How To Successfully Hunt Late Season Bucks

JEREMY FLINN

12/03/2015

Haven’t filled your tag yet? You don’t have much time! Join The Buck Advisors’ Weston Schrank as he walks you through what to look for and how to hunt late season bucks successfully on your property.

Well it is December the rut is behind us and if you have not tagged out yet things can start looking discouraging. I was lucky enough to harvest a great buck in the post rut by rattling close to a bedding area…you can watch the hunt here…but tactics like that and successful morning hunts have pretty slim chances this late into the season up here in the Midwest. Today I want to walk through a very small 40 acre property and show you how we are going to look for and hunt late season bucks. This particular property is something some of you might be familiar with. The entire property is one chunk of timber surrounded by Ag fields. And while at first glance a late season hunt might seem pointless on a property like this there are things you can look for and exploit. 

Today is December 3^rd so bucks are still licking their wounds from the rut. Movement is slow across all fronts so right now is really your last chance to move cameras around and scout for places I’m about to show you. Get in and get out of these areas and keep the pressure off for about 2 weeks then hit these spots based off of what you have seen and the most recent trail camera information you that you have.

One of the first places I look to hunt this late in the game is a 4-5 acre sanctuary on this property . Better term for this is a thicket. We don’t hunt or come in here except to shed hunt because it’s a great bedding area for the late season. A couple years back we came in and cut all the cedars and other low value trees out of this spot, it also happens to be a southern oriented slope which gets more sunlight throughout the day which makes great thermal cover for winter but also creates great late season food sources like these blackberries and briars we have spread through here. This is a good spot to sneak into or on the edge of a couple hours before daylight and sit all day in to catch a buck coming to bed in or searching for late does and doe fawns.

This second spot is a classic late season spot that is almost guaranteed for an encounter with a buck…It’s a funnel leading into a standing corn, bean or cut corn, bean field. There is a Farley large 100 acre or so standing bean field in this case which is going to pull giants from all directions especially once we get some snow on the ground. Right now we are sitting in a small section of timber with a creek crossing on one side a small finger of woods leading to bedding on the other and the back side is a 40 ft cliff. There are very well worn trails leading into this bean field. Spots like this are great spots to place move cameras to now. In this case I just recently purchased several of these inexpensive a-5s so I could place them all over properties and setups just like this. Place several cameras up and leave them for 2 weeks or so let the area cool down, let it get to colder temps maybe even wait till we get a couple inches of snow and start checking cameras. Again now is the time to scout and move cameras while action is dying down. Stay with us throughout the rest of the season as we show you some successful hunts out of these areas, and later how to setup areas like this for next year.