Editor’s Note: Mark Drury of Osceola, Iowa, the founder of MAD Calls (www.flambeauoutdoors.com) and the co-owner of Drury Outdoor Productions (https://www.druryoutdoors.com) with his brother Terry, is an avid deer hunter. Each year, Drury hunts in several states and consistently takes big bucks for his videos. But how does anyone take big bucks regularly? Drury explains how starting early and using new technology helps him find bucks, learn their haunts and habits and determine when and where he can expect to take one.

Deer Scouting Secret No. 9: I begin to pick the bucks I want to hunt from my trail-camera information and from observing the deer in the field. The bucks I’ll try to hunt aren’t always the biggest bucks I see. I have to identify which bucks appear on the trails the most often during daylight hours. Some bucks have a tendency not to move until after dark. If you’ll hunt the bucks that move down trails and are in the green fields during daylight hours, you drastically increase your odds for taking a buck during the first week of bow season. Once I identify these bucks, I may move some of the cameras and my tree stand to learn all I can about these individual bucks I’ve decided to hunt.

Deer Hunting Secret No. 10: I want to pinpoint the best spot to take the buck I want to hunt and know where he’s living and moving during bow season. If I try to take him over a green field or an agricultural crop, I may spook him and the other deer that are coming to that food source. I’ve learned from my trail cameras that most bucks will move to water before they’ll go to feed. My brother Terry and I have learned that often the most-productive place to have a tree stand site for older-age-class bucks in the early season is along the trail that the bucks use when they’re going to water.

To learn more about hunting deer, check out John E. Phillips’ book, “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property,” available in Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A2N792 and print and Audible at https://www.amazon.com/.
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 https://www.amazon.com/John-E.-Phillips/e/B001HP7K6O, click on all formats and look at the bottom of the page to see books.