Growing up, once the calendar hit December, I would always focus my full attention to doe hunting for the entire month because killing a buck in December, especially in Michigan, seemed like an impossible task. Let me remind you though, these were the days that I would be in the stand every evening I possibly could and it didn’t matter if it was cold or warm, windy or calm, and what direction the wind was blowing. I wanted to kill as many does as I could in that month, and my thought was the more time I spent in the stand, the better the chance I had.
“You can’t kill them sitting on the couch.” How naïve I was in those days trying to fill doe tags and never seeing bucks in the last month of the season. I remember one specific December I hunted 19 different days while I was on my college winter break; I was able fill a couple doe tags, but I didn’t see one buck the entire month. NOT ONE BUCK IN NINETEEN SITS. What I didn’t know at the time was how much harm I was doing to the properties I hunted by pressuring them so heavily after shotgun season had concluded. If there’s ever a time to give your property a break, its after the 15 day onslaught that naturally comes in the state of Michigan every year between November 15th and November 30th. Am I telling you not hunt in December? No, look at the title of the article; I want you to fill a tag in December, but if there’s ever a month to hunt smart and not hunt hard, this is the month to do it.
This buck was harvested by a good buddy of mine, Blake Ledger, on December 8th on public land in Michigan. Find a sanctuary and you’ll find the bucks.
I believe a common phrase should be, “Can you kill them on the couch? No. However, you can increase your odds of killing a mature buck by staying home now and then.”
Over the years, I started educating myself by reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, and approaching each hunt as an opportunity to learn something new about deer, their patterns, and the habitat in which they surround themselves. I learned the importance of sanctuaries and food sources, and how absolutely crucial they are to whitetails, especially during firearm season and throughout the winter. It really hit me a few years ago when I was sitting close to a primary bedding area that we now leave as a sanctuary year around for the deer; it was a very cold December evening during Muzzleloader season, and I had given the property a long break after normal firearm season in November. I was doe hunting per the usual, but two hours before dark I saw a six point buck come and feed in the cut corn field that butted-up to the bedding area. I couldn’t believe my eyes; a buck in mid-December showing himself on a food source at 3:30 pm. He ended up just being the first of SIX bucks I ended up seeing that night, and two of them were nice 2.5 year old bucks. I hadn’t even seen that many bucks in one sit on my best rut hunt of the year. The perfect combination of a food source next to a sanctuary on a very cold December night ended up putting multiple bucks on their feet before dark.
That leads me to my main point, you have to hunt December kind of like you hunted evenings in October. Be patient, and hunt smart, not hard; Wait for the cold fronts to go hunt over your food source that is closest to a primary bedding area. The only difference is the cold fronts this time of year have a lot more bite in them than they did in October, but that’s when you’re going to find that big guy on his feet in daylight. If temperatures have been hovering in the mid-30s most of the month, wait until you have that day where temps drop into the low 20s or lower before you go hunt over that food source. When the temperature drops to bitterly cold temps, it forces the deer to intake more calories, which will lead them to getting on their feet earlier in the day to go chow down.
All that scouting you did last February to find where the deer were bedding, where they were feeding all winter long, and the trails they used to get from bed to feed; this is when you use that knowledge to your advantage. Find those sanctuaries, because there are plenty of them out there on both public and private land. That swamp nobody dove into all gun season because it was too wet or thick, well that’s where the deer are. Anywhere there hasn’t been hunter activity is where you’ll find the deer this time of year. Locate those spots, find the closest food source, and wait for the coldest few days of the month to go hunt over that food source, or in a transition area leading to the food source.
If you’re patient, toughen up and embrace the cold weather this month, you might not have to eat that buck tag after all. I don’t want to take anything away from doe hunting either, I’ll still do plenty of it this month to fill my freezer. If filling a buck tag is the goal though, stay away from those sanctuaries until the time is right, and when those temperatures drop to uncomfortable levels of cold, remember it’s uncomfortable for the deer as well and they’ll feel the need to feed, so that’s when you take advantage of the opportunity to fill that tag. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, time is ticking down, but there’s still plenty of time left to celebrate with your friends around a buck hanging from the rafters of your garage.
Stay warm, stay safe, and happy hunting.