Whitetail Wizard

Monday, July 31, 2006

A Way To Cool Off Is To Relive Past Hunts

The mind is a wonderful thing. It enables us to remember things, and it can carry us back to another day and another place.

The temperature hit 100 degrees today in Osceola County, and the deer on my ranch were on their own. There are ponds for water, no human pressure to move them around, and they feed when and if they want to eat.

For me, it’s just too hot to be outdoors. This is the kind of weather where people have heat strokes, and for me, it’s just much easier to stay indoors and relive a couple of autumn hunts in my mind.

One happened several years ago just before the firearm deer opener. The temperature was 26 degrees, and snow was falling. The barometer was falling, and the forecast was for several inches of snow.

I knew the deer would be moving as the front pushed through, and I climbed into one of my elevated coops. It offers a broad vista, and spotting deer moving through the swirling snow was fairly easy although at times it was difficult to spot antlers.

I’d been in the stand for 20 minutes, and as the snow continued to pile up, I spotted a deer back in the heavy cover. I could see occasional glimpses of white antlers through the snow, and felt I’d seen this buck before. It carried 10 points on a solid frame, and would score about 150 if he hadn’t damaged an antler tine in a rutting fight.

The buck hung back, and watched does and fawns move fast him. He stood very still, and oddly enough, the snow was starting to pile up on his back. He’d been in one place long enough for almost an inch of snow to lay on his back and head, and it didn’t seem to bother him.

He slowly moved out of the cover, and all of the antlerless deer had filed past me at 18 yards. If he stayed his course, he would be in front of me in a minute or two.

A snowy gust blew snow around his head, and the deer oddly looked gray and white. He moved slowly, looking ahead, but not looking up. He walked past, almost lost in the near-blizzard, and when the time was right I drew, aimed and turned loose an arrow. The buck, mortally wounded, ran off into the storm and disappeared.

Finding that buck was easy. He ran only 60 yards before going down, but it was far enough to take him out of sight in the blowing snow.

Another time, there was very little snow on the ground, but the temperature stood at 10 above zero. A soft wind was blowing into my face, and my nose and cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Sundown had come and gone, and 15 minutes of legal shooting time remained, when I heard the unmistakable sound of deer hooves crunching through frosted leaves. The deer was coming crosswind from my left, and it was moving along the back edge of an alder run.

I waited, and 10 minutes later, out steps a tall and handsome 8-point with a high but narrow rack. The tines were tall but the buck had little spread, but he was a fine looking animal. This guy knew where he was going, and he would have to pass my stand to get there.

On he came, a buck with a purpose, and I’m checking my watch. Three minutes of shooting time remain when he steps out in front of me, stops and turns so he is quartering toward me. It’s not a shot that I take, and figured I’d wait him out.

A minute later, a doe to my right stepped out, and that was the trigger. The buck turned, crossed broadside in front of me at 12 yards, and the shot was quick, easy and fatal.

Two cold-weather hunts in my mind cooled me off a little bit. I don’t know how it will work for you, but I can set the cold-weather stage in my mind pretty easy, and bringing a past hunt back to life makes me feel better when the temperature reaches triple digits.

Give it a try. It may work for you.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Deer, Deer and Even More Deer

I work hard to keep our deer numbers in balance with the habitat and food supply, and after each new years fawn drop, the numbers go back up. This year, wherever I look, there are deer, deer and more deer.

It’s difficult to say whether there are more deer this summer than last year or 10 years ago, but they seem to be everywhere. Whatever I plant, they eat and there are are some good bucks as well.

The hot weather has kept deer movement pretty much limited to dawn and dusk, but whenever we go for a drive to check out the herd, the deer seem to be moving everywhere. They are out in the open fields, crossing through the hills, deep in the cedar swamps and going into and out of the tag alder all over the ranch.

I’ve taken some drives during mid-day, and even see a fair number of deer during the early afternoon. I see them with binoculars when I get up in the early morning, and see them as the light fades in the evening.

Some of the bucks, even though they are in velvet, show signs of being big, fully mature bucks with the makings of some magnificent antlers.

There have been some bucks seen with racks that seem to grow straight up. Others seem to be wide racks, and some have high and wide antlers and the latter animals would score high. There are some serious nontypical bucks, and others with a drop point here and there.

So far I haven’t seen a three-beam buck that I know was roaming the ranch, and it’s likely he is staying as cool as possible in some low spot and doesn’t move much until after dark.

There are does and fawns wherever I look, and people who are doing some work on my coops have been seeing good numbers of deer. They are painting and fixing up the coops, and it gives them an elevated position from which to watch for deer as they work.

I’ve spent a good bit of time watching certain key areas. There are some well-used funnels on my land where deer move from one patch of heavy cover to another, and although some does and fawns are using these areas, the bigger bucks seem to be using them as well.

