The buck fed out into the pasture on my side of the creek a full hour before sunset. It was the same buck that guide Dan Ardrey and I had seen near the very same spot the evening before and the same one Dan had seen about 300 yards to the south while he was waiting for me climb down from the stand I'd put up in the morning's darkness. It had been 15 degrees below zero then. Luckily Colorado's Eastern Plains had warmed at least 40 degrees during the day and now felt almost balmy.

The buck was indeed tremendous, much bigger than I had thought when I'd seen him the evening before as Dan and I glassed from his truck window. After watching him feed for several minutes it dawned on me that this was the biggest typical whitetail I had ever seen while sitting in a tree stand. Now things just needed to fall into place because the buck was 200 yards to my south.

It was the second to last day of my Colorado hunt and we were leaving nothing to chance. After dropping me off, Dan had driven to the other side of the 1/4 mile wide creek bend where the buck was living. He planned to make a very slow walk around the outside of the bend in the hopes that anything in the creek or already feeding in the pasture would see him and move my way.

I saw Dan rounding the bend before the deer did and braced myself for what might happen next. First to see him were the two does in what had grown to a group of five feeding deer. When they started my way I knew things looked very promising. Shortly the bucks spotted the top of Dan's head and the whole group followed. As they came five abreast, the buck homed in on my low stand in the crooked cottonwood like I had him on a leash. When the dust settled moments later I'd arrowed him at a range of only three yards!

That hunt took place four days before Christmas last season and the ranch we were hunting had seen the constant pressure of an early bow season and two different rifle seasons. What finally made that buck vulnerable was the cold temperatures of late December that forced him to let his guard down and feed in the open during daylight hours. Finding a feeding buck is one of two effective late season strategies.

Hoping For The Cold - The Feeding Pattern Factor

As winter takes a firm grip on the land, a deer's metabolic rate will slow down, ultimately allowing it to reduce its activity level and conserve fat stores. The first hard cold snap of winter starts the transition, but it takes weeks to complete. During this period, deer will be forced to feed heavily, almost desperately, in an effort to fuel their still-high metabolic rates. Knowing how to take advantage of this opportunity is one key to late-season success.

Find the buck: "First I try to find an unharvested crop field, such as standing corn," said Tony Knight, inventor of the Knight muzzleloading rifle and a late season deer expert. "These areas always pull in deer. If I can't find standing corn I'll scout areas where I've seen good bucks earlier in the season.

"I'm hunting a lot during the bow season, and when the late season comes I'll check the same areas where I found bucks during October. This should be their home range - and they'll return to these places after the rut and the regular firearms season have ended."

Setting up the ambush: Just as Dan and I did in Colorado, you need to spend some time trying to get a visual sighting to go with any sign you may have found. Watch a possible feeding area from downwind. Remember, these are extremely wary deer. With the first hint of human intrusion, the buck will be back on a nocturnal pattern, or simply shift to a different feeding area.

The location you choose for your stand or ground blind should be a spot that you can hunt more than once without spooking non-target deer. In other words, your stand should be downwind of all active deer trails - another reason to spend an evening or two observing the food source before choosing a stand location.

Entry and exit routes are the most important part of stand placement during the late-season. Getting to the stand undetected is usually not too tough, but getting out can be another matter. Hopefully - if you've indeed found a good spot - there'll be deer in front of you, complicating things considerably. Take advantage of tree lines, low swales, ditches, creek bottoms and any other form of cover or terrain feature than will keep you out of sight.

Often you won't see deer using a feeding area simply because they aren't coming out until after dark. This is common shortly after the regular firearms season closes and during spells of warm weather. When bucks are strictly nocturnal you have to take the hunt to them.

Tracking and Still Hunting Tips

Still-hunting tips: Still-hunting requires exceptional patience and a level of concentration that can be exhausting. Only when you learn to slow down and spend long minutes studying each new scene before moving another couple of steps will you really be successful. Every shadow or object that "just seems out of place" has to be studied until a branch turns into an antler or goes back to just being a branch again. It takes discipline to grind your normally hectic life into first gear, but the reward is a therapeutic and deeply satisfying relationship with your surroundings - not to mention the prospect of taking a deer on it's own terms.

Your goal, of course, is to spot deer before they spot you. A good pair of binoculars can make a big difference, allowing you to see right through cover. Learn to concentrate on any shape or color that seems a little out of the ordinary. I've spotted bedded bucks when all that was visible was an ear.

The best time to still-hunt is when deer are most likely on their feet: early and late in the day. It is very tough to slip in on a bedded deer when you don't know he's there. Spend most of your still-hunting time near areas where deer bed. But be forewarned, your presence will definitely have an impact on their habits. If you bust deer, and you probably will from time to time, they'll likely stop using that bedding area for several days to come.

Tracking tips: In areas where snow is common during the late-season, each fresh snowfall brings the opportunity to try a very proactive and exciting hunting method.

You can use the tracks as a way to fall in behind a buck and dog him in hopes of catching him in his bed. This is a lot of fun and you'll learn plenty about buck behavior that'll benefit you in coming seasons. Despite these positive aspects of following right on a track it's not likely to produce a shot. Bucks are known to monitor their back-trail, and they'll often bed where they can see anything that might be following. Usually you'll find only an empty bed at the end of the trail - and a set of running tracks leaving it.

You don't have to walk right on top of a set of fresh tracks to take advantage of the information they offer. Assuming you're hunting an area you know fairly well, start looking for tracks at a well-used feeding area. When you find a big set that likely belong to a buck you should have a pretty good idea where he went. From the location and direction of tracks, take an educated guess at where the buck is bedding. Instead of trying to sneak in along his back-trail - circle around, get the wind right and stalk the area with the assumption that he's going to be there. Keep your pace slow and look ahead often with binoculars.

If you don't know where bucks are likely to bed in the area you're hunting, you can still use tracks to your advantage. Still-hunt parallel to their course, about 50 yards to the downwind side. Whenever you see a terrain or cover feature ahead, such as a ridge, knob or heavy thicket, that might serve as a bedding area, swing wide downwind and make a careful approach.

Late-season hunting requires dedication, but it is a very rewarding and relaxing time to be in the deer woods. It's not too late to put a trophy on the wall and venison in your freezer.

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