After weeks in the woods, and several tags left unfilled, Mike Hanback and Will Brantley reflect on what they learned from a long, tough season
The 2024-25 deer season was a tough one for many hunters, inexplicably so at times. Personally, I hunted an estimated 70 sits from September to January, and failed to see a deer during more hunts than I can count, despite being in good areas where deer densities are high. The November rut was warm and sluggish (record highs in many places). And to cap it all off, I managed a couple of blunders that left me wondering how I’ve ever managed to kill a buck in the past.
Still, a tough season makes you a better hunter in the long run, particularly when you take the time at the end to reflect on what went right and wrong. That’s exactly what fellow deer blogger Mike Hanback and I have done at the conclusion of every deer season for the past several years. Here are this year’s takeaways, in no particular order. — W.B.
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Brantley’s Lessons
1 BUCK CAN STEAL THE ENTIRE SEASON
For most of my 30 years of deer hunting, my approach to filling buck tags has been to cast a wide net. I hunt multiple small properties, and use trail cameras to inform me of what bucks are around, and which of them are moving during daylight. From there, I’ve hunted the nicest buck that I believed I had the highest odds of shooting, without ever getting too “attached” to any of them.
But that strategy changed in 2022 and 2023, when I targeted individual bucks beginning early in the season. I shot both of them, and the checkmate feeling of filling those tags was particularly rewarding — plus, both bucks were big, mature animals. So this year, when an even larger buck showed up on the same property in early September, I planned my season around hunting him.
The author hunted this buck from September to the first of January and had several encounters along the way, but never got a shot.
But this buck, named “Rizzler” by my son, was a crafty one. I saw him on the hoof three times, drew my bow on him once, and captured hundreds of trail camera photos of him. Along the way, I passed several other good bucks that I would’ve taken most years.
The result? I didn’t kill a buck in Kentucky, for the first time since I was 11 years old. Chasing Rizzler also distracted me from hunting in Tennessee, where I also usually shoot a buck. No doubt, you won’t win every chase. And, a trophy whitetail hunter must be willing to eat tag soup every now and then. But I can’t say that I like the taste — and I can’t help but think back to how much fun many of my previous seasons were compared to this one.
BEING TOO AGGRESSIVE, TOO EARLY, CAN COST YOU
I’m usually an aggressive, can’t-kill-em-from-the-couch kind of hunter. Because of that mindset, I had a colossal screw-up — on Rizzler — in mid-October that I believe hurt my chances for the remainder of the season.
We’d patterned the buck hitting a feeder in the timber just after dark, and again just before daybreak, on his way to and from a standing cornfield. We had a ladder stand overlooking that feeder, and several times, we’d gotten photos of the buck shortly after climbing down. It was easy to get in and out of that spot quietly, and I should’ve played the long game and hunted him right there. But I thought a 100-yard move farther up the ridge might produce a shot at Rizzler as he staged near his bedding area. And so I snuck in, hung a lock-on stand, and settled in for an evening sit.
I knew when the first doe walked past and pegged me in the tree that I’d been too hasty in hanging the stand, and that I was too exposed. But rather than forfeit the plan, I decided to hunt the stand again the next morning. The leaves were damp at daybreak, and so I didn’t hear Rizzler shuffling up the ridge behind me. I just had that sense that a deer was close. When I turned to look, he was just 15 yards away, staring a hole through me. He bounded away, and I was able to grab my bow and get drawn, but when he stopped he was on red alert at 35 yards. I passed the risky shot, and he walked away, stiff-legged, and then began snorting after he disappeared from sight. He disappeared from that trail camera for weeks.
It could be argued that I played the game, had a close encounter, and bad luck at the moment of truth cost me the buck. But if I had to do over again, I’d have played it safer, hunted along the fringes, and been there when a cold front, hot doe, or both put the deer on his feet in the daylight.
DON’T LEAVE YOUR GUN BEHIND
I’m usually not one to leave my gun or bow out of reach, and this year that lesson was reinforced in a big way. I was hunting mule deer in Colorado with my buddies from Winchester and a film crew. We’d just pulled up to a gate, where the plan was to walk over a ridge and glass a hayfield. We’d gone just 75 yards when I realized I’d left my phone in the truck.
It was early in the afternoon, and since we weren’t close to our hunting spot yet, I handed my rifle to the videographer and told him I’d be back in 1 minute. Then, I hustled to my truck.
The author handed his rifle to his buddy and made a quick run back to the truck to retrieve a forgotten phone. It almost cost him a chance at this handsome mule deer buck.
