’t want to bust into a small security area, put more heat on already wired deer and bust them out of there. It’s better to back off 100 yards or so and set up on a ridge or point where you can cover buck entry and exit routes into and out of cover.