Whitetail Wizard

Friday, June 30, 2006

Is Calling Deer For You?

If you’ve never used a grunt tube to call bucks, you may be surprised in two ways: the call, properly used at the correct time, can call a buck within easy bow range.

The second way to be surprised is the sounds the call makes. It vaguely reminds one of ... ah, how to put this delicately? Ah, ah, let’s see ... ah, well, ah, sort of like someone four hours after eating beans.

There, that’s out of the way. For a first-time buck grunter, one often spends the first sequence of calling smiling and silently giggling. Just often enough, a grunt call will effectively pull a nice buck close enough for a decent shot.

There are two things to bear in mind about using a grunt call. No sounds you can make will scare deer away. The second thing is that it works best if you can see a buck.

Here’s the scenario. You are sitting in a ground blind or tree stand, and spot a buck some distance away. A low grunt, break and grunt again for three or four seconds may stop the buck.

If the wandering buck stops, appears indecisive about what to do, wait and see what it will do. An amazing thing about grunt calls is that one buck will come to the call, and another one won’t. You always work on the basic philosophy that this antlered critter is one that will.

Watch the deer. The animal knows precisely where the sound comes from, and may work his way cautiously or on a dead run toward you. If the buck walks, trots or runs in your direction, do nothing but get prepared for a shot.

However, if the buck looks around and acts as if doesn’t know what it heard, wait. If the buck turns, and starts walking away, blow another sequence of calls but do so softly. If the buck stops, turns around and looks, wait to see if he will come. If he turns to walk away, give another calling sequence but even softer than before.

That often is all it takes to turn a deer around. Watching how a buck reacts to the deer call is very important. Once they start coming in your direction, get ready for a shot because the buck may move to within 10 feet of your position.

There are any number of grunt calls available. There are calls that a hunter can blow into, but they can freeze up in cold weather. Other grunt calls work by inhaling air through the calls. A few have both features where authentic sounding calls can be made by inhaling and exhaling. This gives a very realistic tending buck grunt.

One company believes that most bucks are never found in trees, and it has an inhale tube that passes through 18 feet of rubber tubing so the call appears to be coming from ground level. This call appeals to me simply because it come from ground level, and a buddy of mine never sits over 15 feet off the ground and he calls bucks to him regularly.

According to my friend the best time to call bucks is prior to the rut. Bucks, he says, pay little attention to a grunt call during the rut and post-run periods.

Grunting with a nearby deer decoy can be deadly early in the season until just before the rut begins. This same man, who shall remain anonymous by his wishes, uses a deer decoy and a long-tubed grunt call at the same time.

He positions the deer decoy according to his desire to shoot a buck or a doe. Bucks will almost always circle and come to a doe decoy from the rear. He uses a small strip of white towel, and tacks it to the hind end of the doe decoy. The cloth is saturated with some type of doe-in-heat lure, and he strings 6-pound mono from him to a screw eye to an overhanging branch near the decoys rump. He ties one end of the mono to the white cloth strip, runs it through the screw eye(s), and to his position in the tree.

If a buck is spotted, he gives a grunt sequences, making it soft and guttural sounding. Once the buck looks his way, he gently pulls on the mono line, and the combination of a grunt, the sex lure and a moving white strip of cloth on the doe’s rump, and it looks like a doe flicking its tail. Bucks often move in with caution.

My buddy thinks calling can be overdone. He begins with a short and soft muffled grunt that last one or two seconds, a pause, another longer and slightly louder drawn-out grunt that lasts several seconds, another pause, and a soft and short grunt, and that’s it. If needed, repeat the sequence again, but call every 30 minutes. Sometimes blind calling will attract a buck passing through the area but is still out of sight.

Using a grunt call isn’t for everyone. If you feel self-conscious, leave it home. It the sounds doesn’t bother you, and you wish to add one more tool to your deer-hunting arsenal, give it a try.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Learn How To Settle The Nerves Before Shooting

It happens each year on my deer ranch. A great, huge buck walks out in front of a hunter, and he or she freezes.

Such occasions can literally shock a bow hunters into immobility. They can’t think, can’t remember what to do, and if they do anything at all, it’s usually the wrong thing.

Do you believe it can’t happen to you? I could point (although I never would) to many who have choked on a big buck. It happens, and some might call it buck fever. I tend to think it is more aptly described as “big-buck shock.”

Those who are least affected by it are people who have killed many deer with a bow. Every movement they make is carefully calculated, and they move without haste but the never waste a moment, and when the bow comes to full draw, and they zero in of the buck, it’s a dead animal.

They never think about the antlers, the width of the spread or the number of points on massive beams. All that has already been noted, and they make the instant decision to shoot or don’t shoot.

If their choice is to shoot, they zero automatically on the heart-lung area, gauge the distance accurately, and touch the trigger release. You see, they know they can kill that buck. There’s no argument about it; the deer is dead if they caress the release trigger.

It’s rather difficult these days to see enough racks to cure the jitters when a big buck walks in within bow range. So if it’s impossible to always hunt where big bucks roam, what is the second choice?

That’s an easy one. Hunt where plenty of deer—both bucks and does—are found. Looking at a buck or doe at close range, and learning when to make your draw and shoot, is easy if you hunt where deer are plentiful. A buddy of mine learned how to shoot deer with a bow by drawing down on every deer that came within range of his stand.

An old-timer had passed along the tip, and he began practicing his draw while hunting an area with many deer. He often would see 15-20 deer in one evening within 20 yards of his ground blind or tree stand. He began drawing on each one as it walked by.

He scared a bunch of deer because he was always drawing when deer were standing, head-up, and looking around. Gradually, as deer after deer passed his stand, he could draw on each one without being spotted. That gave him the necessary edge needed to shoot a big buck.

To this day, and he has been bow hunting for 50 years, he still draws on every deer within range. Once, to a doubting hunter, he drew on 26 bucks, does and fawns that walked under his tree, and shot the 27th deer that passed his way. The other hunter didn’t think it was possible so he video-taped the episode. To this day he still doesn’t believe what the video has proved to him.

Of course, hunting in an area with plenty of deer usually doesn’t mean many big bucks. However, the close proximity to many deer provide countless opportunities to practice your draw. The more you practice on deer of all sizes, the less likely a hunter will be to go into big-buck shock when a wall-hanger walks by.

