Patterning Big Deer

by Kevin Wilson

Can big deer really be patterned? The definitive answer is – sometimes. It all comes down to the species, habitat, population dynamics, and timing.

It never ceases to amaze me just how elusive mature deer can be. Whether we’re hunting whitetails or mule deer, it seems those truly exceptional world class bucks have ninja-like abilities to avoid detection. Converse with any diehard deer hunter, and you’ll hear stories of giant bucks with one common theme – almost all of them got away. Why? Quite simply, they didn’t get big by making dumb choices. In all probability, Darwin had big deer in mind when he formed his theories around survival of the fittest. As deer hunters become increasingly academic, that award-winning question keeps coming up, “can big deer be patterned?”
The right answer is – sometimes yes, but usually no. Find that holy grail of circumstances and you just might get lucky and decipher the daily routine of a big deer. But beware – with few exceptions – patterning big bucks requires dedication, interpretation, planning, and a measure of luck to boot.

Whitetails and Mule Deer
Considering North America’s two most common deer species – whitetail deer and mule deer, each has its own characteristic behaviours. While whitetails and mule deer both key in on food sources and typically bed in the best available nearby cover, the only other significant similarity is that the biggest of the big bucks, of both sub-species, are smart. They know how to elude people and with any pressure at all, they become nocturnal.
Mule deer are more adaptable than many of us think. They thrive in the mountains, foothills, parkland areas, the boreal forest, and in grassland coulees and rolling hills of the prairies. In heavily timbered environments they behave much like whitetails, but in the open grassland habitats of the mid-west, they can seemingly vanish into what little cover they have available to them. Exceptional heavy racked five-year-olds and up, quickly learn the best places to hide. Spots that provide them the best vantage points and thermals to detect danger. Indeed, big mule deer are smart. The nice thing is, if we learn where a big old mule deer lives, he can sometimes be patterned. Undisturbed, big mule deer will often take refuge and sleep in the same small patch of brush day after day.
In direct contrast, big antlered whitetails can be far less predictable. Nomadic by nature, like a fugitive running from the law, rarely do they linger in the same place. Constantly on the move, they can much more difficult to pin down. With plenty of cover available, they will shift within their territory, often daily or at least ever two-to-four days. In a similar manner, big whitetails will take up residence in an area that they feel safe and undisturbed. The smaller the area, the more likely it is that they can be patterned. For this very reason, some of the biggest whitetails ever taken by hunters, were harvested in some of the most unsuspecting, relatively small, home range locations.

