According to Dr. Ken Nordberg, you may be wasting valuable buck-hunting time if you’re sitting in the same stand all season.

Most hunters would like to take a decent buck this fall. However, traditional hunting methods actually reduce the odds of taking bucks in their prime—4 1/2 to 6 1/2 years of age—for several reasons. They typically cause mature whitetails to abandon their home ranges (your hunting area) within 1 to 30 hours after hunting seasons begin. They cause big bucks to become nocturnal or flee to near or distant areas where they are safe from hunters.

Traditional hunting methods make hunters especially easy for experienced whitetails to identify and avoid. They make short-range shots at unsuspecting deer rare. They make hunters believe something must be done to increase numbers of older bucks. Logically, therefore, the best way to hunt older bucks is to quit hunting like everyone else.

Change your hunt style to win more game

More specifically, quit stand hunting like everyone else. If done properly, stand hunting is still the most productive way to hunt mature bucks. “Done properly” does not mean sit patiently in one stand site throughout a hunting season, whether using bait or not. Today’s older bucks almost routinely discover stand hunters within their 1- to 2-square-mile home or breeding ranges during the first 1 to 30 hours of a hunting season, typically without stand hunters realizing it. Sitting at the same stand site longer than a day and a half is a waste of buck-hunting time.

Approaching a stand site along a route where you are easily seen, heard and/or smelled by whitetails in the vicinity or sitting where your silhouette is fully exposed, no matter how high it is above the ground, is a waste of buck-hunting time. To take a mature buck today, whether seated on the ground or in a tree, a hunter’s silhouette, skin and necessary movements must be well hidden or masked by natural or natural-appearing cover (including a camo headnet or face mask).

Though they do not realize it, a major reason most hunters rarely see big bucks is that they are not sitting within easy shooting distance downwind or crosswind of very fresh tracks or droppings made by a mature buck or a ground scrape freshly made or renewed by a mature buck (not tainted by human trail scents). Locations of fresh deer signs made by big bucks change often during hunting seasons, mostly because of hunting. If you insist upon using one stand site throughout a hunting season, you will not remain close to changing locations of big bucks and will not be regularly successful at taking mature bucks.

A new method to master

A wonderfully productive and easy-to-use, mature-buck-effective hunting method is one I call, “mile-a-day still-hunting,” or “mile-a-day stand hunting.” It’s a deadly combination of two hunting methods. A single backpacked stool is all that is needed to make any number of stand sites mature-buck-effective.

Mile-a-day stand hunting is an ideal method for restless deer hunters who can’t stand to sit in one place 5 to 6 hours at a time. To make it work, you must scout preseason (preferably two weeks early) for mile-long trails or strips of whitetail habitat, well marked with fresh tracks and droppings made by mature bucks and other deer. Find and mark one different route for each day you plan to hunt. One or more routes should course north to south and one or more east to west, so you can always hunt from downwind or crosswind.

Tossing fallen branches from selected routes along the way while scouting is recommended. Along each route, select eight to ten ground-level stand sites, 150 to 200 yards apart, where you will be well hidden by natural cover while seated on your stool. Plan to sit at each stand site no less than one hour, beginning early during the first legal shooting hour of the day.

Whitetails ahead have probably heard your soft, approaching footsteps. After you have sat down on your stool, it will take the first 30 minutes of each hour for the deer to decide you are now either harmless or no longer near. After that, they will begin moving again where they are likely to be seen. While seated, spend each hour carefully scanning ahead and to each side (slowly moving your head). Listen for very soft twig snaps occasionally made by a walking deer. Upon spotting a deer, remember the standard rule for successful buck hunting: Hold your fire until you see and size up antlers.

Avoid alarming bucks when you’re on the move

While advancing to next stand sites, walk softly but steadily. Lift your feet clear of ground cover and place them down gently. Do not drag your heels. Walking non-stop in this manner will not greatly alarm whitetails. Plan to eat a light lunch along the way.

Double your odds of taking a buck by pairing up with another hunter. Use parallel routes, 100 to 150 yards apart, and the same time schedule for movements and stops at succeeding stand sites. Working together, move only into the wind. Unseen deer encountered along the way are very likely to move crosswind from one hunter toward the other who will then be undetectable via airborne scents. Do not use a selected route daily. Successfully used routes can sometimes be used again a week later, and often can be productive year after year.

Learn hunting methods you may not have considered in the October issue of MidWest Outdoors, available the first full week of October at the newsstand or by subscribing on our website.