Hunting is as much a state of mind as it is skill at shooting a bow and being in an area where big bucks live. One of my friends passed up a number of very nice bucks last year before he finally shot a dandy. He had seen enough deer during the season that he didn’t fold when the big buck stepped out and offered him a close shot.

This type of practice is easy if you can gain permission to hunt in some of Michigan’s lower tiers of counties. Draw an east-west line from Port Huron to Flint to Holland and to Lake Michigan, and hunt south of that line, and almost every southern county has too many deer.

Granted, it may be tough getting permission to hunt, but if you do, guard it jealously, and begin your education that can lead to arrowing a trophy buck. This southern area is loaded with deer, and annually produces most of the state’s trophy bucks, and now is the time to start getting hunter permission.

Wait until September, and you’ll be the big loser. Someone else with more get up and go will have got up and gone to talk to landowners. They are the ones to be jealous of because they can and will learn how not to be affected by big-buck shock.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Deer In The Food Plots

Is a food plot for you? It’s a great question, and although we grow corn, clover, oats and winter wheat here on the ranch, we’ve experimented with wonderful results with Imperial Brand Whitetail Clover.

But a fenced enclosure and open land are two different things. I talked to outdoor writer Dave Richey < [url=http://www.daverichey.com]http://www.daverichey.com[/url] >, and he agreed to talk with me concerning the food plot issue.

“The deer come at all hours of the day and night,” Richey said. “It’s not uncommon to see whitetail deer foraging at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m.

“Some come walking in while others move stealthily through thick cover, but our green fields are magnets for deer. There are fawns, does, button bucks, and large bucks.”

He said they come because the abundance of rain has produced a highly nutritious blend of good food to eat. What they find to eat is full of protein, and high in the things that are good for deer.

“Many people think corn is great for deer, and it is,” he said. “However, it’s not as high in nutrition and protein levels as many other things that deer could eat. Soy beans or navy beans are eaten almost as fast as they can grow in my neighbor’s fields, and deer love bean fields.

“Specialty blends of alfalfa like Imperial Brand Whitetail Clover, Imperial No-Plow, Imperial Extreme, Alfa-Rack, Chicory Plus, Rape, Brassica, and many other foods are formulated to help deer grow to larger sizes with bigger racks. And don’t forget, what is good for deer is good for other birds and critters.”

He said that he and his neighbor add to their good food sources some mineral-vitamin supplements such as Imperial Cutting Edge and 30-06 or 30-06 Mineral-Vitamin supplement, and the stage is set for growing big deer with increasingly better antlers.

“The food plot program is great but sportsmen can boost their food sources by planting alfalfa, barley, beans, corn, forbs, oats, peas, ryegrass, sorghum, sunflowers and winter wheat,” he said. “Add to this mix some plantings of fruit trees, and you’ve got the best of a well-rounded diet for whitetail deer.”

There is a common phrase that states: “Grow it, and the deer will come.” That is only partially correct. Growing crops, and tending to weeds, is a continuous battle.

“My neighbor and I had a couple of years when there wasn’t enough lime added to the soil for proper plant growth.” Richey said. “And then there was a year when our fertilizer mix was off-key and the crops didn’t grow according to our plans, but the past two years we’ve finally got the proper methodology down pat, and we have excellent growth.

“In addition to our Imperial Whitetail products such as the clover, Alfa-Rack and No-Plow, we also have corn, soy beans, sunflowers and winter wheat. This provides a wonderful mix of foods, and wild apples are abundant in a number of locations, as are beechnuts.”

He said that thinning their trees initiated new growth, and the understory was soon awash with briars, brambles and berry bushes. On occasion, they even saw deer moving into their yards to munch on the grass.

Richey said several major brush piles were constructed once the trees were cut down, and the tops provided excellent winter forage. He had the brush piled up, and not only did the tree tops offer food but the huge piles of tops provided some winter cover as well.

They’ve had one cutting so far, and will have at least one and perhaps two more cuttings before fall. They also add a few bales of second-cutting alfalfa and clover in strategic spots where deer will have easy access to them when the cold winds blow and the snow is deep.

“Putting in food plots helps us put something back into our land,” he said. “We enjoy seeing the deer, and even though very few bucks are taken by us, we are helping to grow some dandy racks. It helps our grouse and cottontails, and we enjoy the work.

“Just watching the deer, and the fawns during the summer months, is 10 times more fun than watching television. Almost every day we see the results of our work, and our sweat equity is paying off.”

Monday, June 26, 2006

Reading Deer Sign & Interpreting It

Reading deer sign is something that has always made sense to me. It gives me more knowledge of the animals, where they feed, where they travel, and in the end, it’s this knowledge that makes hunters more successful.

I’m so mindful of a big buck from several years ago. I’d seen him on two or three occasions but didn’t know where he lived. It took me a week of reading October deer sign to pin down his whereabouts.

The area was in fairly heavy cover. I knew the buck had an exceptional 10-point spread, and reasoned he would be working over some big trees to strengthen his neck muscles before the rut began.

I’d moved slowly through the heavy cover without seeing much buck sign except for a few small rubs on some tag alders. I came out the other side of the tag alders, and entered a 25-yard by 25-yard stand of cedars and pines. That is when I worked out this whitetail puzzle.

One of the cedars was scarred by a pre-rutting buck. Lower limbs were broken off, and the trunk was scrubbed hard from a foot above ground to five feet off the ground. Mind you, I couldn’t circle my arms around the tree trunk. This gigantic rub was truly huge.

Checking around was a faint trail that rain toward another cedar, and it too was rubbed by the same buck. Three trees within 25 yards formed a minor rub line, and the trail had exited the cover I had just walked through. This buck was leaving the tag alder to rub the cedar and pine trees, and most likely, the deer was moving out just before dark.

A nearby tree was perfect for a stand. There would be no clattering and banging required to erect a tree stand here. I’d attach a rope to my bow and my belt loop, lay the bow down flat, climb 10 feet up the tree and stand on two thick parallel limbs that grow close together. Another limb came out at waist level, and I could stand on two limbs and lean back against the other one.

Two nights later as the sun was sinking into the western sky I caught the glint of sunlight hitting brownish-white antlers. The buck went to the first tree, thrashed it hard for several minutes, looked around, and went to the second tree and repeated the process. Fifteen minutes later it arrived at the tree just 15 yards upwind of me.

