ESPN Hunting

The rutting frenzy in all of its November glory has come and gone for another year.

But that doesn't mean that you should hang up your bow, rifle or muzzleloader just yet.

With a few weeks of late season hunting remaining in most areas, hard core deer hunters can still fill the freezer — and perhaps that empty space on the wall — well before St. Nick arrives in time for Christmas morning.

Take Mike Benson, for instance.

On the last Friday evening of the 2008-2009 Texas deer season, Benson guarded a food rich area hoping for one final crack at a big whitetail on his farm.

After a very slow sit, the North Texas physician found himself weary from a season of hunting hard, the holiday rush, and the demands of his busy medical practice.

But just as the good doctor was thinking of calling it quits a few minutes early, he noticed movement in front of his blind.

One well placed arrow later and Benson was tagging a non-typical Boone and Crockett, a 201 1/8 inch bruiser of a buck.

Not bad for an early January hunt — weeks after the rut.

But Benson's B&C qualifier at the tail end of last season isn't as much of an exception to the rule as many hunters might think.

For those with the patience and endurance necessary to sit on a cold late season stand, the results can often offer surprising rewards.

Pike County, Illi., bowhunter Bob McElfresh is a prime example of how good late season can be.

As a guide for Rick Womble's Hopewell Views Hunting Club, McElfresh is busy helping hunters get into treestands in late October and most of November as the pre-rut and rutting frenzy arrives.

Because of that, McElfresh has made a career out of tagging bruiser bucks before and after the busy times of the Illinois deer season.

And with a wall full of heavy-horned monarchs to his credit, the 36-year old hunter certainly knows how to practice what he preaches.

And what he preaches for late season hunting is simply this: find the local chow hall.

"I'm always trying to figure out where they are feeding," McElfresh said. "Most of our farms are CRP lands and there are just a few places with crops."

When the Hopewell Views guide discovers where the current whitetail banquet table is, he will then hunt the late season much as he does the early season.

And that's by climbing into a treestand near a food source in the evening and into a stand somewhere between a food source and deer bedding areas in the morning.

The colder the temperatures get, like during the current arctic blast gripping much of the nation, the more likely deer are to spend time out in the open during daylight hours.

They'll do so, of course, to feed heavily on hot food sources to keep their internal combustion engines stoked up against the deadly chill of Old Man Winter.

In the Midwest, such hot food sources are often picked corn and soybean fields where leftover nuggets await hungry deer.

But winter food plots can also lure whitetails in. So can natural food sources like the beans from thorny locust trees, a food source that McElfresh has used to his advantage more than once in the late season. In fact, the Pike County big buck guru has killed some of his best bucks — his current wallhanger collection includes more than a dozen Pope and Young qualifiers and four Boone and Crockett qualifiers — while hunting over such food sources in bitter cold conditions.

Some of those hunts have been with plenty of snow on the ground, temperatures hovering near zero, and brutal wind chills.

But the payoff for McElfresh has proven to be heart warming along with plenty of antler inches to boot.

If food sources are a primary key to late season hunting, another is the whitetail breeding cycle.

As in the secondary rut that occurs when does that weren't bred in November cycle again approximately 28 days later.

Dallas, Texas deer hunter Sherman Wyman used that trick to his advantage on Christmas Eve 2005 as the 44-year old sat in a blind on his moderate sized low-fenced ranch in northwestern Texas.

Before Santa had warmed his sleigh up later that evening, Wyman had already tagged a late afternoon Christmas present for himself — a Boone and Crockett non-typical buck netting 226 4/8 inches.

As impressive as that deer was — it was one of the top bucks reported in Texas that year — it isn't the only bruiser buck that Wyman has seen so late in the season.

"I've shot a lot of big deer around Christmas time," Wyman said. "(Up in North Texas), everyone thinks once Thanksgiving or the first of December has come and gone, you're done."

Obviously not.

Why is Wyman successful in mid to late December?

First, he looks for reopened scrapes like the one that he was actually hunting over in December 2005 when "Big Daddy" came calling.

Second, like McElfresh does in Illinois, the Texan identifies and hunts near the preferred natural food sources as mature bucks try to fatten back up again after the rut's rigors.

Third, Wyman relies on the fact that there are often a few late-born fawns coming into their first estrous at this time, something that a mature buck will certainly take notice of.

And finally, the diligent hunter punches the clock until the season's final bell has rung.

"How many guys do you know that were out on a (North Texas) deer stand on Christmas Eve?" Wyman queried.

Only those hunters whose inner primal fires burn hot enough to drive them out into the late season woods in hopes of tagging a buzzer beater buck.

Of course, it also pays to keep in mind that big bucks aren't the only fair game in much of America's deer country as December 25 approaches.

And that means that empty freezers can have their yawning spaces filled by hunters willing to tag an antlerless deer or two.

Topeka, Kansas deer hunter Braeden Ingold did just that earlier this month, settling the crosshairs of his rifle scope on a big Sunflower State doe.

With his dad Casey looked on, the younger Ingold tripped the trigger on a true shot that helped to not only manage the populous deer herd in northeastern Kansas but to also put some succulent venison on the family's holiday table.

So whatever the final outcome, be it big antlers for the wall or larder for the table, as long as deer season remains open this year, there's ample reason to leave the warmth of the fireside and get afield.

Because somewhere out there, for the hunter who is diligent, patient and willing to employ the right hunting tactics, there is a Christmas buck or doe awaiting a hunter's tag.