Heavy-antlered bucks always seem to know some of the best ways to avoid hunters, and these funnels are hotspots. In one place there is a tiny creek that flows through a marsh and tag alder swale, and I’m seeing bucks moving through there as well.

I’ll have one of the new metal elevated coops on the ranch this year. They are well built, almost as air-tight as anything can be, and they offer a flat level surface inside. An office chair with rollers would be the ideal chair for hunting this stand.

One of my stands needs a serious make-over this year. A guy cut a big hole in the front of it alongside the shooting window, and even though it faces to the south, a bright setting sun shines in and lights it all up. It has to be fixed before the season opens.

It looks like a bumper buck, doe and fawn crop this year. There isn’t anywhere on the ranch that doesn’t have a bunch of whitetails moving around. As time passes over the next two months, I will be spending more time patterning the deer, and long before Oct. 1, I’ll know just how many really huge bucks are roaming the farm.

I’m looking forward to a great hunting season.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Use A Safety Harness & Don’t Risk Your Life

One of the most unpleasant things to encounter in an archery shop like mine is the results of human error. Call it ignorance, lack of common sense or even stupidity, if you want, but hunting from an elevated position without a safety harness is dumb.

They would pay closer attention to what they were doing, and they would wear a full-body harness. To not wear one is like playing Russian Roulette with five of six chambers loaded. The odds of survival are not very good. The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, July 28, 2006

The Internet Is Down

Folks, it appears as if there will be nothing to be put up on my weblog this evening. The internet provider is down, and there is little to be done about it.

Touch base tomorrow. With luck, we’ll be back up with more of the quality deer hunting information you’ve come to expect from this website.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Refurbishing Some Old Stands

I’ve got a crew coming in soon to refurbish my hunting coops. Most of the blinds need a coat of paint on the inside and out, and while they are spiffing things up a bit, they will clean out the stinging bugs.

Every few years the stands need a paint job. It’’s a miserable job during the summer months, but they need to be done soon so the paint smell and human activity is over with so each coop has about two months to air out. That gives the deer time to again become accustomed to each stand.

Actually, the paint helps preserve the wood and I’ve found that cared-for coops last longer. Almost every one of them needs a bit of work besides a cosmetic paint job.

Sometime a door is left unlatched or the wind jiggles it enough to make the screw hook jump out of the screw eye. That causes the wind to bang the door continuously until one of us notices it.

Then the door is often sprung and nearly impossible to close, and it requires work. Sometimes the carpeting becomes so worn that it needs to be replaced.

One recurring problem is that many of the sliding shooting windows become warped, and are difficult to open without making noise. We like those windows to silently slide open when it is time for a shot.

On occasion, a heavy branch will break off during a storm, and fall on a coop. The result may be a hole in the roof or an entire roof may be needed. Sometimes the tar paper starts peeling off from the wind, and must be repaired.

This is when we pay particular close attention to the ladders that go up to the elevated coops. We make our ladders sturdy, and many are bolted together with bolts, nuts and washers. This combination will make a ladder much sturdier than one that is nailed or screwed together. We also make certain that the steps are not too far apart.

I’ve got long legs but Dave Richey < [url=http://www.daverichey.com]http://www.daverichey.com[/url] > and I went on a hunt down in Georgia many years ago. Whoever put up those ladders had to be seven feet tall because I could barely make the step. Richey tried climbing one of the stands where someone had driven big spikes into the tree. He stopped, 10 feet off the ground, and slowly make his way to the ground. He wasn’t long-legged enough to climb that tree, no matter how many big bucks had been shot out of it.

Many of our elevated coops have a railing. We check to see that those railings are firmly in place, and are not wobbly. We want our hunters to feel safe and secure while climbing into a tree or elevated coop.

Almost every year we have to put fresh plywood on the floor of our pit blinds. Any hole in the ground will collect some water, and plywood that gets soaked often enough begins to come apart. It’s a quick and easy fix to put one or two small pieces of plywood down, and it provides hunters with dry, firm footing.

Many of our elevated coops have small tree limbs scratching the sides or top of the coop. This rubbing or scraping sound on a windy day is readily accepted by deer, and can provide an acceptable noise when the hunter draws his bow. However, if the limbs get too big, they can become a problem and we have to trim them back.

Occasionally we have to repair the padded stools that are in many coops. Some coops are big enough to use a regular chair. Some of the stools have to be repaired, and it’s just one more chore to be done.

Fixing up coops is an annual job, and it’s just part of getting ready for the bow season. Once the job is done, and two months pass, the deer accept the newly painted and refurbished stands, the paint smell has dissipated, and the coops are usually free of pesky stinging insects.

And we’ll soon be ready for the bow opener.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Ground Blinds Often Produce Very Well

There are over 40 ground blinds and tree stands on my hunting land, and many people would be very surprised at how effective ground blinds can be.