It took a minute for the buck to rake the tree to a pile of fuzzy bark curlings at the base. He nosed his handiwork, lifted his head, moved around the tree to work on the opposite side. The deer was quartering-away at 15 yards, and it was an easy shot.

It’s not my policy to advise anyone to stand on cedar or pine boughs and lean against another one, and I don’t suggest you follow my lead. However, I knew the limbs would support me for one evening of hunting. I was certain it would lead to a shot at the big buck on the first night.

That buck was a creature of habit, and such habits can put a deer in trouble. Once the buck stopped rubbing and visiting the nearby scrape, this idea wouldn’t have worked. My adventure with that big buck was timed perfectly, and that is where knowing something about the rutting activity comes in handy. From the end of October through mid-November, that tree might not have paid off as the buck hazed does through open fields and thick cover.

Hunting one buck is an adventure, a matter of going after them one on one. It means knowing as much about the area as is possible, and being able to translate that knowledge into an action plan.

There are countless other ways of reading deer sign that will pay off in a big way, and we’ll cover some other examples in the weeks to come. The important thing to realize is that studying deer sign is as much a part of deer hunting as carrying a bow into the woods.

Be alert to deer sign, read what it says, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a better deer hunter.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Welcome To My World Of Whitetail Deer

It is hard to believe that this weblog on hunting whitetail deer has been up and running daily since last September. It has, and each day I jot down topics for blog consideration in the months ahead.

I’ve been hunting whitetails for over six decades, and have studied the animals for even longer. I hunt every day of the bow and firearm seasons, and must be sick in bed to miss a day in the field.

Most of my whitetail deer hunting has occurred here in Michigan, and on my 1,000 acres, although I’ve killed deer in other states. I own a high-fenced area, manage my personal deer herd for quality, and am proud of it.

I manufacture the C.P. Oneida Eagle Bows, and have an archery shop in Marion, Michigan, 15 miles southeast of Cadillac. It’s my habit to study deer every day, and along the way, I’ve learned some deer hunting tricks that can pay off.

It’s some of these observations and hunting tactics that are passed along on a daily basis through this weblog. The weblog is about my hunts, my thoughts, and some of the deer taken on my land.

It is not a vehicle to advertise my businesses, to sell more bows and other archery equipment, or for any other reason than to dispense deer-hunting wisdom that is available to one and all.

You’ll find, after reading several blogs, that I truly want to help hunters become far more successful in the fields, swamps and woods of this state or any other. I accept the fact that hunting a high-fence enclosure is different than finding a spot on state land, but 1,000 acres of heavy cover, rolling hills, swamps and open fields makes my deer equally tough to hunt.

They are still frightened of people, and everything I see on my land is what you will see on federal, private or public land. A deer is a deer, and they are a mass of nerves stretched as tight as a fiddle string. My bucks and does must be hunted, and poor hunting skills will fail here just as often as they fail outside my fences.

I’m a stickler for detail. Tree stands, ground blinds, pit blinds, elevated coops—all must pass muster. All must be safe and silent. All must be placed with great attention to detail, and hunters must play the wind every time they hunt.

My buck-to-doe ratio is heavily weighed in favor of bucks. It’s no walk in the park to take a buck here, and hunting for an old dry doe requires skills not needed for younger bucks. Oddly enough, each year we spot a buck that is 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 years old, and the animal has never been seen before because they have doctorate degrees in avoiding humans.

So hunting an enclosure can actually work on my behalf in helping readers better understand deer travels, where they bed and feed, and ways to determine proper stand placement. My deer are obviously confined within 1,000 acres, but that doesn’t mean they are sitting ducks. Many of these deer are more savvy than outside bucks.

Many hunters are never properly prepared for a shot. A buck steps out, and some hunters don’t have their bow in their hands. It becomes problematic whether they can pick up the bow and get off an accurate shot before the animals move off.

I stress being prepared, and to always be ready for a shot. Most of my stands are situated to provide the best chance for a broadside or a quartering-away shot. They are so positioned to eliminate those awkward-angle shots that can wound an animal.

You, the reader, may agree or disagree with my thoughts. It’s your choice, but the key factor to remember here is that over 60 years of bow hunting experience goes in to the creation of every one of these blogs. Disagree, if you will, but give each one considerable thought before doing so because there’s no money to be made off this blog.

My reason for doing this is to help hunting avoid the bad habits that plague many hunters. Reading these daily weblogs can cure some of your problems, and point you in the right direction toward becoming a more successful hunter.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Locate The Hidden Travel Routes Now

Hunters start thinking about scouting during the summer months. They glass fields and wood edges in early evening, and they do it from afar to avoid spooking deer.

That is smart on their part. They watch the wind to avoid drifting their scent down to deer, and that is nothing more than common sense.

But there is much more to scouting that needs to be done. One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is to study the topography. Learn to look for solid deer spots where whitetail bucks and does will travel during the archery and firearm seasons.

It’s difficult to over-emphasize the importance of finding key travel routes. This goes beyond finding the obvious trails that lead from the bedding areas to the feeding areas and back again. These are more general locations, and once these spots are separated, then it becomes much easier to locate the exact trails the deer use.

Here are several key areas to study, and bow hunters must learn how the wind plays through these locations.

*Funnels are narrow travel routes from one patch of heavy cover to another. It can be nothing but an overgrown fence row that offers some protection for moving deer. It can be a narrow but brushy string of trees between swamps, and it can be a narrow finger of woods that leads from a swamp out to a road, across it, and continuing on into a heavy woodlot. Look for areas where large brushy or swampy covers are connect by a short and thin patch between them.

*Creek beds often wind and twist around, and they can be thick in the bottom-lands or thin. Deer will use the creek bed itself or the land immediately above it for travel, and often these creeks flow through marsh grass. Pull on a pair of hip boots, and wade down through the area. Spotting deer travel routes is easy, and this is a silent method of scouting for good crossing locations. Some excellent deer are taken on my land each year by prowling and studying such spots.

*Cedar swamps are complex areas, and the larger the swamp, the more difficult it is to hunt. It becomes much easier if a stream flows through the swamp. Deer will often travel through a swamp, and follow the very thickest cover. Bisect the swamp on a north-south line, and on an east-west line, and map out high spots. Deer often will wade through water to reach a high and dry grassy hummock to bed down on. They often approach such bedding areas with the wind in their face. Find another high and dry area not too far away, and it can pay off.

