“whitetail bucks”

This is the deer hunter’s calculation. You ask yourself if there are low-impact entry and exit routes that will take you to and from a stand. Can you get a true wind in/near the buck’s likely bedding area? If you’re bowhunting, will you have to cut shooting lanes? Can you afford to risk making this buck even more nocturnal in October?

We all know mature whitetail bucks can be elusive, even nocturnal, but when you track them just after the season you find how simply neurotic they can be.

You see a buck across a field in the soft, late light of a summer evening. You tell yourself he isn’t really that big. The velvet on his rack in the diffused light is giving the buck cartoon proportions. But he is big enough. You next look at the woods beyond the buck and wonder how you can get him in your sights in autumn daylight. To make that happen you have to concede and understand a few things.

Think that you know where all the big bucks are? You might be surprised.

Hunters who have the mountains of north-central Pennsylvania in their blood will always come back for deer season.

Setting a decoy spread for wary waterfowl requires strategic calculations to pull off a successful ruse. The same is true of decoying whitetail bucks. You can plunk a buck decoy anywhere, but to have it work with precision requires forward thinking. Begin with simple biology.

Shooting a buck at the beginning of a hunt can be as good—or bad—as shooting one at the end.

Deer hunters who seek to add a buck to the Boone and Crockett records book would do well searching these states, where careful management has resulted in a bumper crop of bruisers.

Lay the foundation for a successful early-season hunt by using these tips to locate the bedding areas of mature bucks.