When Lady Luck Smiles: The Role of Fortune in Deer Hunting

Now let me make something crystal clear from the very beginning. Throughout the early part of my deer hunting career I had never put a whole lot of stock in the luck factor. That’s because the bulk of my personal success back in those days could be tied to one factor — and that factor was hard work.

But that being said, I’d like to quickly add that a time eventually did come when I could in no way, shape or form attribute my success to hard work. To put it in the simplest terms, I began having some very timely and much appreciated visits from something I took to calling “Lady Luck."

Now it bears mentioning that there had been far more occasions when luck didn’t factor into the equation all that much — when taking a mature whitetail was far from an easy task — and I mean not even close to easy! But then, in the end, I somehow got lucky.

I’ll readily admit that the luck factor has long intrigued me about the sport of pursuing trophy whitetails. And it’s a big reason why I’m such a huge fan of “Lady Luck.” I guess it’s because so many of my successful hunts for mature whitetails had came about as the result of hard work. But then there started being occasional instances when I honestly had to admit that luck had taken over, and I’m more than thankful that it did!

I certainly don’t mean to downplay the importance of hard work. I’m sure most serious trophy whitetail hunters can relate to what I mean here. On that note, I can’t even begin to tally up the amount of hours I’ve spent walking every inch of most of the areas I’ve hunted over the years. I also can’t begin to explain just how much those many walks told me about exactly how the resident deer, especially mature bucks, were traversing those areas.

And of course, there also are factors like pressure from other hunters, the presence of natural predators, shifts in feeding patterns and different phases of the rut that can also play a role in our success rates. For as most of us know so well, mature whitetails often undergo some fairly radical behavioral changes during the course of a hunting season. The key to realizing success during these hard times is to dig in and work just a bit harder at figuring out what “our” bucks are now doing.

Better Lucky Than Good?

But all that stuff being said, there definitely have been a fair amount of instances when I’ve had to accept the fact that “Lady Luck” definitely played a role in a successful hunt. In some instances that success came about during the first day or two of a hunt, and in others in didn’t happen until the latter stages of a hunt. But regardless of the timing, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I’d been blessed with a bit of luck.

The reason I mention the luck factor is because, in most instances, I had only five or six days to get the job done. This meant doing a bit of quick scouting, establishing a few stand sites in the most promising looking spots, and then crossing my fingers that my judgements were accurate. At the same time, however, I also said a prayer that Lady Luck would be looking out for me. Thankfully, that good ol’ girl definitely did swing the pendulum in my favor on more than just a few hunts.

Without a doubt, one of the luckiest hunts I’ve ever been on involves a buck I arrowed in South Dakota some years back (shown above). Initially my good friend, Pat West, had spotted that buck slightly after first morning daylight and had watched the deer bed down in a small patch of chest high prairie grass some 500 yards away.

After getting the lowdown on the situation from Pat, and then coming up with a game plan, videographer, Matt Tande, and I began our stalk on the buck. It was just about then when Lady Luck smiled on us. While there had been a very slight breeze just a bit earlier, it had now picked up to a fairly steady 15-20 mile per hour pace.

Keeping that wind in our face, Matt and I managed to sneak within a mere 10 yards of the patch of tall grass where the buck was bedded. After a bit of searching, I finally located him and was able to figure out that he was laying facing away from us at a slight quartering angle. And as luck would have it, there was one small opening through the grass that afforded me a clear shot. Thankfully, my arrow found its mark and I ended up putting my South Dakota archery tag on a dandy 11-point prairie whitetail.

Lady Luck Pays Another Visit

Believe it or not, I was fortunate to receive another surprise visit from Lady Luck in South Dakota during the state’s gun season. The time was Thanksgiving week, which meant the rut was still going strong and daytime deer activity was at its peak. So rather than take up a stand in a particular spot, Tande and I decided to park our butts on high vantage points and use our optics to search for rutting buck activity.

The first spot we picked out from which to employ our strategy did produce multiple sightings of rutting bucks on the prowl. Unfortunately, the bucks we were seeing weren’t up to the standards we knew the area could produce. So after several hours of not seeing a buck that interested us, we decided to head to a completely different area some miles away. This proved to be a very wise move.

The spot we eventually settled on was along a stretch of river bottom that we knew harbored a good population of whitetails. Breaking out our binoculars and a spotting scope, Matt and I got busy glassing the river bottom for deer activity. I doubt more than a few minutes had gone by before we spotted a small buck cruising through the bottoms. From that point forward we continued to see deer activity on a fairly regular basis throughout the morning.

I’d guess we’d been glassing for just a little over an hour before we finally spotted a big whitetail buck. Believe it or not, the buck was trying his best to hook up with an obviously hot mule deer doe that was being tended by a mature muley buck. Unfortunately for us, the activity was occurring on the opposite side of the river.

With no other option available, we jumped in my pickup and took off on a 30-minute drive that eventually put us on the other side of the river. Once there, we quickly grabbed our gear and made our way to the edge of a high cut bank that overlooked the river bottom area where we’d last seen the buck. To be very honest, I had some serious doubts the three deer would still be where we’d last seen them. But little did I know that Lady Luck was once again about to smile down on us.

Upon arriving at our destination, Matt and I quickly grabbed our gear and slowly made our way to the edge of the cut bank. A quick peek into the river bottom showed that all three deer were still there, but in some thick brush about 300 yards from us. So while Matt was getting his camera gear set up, I placed my .300 Mag rifle on a shooting tripod and kept track of what was going on below through my Swarovski scope.