*Sumac clumps are another superb area for bedding deer. The trick is to learn how the deer travel once they leave such locations. Most sumac is out in the open or along a wooded edge. Study such locations from afar, and set up a stand where the deer enter heavier cover.

*Abandoned orchards often are located near a barn, and surrounded on three sides by an open field. Bucks cross the fields after dark, jump the fence, and burrow into the brush-choked orchard before sun-up. They lay up in the heavy cover, and refuse to move until just before dark. Deer that exit such areas usually travel into the wind because they may not be able to look far enough ahead to spot danger. Such locations deserve a well-placed stand that may be used only once or twice each season when the conditions are perfect.

These specific locations are part of the a larger plan. Locate such spots, watch them for steady deer travel, and know where deer come from and where they go when they enter or leave the bedding areas.

Some of these areas can be very small, and are spots where deer move through on their way to a more general bedding or feeding area. Many people like to watch the field edges because they often see more deer, but the more successful hunters often stay away from the edges.

They head back into thick cover, and intercept these deer once they pass through these types of cover. Outwitting a deer should never hinge on luck or good fortune; instead, good hunters know where deer travel, when they travel, why they move through certain areas, and they are in place long before the deer come to them.—The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, June 23, 2006

Is There Ever A Need For A Red-Dot Sight?

It’s a question I hear often in my Buck Pole Archery Shop in Marion, Michigan, and it’s an easy one to answer. If I could make it happen, everyone would use a red-dot sight because it makes archers and bow hunters much more accurate than ever before.

Granted, a person with excellent vision can shoot instinctively or with pin sights, and be deadly accurate. But, let’s face an important issue.

Most bow hunters are getting a bit long in the tooth, and as we age, our vision changes. We go from single-focus glasses to bifocals, and some move to trifocals. Others, like my good friend and outdoor writer Dave Richey < dave@daverichey.com >, suffer from vision problems.

A red-dot sight is what keeps Richey hunting with a bow. He has glaucoma in both eyes, and has lost his vision in the left eye. Fortunately, he has a master right eye, and a red-dot sight is what keeps him shooting deer with a bow.

He has learned to shoot with just one eye, and the red-dot forces him to concentrate on placing that red-dot on the proper location. Knowing deer, and being an accurate shot, enables him to kill a good buck every year even with this visual handicap.

Actually, anyone with vision problems will benefit from a red-dot sight like our Pollington 33mm model. It has numerous adjustment levels that allow the hunter to match the level of brightness to cover low-light periods such as just before dawn and just after sundown when deer move.

Shooting a red-dot sight is not difficult but it does require hunters to shoot properly. Bow hunters who come into the shop, and buy a red-dot, are treated to a free familiarization training period if they’ve never used one before. This training session forces them to abandon bad habits and to adopt good methodology.

A red-dot sight is installed into a mounting system that attaches to the bow. Properly positioned, it will be at eye level when the hunter comes to full draw. If the hunter sees only a portion of the sight located at the top, bottom, right or left, it means the hunter is not drawing properly.

This is a system that requires shooting with both eyes open. Richey, without left-eye vision, shoots with both eyes open. For those with two good eyes, the opposite eye helps keep the bow level without canting while the eye looking through the sight places the red-dot on the correct spot on the target.

Here, in a thumbnail sketch, is how to shoot with a red-dot sight. Stand with feet place at shoulder width apart and turned at a right angle to the target. Hold the head up with both eyes on the target, and begin drawing as the bow is raised. Don’t move your eyes, but continue to stare at the target.

If you come to full draw, and attain the proper anchor point each time, the red-dot will be on the bulls-eye. Any miscalculation, canting of the bow, or improper alignment of the sight with the eye, will result in not seeing the dot. One should never have to cant their head to see the dot.

Do it right, every time, and with proper heads-up positioning with both eyes open, and a consistent anchor point each and every time, the dot will be perfectly aligned on the target.

This shooting method is as close to being fool-proof as possible. It allows perfect arrow placement (once the red-dot has been properly sighted in), every time. It also teaches archers when they are canting the bow or when everything is not properly aligned.

Shooting a red-dot sight encourages perfect shooting form every time. It offers a constant aiming point once the shooter learns to hold up his/her head with both eyes on the target, draw, and maintain a constant anchor point and sight picture.

Look at it this way. You are up in a tree stand, and in walks a nice buck and stands quartering-away at 20 yards, offering a perfect shot. Come to full draw, and if you can’t see the red-dot or the deer, it automatically tells you that a mistake is being made. Keep the head up with both eyes locked on the deer, bend if necessary from the waist for a downward shot, and if the deer is at the distance at which the red-dot is sighted in for, it’s a simple matter to put the dot in the right spot, and make a smooth release.

If that isn’t easy, I don’t know what is.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, June 22, 2006

What Do Whitetails Really See?

The vision of a whitetail deer is truly impressive. It’s uncanny how they can pick a bow hunter out of a bushy tree or a ground blind.

Hunters often question this ability. They claim their hot new camo clothing eliminates being spotted. They claim their scent-killing clothing and sprays will defeat a whitetails nose test.

In many cases they are wrong. The clothing and the sprays can help, as can deer scents, but the deer can spot a hunter. They can sniff out a hunter, and accomplished sportsmen know that. They know what will work and what will not.

Nothing is absolute unless you stay indoors and never venture outside. What hunters need to realize is they must be smarter than the deer. They must use their brain to figure out how to avoid detection.

Years ago I often sat in tree stands and watched the deer and their interaction with humans. Many sportsmen think if they can’t see the deer, the deer can’t see them.

Whitetails are masters at standing in heavy cover, and studying the terrain in front of them before they commit to a movement. Some deer have stood without any visible movement for 30-45 without moving any part of their body except their eyes.

Follow this example. One day I had a man hunting, and he talked a good story about being able to sit still. I sat in another stand 200 yards away with binoculars, and watched him. I had an advantage because I knew where the deer would come from at his location.

Half of my time was spent watching him and half was spent watching the area where the deer would come from. He couldn’t see the routes the deer used to approach his stand as well as I could see them, and the deer were much closer to him than to me.

This gent was spotted time and again. Many hunters believe that when a deer spots a hunter, it will snort and run off. Sure, that happens often enough but the animals often will remain silent and take a wide stroll around the unsuspecting hunter. The hunter figures if all remains silent the deer never spotted them, and that is an inaccurate assumption.

