5 reasons why the white-tailed deer is Canada’s favourite big-game animal

#4  THE OPTIONS

Speaking of decoys, they’ve become standard gear among some whitetail hunters, while others choose to ignore them. I’m a big believer in their value. These days, I use a single buck decoy most often. Two falls ago, I was hunting from a ground blind on a 20-yard-wide alley through a 160-acre block of trees, with my decoy placed a mere 35 yards away. On three successive mornings, I had a buck walk right up to my decoy, each one larger than the one before. The third buck was a decent 5×5 that I probably should have taken, but for reasons I can’t fully explain, I didn’t. Perhaps at the time I thought that an even bigger buck would appear the following morning, but naturally, that just didn’t happen.

Those were just three of literally dozens of deer I’ve had investigate my decoys over the seasons, and I’ll continue to include them in my whitetail-hunting arsenal. By responding to decoys, whitetails give me the luxury of deciding whether to shoot, and that again adds to their appeal as a big-game animal.