Most hunters know that bucks can have different personalities, but there’s something else between their ears that separates them--and I’m not referring to the amount of bone they grow. Take two different types of bucks: those living their entire lives on large land tracts carefully managed for trophy deer, the bucks you usually see on hunting TV shows, and those living in heavily hunted areas. Ask Michigan bowhunter John Eberhart what the main difference is between the two, and his answer’s simple.
“The bucks in heavily pressured areas are a lot smarter than the bucks you see on TV,” Eberhart explains. “They have to be, or they’d be dead.”
Eberhart, 72, has become a master at bowhunting pressured bucks on Michigan public land, where free access melds mature whitetails into battlehardened, high-IQ creatures (eberhartswhitetailworkshop.com). He’s also hunted a smattering of private land after securing free permission from landowners. What’s noteworthy is that Eberhart’s never paid a dime to hunt anywhere, nor has he ever accepted a free hunt from famous TV hunter friends.
His success is unrivaled. To date, Eberhart’s taken 34 bucks qualifying for the Commemorative Bucks of Michigan record book (). He’s