I watched deer stand 200 yard away in thick cover, and they would pick up the hunter quickly. A slight movement, a slap at a buzzing mosquito, some wayward drifting scent—anything can spook a deer. Once scared, a buck or doe can steal away through heavy cover without being seen.

It has become a mantra for me. There are only so many ways to tell a hunter how to sit still. They jerk, twitch, try to look behind them, and they feel the deer can’t spot them if they can’t spot a deer.

Folks, that assumption is dead wrong. Take a long look at your tree stand or ground blind. Are there an adequate mix of light areas and dark shadows?

Have you mastered the art of having cover behind you that will break up the human silhouette? Have you learned to memorize the light areas at various times of day? Move at the wrong time, and suddenly blot out an area that normally contains a brighter zone, and deer will spot that movement.

Deer are not stupid. They depend on their instincts, and if they see something out of place, something that wasn’t there the day before, they don’t consciously suspect that area of danger but on an instinctive level, they seem to know that something is different or out of place.

If a bow hunter sits in a tree, and blocks out a bright spot but moves and covers it up when a deer is looking, the chances are great the animal will pick him up.

This sitting still and studying the bright spots and shadows is an art. Study your stands long before the season opens, and note where shadows and light areas are found during that two-hour period before shooting time arrives. Do that, and you’ll learn where these areas are and how they change as the sun starts going down.

This is not calculus or rocket science. This is more a matter of common sense. Know your surroundings, know what provides shadow, and know when the moving sun will be more of a handicap than anything else.

Study your tree stand site, and do it from all angles. Too many hunters view their stands only from in front to slightly to the sides. Most forget about standing 50-75 yards to the rear, and looking for moving objects.

Bow hunters can bet that a deer will do that. Savvy bow hunters are simply smarter than the deer they hunt. Being smarter just means paying more attention to your hunting site, your surroundings and try to look at things from a deer’s point of view.

Learning to think like a deer will pay off.—The Whitetail Wizard.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Deadly Bow Hunting Secrets To Success

P-s-s-t. Yeah, you. Want to learn a secret about how to shoot bucks?

If you suspect this may have something to do with target practice and getting ready for the Oct. 1 bow season, you earn my undying gratitude for being right.

Most of my personal tree stands are 15-16 feet off the ground. A couple are a bit lower, and one is a bit higher. An elevated stand and target placement allow me an easy way to practice arrow placement at a familiar distance and height.

Which leads to today’s lesson. There are many ways to become a deadly bow shot, but practicing at the same height and distance from stand to target is the best way. It helps hunters learn how to aim and shoot from an elevated position.

Shooting down from above can be confusing and can lead to missed or wounded animals. The tendency for many (but not all) hunters is to shoot high when shooting down at an animal. This often leads to a complete miss. Constant practice can make such shots very easy.

The second part of this lesson is knowing when to shoot. Lots of people think they have this down pat when in fact they may not have the first clue when to shoot.

I’ve watched several television shows recently, and seen our host drill a huge buck in the neck at 40 yards. I saw one recently where the hole was perfectly round and through the front shoulder.

Most hunters can’t shoot an arrow through a deer shoulder blades, and most arrow holes have two, three or four slices from the broadhead blades. Not some television guys I?ve seen: they shoot round holes with an arrow and the animal dies without any blood oozing out. Sure, they clean up the blood but I question the round arrow hole through a shoulder blade.

OK, so I’m not a believer in all bow hunting television shows. There are only two bow shots: high-percentage and low-percentage, and bow hunters should never take a low-percentage shot. For the record, low-percentage shots are at a deer facing directly at the hunter or quartering head-on toward the hunter; directly away; or at the neck from any angle.

A spine shot can be deadly if it is severed, but if the arrow lodges in a vertebrae and the deer flops about, the arrow may pop out and the deer may run off and never be found. A spinal pass-through drops the deer in its tracks.

A high-percentage shot is broadside or quartering away. Aim broadside shots for the arrow to hit low just behind the front shoulder. An aiming point for a quartering-away shot means aiming to hit the inside of the off-side shoulder.

An arrow that lodges in the off-side shoulder continues to cut as the deer runs off and it leaves a good blood trail. A straight-down spinal shot is deadly but requires confidence and a well placed shot.

I shot a very nice 10-point buck last fall. It came through fast during the rut in hot pursuit of a doe, and she led the buck past my stand three times. Each time the animal was moving too fast to shoot so I waited. The doe circled a nearby tree twice with the buck in hot pursuit, and she stopped behind the tree.

Mr. Buck stopped just under my tree stand, and looked 10 feet toward the doe. I was at full draw the entire time, and when she stopped, her head was behind the tree where she couldn’t see me. I aimed straight down, and shot the buck through the spine from above, and the arrow penetrated the spine and exited through the brisket and took out the heart and lungs.

Do I miss archery shots at bear, caribou or deer? The answer is no. I have but it’s been many years since the last time, and that arrow nicked an unseen twig. Practice enables me to make killing shots, but practice means shooting only at known distances. My shots are taken only at 20 yards or less.

When to shoot is the third and last part of this bow hunting equation. Slowly moving deer are easier to shoot than a head-up, ears twitching, nose snuffling whitetail buck. An alert deer is wired as tight as coiled spring while a less than alert deer has its head down and is feeding or otherwise occupied.

If nothing else, learn to pick your high-percentage shot. Wait for it, don’t rush the shot, and know that sooner or later, the deer will offer a high-percentage opportunity. If not, pass on a maybe shot and try again another time.

My tree stands are positioned after much consideration, and whenever possible, my stand will be in a conifer. My stand also is positioned so the buck usually comes from behind me, and offers an easy draw as the animal approaches. Allow it to pass by, and take a quartering-away shot

Patience is a virtue in almost everything we do. It comes in mighty handy when bow hunting for deer. Train yourself to wait until the ideal moment, and learn to be ready. More ideal moments are lost when a buck unexpectedly offers a shot but the bow is hanging from a limb.

Learn to wait for the right opportunity at the right distance, and don’t settle for anything less than a high-percentage shot. Be alert, sit in properly positioned tree stands, shoot only at deer occupied with something else, and practice shooting at the ideal height. It can make bow hunting much easier than the television experts would like us to believe.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

A Wild Ride On One Of Last Year?s Deer Hunts

Little did we know when I left the house one day last October that I’d be going for a wild ride while bow hunting. What’s that, you ask?

