Editor’s Note: Many states are now in their postrut times of deer season. Terry Drury of Drury Outdoors https://www.druryoutdoors.com/, along with his brother, Mark, are two of the most well-known and most-recognized deer hunters in the nation, due to their TV shows, videos and podcasts. One of the questions they’re often asked is, “How do you take a buck after the rut?” This week Terry will tell us how to hunt after the rut.

Non-Pressured Deer:

Another secret for taking an older-age-class buck after the rut is to have a place to hunt that’s received little or no hunting pressure during hunting season, and that’s close to a food source. I had leased property in Illinois, and I’d paid the farmer who farmed that property to leave 1-1/2 acres of standing soybeans. Where I had my stand set-up, no one else had hunted during the entire year. The soybeans that were left were tucked back into some timber that dropped-off into a hardwood hollow. There were a lot of trails and tracks coming out of that hollow and going into the soybean field. I placed a box blind on the edge of that soybean field two weeks before I planned to hunt it. Once we had snow or cold weather, I felt like this spot would be a great place to take an older-age-class buck.

When I got into the blind one December afternoon during the postrut, the outside air temperature was about 68 degrees. But once we got into the blind, the air inside the blind was about 90 degrees. Early in the afternoon, we saw four or five does that continuously stared at our blind. Finally, later in the afternoon, I saw a buck that looked to be about 5-1/2-years old. We were able to watch that buck for a pretty good while, until he moved out in front of the blind and began to feed on the soybeans about 70 yards from the blind. This buck was more or less following the does, but he definitely wasn’t interested in trying to breed. His main concern was to get something to eat before the storm hit. The weatherman had predicted that the temperature would drop from 68 degrees down to 27 or 28 degrees that night. Over the years, we’d learned that when a major temperature drop occurred just before cold weather moved in, a major deer movement often occurred.

On this hunt, I was using a 20 gauge slug gun, because if you needed a follow-up shot, you’d have it, since there’s two other shells that would come up one at a time after you fired the first shot. I had been shooting this gun before firearm season, and I could drive tacks with it at 100 yards. I actually had shot this gun out to 200 yards, and I felt confident that I could make a lethal hit at that range, if I needed to do so. The buck was about 80 to 85 yards away. When I squeezed the trigger on my 20 gauge, the buck dropped in his tracks. Later, I learned that he scored 168 inches.

The Importance of the Moon Phase on Deer:

Another tip to taking postrut bucks is noticing the moon phase. We had a full moon during the early part of December. We’ve learned that when there’s a full moon at night, the deer tend to move more than when there’s little or no moon at night. I know this seems to be contrary to what most deer hunters think, but this has been what we’ve observed.

To learn more about hunting deer, check out John E. Phillips’ book, available in Kindle, print and Audible versions, “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows” (http://amzn.to/11dJRu8). You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser. (When you click on this book, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read 10% of the book for free, and you can listen to 10% for free). On the right side of the page and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book. To see more of John’s deer-hunting books, visit www.amazon.com/author/johnephillips. John and Denise Phillips’ new book, “The Recipes You Can’t Live Without,” that’s full of delicious, time-tested recipes for cooking wild game and fish and also ideas for breakfasts at your hunting club just was published in print this month. Go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYTMSMH?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 to learn more.

Tomorrow: How to Hunt the Big Sissy Buck Deer