I can’t recall exactly how long we watched the action that was taking place in the river bottom, but it quickly became apparent the three deer weren’t going anywhere. So I decided to wait and let Matt capture as much footage as possible before squeezing the trigger — and that’s when Lady Luck made yet another appearance.

To our surprise, the muley buck eventually led the doe to a spot directly below us, only 150 yards away. Even better, the big whitetail was right behind the doe. Waiting until he stopped walking, I centered the crosshairs on his vitals and gently squeezed the trigger. The big South Dakota whitetail ran only about 50 yards before falling to the ground. 

One More Time

I must admit to being a longtime fan of bowhunting whitetails during archery seasons that open the first week of September. The main reason I became so infatuated with his time frame is because there was a good chance of hunting bucks that would still be sporting their antler velvet — and trust me when I say that I am a huge fan of velvet bucks.

Once again, my long time run and gun partner — Matt Tande — was filming this particular hunt. That factor, along with the possibility of taking a velvet antlered buck, had my excitement level at full throttle. Interestingly, while most of the bucks we saw and filmed on that hunt had already shed their velvet, a certain big 8-point was still sporting his. And he was beautiful!

Earlier in the day, Matt and I had popped up a ground blind along the edge of small ‘tree island’ located in the middle of a lush alfalfa field where we’d seen the buck feeding the previous evening. While I was fairly confident we’d put the blind in the right spot, I also was a bit worried about eventually being winded by one (or more) of the dozens of deer that were visiting the field. But since we had no other option at our disposal, it was the ground blind or nothing.

As expected, deer first began appearing in the field not long after we got settled in the blind that afternoon. They continued to pile in for the next hour or so, and that’s just about when “Mr. Wonderful” strolled into view!

After giving our ground blind a brief bit of his attention, the big velvet 8-point promptly dropped his head and began chomping on alfalfa. He was still well out of bow range at this point, so all we could do was sit tight and hope for the best. But then things got just a bit interesting.

Apparently a doe had slipped into the field somewhere behind the blind and had gotten downwind of our position. And as is the whitetail’s nature, she immediately started blowing and stomping. Of course, this caused the expected reaction. Every other deer in the field immediately snapped their heads erect and stared in the doe’s direction. And that’s when Lady Luck smiled once again.

Rather than becoming alarmed, our target buck merely flicked his tail a few times and then went right back to filling his belly. Better yet, he was feeding directly toward us. To make a long story short, the velvet 8-point eventually fed to within 25 yards — which was a fatal mistake for him — and an incredibly lucky deal for us.

And Finally…

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what I consider to be one of my all-time luckiest whitetail hunts, which took place in southeast Montana. Now, I’m sure that after reading about the encounter many of you will agree that it is a true testament to the power of the hammer Lady Luck can swing at times.

So as the story goes, my videographer and I had arrived at our destination with a couple hours of evening daylight remaining. The time was early September, and our host for the hunt had filled us in about a large and lush alfalfa field that was located not far from his place. He encouraged us to quickly unpack our gear and then go set up some distance from the field and watch how the resident whitetails were accessing the field. Unbelievably, what we observed on that one evening put us in perfect position to take one of my best ever archery whitetails.

The deer in question had a huge 6x6 typical framed rack that also sported four additional stickers. While it was one thing to lay eyes on that giant whitetail, it was even more encouraging to see that he, along with three other pretty good bucks, were coming to the field well before sunset.

Based on what we’d observed the prior evening, Matt and I returned the next day and placed a ground blind amongst the many round bales that lay in the field. We’d paid very close attention to exactly where the giant whitetail had walked into the field the previous evening and placed our blind accordingly.

And then I did something I’d never done before on an early-season hunt. Trusting to how the giant whitetail behaved the previous evening, when we’d watched him bully almost all the other bucks in the field, I decided to place a buck decoy approximately 25 yards straight out in front of our blind. 

It wasn’t long after we’d climbed into the blind when deer began filtering out of a large chunk of thick cover several hundred yards away. The first of those deer were mostly antlerless, with a few smaller bucks bringing up the rear. But this situation changed just a bit later when a bachelor group of four bucks emerged from the cover. And as luck would have it, our target buck was bringing up the rear of the group.

Thankfully, the four bucks looked the ground blind over only briefly before continuing their march to the field. Once there, they immediately dropped their heads and began chowing down on lush green alfalfa. I seized that opportunity to take a quick reading on the big deer with my rangefinder, which showed the distance to be just a hair over 40 yards.

With virtually no hope of the buck getting any closer I decided to take my shot. After coming to full draw and getting settled in with my sight picture, I released an arrow. To say it was a great adrenalin rush to watch that arrow hit right where I intended would be a major understatement. But watching the big whitetail go down after running less than 100 yards was an even bigger rush!

Conclusion

I’ve related some of my experiences from just a handful of “luck-filled” hunts in this article. And to be very honest, there have been a number of other successful hunts where I couldn’t come up with any other explanation than luck to explain the eventual outcome.

Over the years I’ve heard hunters use a variety of words other than luck to sum up successful hunts. One guy I hunted with years ago said success was the result of always keeping a positive attitude. Another person I hunted with said something along the lines of luck being the result of possessing good “Ju-Ju” — whatever that is.

And then you back to the old saying of “it’s better to be lucky than good.” I can’t really say with absolute certainty which is better; whether a person is better off being lucky or good. However, I can’t — and won’t — argue that when it comes to hunting for mature whitetails, receiving an occasional visit from ‘Lady Luck’ definitely can be a gamechanger. And this particular whitetail hunter is going to take advantage of every ounce of luck the Grand Lady can bring my way!

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