Ken Roddey and his son, Seth, with some of Roddey’s trophy bucks. Photo by Bennett Kirkpatrick

Clouds floated overhead at the Wilderness Hunt Club in a place the club members called "the intersection." Ken Roddey climbed 20 feet up in a tree, and settled in for an afternoon hunt.

The rut was in full swing in the Piedmont and it was a "doe day," so the stage was set. It wasn't long before Roddey spotted movement -- a doe stepped into sight. He watched her for a while to see if a buck was following her. Eventually, seeing no antlers, Roddey decided he needed some meat for the freezer and shot the doe.

His attention was on the downed doe, but suddenly he realized that another deer was not too far out in front of his stand. When he focused on the deer, his adrenaline went into high gear.

He counted eight long points on a massive rack. When Roddey fired, the deer was almost in spitting distance at a scant 10 yards. The buck tipped the scales at 165 pounds. In what turned out to be a perfect afternoon, Roddey had killed a pair of whitetails -- one of each sex.

Although perfect days can happen to any hunter, they tend to occur more often for hunters who work hard, hunt whenever they can, and who pay attention to detail.

Rock Hill's Ken Roddey is such a hunter. Although he hunts several other states in addition to South Carolina, he believes that the fundamentals of hunting a trophy whitetail are basically the same wherever you hunt.

The first fundamental is scouting. Like many of the most successful hunters, he scouts anytime he is in the woods, and he tries to be in the woods a good deal. Part of his strategy for big deer involves how he hunts the rut, so signs that a given area is in a mature buck's breeding range are of particular interest.

For example, he is on constant lookout for big rubs that are higher than usual on a large tree. Rubs like this are made in a trophy buck's home territory. Even if the rub is from last year, it is well worth your attention, Roddey believes, as big bucks will quite often use the same area year after year.

During the deer season, a large scrape that is free of leaves, and shows signs of fresh use, is another thing to look for.

He also scouts during other times of the year while doing other things. When he hunts turkeys in the spring, he looks for deer sign. In the fall, he uses binoculars to check to see which oak trees have a good crop of acorns. Any types of acorns are good, though, of course, white oak nuts are the sweetest and best. Fruits such as persimmon, grapes, locust, apples and pears are favorite deer foods, too. Does flock to fruit trees and bucks will search for them there.

Even among hunters who have seen sign and know the food sources the deer are using sometimes miss an important next step in Roddey's hunting process during the rut: They don't actually hunt enough.

"I don't care how good the sign is, you have to physically be there when the trophy buck makes a mistake and shows up during daylight. It takes time and patience in the woods to accomplish this," he said.

Roddey tries to take a week off during the rut to hunt.

"The more time you have to hunt, the more dramatically you increase your odds to kill a trophy. The person who only can hunt one time a week can rarely compete with a hunter who can hunt every day," he noted.

During that week, he focuses on known sign, but he avoids hunting the same tree twice. As the week progresses, if he hasn't killed a buck, he'll choose stand sites that are closer and closer to where he believes the deer are bedding.

And stand selection is another key element in his strategy, particularly as over the years he has come to hunt more and more with a compound bow, even during rifle season.

"I like to get up close and personal on a deer; it really excites me when they get within 25 yards, which is the maximum range that I will let an arrow fly," he said. "I like to climb 20 to 25 feet up in a straight tree that is free of poison ivy and that has some cover from another tree to better camouflage my position and reduce the chance of my being scented. A cedar next to a pine is a good choice for a cover tree."