Her Mainely Girl Adventures: The Curse of the Sunday Buck

By Staci Warren

I have been hunting for 16 years now, and although I’ve gotten my Grand Slam, I still don’t have a Big Buck Club patch. In fact, I’ve never harvested a deer bigger than 8 points. As many hunters do, I dream about shooting a big buck, but I’ve yet to figure out the secret to being at the right place at the right time. I scout. I hunt the wind. I try to be scent-free. I use buck lure and calls and try to be as quiet as possible. And when that doesn’t produce, I change it up by not using any call or lure at all. I hunt every morning and afternoon that my schedule allows, including sitting in the rain.

Staci Warren took a photo of this buck that she observed in 
Maine on a Sunday when hunting was not permitted during
deer season last fall. PHOTO BY STACI WARREN

I watch deer all season but the last three years, deer seemed to disappear as soon as rifle season started. The rut season seemed almost non-existent, with a handful of does moving early mornings and evenings.

Last year, three smaller bucks sporadically showed up on my cameras. I really thought there were no big bucks where I was hunting. With no intention on shooting a little buck, I started calling the curled spikehorn, Loki, and the young buck with a tall-webbed antler, Crab Claw. I had not seen Big Guy, the ten-point buck that had been in area for the last three years, until September and then I didn’t see him again all season. After seeing more big bucks than ever, tagged at the nearby store and posted on Facebook, I assumed Big Guy was one of them.

Prior to the season, I had moved stands. I moved cameras so that deer wouldn’t try to avoid them. Then once the season started, I bow-hunted and then rifle-hunted moving to different spots miles apart when I felt like I was over-hunting a spot. It didn’t seem to matter. All I ever saw were a few does, and spikehorn bucks.

Then came the first Sunday sighting. My husband, John, was checking his beaver traps. On his way back he spotted a big buck just staring at him. All he could do was watch him walk away. No rifle as it was Sunday.

The second Sunday buck arrived right after a rainstorm. A big eight-pointer with no brow tines showed for one day, during prime morning shooting hours when I would be sitting in my stand had it not been Sunday. He was a monster, and it was the first and last time I saw him on my camera.

Two weeks later, a small buck showed up 6:40 a.m. – when I’d be sitting in my stand had it not been Sunday. It ate acorns for a good half hour. That same morning, a big wide ten-point buck had strolled right by my stand at 6:04 a.m., before legal shooting hours.

Rifle season ended with no deer. I purchased a muzzleloader permit and spent the next two weeks chasing the dream of a big buck. Every time a buck showed up, I would be so excited that when the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. it was like the first day of hunting season all over again.

The next Sunday a buck chasing a doe filled my camera, which was also the first real rut action I had seen all season. I continued to see deer on my camera, but now they were strictly night images.

My season ended with seeing eight doe, two spikehorns, and a tall eight-pointer that I saw from my four- wheeler while checking traps. And of course, the bucks came back for a show once the season ended…on Sunday and every day after, of course.

Although I may not have harvested a buck, I’ve learned a lot about deer behavior—that they really do know when we aren’t in the woods. Since Sunday hunting probably will never happen, I can only hope that someday I’ll be able to outsmart a buck, or as others say, luck out. One thing’s for sure. There are big bucks where I hunt, at least on Sundays! My 2024 buck still didn’t get me my Big Buck Club patch, but it’s a beauty, and filled my freezer with meat for the next year, thankfully in time for the upcoming recession.

Congratulations to all of you who were successful in harvesting a deer this season.

Staci Warren provides a unique woman’s perspective and column on the outdoors every month. She is a freelance writer whose blog, My Mainely Girl Adventures, is about a woman hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging and living in the Maine outdoors. She also loves camping, star gazing, wildlife watching, and hunting for fossils. She’s an active member and board member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is a monthly columnist and feature writer for The Maine Sportsman Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys mentoring women hunters and trappers. <