BUCKS FROM THE BOONIES

Many obstacles lay in the path of the deer hunter—here are five you can break through.

It’s no mystery why whitetail hunters plying exclusive, heavily-managed whitetail properties kill bigger bucks. Not only are the perfect combination of genetics and abundant groceries at play, but those bucks are subjected to minimal hunting pressure. It makes it easy to argue that the so-called “whitetail experts” aren’t so much knowledgeable hunters, as savvy businessmen with the wherewithal to own/lease a choice piece of prime habitat.

For the rest of us, limited to public lands, or even private lands surrounded by trigger-happy neighbors, things become a bit more problematic. This can be especially pointed on smaller private lands. Where I live and hunt in northern Idaho, for instance, I generally prefer public lands simply because they give me room to maneuver and an opportunity to identify and break through barriers that thwart less ambitious deer hunters. Finding better-scoring bucks with some age on them here involves pushing beyond common physical barriers. The same can be said about many regions of the whitetail’s range.

WATER BARRIERS

Breaching water barriers is one of my favorite ploys for leaving the masses behind to discover better stand