Most of mine are made of wood—a box blind, if you prefer—and they stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. The trick with them is to have them in place as early as possible, certainly long before the season opens, and then stay away from them until hunting season begins.

These ground blinds can blend in with their surroundings but it’s not necessary that they do so. My ground blinds often are covered with tar paper or the wood is painted black or brown (including the inside).

Many of these ground blinds are baited, and that is why the deer come to them, but they are strategically placed. Some are on rolling hills where deer can see all around them, and often deer will stand some distance away to make certain there is no one inside the blind.

Many hunters who sit inside a ground blind are somewhat claustrophobic and are constantly moving around inside. There is only one place a hunter can shoot, and that is out the shooting window.

Still, people apparently feel deprived of not being able to swivel around and look for deer when they are sitting in a roofed ground blind. A friend of mine solved that problem with several coops he had built.

He learned that people were opening up the little windows on the sides and back to look around. It always created some noise, and watching deer could see inside the blinds when they opened the window. His solution cost his two minutes for each blind, and it cost him only a few cents per blind.

He used a power screwdriver and some wood screws, and screwed every window except the shooting window shut. The windows were made of wood, and two or three screws kept those windows closed, and the hunter success rate shot up.

Most of my ground blinds are large enough for just one person. One person makes far less noise than two people, and I often discourage two people in a blind unless one is a guide and the other a customer. Then the guide studies the deer and tells them exactly what it is.

I have one ace-in-the-hole blind. It is a wooden coop built up on a solid base on top of a utility trailer. The neat thing about this stand is if I need a blind quickly, I hook the trailer on to the hitch, tow it to where I want it to be placed, position it properly and unhook it. The crank allows me to level it up, and all a hunter has to do is climb in and sit down.

I try never to face my stands to the east or the west. It makes hunting very difficult in the morning or the evening. Besides, a shooting window facing in those directions really get lit up by a rising or setting sun.

Carpeting does wonders for silencing a ground blind floor, but the mice will eventually chew some of it up and make nests out of them. Another thing about ground blinds is that hornets, wasps and yellow jackets seem to love them, and set up nests inside. Each year the nests must be removed and the coops fogged with an insecticide.

The important thing about a ground blind is to sit back away from the window. Camouflage clothing certainly helps, and wearing a hat and face mask and gloves can be very important. Blond hair, the glint of glasses, white skin or any bright clothing can be seen from a distance.

The other thing about hunting from a ground blind is to get there long before deer normally move. If a deer is shot from that blind, other deer will treat it with great suspicion, even if no one is in it. Get there early, and sit down and sit quietly. The simple act of being removed from the sight of a deer doesn’t allow for a hunter to make noise.

Get comfortable, sit as motionless as if you were in a tree stand, and wait for the deer to arrive. Hunters should exercise the same degree of quietness and learn to sit still, and it’s amazing how productive a ground blind can be.—The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Some Thoughts On Peep Sights

Hunters often stop by, ask me to adjust their bow, and state they are having trouble hitting a buck during the last 15 minutes before shooting time ends. Almost always they are hunting in heavy cover with very little available light.

What’s my problem, they ask. I look over the bow, and spot a peep sight, and point to it.

They insist they’ve always hunted with a peep sight, and that isn’t the problem. I can reduce or cut the light to my archery range, and it proves effective when determining what people can or can’t see through their peep sight.

If it is a dark and overcast day outside, and I turn off the inside lights, the archery shop gets pretty dark. I ask them to shoot with the lights on, and then again with the lights off.

They nail the bulls-eye when the lights are on, and it’s like hunting on a sunny day on my shooting range. Once the lights go off, and they try to shoot, some can’t arrows won’t even hit the target.

I make and sell red-dot sights, and I don’t like to speak ill of the products of other people’s products, because what goes around, comes around. The archery industry is a great place to make friends and enemies, and I’d much rather make friends.

I have them shoot under low-light conditions, and often their shots are a long way from the bulls-eye. I look over their peep site, and with a small adjustment I can help them out. In other cases, I can’t help them at all.

Some peep sights have very tiny holes and admit very little light. As the sun goes down, and when hunting in thick, heavy cover, the tiny hole in the peep sight doesn’t allow enough light to enter. The result is it is difficult to see.

Some hunters compound the problem by closing their off-eye. The master eye looks through the peep but the other eye is closed. It gives them one-eye vision, and it isn’t very good in dim light.

One thing people can do is remove the insert from the peep sight, and that leaves a larger hole to look through. It’s easier for the hunter to gain eye contact with the pin and the animal.

However, some peep sights do not allow this removal. There are peep sights on the market with larger holes, and these will help the sportsman. So too will the use of a red-dot sight.

Another problem with some peep sights is they are incorrectly installed, and this means the peep doesn’t line up properly with the eye when the bow comes back to full draw. There is a good bit of tinkering involved with trying to get the peep sight correctly lined up with the eye. If it is off just a tiny bit, what that eye sees is but a fraction of what it should see.

