The old adage that mature bucks don’t stay alive by being stupid holds true, and smart deer hunters are constantly evaluating and adjusting their strategies and specific tactics to offset deer behavior in an effort to occasionally outsmart wily whitetails.
Think of this: How many times have you sat in a spot that your cellular game camera told you was an ideal locale for ambushing several quality bucks, only to see nothing that comes close to your harvest criteria? Other times you’ve sat in that same spot and seen several quality whitetails. If you’re like me, you’ve wondered countless times if it was you who somehow ruined the spot on that particular hunt, or if it was some other hunter(s) nearby.
For his graduate thesis, Mississippi State University student Colby Henderson wanted to answer a question that’s critical to deer hunting success: how mature bucks respond to different levels of hunting pressure. What Henderson learned not only provides valuable information on what deer do when they perceive their lives are at risk from human hunters, but provides valuable intel hunters can use to help offset the white-tailed
