The Transition Zone

Most hunters agree that once a buck knows he is being hunted he becomes nearly unkillable. They believe the buck vanishes. They still see sign, but not the buck. They think the buck has gone nocturnal. This isn’t often the case, it’s usually a simple matter of the buck playing well in front of the hunter.

First off, most of what we interpret as deer sign was made at night or nocturnal. Such as tracks, rubs, and scrapes that are near or on the edge of a known feeding area. While you might see some bucks in the feeding area during daylight, you won’t get many shots at the big boys in such spots. Those bucks generally have you figured out already.

The best way to beat a big buck is to intercept him traveling between bedding and feeding areas. But first you must know where the primary feed source is, where the preferred bedding areas are, and where the buck travels to scent check his scrapes. Setting up in these transition areas, while it requires considerable more effort, is the best way to give yourself a fighting chance at a real monster.

Most hunters are a bit lazy. They are content to sit and watch a primary food source, let’s say an alfalfa or soybean field, night after night and year after year. Even though a lot of big bucks are killed in crop fields, they don’t tend to produce consistent success. At best, a hunter can expect to harvest a big buck maybe once every four or five years using this method. He would be far better off to places stand 100 or 200 yards away from the food source and hunt in the transition zone.

Good Luck & Good Hunting,
Jim
The Book