When it come to outsmarting the elusive rogue buck, Dr. Ken Nordberg offers as example the method he used in 1989 to take a 13-pointer.

Rogue bucks are mature, non-breeding bucks that repeatedly fail to gain overall buck dominance in the square-miles in which they live. They’re ever determined to usurp a dominant breeding buck’s hard-won right to breed all mature and yearling does living within its 1- to 2-square-mile home/breeding range.

Many rogue bucks are nonetheless trophy-class bucks, and would be ideal quarries for deer hunters except that they are as cunning and elusive as physically superior dominant breeding bucks.

As trail cams are proving these days, there are usually three to five antlered bucks and one most-dominant breeding buck living in practically every square-mile inhabited by whitetails. During the month-and-a-half following velvet shedding about September 1, they feed together twice daily, until late during feeding hours when they briefly spar and then seriously battle to try to gain dominance over one another, creating square-mile buck pecking orders.

About the middle of October, when nighttime temperatures become cool enough to spur antlered bucks with fully grown winter fur to become more active, they begin their annual frenzy of marking intended breeding ranges with ground scrapes and antler rubs. With testosterone beginning to peak in their bloodstreams, making them more aggressive, dominant breeding bucks then begin forcing less-dominant antlered bucks to abandon their otherwise shared and overlapping home ranges, thus creating exclusive breeding ranges. The first of the three two-week periods, in which about 85 percent of mature and yearling does are bred, begins about November 3 in Minnesota and other northern states (later in southern states).

As difficult as it may seem to merely see mature bucks 3 1/2 years of age or older during hunting season, where they have not been forced to abandon their ranges or become nocturnal by hunters moving about on foot, they are not impossible to hunt.

In case you’re unfamiliar with our hunting procedures, we do things a bit differently than most other hunters. My four sons and I never hunt where we are not well concealed by natural cover downwind or crosswind (in a tree or on the ground), within easy shooting range of very fresh tracks and/or droppings made by a walking (unalarmed) mature buck. In addition, we end up using as many as 80 stand sites during our two-week hunts, thoroughly scouting 2 to 3 weeks before opening day. We also employ a special new way of scouting midday daily during a hunting season (made harmless by a wolf ruse). All of these considerations are vital perquisites to our hunting success.

While scouting in the home range of a particular buck in 1989, I discovered it was spending a great deal of time in the vicinity of landmarks I named Bunyan’s Marble and Horseshoe Valley. In October, several trails in the vicinity were recently marked with 4-inch hoofprints and 1-inch droppings—sizes only made by the largest of bucks in our hunting area.

Horseshoe Valley is a wide, grassy opening bordered on the north side by a large feeding area red with osiers much relished by our deer in winter. The south side is bordered by a steep-sided east/west, 20-foot high, partially bare granite ridge topped on its east end with a clump of tall evergreens. About 200 yards southeast of there, I discovered a grassy area in mixed timber full of 42- and 36-inch long deer beds—obviously the bedding area of a mature doe and fawn.

Because breeding would be in progress during our hunting season, I reasoned this doe might have some importance when I returned to hunt there in early November. These findings gave that clump of evergreens on the granite ridge the look of a likely mature-buck-effective stand site, but only while the wind is blowing from the east, northeast or north.

While returning to that granite ridge to make a final judgment, I discovered a deer trail on another east/west ridge south of there that rounded a large boulder, before descending a steep slope into a mossy alder swamp about 100 yards wide that separated the two ridges. I was able to make my way to the base of the granite ridge with almost complete silence, ending up only a few steps from the spot where I finally decided to sit on my backpacked stool when hunting there.

While approaching on that alder swamp trail in darkness of early morning, the beam of my flashlight and my movements would be completely hidden from deer in Horseshoe Valley, and the browse area beyond it, by the granite ridge in front of me.

I decided to sit behind the 20-inch-wide trunk of an ancient spruce tree with wide boughs hanging to the ground, forming a tepee-like space beneath it. At that spot, I could press my rifle stock against one side of that tree trunk for a rock-steady aim. Behind me, I would have a solid background of drooping boughs and trunks of other evergreens that would keep me from being sky-lighted, making my dark silhouette and any movements indistinguishable to deer out in front of me. There would be nothing new and different near my stand site to attract the attention of an approaching buck.

With that, I vacated the area, heading south across the alder swamp toward my deer camp a mile away. While following connecting deer trails the entire way, I placed fluorescent tacks low on tree trunks to guide me back in darkness in November, also tossing dead branches aside to help make my return as silent as possible.

A light breeze was blowing from the northeast on November 4, opening morning—perfect for stand hunting at Horseshoe Valley. I dressed light and stuffed my insulated hunting jacket into the packsack attached to my backpacked hunting stool to avoiding perspiring along the way. Following a quick, no-cooking-odor breakfast, I swung my stool to my back, grabbed my rifle and flashlight and stepped through the tent door opening saying, “Good luck guys. See you at noon.” About an hour later, I halted at the base of the granite ridge to turn off my flashlight and slip on my jacket (unzipped) and camo headnet before tiptoeing the last few steps into my blind. Upon silently placing my stool on the ground and sitting down on it, I was ready.

About 9 a.m., a mature doe trailed by a fawn slowly passed 20 yards away on my right, heading south (wolf country deer commonly head to bedding areas this early). Fifteen minutes later, a 13-point buck entered the far side of Horseshoe Valley about 100 yards north and turned to its left, unexpectedly heading east, quartering away. With my rifle braced against the trunk of the spruce tree and the crosshairs of my scope centered on a clear opening, halfway down the buck’s chest just behind its last rib, I fired. It dropped in its tracks.

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