Locating Big Bucks
How do we go about finding a big deer? If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The answer depends on genetics, time of year, and the physical features and conditions of the area you plan to hunt. Strong genetics exhibit higher densities of big deer. Our first priority in locating a big buck will always involve finding areas holding healthy numbers of big deer.
As far as the topographical and geographic features of our hunting area, several physical features can make patterning big deer much easier. For instance, with eastern whitetails, in many places deer numbers are high and hunting opportunities commonly focus on smaller woodlots. In these situations, it is common to identify family groups of deer residing in a localized area. A definitive negative relates to human pressure in many of those areas that keeps the biggest bucks on their toes, often forcing them to move only under the cover of darkness. In the western states and provinces, other dynamics create different challenges. More open space creates abundant habitat. With more habitat, big deer readily travel great distances within their territory – especially during the rut. I know of one buck that we saw five miles away from his home quarter during the rut.
As a professional outfitter in Alberta, I live and spend at least some time each fall guiding and hunting for myself in that province. We spend time in a variety of places, with several options ranging from river breaks in the far south to the agricultural parkland management units in the central part of the province, and the forest fringe country in the north. Each presents its own set of opportunities and challenges when it comes to locating big bucks. Big, mature deer can be found everywhere that populations haven’t collapsed. The renowned Zaft buck from Alberta for instance, that grossed 222 6/8 B&C, lived its life in a very small, rather unassuming area in the agricultural parkland. In my experience, smaller blocks of timber surrounded by developed crop land can offer the best odds for locating a big whitetail buck.
As far as mule deer are concerned, I’m a big fan of open coulees and grassland areas. Big bucks will most often use whatever available cover there is. The wide-open spaces allow us to sit back and observe from afar. With a spotting scope, we can observe movement without intruding on those deer.
Considering common denominators, off-season scouting forays for big whitetail or mule deer can begin with one of two steps. The first involves shed antler hunting and the second involves monitoring prime food sources. To some extent there is often an overlap. If you’re eager, whitetail bucks begin dropping their antlers as early as late December with the majority typically falling in February or early March. Mule deer can lose their antlers early as well, but most don’t shed until late March and early April. I’ve heard variable opinions around when bucks shed their antlers. Some believe the big bucks drop first, but in my experience the opposite is true. Environmental stress from winter conditions usually influences when they fall. With deep snow conditions, deer shift mostly to browse, but they still tend to find waste grains buried below the snow. Pinpoint fields with the best quality food and that’s where a lot of the deer will spend their time during the winter months. In fact, many will bed in the closest cover adjacent to those food sources to minimize energy expenditure. Locate the highest concentration of feeding activity, the trails deer are using to travel between bedding and feeding, and the bedding area itself and, well you’ve discovered a hotspot for shed hunting.
Find some big deer sheds and you’re on the right track. But just because that big buck spent his winter there, doesn’t mean he lives there the rest of the year. Year round, food sources should be your primary focus. With the arrival of warmer weather in the spring and as summer approaches, deer disperse back into their relaxed summer routines. Protected by the lush foliage on trees and shrubs, they literally seem to vanish, only allowing us brief glimpses as they step out into feeding fields, and move across cutlines, or right-of-ways.

Patterning Big Deer with Trail Cameras
With the advancement of trail cameras, we can now monitor movement year-round. Even still, I’ve run plenty over the years and rare is the camera that routinely captures big bucks. For one thing, big deer rarely allow themselves to be captured on film more than once or twice. Their ability to detect and avoid cameras is uncanny. Five years ago, I discovered a big deer living in a 20-acre woodlot. I placed cameras and actually captured him several times on different cameras over a two-month period. The last image was captured an hour before dark on November 11. That was the last I ever saw of him and, to my disappointment it was the day before I began my November hunting vacation days.
To outsmart big deer, strategically place cameras and ensure that they are scent-free. Even more importantly, take time to carefully evaluate where you think a big buck will spend his time. Consider the deepest, darkest cover on the property and confirm by locating big tracks. Find one big track and you’ve got a start. Locate multiple big tracks that suggest he’s using a trail or corridor consistently – well, you’ve probably got a good place to set a camera. Remember, big bucks often take the trails less traveled throughout most of the year. Only when the rut turns on, do they drop their guard and cover nearly every inch of their territory – and that includes the most heavily used trails.
Remember, big bucks are hyper-sensitive to pressure. Yes, even big mule deer. Roust them once and it may take them a few days to settle back into their home turf. Sometimes they’ll return right away. Bump them more than once in a 48-hour period and you may kiss them goodbye for a week or two. Big bucks simply don’t like to be disturbed. For this reason, checking trail cameras should involve absolute care and attention to detail. Do so only during midday hours when deer are most likely bedded, remain as scent-free as possible, and move in and out of the woods quietly and quickly. Don’t linger. Change cards swiftly and vacate as soon as possible. Reject the urge to check your cameras every couple days. Most often I’ll leave my cameras for a week or more between visits. If the images show that a buck is patterned I hunt him immediately.

