Several years later I was filming a hunt for Hunter's Specialties with my good friend Eddie Salter. It was peak rut time and Eddie wanted to set out a buck decoy topped with a large set of synthetic antlers. After dousing the decoy with scent eliminator to remove our human odor, we put the decoy out about 20 yards from our stand site in a highly visible area near a clover food plot. I proceeded to watch (and film) in amazement as the first mature buck to enter the field walked right past several other feeding does to confront what he thought was a potential rival. The big buck seemed oblivious to everything in the area except that decoy.

The following year, I was fortunate enough to fill my Ohio buck tag on the first day of a two-week vacation. With the rut kicking in, I didn't want to stay out of the field, so I set out with my buck decoy and video camera to do a little "catch and release" hunting. During this time off from work, I filmed nine different mature bucks, and all were attracted to the decoy and drawn within bow range.

Some mature bucks feel threatened by a potential rival and will at least investigate if not flat-out attack a stranger to their turf. The critical factor to me is antler size. You want the buck to look intimidating. Most hard-shell buck decoys come with fairly small antlers. I'll sometimes modify these decoys by adding real sheds or synthetic rattling antlers.

Without a doubt, the realization of the effectiveness of using a buck decoy has been my most important discovery in my time as a deer hunter!

LATE-SEASON BOWHUNTING
Every year I tell myself that if I don't see something that I really want early in the season, I'm going to stick it out until the late season, because that's when the big bucks become somewhat easy to pattern and hunting pressure is low.

To date, I still don't have a whole lot of experience with late-season hunting, but I have friends who always seem to score late, and they seem to see more trophy-class bucks consistently during this time than I have during any rut I've ever hunted. Finding preferred food is the key to late season success.

WHICH WEEK TO HUNT?
If you could hunt only one week out of the year, which week should it be?

For the last 20 years or so, I've scheduled time off from work the last few days in October and beginning weeks of November. In most areas of the Midwest, this would be considered the pre-rut stage, when active buck sign is plentiful.

As secretary of Ohio's Buckeye Big Buck Club, I process close to 1,000 score sheets per year entered into our state record book. Our minimum score requirements are 140 net B&C inches for a typical and 160 net B&C inches for a non-typical. Both of these minimums represent true trophy bucks by most standards.

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