Another problem with using a peep sight is that the sight pins often are too large. Constricting what the eye sees through a small hole, and trying to place a fat sight pin in the middle of the peep sight hole while placing this combination on the heart and lung area of a deer accounts for many missed shots.

If I were to use a sight pin and a peep sight I would buy the finest, thinnest fiber optic pin made, use a larger than normal hole in the peep sight, and hope for the best.

Many hunters use and believe in peep sights, and I wish them good success. I’ve tried peep sights before, and it just doesn’t work for me. I’d rather go back to instinctive shooting.

For them that like peep sights, shoot them and good luck. I have noticed that once a person gains some age, and must wear glasses, that many hunters find it more difficult using this type of aiming device.

That’s why I manufacture red-dot sights. The peep sight manufacturers can claim the younger market where hunters have great vision and can see well through a peep sight.

I’ll continue to market my red-dot sight to the older hunters, and those with visual problems, and everyone gets what they want: an aiming device that allows them to make clean killing shots, time after time, under all types of legal shooting-light condition while maintaining their share of the market.

This line of thinking is why there are dozens of bow makers, many car and truck makers, and everything else. People in this country do have a choice, and that is what makes America so great. We can decide what we wish to hunt with, and that suits everyone just fine.—The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, July 24, 2006

Moon Phases: Do They Work?

Much has been made of hunting the different phases of the moon in recent years. Some believe hunting is best on a full moon, during the dark of the moon, and almost every other time.

Do I pay attention to the moon phases? Nope, it doesn’t interest me, and for one very good reason.

I hunt every evening anyway so why worry about a specific moon phase. Perhaps if just shooting a buck was the only reason I hunted, perhaps I’d pay a bit more attention to how different moon phases affect the deer. But I hunt to spend time in the woods with bow in hand, and I simply don’t worry about such things. I’d rather spend my thinking time trying to puzzle out a big buck.

One theory says the best time of all to hunt is just prior to the second full moon following the autumnal equinox. Follow this theory over a period of several years, and you’ll find yourself hoping to hit the rut in late November and you’ll have missed all the action.

Our rut in northern Michigan begins with the chasing phase or pre-rut period that begins about Oct. 20 in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, and about Oct. 25 in southern counties. The rut reaches its peak sometime between Nov. 8 and 13, and the post-rut will occur in late November or early December.

That period of a week before a full moon almost always will have deer moving, and although some deer move well during a full moon, much of the movement takes place long after full dark. At times, especially if it corresponds with the rut, I’ll see some mid-day action as bucks go chasing after does.

Some hunters swear that the new moon period is best. Low light levels and earlier deer movements, they say, make deer a bit more susceptible to a well-placed hunter.

In truth, because I do hunt every day, I find that I’ve experienced some wonderful hunting during all phases of the moon. I really can’t say that I favor one moon phase over another.

The secret, if that is what it is to my success, is to be afield as often as possible. I know people who avoid hunting during the full moon, and I’m not sure why. It has produced some good big bucks for me over the years.

The new moon period has been very productive, but I’ve seen times when this moon period seems to fall flat with very little deer movement. Perhaps it is directly or indirectly tied in with the weather, but I can’t say it makes much difference to me.

The quarter moons have blown hot and cold for me as well. I can’t attach too much importance to one over another.

Being afield as often as possible, and hunting every night during peak periods of the rut, will produce more action for hunters than hunting only when a moon calendar tells you to go out. Years ago the newspapers would publish tables of the best fishing times, and one supposed that it also applied to deer, and I followed them for quite some time.

There were times when the tables were dead on and other times when they were not. Of course, hunting pressure, east winds, too much wind, and a thousand and one other things could have made a difference by affecting how fish fed and deer moved.

I won’t say they don’t work. All I’ll say is it means very little to me simply because I hunt every day, sometimes in the morning and evening, but mostly in the evening.

Does this work for me? Of course it does, and rather than hinging all of my hunting efforts on moon phases, I’d rather hang my chances on being afield every evening, rain or shine, snow or wind, and over many years it has paid big dividends for me.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Picking Apart The Tag Alders

If there is any type of growth found in Michigan that rivals the laurel hells of the southern states, it would be tag alders. They don’t grow very high, but the trunks grow in every direction.

They remind me of a maze, but fortunately, most tag alder thickets aren’t too long or wide. A guy could get exhausted if they spent very much time trying to unravel the secrets of an alder thicket.

Let’s face it: whitetails love tag alders. They can walk through a thicket, and run through them at a fast pace. Of course, deer are much more nimble and sure afoot than 99 percent of the human population.

There are a few small alder patches on my land with stands that overlook them. It’s possible to watch a whitetail buck walk into a thicket, bed down, and then leave an hour or so before sun down.