With my phone in my pocket, I turned and came back through the gate, and that’s when I spotted the buck. The sight of the big muley walking down the fence line toward us was like a childhood bad dream, where you show up to school in your underwear. My videographer and guide were on their knees and pointing at the buck, but I had 40 yards of open ground to cross before being able to reach my rifle, a Winchester XPR in .300 Win. Mag.
But I got there, thanks in part to a small fold in the terrain that kept me concealed just enough, and also to the relatively relaxed nature of the mule deer species. I doubt I’d have ever pulled off the maneuver on a whitetail, but I was able to get to my gun and drop that buck at 50 yards. Next time I forget my phone, my rifle goes with me to retrieve it.
RUN-AND-GUN RATTLING WORKS
Two of the most enjoyable hunts I had all season happened when I wasn’t hellbent on chasing Rizzler, the target buck.
First, my son, Anse, and I went to Tennessee for a two-day youth season just before Halloween. Instead of sitting in a stand, we posted on the ground against a big white oak, him holding his rifle on a bipod and me carrying a set of rattling antlers. I made an aggressive rattling sequence just after daybreak, and we heard the bucks coming almost immediately. Two young 8-points, muscled and lean, charged to within 15 yards. The kid passed, but his eyes were wild with excitement.
A short time later, we slipped on down the ridge, wind in our face, and rattled up a spike. We did the same thing a half-hour later, this time calling in a young 6-point.
When conditions are right, run-and-gun rattling can be extremely productive. Image by Bill Konway.
We didn’t see a shooter that morning, but Anse has talked about that hunt more than any other this year. I had a similar experience later in the Kentucky gun season, and rattled up four bucks in one morning, including a borderline shooter 8-point.
I love to rattle and have called in dozens of bucks through the years, but this season I was reminded of how much better the response rate — and the fun factor — can be when you leave the stand, cover some ground, and hit the horns along the way.
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Hanback’s Lessons
No matter how long you’ve been hunting whitetails, and no matter how much you think you know, a grizzled old buck will do things that simultaneously frustrate, humble, and amaze you. I’ve been hunting the animals for more than 35 years, and nothing a big deer does surprises me anymore. Nothing. Here are some takeaways from my 2024 season, which was filled with a few ups and a lot of downs. — M.H.
Deer hunters were plagued with hot weather all season, especially in November. Still, Hanback and his crew found success early in the month after a new moon.
NEW MOON, HOT RUT
In a post here this past August, I wrote: In all my years of chasing whitetails across North America, I’ve noticed the tendency for the animals to move most in twilight is magnified during a new (dark) moon that overlaps the seeking phase of the rut, as it does this year. I went on to predict that the new moon week of Nov. 2 through 6 would be five of the best days to hunt in 2024.
Not coincidentally, we planned our annual Virginia deer camp to start on Nov. 2, in the middle of archery season and during the first week of muzzleloader. This is typically when what I call the “hard pre-rut” occurs in the Virginia Piedmont. Weeks earlier, bucks marked the woods with rubs, and during the hard pre-rut, they open and work scrapes in a frenzy. Although many bucks still remain secretive, cautious and largely nocturnal, others, fueled by a sudden bolt of testosterone, start prowling aimlessly, sometimes in daylight.
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Would my prediction that the new moon that week would intensify the pre-rut in our area and put more bucks on their feet in shooting light, especially from sunup until 10 a.m., prove true?
Four of us climbed into stands the morning of Nov. 3, and by sundown on Nov. 5, we had collectively seen 19 bucks. At 9:30 a.m. on the second day, John sailed an arrow over the back of a 10-point he reckoned would push 145 inches.
Although we all had great action, we still didn’t have a buck on the ground come Nov. 6. The moon was waxing toward first-quarter, its illumination increasing noticeably.
At 10:02 a.m., my friend Jack’s muzzleloader boomed. I hiked down to find him standing with a beautiful 4-year-old 10-point. “Saw him walking nose down on a doe trail 200 yards away,” my buddy said. “Grunted twice, and here he came, 50-yard shot.”
Deer movement was light later that afternoon where I hunted, but when I rolled into camp after dark, I saw a crowd gathered around Davis’ truck bed, hollering and hooping. I joined the fun and gawked at my buddy’s beast — a 6-year-old 10-point with kickers and splits that would score in the 150s. “Stepped out in the plot with five minutes of shooting light left,” he said.
