I never have good luck finding December bucks. I can find does all day and night but the bucks are tough. I've seen a few chasing still. I've been doing some calling but the ratio is so out of wack it does little good. I have two does already I might shoot a third but I would like to hold out for awhile yet. What do you guys look for. I know bedding areas close to food source is a good place to start but what else. There is to many nice bucks running around my area to call it quits and shoot doe number three just yet.

Well Tipup if there are so many nice bucks running around your area what ratio are you talking about ? Sounds like your ratio is pretty good. What I look for is so many nice bucks running around my area. Ok, I'll square up with you. It's called nocturnal, pressured deer and even without pressure I believe south of a line where the huge forest areas begin, deer, mainly the what's left alive bucks really go into night mode. I have seen more in 2 days hunting, all does and fawns, just from 4-5:12 pm then I did rifle hunting mornings and evenings for 5 days. Best bet I think is to set up down wind as close to where you believe the buck(s) are bedding, if it's calm that can sometimes be tough to do. I get to my morning stand on a windy day 1/2 hour before shooting light and on a calm day an hour before shooting light, I'm figuring the first hour of light is the best bet in my farm country and the last hour. Most of the December bucks I've encountered have been extremely wary, usually seeing them deep in the swamp or river bottom, it only takes a deer a minute or 2 to cover a mile if they want to so if they have a dependable food source they aren't too worried about getting a jump on filling their tank in the corn field, now does and fawns seem to filter out there at least some nights in shooting light, the bucks seem to lag behind. Tipup unless you have a lot of year after year quality hunting land that is rarely disturbed getting a December buck is difficult because they seem to stay hunkered down during shooting light and about 100,000 of them are deceased already, many others shot at and missed, and their nose is hard to beat,( I don't know how many bucks are taken by bow,gun,cars,wolves,poachers,and now musket guns,etc.each year) they walk around most nights smelling their home range and they know if the area has been disturbed. I'd say put in your time A.M. and P.M. and there isn't a whole lot more you can do, best of luck ! Just my experiences, go with your gut, I have had the all-season license and have muzzleloaded each year ever since, not sure how many years that includes but last year was the first year I took a musket buck and I put in tons of time which was nearly as rewarding as finally getting a shot and completing it, only musket shot I have taken. But took maybe 8-10 years for it to happen, and I've seen only 5 bucks muzzleloading, 4 immatures and last years buck that I luckily got, 9 minutes after shooting light began. Patience Mr. Tipup

This may not help this year but I have learned a lot about my area by getting on a good sized set of tracks and see where they take you. This is of course the hard part because there are not too many of those large tracks around but if you can find one it could really help out down the road. Either follow them or backtrack him to see where he came from. You might ruin your chance for him this year but you can learn some priceless information for next years late season hunt. And who knows you might just get a crack at him this year if you are lucky.

I agree with musky. If the bucks have been pressured, we need very cold weather to get them to move during the day. The forecast is predicting a high of 15 last weekend of muzzleloader. Hopefully that will be cold enough to get them on their feet moving.

I rarely see antlers in December either. Last year I called in a spike on the 16th but aside from him, all does & fawns. This year it could be tough getting close to anything unless we get some snow pretty quick. Backtracking in the snow is a great tool to learn how undisturbed deer move.

Well the deer we see are not all to pressured. The land west and south of me is a good 800 acres af county park. Land east is protected for now. To the north a guy hunts first season his two buddys hunt second season. The other property north is protected. So very little pressure. You can't go by tracks we dressed does that are 6 to 7 years old and one two years ago dressed out at 203 pounds. So tracks mean very little here. But until 5 years ago this farm was hunted hard. But now we are the only two of hunting it. We saw more quality buck this year than ever. During the rut it was nuts. I saw a 160 class buck that sprinted past my stand a 10 yards chasing a 130 class buck. But theese deer are nocternal all season until the rut. So it must go back to that pattern in December. What in the heck are we going to do.

you have a pic of that 200 lb doe?

I'd like to see some pics too, not calling you a liar but that is a little unbelievable.

Lighten up guys, its tough to judge weight on the hoof. It was a big doe, leave it at that.

December hunting means finding where the deer are eating, its cold out, they want to chow down.

He said dressed at 203... Not judged on the hoof.

Ya a 200lbs live weight doe I could see but a dressed out doe at 203 seems like a world record. Heck 9 out of 10 guys who say their buck dressed out at 200 are usually wrong.

I think I would've whistled that near boone and crockett buck to a stop and forget about muzzleloading !

i would love to see pics of that

Think like a mature buck, what or why will they be on the hoof during shooting light? Food source but even then they more times than not will wait for complete darkness to move. 2nd rut although in 25 years I have never seen a buck chasing a doe in December so that's a tough one to pattern, sure it happens, just most often after dark. Add snow to the mix and the deer in my area get even more nocturnal unless it's ultra cold and they have to work a little harder to fill their stomach, then I see more activity although it's still generally does and fawns. This 800 acres of county park, is that open to the public ? Even heavy pheasant pressure can alarm the deer. If not that 800 acres is a sanctuary that they will leave most likely only after dark and return bedded down by daybreak. North of you is pressured enough that the deer will be alert to say the least, I guess what I'm getting at is there is a big difference between the word "deer" and mature buck, big difference. There isn't much anyone can do to put a mature buck on it's feet unless you can make a drive, which more times than not don't produce regularly in regards to mature bucks. You're lucky to have someone who hunts with you able to jerk the jaw bone out and age the deer for you. Another interesting part is what happened to the guys that hunted that so hard, if friendly with any of them, ask them what worked best. Should've whistled that 160 buck to stop and nail it, heck with muzzleloader. That buck was less than the length of a ruler to making the B @ C record book ? If you are willing to shoot that buck now, why not shoot it then ?

They are tough, usually the last few years have been cold enough that the deer are moving a little before last light. This year I havent seen a deer on its feet before 5pm. None in the morning. It has been fairly warm and with no snow its even harder. There are deer as i can go out after dark and look at them with the spotlight.

I feel there was less pressure this year around us as last year, but we are seeing hardly any deer sitting at nights. Even on one field i sit on the deer were out at 345-4pm last year and this year they don't get to it until 5ish. I was walking back to the pickup and then they were crossing the trail. Its been a tough year around our area. Lots of crops, warmish weather.

If you are seeing does there are bucks there to, but they tend to wait until after all the others are out in the field. Check them with a spotlight an hour or so after dark, should be some bucks by then. We wouldn't see a couple bucks last year out until 9pm on the fields. They were coming about 2 miles to feed. Only bumped them once and never saw them again.