You’d think that a deer in a small alder thicket would be easily seen. That’s not so. Oh, on occasion, if a buck stands, turns around a couple of times, they can occasionally be spotted.

They are difficult to see. Their hair blends in with the color of the bark, and a buck with white or darkened antlers will look just like an alder branch. Alders are perfect bedding areas for deer.

Trying to work inside the alders is a lesson in frustration. Deer will hear, see or smell you before you’ve traveled 20 feet. There is little cover tall enough to get up into on the inside of a tag alder thicket, and that pretty much rules out trying it and spooking the animals.

The trick to hunting these animals that bide their daylight hours in the alders is to spend copious amounts of time studying the area from a good distance. Obviously, it pays to be downwind of the thicket, but most important is knowing the deer are inside.

If your viewing area allows watching all sides of the thicket, and noting when bucks and does move out, the next step is to determine where they go next. Often, they will take the shortest route to other heavy cover en-route to their evening feeding areas.

It may be necessary to move the stand two or three times to zero in on their normal route of travel. Once you’ve pinned it down with 100 percent accuracy, it’s time to determine how they travel through the next patch of cover, which on my land, may be another tag alder thicket.

Their next stop may be at the food site or it may involve even more travel. Deer following a consistent pattern in late September will be vulnerable to an October hunter who plans his hunting area wisely.

Most deer, however, bed within 200 or 300 yards of where they will feed, and it may involve only one move to lock in on their exact travel pattern. But know this: when deer leave a tag alder thicket, they often follow curves or rolls in the terrain for some distance before they come up for a brief look-around. Sometimes a doe will pop up on the closest rise in land, stand and sniff the air while looking around, until she leads the others off on what they consider a safe travel route.

Another thing to keep in mind is that deer will often stand 10-15 feet back in the tag alders, and study the landscape and the trees in the general direction of where they will travel. An old dry doe may stand for 30 minutes without moving, and study the land ahead for danger.

The hunter must be aware of this study period before deer move. It’s important to realize that you may be 300 yards away, but if the terrain favors the deer more than you, they will have areas where they stop to study everything in front of them.

One movement, one stray whiff of human odor, may spoil a week of preseason scouting. This scouting period, in many cases, is every bit as important as the actual hunt. Stay as far away as possible but try to pick an area where other deer won’t wind you.

Who wants to spend hours in preseason scouting only to have a deer sneak up behind you, blow and snort, and frighten off the deer you’d planned to hunt. That would be the final insult.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Mastering The Art Of Tree Stand Placement

There are those who walk through the woods, look at the trees, and decide that here is a great spot for a tree stand. Sometimes they are right, but more often they are dead wrong.

The chosen tree may be good for the hunter, but it may be all wrong for stand placement. It may offer little or no chance for a sportsman to get a clean shot at a buck.

A good tree stand, whether it is manmade in a factory or created by the hunter, must meet several criteria. It must be somewhere downwind and within 20 yards of where two or more active deer trails connect. It must offer some concealment from approaching deer that are out of sight of the hunter.

A tree that stand will be placed in must have an open spot where a stand can be placed without having to cut big limbs out of the way. It also should offer hunters at least one clear shooting lane without having to trim away limbs. A fifth reason, and this is a personal thing for me, is I prefer that deer approach me from behind and on my left side.

The tree and other limbs or pine boughs should cover most of my body silhouette. A cedar or pine tree in the midst of some ash, maple or oak trees is good. You’ll hear the deer approach from behind through the leaves, and once they pass the stand, they will offer a quartering-away shot.

How high is just right? I like most of my stands between 15 and 20 feet high. If you have the right set of circumstances, there may only be one open area for a shot, and it’s up to you to know where the deer travel before establishing the tree stand.

Some hunters act like they are married to a tree stand, but a wise hunter will have three or four stands to cover various wind directions. Get one step ahead of other hunters, and have a stand set up for an east wind. You’ll be able to hunt when others cannot.

Pick your sites wisely, and only after watching deer move through an area. You must know the stand location, and how deer utilize it, before the stand is in place. Steer clear of stands along the open edges of fields. Granted, you’ll see more deer but may have fewer shots.

Pick spots 100 to 200 yards from an active feeding field, and find where two or more trails merge. Check around, and find a good bushy tree that is downwind, but within easy bow distance. Watch deer travel through the area, and learn which side of the tree the deer will pass through, and you’ll have narrowed down your search.

I prefer either a permanent stand or a ladder stand. The two, if properly constructed are safe. I wouldn’t use a climbing stand at my age, and I want to feel safe and secure in a stand. It has to be anchored securely to the tree, and accessing the stand must be easy.

The stand must offer good concealment. I dislike open hardwood trees that lose cover as the leaves fall. The only other alternative is to climb higher, and my preference is to shop around until you find the right area with the perfect tree in the perfect location. Add a stand, and make certain it is securely attached, and stay out of it until the season opens or whenever the wind is perfect.