What a great camp, with major lessons. Check the calendar, and in years when the new moon overlaps the hard pre-rut the first week of November, take off work and hunt. Anticipate buck movement to be best in the mornings. Get on stand early, and stick it out until at least 10 a.m. And hunt the afternoons till dark, of course. Whitetails are crepuscular animals, and it’s in their DNA to move at dusk anytime of the season, regardless of moon phase or weather.
As for weather, it was great for the first three days of our Virginia camp, clear and high pressure, with lows in the mid-30s and highs around 50 degrees. But on Nov. 6, it warmed overnight to a humid low of 50 and zoomed to an afternoon high of 78. On the “worst” weather day of the hunt, we killed two fantastic old bucks. When you get lucky and time your hunt days just right, the power of the rut will put bucks on their feet for a few magical days, no matter the temperature or the weather.
A big buck’s daylight patterns can sometimes shut down without explanation, as Hanback learned while hunting in Oklahoma this year. Image by John Hafner.
GHOST BUCKS, BROKEN RACKS
I headed to northeast Oklahoma the day after Thanksgiving, full of fire. I’ve had some of my best hunts of the past decade there during the first weeks of the December post-rut. My friend Corey Corson, who runs the hunting on Liberty Ranch outside Pawhuska, showed me cam images of three old 8-point target bucks. As I climbed into my stand near a corn feeder in the chilly pre-dawn the first morning, my only concern was that I would kill out the first hour of this six-day hunt.
As I climbed out of my blind at dark on the third day, I was getting concerned. I’d seen several 2-year-old bucks and a bunch of does, but no shooters. But the mature 8-points were still there. They showed up on three cell cams between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. across the section I hunted.
“OK, I get it,” I thought. “I’ve dealt with plenty of you nocturnal devils before.” I decided to sit from sunup until sundown on days four and five. “You bucks can’t stay completely nocturnal forever. Surely one of you will slip up to get a bite of corn or push a doe in daylight.”
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I snuck into my stand in the dark on day six in a panic. I still hadn’t seen a shooter, but they were still popping up on camera deep in the night. And to complicate matters, now two of my three targets had broken racks. One had lost a G-3 overnight, and the best buck of the lot had snapped off his left beam two inches from the base. I have rarely shot a buck with a missing tine, and never one with a snapped-off beam. But this was a hard and frustrating hunt. Would I shoot one now?
Turns out I didn’t have to make that decision, because all of the mature deer in the section stayed nocturnal for the entire week. Remember, this hunt was around feeders, and the bucks had not been pressured. But, just as mature bucks might be visible in daylight for a few days (typically the rut), there are times of the season (often in post-rut) when they go deeply nocturnal and seem to vanish. You can’t predict it, and you can’t make them move. During one of these frustrating nighttime phases, the best you can do is keep running cameras to confirm a big deer is still around (he almost always is), and then keep grinding and hunting hard. A ghost buck might or might not slip up and move in light, but you need to be there if and when he does.
One good thing about a tough season is starting the next fall with a clean slate and new resolve. Image by John Hafner.
WHEN YOU PASS ON DAY 1 …
On Dec. 14 in central Indiana, I climbed into a box blind on a 2-acre turnip plot, ready to smoke a buck with my muzzleloader. I was in the midst of a brutal 17-day, three-state stretch, during which time I had not seen a mature shooter buck, much less shot one.
At 4 p.m., does started filtering into the turnips, followed by several small bucks. For an hour, I watched deer pull up and eat the brassicas, gnawing the roots as the wilted green leaf tops dangled from their mouths. A little after 5 p.m., two more does entered the plot from the west, followed by a 7-point, and then a stout 8-point. A shooter!
I raised my muzzleloader, clicked off the safety … and then clicked it back on again. Rarely do I ever pass a pretty 4-year-old buck, but this time I did. It was the first afternoon of a five-day hunt, and I had camera images of three older bucks working the area. I was seeing good deer movement in the turnips, and surely one of those big deer would show up eventually.
I hunted the same stand for all five days, and saw 45 deer. I watched two 3-year-old 9-points posture, push and spar over a late-rut doe. An 8-point worked a scrape and lip-curled for an hour as he tested the wind and watched 10 does and fawns flitting about the plot. As the sun set on my last day in the box, none of the older target bucks had shown. More tag soup.
Do I regret not shooting the pretty 8-point that first evening? A little. But during the next four days, I watched and enjoyed some of the best deer behavior and movement I’d seen in years. I was reminded that success is not always about killing an animal. When the deer action is good, and you see 10 to 20 animals a day, and watch their behavior and smile as they interact and co-mingle, it’s a joy. The more you observe and study deer, the better hunter you become.
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