Rutledge's well-corroborated theory: Territorial whitetails find the fresh dominant buck urine in their ground scrapes and come in to investigate the new buck in the area.

"It's pertinent to get some topo maps and learn the lay of the land wherever you are hunting," he advised. "Use the maps to find pinch points, travel corridors, buck sign, bedding and feeding areas and then put it all together by connecting the dots. I try to solve the crime, so to speak, by putting all of the evidence together like a detective would -- and then solving the crime by bagging that big buck!"

Muzzleloader hunters have to keep in mind that they're chasing well-educated whitetails. Close to 200,000 deer will be harvested during the firearms portion of the deer season; the three-quarters of a million or so deer left will be gun-shy, and will likely be holding close to thick cover.

SUMMARY
The conservation areas described in this article compose a unique group, in that at each, only muzzleloading and archery methods are legal means of deer hunting. This fact alone increases the smokepoler's odds of harvesting a deer this season. Why? First off, none of the nearly 500,000 participants in the November portion of the modern firearms deer season hunted these CAs and put their deer on high alert. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that those modern-firearms guys weren't hunting these lands, so they didn't kill the deer there. Further, these areas may act as sanctuaries for deer fleeing surrounding private lands, which were under heavily pressure during the November portion of the firearms deer season.

If you love deer hunting, and like spending quality time in the outdoors, the 10-day muzzleloader season is just what the doctor ordered. There are no guarantees that you'll harvest a buck from these areas, but if you use some good commonsense hunting tactics like those proposed by Alex Rutledge, you'll be one step closer to bagging your muzzleloader buck this season!

(Editor's Note: The author is editor of Missouri Deer Hunter magazine. Contact him through the publication's Web site, www.modeerhunter. com).