Who wants to go to an unfamiliar area and shoot a trophy buck? That's easy to answer: practically everyone. But now for the part that's a little harder: making it happen.

As discussed in Part 1, trophy success in "foreign territory" can be boiled down to a simple formula: habitat that holds trophy bucks + minimal hunting pressure + the right time of the season + smart scouting = a reasonable chance for success.

In Part 1, we looked at how to select a promising location, which is a logical starting point; as anyone who's spent much time in the deer woods knows, being in the right spot goes a long way toward curing what ails you as a trophy hunter. Often, though, finding the right place isn't enough. Limited scouting and hunting time, lack of familiarity with a new piece of land, unpredictable weather and the fact that you're targeting trophy bucks add up to a true challenge in filling a tag. This is particularly true if you'll be hanging your own stands, rather than relying on a guide or outfitter to do it for you.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
Once a hunting area has been chosen, anticipating which food sources will be hottest and knowing in which rut phase your hunt will occur are the next steps to success.

Regardless of the rut phase, food clearly plays an important role in determining whitetail patterns. This is true even during the peak of breeding. Granted, bucks might be more interested in does than in eating then, but you can bet those does still are feeding heavily and spending most of their time near prime food sources. Where the "hot" does are is where bucks eventually will be as well.

In taking this big Missouri buck, the author proved that his away-from-home hunting strategy can pay off. Photo courtesy of Steve Bartylla.

Along these same lines, understanding which phase of the rut a hunt will cover has a huge bearing on our ability to anticipate buck behavior. During the early pre-rut and all of post-rut periods, hunting a specific buck's travel corridor between food and bedding is most effective. During the middle portions of pre-rut, it's often necessary to hunt his bedding area to catch daylight movement. As the latter stages of pre-rut come, scrape hunting can be hot. Finally, hunting doe concentrations is a productive way to stack the odds during the chaos of the breeding phase.

The point is, if we can anticipate which food sources will be the hottest and which rut phase will be occurring, we can make stand choices that improve our odds of seeing the buck of a lifetime.

Another key is to use scouting time as effectively as possible. The very nature of most away-from-home hunting trips limits the amount of time spent hunting, much less scouting. In the woods behind your house, you can afford to wander aimlessly as you scout for deer sign; this just isn't true when time is extremely limited. The success realized from a trip often comes down to how effectively the limited time you have is utilized.

When hunting trophy bucks, it's not the quantity of sign that's important, but the quality. At any time of season other than during the active breeding phase, I'd much rather set up on a faint trail with a few large rubs or other big-buck sign than watch a heavily worn trail. Yes, the odds of seeing a lot of deer on a faint trail are poor, but the odds of seeing the big guy there are much better. This holds just as true when on a far-away hunt as it does on the "back 80." Linking the "right" sign with the phase of the rut is a prerequisite to consistent success.

Finally, as important as it is to use limited scouting time wisely, it's just as critical to make the most of what will be limited hunting time. You'll need stands for any conceivable weather condition or wind direction. It's little consolation to get to your dream location only to be told that "the wind never has blown from the east for eight days straight before" or "we hardly ever see such warm weather in November." Having a potential stand site ready for any situation can save what otherwise might have been a disastrous hunt.

REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
With these thoughts in mind, let's return to where we left off in Part 1, my 2000 bowhunt at Bucks & Beards Outfitters in north-central Missouri.

If you read Part 1, you might recall that I was afforded an opportunity to hunt some promising new ground with this operation that year. After a weekend scouting trip in August 2000 to get a general feel for the habitat and the deer herd, I was truly looking forward to hunting the property.

I live in Wisconsin, many hundreds of miles from this land, so I couldn't do as much scouting as I'd have preferred. But even though it was difficult to break away again before my hunt, the benefits of taking one more scouting trip made it too important to ignore. So, early October once again found cameraman Brent Forsman and me scouring the Missouri woods. The hunt itself was to take place during the first week of November.

When hunting a new area, I often consult a local expert, such as a wildlife biologist, to determine which phase of the rut cycle can be expected during the time of my hunt. However, having hunted the upper Midwest for many years, I knew my planned hunting period would coincide with the last days of pre-rut and even possibly spill over into the chasing phase.

This knowledge was crucial in selecting stand sites for my hunt, because it allowed us to target specific areas to scout. Strategically placed funnels are always a good bet as breeding nears. Also, the bucks would be checking on does then, so the food sources and bedding areas they frequent at that time of year would be attractive. Finally, we needed to locate established buck travel routes and bedding areas to cover all of the bases.

Making the most of our limited scouting time was key. As stated last month, aerial photos and maps were studied well before we ever set foot onto the property, providing us with a checklist of potential food sources, funnels, likely bedding areas and travel corridors to scout.

One of the greatest tricks in scouting new land is determining which food sources will be hot when it's time to hunt. As opposed to the case in midsummer, the woods are full of visible sign in early October. However, much of that sign is based on where deer are feeding. That early scrape line leading to the corn field is of little use if most of the daytime feeding activity a month later will be occurring on the oak ridges.

Speaking to local farmers about which crops deer feed on during that time of year and when those crops typically are harvested is a good first step. A phone call to the area deer biologist also can yield beneficial information on which deer foods figure to be powerful draws at that time of season.