Too many hunters play with fire when choosing stands. A perfect stand must be perfectly placed to work. A poorly positioned stand in the wrong area will ruin more deer hunts than anything else.

Pre-season scouting is the key to choosing tree stand sites wisely. Watch key areas, see where deer naturally travel, and don’t forget about having two or three entrance and exit routes to prevent being patterned by deer. Don’t crowd too close to bedding areas, and don’t get too close to the edges of feeding areas.

Deer are most comfortable at 100 to 200 yards from the food site. This often offers much thicker cover, and hunters must spend enough time watching an area to know precisely how the deer will travel through it.

Put time into pre-season scouting, narrow your stand placement area down to the best possible location, place the stand well so deer will come from behind you without being downwind of you, and choose different ways into and out of the area without having to cross the deer trail. Get all of it right, and you’ll be hunting in a hotspot.—The Whitetail Wizard

Mastering The Art Of Tree Stand Placement

There are those who walk through the woods, look at the trees, and decide that here is a great spot for a tree stand. Sometimes they are right, but more often they are dead wrong.

The chosen tree may be good for the hunter, but it may be all wrong for stand placement. It may offer little or no chance for a sportsman to get a clean shot at a buck.

A good tree stand, whether it is manmade in a factory or created by the hunter, must meet several criteria. It must be somewhere downwind and within 20 yards of where two or more active deer trails connect. It must offer some concealment from approaching deer that are out of sight of the hunter.

A tree that stand will be placed in must have an open spot where a stand can be placed without having to cut big limbs out of the way. It also should offer hunters at least one clear shooting lane without having to trim away limbs. A fifth reason, and this is a personal thing for me, is I prefer that deer approach me from behind and on my left side.

The tree and other limbs or pine boughs should cover most of my body silhouette. A cedar or pine tree in the midst of some ash, maple or oak trees is good. You’ll hear the deer approach from behind through the leaves, and once they pass the stand, they will offer a quartering-away shot.

How high is just right? I like most of my stands between 15 and 20 feet high. If you have the right set of circumstances, there may only be one open area for a shot, and it’s up to you to know where the deer travel before establishing the tree stand.

Some hunters act like they are married to a tree stand, but a wise hunter will have three or four stands to cover various wind directions. Get one step ahead of other hunters, and have a stand set up for an east wind. You’ll be able to hunt when others cannot.

Pick your sites wisely, and only after watching deer move through an area. You must know the stand location, and how deer utilize it, before the stand is in place. Steer clear of stands along the open edges of fields. Granted, you’ll see more deer but may have fewer shots.

Pick spots 100 to 200 yards from an active feeding field, and find where two or more trails merge. Check around, and find a good bushy tree that is downwind, but within easy bow distance. Watch deer travel through the area, and learn which side of the tree the deer will pass through, and you’ll have narrowed down your search.

I prefer either a permanent stand or a ladder stand. The two, if properly constructed are safe. I wouldn’t use a climbing stand at my age, and I want to feel safe and secure in a stand. It has to be anchored securely to the tree, and accessing the stand must be easy.

The stand must offer good concealment. I dislike open hardwood trees that lose cover as the leaves fall. The only other alternative is to climb higher, and my preference is to shop around until you find the right area with the perfect tree in the perfect location. Add a stand, and make certain it is securely attached, and stay out of it until the season opens or whenever the wind is perfect.

Too many hunters play with fire when choosing stands. A perfect stand must be perfectly placed to work. A poorly positioned stand in the wrong area will ruin more deer hunts than anything else.

Pre-season scouting is the key to choosing tree stand sites wisely. Watch key areas, see where deer naturally travel, and don’t forget about having two or three entrance and exit routes to prevent being patterned by deer. Don’t crowd too close to bedding areas, and don’t get too close to the edges of feeding areas.

Deer are most comfortable at 100 to 200 yards from the food site. This often offers much thicker cover, and hunters must spend enough time watching an area to know precisely how the deer will travel through it.

Put time into pre-season scouting, narrow your stand placement area down to the best possible location, place the stand well so deer will come from behind you without being downwind of you, and choose different ways into and out of the area without having to cross the deer trail. Get all of it right, and you’ll be hunting in a hotspot.—The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, July 21, 2006

Patience Is A Virtue

Some sage person, now lost to the mists of past history, once muttered that patience is a virtue. Bow hunters know this all too well.

This seems to be a recurring theme every autumn. The hunter, sitting in a tree, watches a buck and doe approach slowly.

The deer stop in heavy cover and just stand there. They are being overly cautious; they are just being whitetail deer on the move. They move at their pace and not at ours.

All of us can remember seeing the flick of an ear or tail, and occasionally one of the antler beams before it is hidden from view. We scan the area with binoculars, and sometimes they help and more often there are too many branches in the way for a good look.

