The story is as old as hunting itself — a buck is just out of range.

Whether it’s the branch that didn’t get trimmed or the bush that is hiding the kill zone or some instinct that an old buck has, he didn’t take those final last steps for a good, clean shot.

If you have any spent any time in a stand, this has or will happen to you. There is nothing more baffling then having a buck — either one of lifetime or just a nice one — just out of range. Over the years we have been able to work on a list of little things that have worked and may be worth a try.

For as long as I can remember, Chautauqua County is known as the place where the weather changes every few minutes. This year has been no different. It seems just about every weekend we’ve either had a rain cloud over us or high winds.

The good news for archery hunters is that with the drop in temperatures and the Hunter-Moon phase, the deer have started their annual tango, also known as the rut. From what I have seen and from what others have shared with me, it looks like the staging of the rut is winding down and pre-rut activity is happening now.

The rut is the only time of the year that whitetail deer breed. Studies have shown that more than 80 percent of does are bred during the first rut in the northeast. Does have a particular 36-hour period when they are ready to be bred. If they don’t take during that time, they will be ready again in another 28 days and so on, until they are with fawn. Needless to say, during the rut, monster bucks that are secretive the remainder of the year are much less cautious. For those who hunt big bucks, the rut is often times the best and only chance to get a crack at that those unkillable deer.

The advent and drop of price of trail cameras has narrowed the learning curve for hunters. Having an extra pair of eyes in the woods 24/7 when I’m not there has made each time I go out more exciting. For the first time in many years I’m like a kid at Christmas each day I walk into the woods. Knowing what is in the area before you actually see him in person, really gives one the confidence that we all need for those long hours on a stand.

The joy of hunting with archery equipment during the rut is a true test of any hunting skill. It’s one thing to see deer chasing each other, but it’s another to get them close enough for an archery shot.

There are a few tricks and techniques hunters use each season in their attempt to harvest a buck. While there never is a short supply of new hunting products on the market, the majority are used to catch the hunter not the hunted.

Like any tricks or techniques, nothing works all the time. To make a call or anything work, you first to need to have deer in the area. This is where your preseason scouting comes into play. Again, understanding your area and knowing the deer in your area, where they feed and where they bed, knowing their escape routes and most importantly knowing where and how they get from point A to point B is very important.

Several years ago we started messing around with a technique that seemed to work to get bucks into archery range. It doesn’t just work on mature deer, but has good success on young deer also. The technique exploits a whitetail’s most basic instinct, which is to be a part of the breeding process.

The technique works something like this: A breeding call, a breeding bellow, then a series of grunts and a short rattling series. There are two different versions of this technique.

The first is breeding bellow, grunt, then rattle works best at mature bucks. I have discovered that a short series — 15 seconds — delay after breeding bellow before you start softly grunting works best. The hunter can get different sounding grunts by either blowing or sucking on the call. Two different sounding grunts is a must. It gives the visiting buck the feeling that two new boys are in town.

What you are trying to imitate is one doe being chased by two bucks. So you need to have a grunt call that can make a young buck and mature buck call, to give the allusion of two separate bucks. Make your series about a minute, throwing in a couple breeding bellows between grunts.

The other version of this technique is a shorter call series, followed by a rattling sequence, and ending with a couple grunts from each of the bucks. The whole deal should last know longer than 90 seconds, and the shorter the better. I have discovered that the longer you do the deal, the lower your success will be for overall whitewall sightings.

Younger deer will come into a short version, while they may not come into a longer version. It’s the old feeling of fear; a young buck doesn’t want to get his butt kicked by two old bucks. When they come into shorter version just watch the action.

Understanding what makes the male and female species tick during the rut will help you unfold the complex pieces of the rutting puzzles.

In the whitetails world breeding only takes place during a short period of time. The theories behind what triggers the rut are as widespread as the technique’s used to hunt them. Some folks say that the rut is triggered by the first snowfall. Others think it has to do with air temperature and some are convinced that it is based on the phases of the moon. And that’s just a few possible reasons.

Here in our part of the world I use a combination of many of these theories to come up with a date for the peak of the rut, and it’s based on the Hunter’s Moon. If one was to look into each of the theories one would find that around that time many of the other things happen.

Several years ago I started keeping close records of all my deer hunting weather, wind and deer movement. Looking back on these records I have noticed one thing that seems to keep popping up. I record more rutting activity around the end of October and first part of November.

To fully understand the rut is a full-time affair and life-long pursuit of the truth. Therein lies the difficulty. The rut is an ever-changing event. It changes because of the way whitetails spend their days and nights. The landscape of the whitetails’ world is ever -changing and we all need to make the adjustments to be successful.

Calling is a lost art, in my opinion, but the key to each series is to end everything with a couple breeding doe bellows. This lets every deer in the area know that receptive does are still in the area.

I have seen larger bucks hang back, while smaller bucks come running in to check out the action. So if you’re looking for a larger buck, you may want to wait before you shoot the first thing that comes through.

While this technique doesn’t work all the time it does work when there are deer in the area that are interested in breeding. Give it try, you might be surprised and let me know how you make out.