Finding buck’s core area led to tagging 2015 trophy

Tyler Campbell of Mebane, N.C., killed one of North Carolina’s top archery bucks on Oct. 25, 2015, when he sent a broadhead through an Alamance County 11-pointer that scored 1562/8 net Boone and Crockett Club points.

“He was staying in a small core area,” he said. “Bucks have core areas, but they’re different sizes. I know experts have said the average size of a buck’s core area is one (square) mile, but I think it depends on the individual. They can be big or small.”

In his experience, 3½-year-old bucks travel a little more than upper-age class deer.

“Older bucks’ home ranges seem to be reduced,” he said. “If I seem them in summer and winter, I know I’m somewhere near their home range. In summer, it could be less than 100 acres. They’ll make excursions, but they still want to come back to their base home range. Most shifts depend on food sources or does during the rut.”

Campbell determined his 2015 buck’s main living space with trail cameras.

“I had pictures of him through the previous December, the next summer and early fall at three sites,” he said.

Once he knew the deer’s core area, Campbell planted three food plots to keep the buck interested in that region.

“He had everything he needed at a property that wasn’t that big,” he said.

Campbell didn’t hang a tree stand until he got a daylight trail-cam photo of the deer the third week of October.

“It killed me knowing I had a 160-inch deer and not hunting him, but I had to keep pressure to a minimum until the time was right,” he said.

He hunted a different stand on Oct. 24 and didn’t see the buck. The morning of Oct. 25, he didn’t hunt because the wind was wrong, but he went back that afternoon with a north/northwest wind and shot him.

Campbell said the key to success was knowing the transition when mature bucks become daylight active.

“There’s always a shift whenever bucks lose their velvet and bachelor groups break up,” Campbell said. “That shift happens around (mid-September). Their testosterone levels increase; they start making scrapes, and they run off 1 ½-year-old bucks.”