The wind was softly puffing at 2 p.m., and the sky was the color of putty that has started to dry. Rain clouds dotted the horizon, and once I climbed into my ladder stand for an evening hunt, the wind was from the southwest. It was perfect for one of my favorite stands once bucks start chasing does.

The first hour wasn’t too bad, and the big maple was shedding leaves like a dog shaking water after a swim. The color season was over. A few rain drops dusted the carpet of fallen leaves, and then the storm clouds passed off to the northeast.

The first doe came trotting down a deer trail from the north like she was late for a date. I hoped she was running from an amorous buck, but such was not the case. The next deer came past me from the south, and she was on the move as well. I watched both does cross each other’s trails, and then the wind really started to pick up.

My maple tree shuddered when the first blast of wind hit it, and both does stopped, turned anxiously in all directions, and seemed to relax. The next gust of wind hit my tree, and had I been standing in my stand without a full body harness attached, the wind would have thrown me 16 feet to the ground.

The gusts were a physical force to be dealt with, and I hooked my heels and toes around the ladder railing, and hung on.

I like wild weather and enjoy being out in it. Strong winds set trees to swaying, and it’s a good thing I don’t get seasick.

A doe fawn and button buck moseyed in, softly stepping in the rain-softened leaves, and took a cue from the does. They began looking all around for danger, and didn’t seem willing to move until they scoped out the area.

The wind softened for a moment, and then all four deer jumped and ran several steps in four different directions before stopping.

A buck may be coming, I thought, but in stepped another adult doe. Five deer are standing within 12 yards of my stand, and I had no intention of shooting any of them. Live deer decoys often toll in a buck, and I just kept riding my ladder stand as one gust after another shook my tree.

One thing I enjoy doing is watching deer under all types of weather conditions. It was fun watching the three does and two fawns as they tried to interpret what the wind was doing. Too much wind makes deer nervous because everything is in motion, and 40 mile-per-hour gusts reduce the effectiveness of a deer’s ears, eyes and nose. They can’t smell or hear, and with trees and late-standing bracken ferns constantly moving, their vision is limited and ineffective.

All a hunter can do is sit still. No sudden movements, and let the deer work for you. It’s paid off for me many time because if a roving buck sees does standing around at this time of year, and he’s on his way to investigate the status of each doe’s estrus cycle.

Apparently the bucks were bedded down or cruising elsewhere because the deer hovered around my tree, and within 30 yards for nearly an hour before moving off and out of sight. I rattled twice after they moved off, and tried grunting, but the five deer were it for the night.

The animals provided me with five deer to study during a high wind, and it’s probably good that a buck didn’t show. My tree was swaying several feet from southwest to northeast and back again.

It’s impossible to shoot accurately under such conditions. The wind took me for a wild ride that night, and that in itself, was worth the price of admission.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Up A Tree Or On The Ground?

It?s the eternal bow hunting question. Put four or five bow hunters in a room, and ask each one: Where would you prefer to hunt—on the ground or up in a tree on opening day?

The nearly unanimous answer would probably be in a tree stand. That would be my choice although my wife prefers the flat level shots offered from a ground blind. So, is one any better than the other?

On opening day, I think the odds of hunting success are about even although I believe more people will hunt from a tree stand or elevated platform than a ground blind. The answer of which is best is like choosing between lobster or steak for dinner. It’s purely a matter of personal choice.

Some people are afraid of height. I can sit in a tree stand and it doesn’t bother me. Climbing a ladder stand doesn’t bother me, but climbing up screw-in tree stands makes me a bit antsy. People who cannot overcome a fear of height should hunt from the ground.

For many years I’ve hunted on leased land where I had the choice between a dozen different spots on any given day. Several were tree stands or elevated platforms, and several were ground blinds. I’ve always chose the height of a tree stand because the foliage is thick. Being up in the air can offer a slight sight advantage.

However, there are benefits to hunting at ground level as well. Check out these pluses on each side of the on-the-ground or in-the-air ledger, and make your personal decision.

*Ground blinds: These stands are a hotspot in those areas where many hunters hunt from trees. They can be an ace in the hole when deer are spooky.

A pit blind can be one of the most effective ground blinds available. They provide a flat, level shot at deer and can be placed almost anywhere a person doesn’t have to chop through tree roots.

Ground hunters are better protected from strong winds and other elements such as rain or snow.

The wind often blows over a ground-blind hunter. This can eliminate spooking deer by being winded. Of course, hunters must be scent-free at all times.

A person must work very hard to fall out of a ground blind. If they are successful in doing so, the fall is short and little damage is usually done. Such is not true when falling from a tree stand.

There is no need to wear a safety harness when ground hunting. It’s one less thing for hunters to worry about.

In heavily hunted areas, deer spend more time looking up than at ground level. Ground-blind hunters can use this trait to their advantage. It’s often much easier to locate a key stand location on the ground than to find a choice tree location.

Corn stalks, hay bales, uprooted trees, root wads and brush make likely ground level blinds. A pit blind will place most of your body below ground level. A hay bale blind is the warmest stand when hunting in December. Pop-up tents can be quickly moved from one place to another to keep up with deer travels.

Fewer deer are wounded from ground level shots than from an elevated position. The possibility of taking out both lungs is much more likely at this level than from a tree.

*Tree Stands: Greater visibility is offered, and it’s much easier to spot moving deer from a distance, especially after the leaf drop occurs.

In areas where little hunting takes place, deer seldom look up into trees unless they have been shot at. A motionless hunter is seldom detected.

Shots can be taken at close or long ranges, and hunters must practice shooting from an elevated angle. Practice at various distances and heights to be proficient.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Finishing Touches Make Tree Stands Great

One thing that many bow hunters ignore is the finishing touches. Buy a new car, and the dealership washes it, cleans the interior (as if it needed cleaning), filled the tank with gas and send us on our way in our new ride.

Those little extras are the finishing touches. A tree stand needs much more than just tightening up of the straps and walking away. The stand and its placement is important; the finishing touches make the difference between just another tree stand and a good one.

I helped a gent put up a ladder-stand last year. Rather close to the archery opener to suit me, but he asked for my help and I agreed. The stand, a Gorilla brand ladder-stand from Eastman Outdoors, was 15 feet tall.

We lashed it together on the ground, and then it took both of us to lift that rascal up and place it against the tree. It is a very sturdy tree stand.

“Hold it steady,” I said, “and I’ll climb up and strap it tightly to the tree.?