But if all else fails, getting out there, inspecting the habitat and using a combination of woodsmanship and common sense is needed. For example, as we glassed the oaks during our October visit, it became apparent that the few remaining acorns would be gone before our November hunt. However, it did appear that several late-maturing crabapple trees would still be good, the bean field would continue to provide scraps of feed and the unplanted fields would be producing succulent cool-season grasses and forbs (weeds).

With this information in hand, we could make educated guesses as to which sign still would apply when we returned, as well as anticipate areas that would be seeing increased deer activity then. All of that enabled us to prepare numerous stand sites in early October.

One of the author's proven scouting tricks is to set up mock scrapes in potential stand areas, then check to see if mature bucks are hitting them. Photo courtesy of Steve Bartylla.

Taking things a step farther, we also constructed mock scrapes at each site, to use as scouting tools. The scrapes were to provide a gauge of mature buck activity in the area when we returned.

Again, selecting a stand site a month in advance, particularly in a new area, is little more than an educated guess. Not all stands will pan out, but the benefits of having locations prepared are very real, both in terms of time saved and allowing for undetected setup while hunting.

Leaving Missouri with that accomplished, we were as ready for the hunt as our limited time would allow.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
When November finally arrived, Brent and I were eager to get started. All we had done was in preparation for this magical time. There was still more to do, though.

Some might view scouting during a hunt as sacrilege. However, I feel it's needed to ensure that the time actually spent on stand is most productive. So, for the first two days of my hunt, several hours in the morning and late afternoon were all we spent in stands. The midday hours were spent checking locations earmarked for stands back in October. Regardless of the amount of deer sign present at a location, if mature buck sign was absent, no tree stand was hung.

Fortunately, the mock scrapes had done their job well in indicating hotspots. Depending on them alone for the first few days, we were able to see several nice bucks. There were even two occasions during which borderline shooters presented me with shot opportunities, but it was still early in the trip, and I decided to hold out. Such decisions often result in going home with an unfilled tag; however, I knew there were some truly magnificent bucks in the area, and it was still early and the conditions hadn't yet been right to hunt the stand I believed held the most promise.

On the fourth day of the hunt, having spent the morning hanging stands in a hard rain, I headed back to camp. Each time before I crawl into a stand I take all possible precautions to eliminate human scent, including showering, spraying myself with odor neutralizer, brushing my teeth with either baking soda or water and eating an apple. Finally, I dress in treated clothes to wear while driving to the location I intend to hunt, get out of the truck, dress in my carbon suit, put on my boots, spray my equipment with odor neutralizer and head into the woods.

This abbreviated description of my routine might seem like a lot of trouble to go through just to hunt, but it has saved me from being busted by deer more times than I could tell you. I must work very hard to put myself into position to see mature bucks, and I do my best to avoid blowing it when that happens.

I headed out for my river-bottom stand, which I'd hung in a funnel along the edge of the bedding area. As I approached the stand, I laid a scent trail of estrous scent from the family group bedding area to the mock scrape I'd freshened when placing the stand.

I was already very confident with this stand. It was in one of those spots you just look at and know they're right, and seeing the size of the fresh tracks in the mock scrape sent my confidence soaring even higher. Although this had been the stand I wanted to sit the most, I'd waited until everything was right to hunt it.

Because there could be deer bedding very close to the stand, I wanted to sneak in quietly, and the morning's rain had made that possible. With the wind blowing away from the bedding area, the skies overcast and a cold front moving in, I couldn't have asked for better hunting conditions.

After settling in, I spent the next three hours watching squirrels. Then, with another hour left before dark, a steady drizzle began to fall. Next thing I knew, there he was. Emerging from the bedding area, nose to the ground as he followed my scent trail, was a definite "shooter."

In order to cover the entire funnel I'd had to place my stand in relatively open woods with less-than-optimum cover, but I hoped the mock scrape would draw the deer's attention away from me while I drew on him.

At 20 yards the buck stopped, and my heart sank as he lifted his head. From my testing of the wind just moments earlier, I knew that if he was going to smell me, this was where he'd do it. I was certain that he was picking up his head to get a better whiff of the foreign odor he must have detected.

You can imagine my relief as he turned his head back toward the bedding area. Now the problem was a dense mat of limbs that separated us. I didn't want to let down my draw and then have to draw again; that much movement surely would spook him. However, I never take a quartering-in shot.

Then I caught the break I needed. Horseshoeing the front half of his body around to get a better look into the bedding area, the deer offered a good angle to his vitals. Now the question was, could I get an arrow through that jungle of sticks?

I saw I had a softball-sized opening halfway between us, and luckily it was lined up perfectly with his vitals. I released, and as the buck jumped, kicked and started running away, I knew he was mine. I saw him drop after a run of less than 40 yards.

CONCLUSION
This thrilling hunt typifies how everything sometimes falls into place on an away-from-home trophy hunt. Granted, often we're not so lucky, no matter how well we prepare; however, to a large extent our luck is what we make it. By putting in the effort to select a quality area and then taking the right steps to make the most of scouting time, perhaps you, too, can be a little luckier on your future deer hunts far from home.