So we sit ... and we wait ... and we sputter to ourselves about the deer that don’t want to move. We know the animals can’t see or smell us, and we haven’t made a sound, and still the deer stand without moving.

One wonders how long a deer can remain motionless. I’ve seen a few bucks stand for an hour without moving.

Once, high in a big pine tree, I watched a buck follow two does and three fawns down a trail and pass under a big pine bough and walk within 15 yards of me. I could hear the grunting of a buck back in the tag alders, and that buck walked out of the tags, under the pine bough and there he stood for 20 minutes watching the does and fawns walk away.

The big 10-pointer stood there, 10 yards away and under the pine bough, and he seemed riveted in place. The pine bough perfectly covered his vitals, but his head and big rack was out in the open, as was his tail.

There he stood, there I stood, and I couldn’t move and he wouldn’t. The arrow was nocked, the release on the string, and he had no clue I was anywhere nearby. He was completely fooled because the does and fawns had passed that way only minutes before.

All it had to do was take two steps. A measly two steps. Five feet would open up his heart-lung area to an easy shot, but instead of moving, he seemed to prefer watching the other deer walk away.

After 15 minutes, he made his move. He turned, walked back behind the pine tree, back into the tag alders, and followed the tags out to the field where he finally loped across the field to catch up.

I seldom hunt the same stand two days in a row. I like to move around, locate good bucks, and hunting the same stand can help deer pattern the hunters. But, I made an exception the next day.

I crawled up into the stand, and had been in place for 90 minutes when the same does and fawns passed under the pine bough, across in front of me, and moved leisurely through the woods and out into the field. Again, I heard the buck grunting in the tags and decided to wait him out once again.

The buck walked out in back of the pine tree and moved slowly under the pine bough, and stood just as he had the day before. I was in the same spot, doing the same thing as the previous day, and waited for him to take those two small steps that would make me happy.

Again, the buck stood a full 15 minutes with just his head, antlers and tail showing, and watched the women and kids walk off. He made a small head fake as if to move, stopped, turned and slowly faded back into the tag alders and out of sight.

This patience thing was wearing me out. The buck had no idea I was there. He apparently didn’t like to enter the field from the same spot as the does and little ones.

I snuck in the next day with a small strap-on tree stand. I attached it to the pine tree behind the ladder stand, and tighten it up. I’d positioned it so I had a stout limb to sit on, and a clean shot under the overhanging pine bough.

These deer were as regular as a dish of prunes. I now could see the does and fawns approach, walk under the big pine bough, and keep going as they always did. Again, I could hear the grunting buck, and there he was.

He stood, fully exposed under the pine bough, and his head was pointed toward the departing does and fawns. I eased back to full draw, aimed, and arrowed that buck. He’d used up all of my patience, and I was tired of being teased by him and the pine bough.

That buck came about only through sheer determination, a huge amount of patience, and the ability to out-think that buck. It does pay to have patience, but the ability to think of a solution is mighty important as well.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Dealing With Snorting Does

It happens at least once every fall. A doe, and possibly one that has been shot at with a bow or been close to buck that was shot with an arrow, will start snorting for no apparent reason.

The doe is uncomfortable for whatever reason, and she begins blowing and snorting. If allowed to carry on forever, it could chase all the other deer from the area.

There are a number of things that hunters can do. Nothing works all the time, but any of these little tricks can satisfy her curiosity. Once satisfied that all is well in her little corner of the world, she may move off or stick around but quit snorting and blowing.

One thing to try is a very soft buck grunt. Keep the tone soft, and blow it once or twice, and if she keeps snorting blow it a bit louder. It doesn’t hurt to bang two antlers together once or twice to give the idea that what she thinks she has seen or heard is nothing more than one or two bucks getting ready for the run. Of course, don’t bang antlers if she is in a position to spot your movements.

Many turkey hunters have learned that it’s sometimes necessary to fool the hen, and if the hen comes to investigate, a spring gobbler won’t be far behind. Many deer calls can be adjusted to give a doe or fawn bleat, and that is my second choice. It won’t alarm an incoming buck, and it may fool the doe.

The fawn bleat alone can be an awesome call. Give one or two fawn bleats, and a snorting doe may charge in to determine the problem. A buck standing nearby but out of sight, having seen the doe move, may move in the same direction to check things out. Deer can be very curious, and at other times, are very cautious.

A deer that looks up in the trees may have seen a slight movement. If she continues to snort, try imitating the little pig-like grunting sound of a porcupine. I can make the sound but can’t describe it to someone else. Anyone who has ever been close to a undisturbed porcupine can try to imitate the sound the quill-pig makes as it moves around.

The sound is almost continuous, and scraping the bark slightly (if it can be done without being seen by the doe) will add to the realism. Does often will accept a porcupine on the ground or in the tree if they hear the noise and see and hear bark falling to the ground.

