There is another kind of late season hunting--one I really enjoy. Late seasons (or later in the season, depending upon the area) such as those in Canada, Texas, Mexico, parts of Alabama and other southern locales provide fantastic whitetail hunting. In these places you have a chance at hunting during a primary or possibly a secondary rut.

Hunting tactics for late-season hunts where the breeding activity takes place do not vary from those that occurred earlier in the fall. You simply have to be mentally and physically prepared for whatever adverse weather conditions come your way.

In western Canada--primarily in the provinces of Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan--the rut occurs during mid to late November. In parts of Alabama, especially the area known as the "Black Belt," the rut takes place during late January, usually the last few days of the season. In southern Texas and bordering northern Mexico, the rut takes place in late December and extends into January.

Are these late-season hunts? Certainly. Over the past 30 or so years I have had the opportunity to hunt several prime late-season rut-hunting or post-rut locations throughout North America The late-season rut can certainly be a sight to behold when bucks are actively chasing does.

Techniques during this time can vary, but if there is one secret, it's finding does. Find does during late-season rut hunts, and you'll find bucks. Where do you find does? Look for food sources. Food and sex are the two strongest urges in the animal world. Survival? Yes that's important too, but to deer and the deer herd there is no survival without food or procreation. As a younger man, I remember attending church-sponsored socials in our rural neighborhood. Men and women gathered on church grounds because of the food, but for the unwed there was also the opportunity to meet, visit and perhaps later pursue women. Food and sex--pretty good formulas and combinations, especially when it comes to hunting late-season whitetails in areas where the breeding season occurs late in the year.

C±????hat whitetail does have spent the better part of the year producing, nurturing and rearing fawns. In the fall or early winter, fawns are weaned. That accomplished, the does needs to put on weight to make it through the rigors of the winter and replenish body nutrients for the upcoming breeding season. Thus, does search out quality and quantity food areas--natural or man-made. As the does gather, bucks follow. I have hunted in northern Canada late in the season where we watched feed stations that offered alfalfa hay and various grains. I've seen bucks--even sizeable, mature bucks--utilize these feeding stations, but I have always wondered how many quality bucks were hanging back in the brush and waiting for dark before visiting these feed stations.

Perhaps the older, wilier bucks do in Canada what I've seen mature bucks do farther south. Quite often I have seen and shot mature big-antlered bucks near food plots or feeding stations. The key word here is "near"; these big bucks fed at such places only under the cover of darkness.

If there's a storm coming, drop everything and get into the field. Whitetails will be feeding heavily as major fronts approach.

That doesn't mean these cagey bucks are not in the area of the food plots--they are. But rather than enter the open feeding areas during daylight hours, they wait in a staging area or along trails used by does. During the breeding season they check every doe going into the feeding area well before she gets there.

To discover such a staging area, locate a major trail coming into a food plot, then follow it into the woods until you find where several trails join. Then start looking for tracks that indicate a deer has paced back and forth across those trails, not along them.

Usually such tracks indicate where an old buck has set himself up to check all the does that pass for signs of estrus. If he finds one, he will chase her farther into the woods, away from feeding areas where younger bucks might interfere. Staging areas are where you want to set up a stand because it is here you will see bucks that would otherwise enter feeding areas only after dark.

This technique works in the post-rut, too. After the rut is over, bucks are run down, and they have to replenish fat lost during the rigors of the rut. They're hungry, but now with minds unclouded by sex, they are extremely cautious and unlikely to expose themselves to danger.

By then they have also probably seen bucks shot in the food plots, and while they want what is in the field, they will not go into it until dark. Once again, they will stage near the food plot to stage until dark.

Now, if the rut's still on in the late season, remember that you can still use the techniques you'd employ earlier in the fall. Rattling right before and sometimes right after the peak of the rut brings some bucks running; grunts can also draw bucks in. Secondary ruts--when does that didn't conceive in the first rut become sexually active again--usually occur late in the season. Quite often this is when certain older bucks that had "disappeared" during the regular seasons suddenly show up, and in cases where a secondary rut coincides with an open season, you're in for some fabulous deer hunting.

No matter how good a hunter you are, you're probably going to have years when the season is on the wane and you have an unfilled tag in your pocket. Regardless of what conditions you face, the best piece advice I can give you for shooting late-season bucks is this: Never give up.