Bowkill Series #4: November 4, 1993 – Hunting Waterholes

HUNTING WATERHOLES

I shot this buck on November 4, 1993 right on the edge of a waterhole on a large bedding ridge. I don’t think the water attracted me to spot as much as the big scrapes that scarred the ground next to the water. I was all about hunting buck sign back then – to my disadvantage.

I shot this buck on a large wooded ridge on an afternoon hunt.  November 4, 1993. I stuck close to the field end of the ridge (versus the point end) because the farther out on a ridge you go, the closer you get to the bedding areas.  

I didn’t want to be right on top of the bedded deer, but preferred to keep a ways off so as not to bump them on the afternoon arrival to the stand.  

There was a small pond on the ridge top back then. I am not sure it is still there – I can’t see it on the current aerial photo I pulled from the web.  That pond was only about 15 yards in diameter and was pretty close to the top of the ridge, maybe just a bit down on the east side.

There were several big scrapes around the pond and since this was still back in my early development as a deer hunter, I thought that finding buck sign was the same as finding buck. Over time I learned that buck sign only tells you where a buck was, not where he will be next.  

Sometimes buck sign can be useful, but not nearly as useful as I had thought at the time. Anyway, that aside, I was overlooking those scrapes from a stand about ten yards from the pond.

The buck came in quickly from a trail that ran down the top of the ridge out toward the point and as soon as he hit the first scrape I shot him.  I have no idea if he was coming to hit the scrapes or to get something to drink.  More than likely the water drew him but while he was there he would hit a scrape or two before heading out on his rounds.

I am guessing this buck was just two years old.  There were likely older, bigger bucks around, but I was just getting my feet under me as a bowhunter and this buck struck me as big at the time.  I was proud to shoot him. 

The buck no doubt was bedding in the big ridgetop bedding area nearby. He approached the small pond I was set up over and offered an easy 10 yard shot. Though only a young buck, he seemed big to me then and I was proud to shoot him – as well I should have been.

LESSONS LEARNED

During the rut, waterholes near bedding areas are good places to sit, especially if it is warm.  Bucks expend a lot of energy and create a lot of heat during the rut and someplace where they can get a drink that is near where they bed (or where the does bed) is a great attraction.

Whenever you hunt near bedding areas in the evening, you should keep a safe distance. If the cover is thick so they can’t see you approach, you can likely hunt within 50 yards of bedded deer, but when the cover is open, you may have to hang back as much as 200 yards.

On this hunt, the ridge cover was thick so I never really thought about being seen, I was focused on hunting those big scrapes.

I have learned over the years, that buck sign is not nearly as good at predicting where a buck will be next as terrain features and bottlenecks. Bucks will respond to sign prior to the rut, but then I think it is more because they make sign where they travel rather than traveling to a spot where there is sign. In other words, the sign doesn’t attract them as much as it reveals their travel patterns. 

But as the rut closes in, those October travel routes are not nearly as useful as bucks start to go directly from Point A to Point B and use any convenient travel routes in between.