Photo by Mark Werner.

"Bucks with nocturnal tendencies are impossible to kill," my buddy grumbled.

Central Florida's deer season was almost over. Since late November, neither of us had even laid eyes on a buck with legal antlers. We both knew the area held at least two 8-pointers. During archery season, we'd spotted the two bucks half a dozen times, but they never presented a good shot opportunity.

We also spotted the bucks several times during the firearms season. However, it was always during evening hours -- in our headlights, as they crossed a dirt road on the wildlife management area we hunted.

The bucks were living here, no question about that. But in order to harvest them, we had to see them during the hunting season -- and during legal shooting hours!

On the last week of the hunting season, I finally did connect with a healthy 6-pointer. For me, it was truly a bittersweet victory that did not come without hard-core scouting and long hours on stand.

Talk to any die-hard hunters of Central-Florida WMAs, and they'll tell you that hunting public land around these parts in the late season can be downright tough. Those who achieve consistent success during the late season are indeed true woodsmen who have fine-tuned the skill of getting close to pressured bucks.

TIME OF YEAR & HUNTING PRESSURE
I'm a firm believer that it's easier to harvest a mature buck during the early archery season than perhaps any other time of the hunting season.

With today's quality archery equipment, potential for accuracy has greatly increased.

Firearms do provide additional range, but when hunting Florida's thick subtropical setting, short shots are often the norm anyway.

During the early season, deer are doubtless much more relaxed, having had several months to recover from the previous season's hunting pressure. Also, their soft and hard mast food sources, being readily available, tend to concentrate whitetails' feeding activity. Those facts combined make opportunities much more likely for a shot at mature bucks.

Starting around early November, things change in a hurry. Hunting pressure heats up from those wearing orange vests. By the time mid-December rolls around on central-Florida WMAs, mast food sources dwindle, and bucks have experienced loads of hunting pressure.

As the hunting season progresses, deer reaction to human intrusions becomes obvious. Yet some hunters have trouble grasping how severe the impact on deer behavior can be.

In most areas of Florida, a mature whitetail buck has few natural predators. In regions where coyote or wild dog populations are high, does and fawns take it on the chin. But a healthy mature buck can usually thwart an attack.

Coyote attacks can come at anytime -- day or night -- so adopting a nocturnal habit would do little in the way of avoidance. A mature buck often expresses concern when a coyote enters his comfort zone, but his reaction doesn't compare to his reaction to a human presence.

Mature bucks all but unzip out of their skin -- no doubt due to encounters they experienced earlier, during their adolescence.

A buck fortunate enough to have survived multiple brushes with death over two or three hunting seasons understands that it can avoid danger by simply avoiding the daytime altogether. Severe hunting pressure promotes nocturnal behavior in whitetail bucks -- plain and simple.

So how can savvy hunters with the desire and fortitude to pursue whitetail bucks late in the Central Florida firearms season cope with this seemingly impenetrable nighttime armor?

MATURE BUCK BEHAVIOR
For just a moment, put yourself in an older buck's position. Over the course of the last three to four years or more, he's likely traversed every inch of his home range. At one time or another, he has encountered humans during daylight hours, or at least detected human scent.