Early Season
For many bowhunters, the search for big deer and the ideal of patterning a big buck happens the last couple weeks of August as velvet antlers reach their growth potential and then into the first week of September just before bucks shed their velvet. As fall approaches, whitetail and mule deer alike, begin their earliest pre-rut rituals of traveling to lay down territorial boundary rubs and scrapes. Cereal crops are still standing and they can venture out into those open areas with little more than their antlers exposed. For this very brief window, early season hunters can sometimes pattern big bucks by monitoring early morning and late evening movement to and from feeding fields. In Out west, golden flowered canola fields, alphalpha fields, and much lower pea fields can be dynamite places to look. Out east, soybean fields, corn fields are a good choice. If you’re in a state or province that allows baiting or the planting of foodplots, well, you’ve got yourself a prime location to begin spotting and monitoring for big deer.
As a rule, most truly big whitetails regularly change their travel patterns, rarely entering and exiting the woods on exactly the same trail, but from time to time it happens. When it does and you’re able to pattern a big buck, it can be a race against time to get in and hunt him before he changes his routine. As mentioned before, big mule deer can sometimes be more consistent in their travel patterns between bedding cover and feeding fields.
One constant with both subspecies however, is that almost like clockwork, as soon as velvet antlers turn to hard antlers, big bucks shift their movement patterns. In many instances, they almost instantly become nocturnal. Add to this, the looming colder weather and falling leaves and, the world of both whitetails and mule can change seemingly overnight.

Peak Rut
Then there is the rut. In so many ways, the doe estrous cycle is a game changer for patterning big deer. On one hand, big bucks are on the move covering their territory. Monitoring does for breeding readiness, they travel their area servicing boundary scrapes in the pre-rut, then localizing this behavior to primary scrapes during the peak first and second estrous periods. With this in mind, savvy whitetail hunters can, at least to some extent, pattern a big deer that they know lives in the area.
On several occasions, I’ve been able to capture big bucks on camera during the pre-rut in September and October. As primary scrapes opened up the last week in October and were serviced more regularly into the first and second week of November, several big bucks became routine visitors to those primary scrapes. Servicing those scrapes with doe estrous and dominant buck scent I was able to entice them to stay in the area. By rattling and calling, I’ve been able to bring them in on a string. Patterned to the point of knowing they are nearby, lingering dominant bucks have eagerly challenged the clinking of antlers and wanton moans of doe bleats during this peak period.
The more challenging time is the pre-rut. If big bucks are localized, they can come in on a string, but if they’re doing their walk about, you may not lay eyes on them for days, even weeks at a time. Last fall I stumbled upon two big mule deer the third week in October. In hopes of patterning them, I observed with a spotting scope from across a quarter section for three evenings. After seeing them for three consecutive sessions, I moved in. The first evening, I sat a ground blind. Both came out of the woodlot two minutes after legal light. A chip shot at 27 yards, I could have taken one of them, but knew I was just past legal so I didn’t. The next evening I tried again. Only one came out, but too far away for an archery shot. After that, harsh weather closed in and I only saw one of them one more time and that was it. The moral to that story is to always evaluate the urgency. Weather will always move deer. If it’s stable and mild, they may maintain their pattern, but if a cold front is moving it, beware it could interrupt their pattern. My rule of thumb – once you’ve patterned a big deer, don’t waste time – get after it as soon as possible. Those two big mule deer were entering the late pre-rut and that cold, wet weather was enough to bump them out of the small woodlot to begin their search for does.
At the other extreme, I’ve patterned giant whitetails to the extent that I was seeing their tracks routinely at my mock scrapes, but they just weren’t showing up when I was sitting in my stand during daylight hours. Several years back I sat for seven days from the November 9 to 15. It wasn’t until my last day that I finally got a shot. Chasing a hot doe, a 170-class monarch skulked past me, some 30 yards behind my stand. Fortunately, I was able to stop him briefly with a doe bleat and sent an arrow on its way.

Form a Plan
Regardless of timing or opportunity, one truth remains. Big deer become big by being smart. They use their eyes, nose, and ears. They seldom do the exact same thing twice and they have a strong will to live. They’ve learned by experience, how to evade predators and that includes people. On the rare occasion that we can find and pattern big deer, remember – these opportunities don’t occur every day. Think your strategy through and execute with precision. Even though you might have figured out his movements, you still have to get in close for a shot opportunity.

Call me today and let me show you how we do it at Alberta Hunting Adventures.