The same holds true for ruffed grouse. It’s not uncommon to see grouse moving about in the bracken ferns just before sundown, and they too make a soft little cooing sound that is easily duplicated. It doesn’t need to be exact but it does need to be soft.

I’ve had ruffed grouse fly up into the tree I’m sitting in, and prepare to roost there for the night. If they make that cooing little sound while in the tree, so much the better. However, if you move or try to come to full draw, the grouse will see the movement and flush loudly from the tree and that will blow most chances for a shot.

I’ve seen this work in just the opposite fashion. A buck will move into the area, startle the ruffed grouse, and it will explode loudly from cover, startling the deer. If the grouse lands in your tree, sit still and don’t move.

If the bird flies 30 feet and lands in a different tree or on the ground, be ready for a shot because the buck will almost always follow the noisy flight of the grouse. Wait until it turns its head to follow the flight, and when the head is turned, ease back, aim and shoot.

As I said, nothing works every time with snorting does. I know people who can call turkeys with their voice, and sometimes the soft contented clucking of a hen turkey will put a snorting doe at ease.

Bow hunters need every trick they can master to fool deer. A snorting doe can be bad news, but occasionally it’s possible for a hunter to turn this into an asset by giving the doe a sound she is accustomed to hearing. Figure out what she wants to hear, as so often holds true when calling turkey, and there is a good chance of fooling her.

Fool the doe, and it’s no problem fooling a buck.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Hunt, And Only The Hunt, Is What It’s All About

Dawn was blushing the eastern sky with a blaze of fiery gold, orange and red when a drake and hen mallard slanted down over the tree-tops, lost altitude in a banking left turn and settled to the nearby pond.

One day soon, I thought, looking back on that incident, we may meet again during hunting season. I normally do not hunt ducks on the ponds during deer season, but I have on occasion. Those thoughts carried me back to past days where I asked myself why I hunt.

It’s a question every thinking hunter asks themselves, but very few can answer for anyone else because hunting means different things to different people.

Some hunt to enjoy the whisper of duck wings ghosting over cattails in a marsh before dawn; others savor the damp, musty smell of the autumn woods; and some seek the challenge of spotting and stalking a big buck. It’s different strokes for different folks.

The challenge of pitting knowledge and skill against a wild animal is part of the equation, but other factors also are a part of the package. For many, it means the chance to enjoy eating wild game at every meal.

Perhaps it’s knowing that the hunters role in conservation has always been one of keeping game bird and animal populations in line with their available food supplies and habitat requirements, and protecting them whenever it becomes necessary.

Michigan’s 2006 hunting seasons will soon be starting, and they will offer millions of licensed sportsmen the freedom to work the woods and fields, lawfully carry a bow or firearm, and peaceably follow a pastime as old as man himself.

Hunting means many things to me, as it does to almost anyone that shares my love of wild places and wild things. The out-of-doors has so much to offer, both to hunters and non-hunters, and it’s important that we don’t miss a chance to enjoy it.

Hunting has never contributed to the decline of any game animal or bird during modern times. Many times hunter license dollars and excise taxes on hunting equipment have been used to increase game habitat, fund studies or offer protection to wild game during severe weather conditions, and to train younger hunters.

An overpopulation of any wild game results in death by starvation, surely a less humane way to perish than by an accurately placed hunters arrow or bullet.

But the actual killing of wild game is something I’ve done for 60 years, and I’ve taken my share of bear, bobcat, caribou, coyotes, deer, ducks, elk, foxes, geese, grouse, moose, pheasants, raccoons and woodcock. That said, whitetail deer are my major quarry these days.

I am not and never have been against legal hunting, but I hold my hunted animals in deep respect and hunting becomes almost a sacred thing to me. My belief is that hunting plays a definite role in wildlife conservation. Man cannot be a sophisticated hunter without having respect and love for the wild game we pursue.

Hunting is a feeling, something described by many as a deep inner experience. Man, as the ultimate predator, holds the power of life and death in his hands.

This power means that hunters must know their equipment, know what it can do, and be skilled enough to place a shot so the animal or bird is killed cleanly, without suffering. It also means that hunters must know and obey hunting laws and respect the rights and property of others, and respect the opinions of non-hunters as well.

A hunting license gives no one the right to a full game bag, or a two-buck limit. It grants sportsmen the privilege of hunting ... nothing more, nothing less.

I hunt because I need to hunt. It satisfies a deeply rooted need within me to go afield in pursuit of wild game and enjoy the countless blessings and wonders of nature.

It offers me the thrill of an exciting stalk through thin cover, the fleeting glimpse of a wide-antlered buck, the explosive sound of a ruffed grouse thundering from an alder run, or simply the chance to hunt and be afield to enjoy nature.

The taking of game is and must be secondary, ranking far below the mental and physical experience of the hunt.

The hunt, and not the kill, is what hunting is all about. And it is enough.