Up I went like an old squirrel, taking my time, not making any mistakes, and attached the straps to hold the stand in place and ratcheted it down tight. The brace was attached to the tree, and it was strapped down tight. Two other straps were used to make the stand as solid as Sears, and then he climbed up and sat down.

“Looks good to me,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.?

“What’s the rush?” I asked. “Aren’t you going to finish up??

“Finish up what? The stand is up. Let’s head out.?

I explained that several things still had to be done. A soft padded seat to set on would help reduce noise and help reduce pain and strain on legs and hips. I told him we had to put up the strap to attach his safety harness to, and it would be nice to put up the padded backrest to ease the sitting for two or three hours during morning and/or evening hunts.

“Climb back up,” I suggested, “and I’ll act like a deer walking along that trail. I want to see if I can see you silhouetted against the sky.?

I walked off 25 yards, bent over at the waist, and didn’t take three shuffling steps before I had him pegged. I jabbed a stout pine branch in the ground to mark the place, walked over to the tree and had him climb down. When he was down, I walked him over to the branch, told him to back up 10 feet and give me time to climb the tree.

Once I was seated, he bent over at the waist and walked down the trail. He reached the same spot as I had, stopped, and walked over to the tree.

“I could see you sky-lighted in that tree,” he whispered. “This isn’t good. What are we going to do??

The problem was easily solved. We were hunting on his private land, and cutting a few branches off a pine tree didn’t bother him. The first limb was quite bushy, and I cut off a 10-foot length. I climbed the tree, lowered the haul rope he would use to raise and lower his bow, and used it to raise the big limb. I tied the branch parallel to the ground and three feet over my head. That would block light shining down on him and shade him from above.

We went to another pine tree, and found several broken branches laying on the ground after a recent heavy blow. They were carried back to his tree stand, and I lashed them in place behind him. We knew where the buck would come from, and these smaller branches blocked off the sky line behind him.

I put him back up in the stand, went back to the trail, and looked for him again. It was like magic: blocking overhead light and an open area behind him made him blend in with the tree.

He doesn’t like to hold his bow so a screw-in hook was attached to a limb near his right hand, and it held his bow at the perfect height for easy access. All bolts and nuts, braces and straps were double-checked, and the finishing touches had made a 100 percent improvement in his stand. The blind was perfectly positioned for a broadside or quartering-away.

We policed the area around the stand, picked up a bit of foreign material that would leave behind some human scent and walked quietly out of the woods. The entire procedure had taken three hours of work, and it was done during the mid-day hours when most deer were bedded down, and when we left his stand was ready for opening day providing the wind direction didn’t shift to the east.

The finishing touches were exactly that: the final things that had to be done to ready his ladder-stand for a long hunting season. He can now sit in his stand, remain motionless, and when the buck moves within range, I guarantee he will not be seen unless he makes sudden eye-catching moves.

If he does that, it will be his fault and not mine.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Practicing The When-To-Draw Move

Shooting a bow is easy. Hundreds of thousands of people do it ever day across the country.

The question is: Are they doing it right? It’s become a daily regimen for most bow hunters to practice shooting before the archery deer season opens. They stand and shoot at targets placed at known distances.

They shoot from ground level at a deer target or a Block target or a hay bale. That’s fine and dandy, but do they shoot from elevated positions? Do they shoot from a tree stand at a target under similar conditions as those they will find during hunting season?

The answer, in most cases, is no. I shoot off my back deck at a target 15 yards away and slightly downhill. It requires practice to consistently center the target when shooting down.

It becomes even more difficult when the hunter is 25 or 30 feet in the air. Pinpoint accuracy is required because it’s very likely that most hunters will shoot over the target.

For years I practiced shooting off my roof. My back deck does an admirable job of giving me a realistic shot that I should encounter this hunting season.

There are other shooting techniques. My stands are set up so deer approach from behind or to either side of me.

It’s an easy task to make my draw before the deer arrives, and a quick and positive aim allows me to shoot bucks easily as they walk past at a quartering-away angle. I aim to hit just behind the rib cage while aiming to hit the off-side shoulder.

This causes the razor-sharp broadhead to slice in behind the ribs, pass forward through both lungs and possibly the heart, and lodge against the shoulder or exit behind the shoulder. If it stays in, the arrow continues to cut as the animal runs off.

An arrow that stays in the deer continues to cut, and deer die quickly with this shot. I use a Game Tracker string-tracking device, and it makes recovery much simpler. Anyone who hunts on my land must use a Game Tracker, and those who refuse to do so, do not hunt.

I’ve spent far too many hours in swamps trying to recover wounded deer. It’s much simpler now to follow a string to the deer.

However, using a Game Tracker means shooting with it enough to know how the string may affect arrow flight. In most cases, at distances of 20 yards or less, arrow flight is not affected. Shots taken at 25-30 or more yards calls for some testing to determine how to compensate for a minor drop in arrow flight.

Now also is the time to determine which may work best for you: shooting a bow while standing or sitting. Most hunters can’t stand still for very long, and it costs many of them a shot.

Sitting down is simple providing there is enough room to draw and shoot without hitting a bow limb against a tree limb. It also requires shooting less poundage: Hunters who crank their bow up to 70 or 80 pounds may have a tougher time shooting while sitting.

My bow is set at 60 pounds with a 28-inch draw, and my carbon arrow gives me about 265 feet per second arrow speed. It works for me.

Practicing bow shots should be realistic. It’s easy to build a window similar to those hunters shoot through when sitting in an elevated or ground coop. Practice shooting at different distances with a bow while shooting through a window. More than one hunter has hit the window frame with an arrow, and it’s better to do it in practice than in real time.

Bow hunting means just that: it means hunting with a bow, and that creates numerous different problems. Shooting down, shooting down and away from the tree; judging angles to prevent shooting over a deer; and deciding whether to shoot standing up or while sitting down.

The sitting position requires far less motion, and I stuff the lower limb of my bow in my left boot on the outside of my leg. A draw begins with the bow still in my boot, and as the arrow is pulled back to full draw, the limb leaves the boot and automatically lines up on the deer.

It requires very little movement, and I haven’t been caught drawing on a deer in many years. Practice now or lose your edge when you need it most.

Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. ? The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, June 16, 2006

Enjoyment Of Bow Hunting Is Something Special

Many thoughts go through my head during our 90-day deer seasons. You know: we frequently sit in one place for long hours, and our mind starts to unravel some of the knotty problems of life.

