Just as he did with his grandson, Dr. Ken Nordberg will clue us in on ways to scout big bucks mid-season.

After my 13-year-old grandson, Jacob, fired a shot to chase away a big wolf sneaking up on him on opening morning last November (2021), instead of heading directly back to camp, I decided to show him some of what mid-hunt scouting was all about.

Almost immediately upon stepping onto an old deer stand site approach trail we call the Oak Ridge trail, we discovered the ground scrape that had been renewed annually by dominant breeding bucks for 31 years (having clumps of moss pawed 10 to 20 feet from the scrape). After explaining to Jacob why bucks make scrapes, and why new dominant breeding bucks commonly make scrapes at exact sites made by previous dominant breeding bucks (at sites certain to be discovered by other bucks), we continued past a brush blind my son and I had constructed about 20 years ago. About 50 yards past this blind, we came upon some fresh, inch-long deer droppings.

“This,” I then whispered to Jacob, pointing at the droppings, “is one of the deer signs your uncles John, Dave, Ken and I most hope to find during a deer hunting season. Being an inch long, they were made by a trophy-class buck (worthy of taxidermy), probably a 10-pointer or better weighing about 300 pounds (a common weight for such bucks in this region). They are shiny, meaning they were probably made minutes to a few hours ago.

“Today, because of global warming and wolves, it’s difficult to know when this buck might use this trail again. I’m going to check this trail for fresh droppings and hoofprints about four inches long a time or two during the coming week. If I find such signs, this might be a trail this buck regularly uses while searching for does now in heat. Being the only deer trail in this area that connects the old clear-cut north of here, still a popular whitetail feeding (browse) area, with the old clear-cut south of here, named the Lonesome Pine clear-cut, this trail, along which I’ve taken bucks in the past, might provide an opportunity to take a big buck this year.”

“Why do you name everything?” Jacob then asked me.

“It makes it easy for us to explain to one another more precisely where sites we are talking about are located in this wilderness region. Back in camp, if I told you to take the Moose Willow Trail to the junction of the Oak Ridge Trail and then head south to the first brush blind, you would now know exactly how to get there. Without such information, you’d never find it and probably become lost. See how names work? This is a very important part of what you must learn to become an able woodsman.”

Three days later, I discovered a very fresh, 4-inch-long track in mud at the junction of Oak Ridge and Totem Pole trails, likely made by the same big buck that made the 1-inch droppings Jacob and I found, there being so few bucks of this class currently remaining in our study/hunting area. The buck had been heading south toward the Lonesome Pine clear-cut. Logically, shortcuts or single trails between once-favored clear-cuts (typically browse areas in November) will be used by mature bucks searching for does in heat in November, portions of which are likely to be browse areas, and maybe even bedding areas, of today’s herded nocturnal does with young if near water.

Three days later, my son, John, had been close to a big buck with 4-inch hoofprints at two stand sites—one near the upper end of Totem Pole trail and the other a couple hundred yards northeast of where the wolf stalked Jacob opening morning. It was almost certainly the same buck I saw accompanying a doe in the dark about a mile west, three days earlier. This was one of two sets of similar coincidences involving two big, different bucks that finally convinced me we should quit changing stand sites every half day, and begin stand hunting at least three consecutive days, near any of the few trails that have been used by a mature buck during the previous three days.

These trails reminded me of many scrape (and rub) trails made by dominant breeding bucks that I had previously studied. Originally, two to three of these trails coursed through and connected widely separated doe home ranges. Many connecting trails were selected because they were shortcuts across alder swamps, spruce bogs and stream crossings (fords)—trails that would enable mature bucks to most quickly find does in heat with the least amount of effort. Some were long-used Nordberg cruise trails coursing through dense timber, brush, alder swamps and spruce bogs and stand site approach trails such as the Oak Ridge Trail. Older bucks with large antlers appreciate deer trails kept clear by hunters.

Trails that funnel or concentrate travels of deer also tend to be much used by older bucks while does are in heat. The mature buck and doe I spotted in the dark while heading to a stand site were on a much-tracked path pinched between one side of an enormous spruce bog, and a cattail swamp on the opposite side that connected with multiple deer trails that spread out in extensive highlands at both ends.

Any trail that connects a number of highland deer trails that come together at one end of a narrow ridge across an otherwise difficult to cross elder swamp, that also connects with branching deer trails on large highlands on both ends, is such a trail. A trail through a narrow canyon or saddle area between high hills or mountains is also a funnel trail. Any funnel trail that connects two large areas inhabited by does is certain to be a favorite of a mature buck from early September to late December; and especially during the first two of the three two-week periods does are in heat. Trails with screening cover that hides whitetails all or much of the way while crossing openings between forested areas are also funnel trails or crossings.

Buck trail hubs—junctions of two or more trails often used by mature bucks—also concentrate buck movements. The big buck accompanying the doe in heat that passed in front me at first light one morning last November (described earlier) used of one those trails to head north the following morning, beginning a new search for a doe in heat in the surrounding two-square-mile area. That junction will be about 50 yards upwind of my first or second-used stand site next November.

To simplify matters, any deer trail with more than one set of fresh and old tracks 3 3/8 to 4 inches long, and clumps of droppings 5/8 to 1 1/8 inches long, is a buck trail. Those with 3 3/4- to 4-inch-long tracks (not including indentations made by dewclaws) and 3/4- to 1-1/8-inch-long droppings are dominant breeding buck (trophy buck) trails.

Before our new age of whitetail hunting wrought by worsening global warming and desperately hungry wolves began in 2018, my sons and I keyed on trails used by mature bucks leading to current favorite feeding areas of does early or late in the day while breeding was in progress, and bedding areas of does currently accompanied by a dominant breeding buck during midday. This year, we will hunt buck trails and watering spots from dark to dark, three days in a row, and begin seriously testing the expected effectiveness of four new, large-group, stand hunting methods.

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