One of the most important, for me at least, is not whether I shoot a buck. This matter of hunting is much more elementary:  I want to know what kind of weather will we have on this day or during the first week.

Which way will that cantankerous wind blow? If I know those things, it becomes much easier to choose a tree stand or ground blind.

Deer often move well early in the season, and then we have a lull in deer movement before the rut begins. The wind moves well for a few days, but we’ve also have had too much east wind in early October in recent years to suit my tastes.

Precipitation doesn’t bother me unless it is accompanied by lightning, and then I head for the truck. That four-letter word (rain) is the best news that deer hunters could hear because early-season leaves are crunchy and deer don’t like to make any more noise than necessary when they travel out to feed.

I always plan to sit deep in a cedar swamp where shots often are measured as spitting distances, but have been known to change my mind. I love watching a swamp come to life in the morning. The weak sun will cast faint shadows off twisted trees, and every sound can mean the approach of a cautious deer.

I may see another buck ease down a faint runway as he heads deeper into the swamp. If I don’t see my buck in the morning, he may show during the late afternoon or early evening. It’s enough for me to see a deer or two, and to watch friends realize the thrill of a successful deer hunt.

Deer numbers appear lower in many hunting areas than last year although there seem to be a few more good bucks running around than normal. Lower doe numbers mean a better opportunity for hunters to waylay a buck because they must work harder and cover more ground to find receptive does to breed during the rut.

Our hunters work together to see that others have a good time. We don’t abide by selfish hunters or those who won’t share in helping to track or drag out a deer.

My friends delight in watching small animals and birds, glimpse the sunrise or sunset over our shoulder, and enjoy a big belly laugh over the antics of our friends. I can poke fun at myself as easily as at each other.

However, we have a tough time handling hunters who complain about deer hunting. We know that deer will move to us or they won’t. If they won’t come our way, we will try a difference location.

The important thing for us is to spend a morning, afternoon or early evening in the swamp or woods with a bow in hand, and hope in our hearts.

Everyone, regardless of age or hunting experience, must realize that hunting is a privilege to be cherished. New hunters must learn to love the game they seek, and never back off from the fact that one doesn’t hunt to kill, but instead they kill to have hunted. There is a major difference, and some hunters never learn it.

This year, when the deer start moving, I’ll be deep in a swamp and well away from other hunters. I’ll be hunting on land that I know well, and will be sharing the experience with good friends. Hunting is a privilege I hold dear.

Perhaps a good buck will come my way, and maybe he won’t. If he doesn’t, I won’t be disappointed because I’ll take my measure of happiness in the success of others.

Or in the wonderful atmosphere of a cedar swamp where the only other living things will be birds, deer, trees and small furry critters. And that is plenty good enough for me.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

How Big Can Buck Antlers Grow?

It’s a good question, and one I’m still trying to determine. I’ve grown bucks with antlers scoring very high, and they are truly majestic animals.

But I know of much larger animals. The Boone & Crockett record book whitetail buck for the 24th Big Game Awards from 1998-2000 scored 197 6/8 in the typical category. The largest nontypical whitetail buck for that same period scored 266 1/8. Monstrous bucks indeed.

However, Milo Hanson of Biggar, Saskatchewan still holds the all-time typical buck record with a score of 213 5/8 points. The all-time nontypical whitetail buck scored 333 7/8, and it was found dead in 1981 in St. Louis County, Missouri.

Now those are monster bucks. Since I’ve had my private deer ranch, I’ve worked very hard to grow something that large. It is very difficult to do.

Wild bucks occasionally exceed what one might consider to be a normal or even a large buck. However, such huge bucks are very uncommon anywhere in North America.

It’s relatively easy to grow bucks scoring 160 to 170, but it is impossible to do with every buck in the deer herd. There is only so much room on private land or on state or federal land that will produce bucks of such size.

These super-bucks, if you will, are uncommon everywhere. Each year we hear of someone shooting an exceptionally large buck, but all things are relative. If most bucks in an area average a score of 60 points, one that scores 100 points is unusual.

In areas where conditions are right, and bucks can grown to 100-120 points, one that turns up scoring 150 points in most unusual. The larger the buck grows, the more uncommon it becomes.

Finding a 150-class buck on my land isn’t easy but it can be done. Locating a 160-class buck is even more difficult, and one scoring 170 to 180 points doesn’t happen often. A buck on private land that scores higher than 180 is something we seldom see.

Let’s face it. Big bucks are the results of good genetics, abundant food supplies, an excellent amount of the trace minerals needed for great antler growth, and time. Time is the one key factor that is required to grow huge antlers.

Sure, I have a fenced-in enclosure. I manage for big bucks, but people who hunt state land or private unfenced land can work together to grow larger bucks. Doing so involves a very simple premise.

Don’t shoot the little spikes, fork-horns, six-points and eight-pointer. The little basket racks are only one-and-a-half years old. Just think what could happen if you and all of your neighbors passed on that little buck, and allowed it to grow?

That buck will be slightly bigger at 2 1/2 years, bigger yet at 3 1/2 years, and a true trophy buck at 4 1/2 years of age. But, which of you will shoot that buck at 1 1/2 years of age?

It happens. People want bragging rights over their friends, and if a small eight-point comes through, John Doe will shoot it because it has more points, thus greater bragging rights, than Billy-Bob Jones’ 6-point.

That is the major rub on open land. No one is happy shooting antlerless deer, and everyone wants to shoot a buck, so the first animal with bone on its head that wanders past, gets shot.

Frankly, we shoot far more antlerless deer on my enclosure than big bucks. Competition among deer produces stress, and too much stress works toward the production of smaller deer. The DNR has preached shooting antlerless deer for years, and some people do it, but too many people are selfish and want to shoot a buck.

I practice a form of Quality Deer Management on my land. We take a number of antlerless deer each year, and in some years, it is a very large number. If I, and my friends, don’t keep the antlerless deer thinned out, it grows out of control. This is counter-productive to a well managed deer herd.

I can’t force anyone to do anything. However, if I wanted big bucks on my land, I’d be taking antlerless deer whenever possible, and give the existing bucks a minimum of three years to grow.

Hunters who did so would find, after the first year, they were seeing fewer deer but more larger bucks. It’s a concept that works, but it also is a concept that many hunters will never accept.—The Whitetail Wizard