Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Computer Problems Are Worse Than Anything

I’m growing tired of apologizing for the lack of a decent weblog with a nice color photo on it. I’m wore out thinking about this computer, but everyone tells me that almost all the people who own and use one will have a problem with it sooner or later.

There are thousands of reasons why this could happen, but I doubt that I’ll ever grow used to it. So, bear with us a bit longer. Trust me, we want this problem solved as much as our valued readers. Stay posted.—The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, February 19, 2007

Where’s My Biggest Hammer?

Quick, someone hand me the largest and heaviest hammer in the shop. I’m about to bust this computer and its nasty problem into a million pieces.

Hang with us, folks. We’re working on the problem, and hope soon to have it fixed.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Computer Gremlins Are Hard To Track Down

They are still creeping around my computer. People who know much more about computers are working hard to get my blog back up.

I don’t want it anywhere, but it appears this is a worse problem than we first believed. We’re still working on it. Make certain you check in every day. Thanks for your patience.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Oh, Oh, Computer Problems

I can fix almost anything with my hands except a computer. I know how to turn them on and off, and how to use the hunt-and-peck method of typing, but when something goes radically wrong, I am baffled.

So kindly bear with us as we try to get this bug worked out.—The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, February 16, 2007

Winter Is Hard On Deer

Late winter is not a pleasant time for deer. Nature exacts her vicious toll during a bad winter, and the competition between deer for food is vicious. The words “survival of the fittest” is an apt description of an adult doe and her offspring. I’ve watched does stomp their fawns into a bloodied, befuddled state.

Several years ago I watched deer on the move. They came from all direction to feed behind my home. I had placed corn on the ground, spread it around, and the deer came every evening right at dark.

The deer ate but not courteously. This was nature hard at work, with each deer vying for the most food. They ate as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

A doe, accompanied by twin fawns, began feeding. A doe fawn moved too close to her mother, and the older animal reared up on her hind legs to pummel the hapless youngster before running the fawn off. So much for motherly love and sharing at the dinner table.

It was hardly a Disney-like portrayal of Bambi and Mom. This was a realistic view of a deer’s winter life. The doe fawn, weighing barely 40 pounds, moved away from her mother. She was bowed and bloodied from the attack. Ten minutes later she tried to feed near her young brother, and was viciously kicked by the slightly larger sibling.

It’s called survival of the fittest. Did the doe fawn survive? It’s doubtful.

The doe fawn was fuzzy-faced, with ribs and hip bones jutting out. Her lethargic movements doomed her to one of two deaths: a lingering death from starvation or a more rapid demise as coyotes eat her alive. Which is worse? For the young fawn, the end result is the same.

In some areas the browse is eaten away higher than most adult deer can reach. Fawns move from one spot to another in search of food, and should they get off a well-packed deer trail, they are too weak to crawl back through deep snow onto the trail and its relative safety.

Snow depths throughout most of the northern areas average two to three feet in depth right now, and the snow is much deeper throughout most of the Upper Peninsula.

It’s merely a statement of fact: hard winters exact a horrible toll on whitetails. A bobcat or free-ranging pet dog can kill winter-weakened whitetails. In years of deep snow, the animals have nowhere to go. The DNR allows supplemental deer feeding.

Deer need thermal cover to break the wind and provide warm cover, but year after year they return to the same over-browsed deer yards, and most years the winter starvation rate can be incredibly high.

The most vulnerable are adult bucks and fawns. An adult buck will lost 25-30 percent of its body fat and weight during the rut, and unless the weather is moderate enough in December to allow them to stockpile body fat, they can die early.

Fawns must contend with their mothers and other larger deer for food, and when the going gets tough, fawn start dying.

Starving deer often start feeding on browse that lack nutrition. The sad fact is that winter whitetails often die with a full belly, and it is a slow, wasting death. Survival means being mean, being big enough to reach enough browse to make it through the winter, and looking out for No. 1.

The fawns have to fend for themselves, and the death toll is mounting.

It’s too bad but it’s Nature’s way. The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Tuning Up Your Five Senses

A hunter’s five senses are of great importance to them, and of the five, the most important for bow hunters are your hearing and vision.

Kicking back on a winter day (not when it’s this cold) and letting your senses adjust to your surroundings is great practice. Crawl up into a tree stand, fasten the safety harness, and let your senses open up to the surroundings.

Learning to see (I mean really see) is an acquired talent that is coupled with good vision. Most people seem to expect deer to look like they do on a calendar photo.

You know what I mean. Stiff-legged, body as taut as a bow string, head held high and ears swiveling. A deer, unlike a human, can swivel his ears. You and me will hear out of the right or left, of possibly both eats at the same time, but we miss some of the more subtle tonal qualities found in the woods.

Most hunters who do well in the woods hear the lower tones. I can’t keep up with multiple conversations, but can hear the muffled tone of a twig break when a deer steps on it. I can hear the light shuffling sound of feet moving through damp leaves, and a deer walking through leaves as dry as corn flakes, sounds like an explosion.

However, many hunters tune out the various sounds of a deer. They jump if a deer snorts nearby, but such a snort doesn’t bother me. You see, it’s not that I expect it but have trained myself to unconsciously absorb the loud sound without making any movement.

I find myself tweaking my brain into straining out the obvious sounds such as cars on the highway, a plane flying over or even the startling flush of a nearby ruffed grouse. My attention is focused on listening for muffled footsteps, the soft rattle of leaves or the tiny snap of a twig.

It’s an acquired art that only you can develop. It’s the same with seeing things.

Most people study nearby terrain much too quickly. Many hunters really don’t know how to see.

Seeing means looking as deeply as possible into the brush. Look for horizontal lines in a vertical tag alder run. Look as deep into a cedar swamp or tall marsh grass, and anything that moves in-between you and your distant vision will immediately pick up the movement.

Carefully sort out the tag alders. A buck can stand for 30 minutes in an alder run, but eventually you may see the flick of a tail, the twitch of a nose, or the slow turning of an ear. Often it is those minute movements that catch your eye, and allow a hunter to thoroughly focus in on the area. It may still be hard to pick out the motionless animal, but learn how to do it right, and spotting deer before they spot you is possible.

These two parts of bow hunting can be learned. The hunter must learn how to listen and how to look. It is not a talent acquired overnight, and requires practice. Doing it on a winter day is a bit easier than during October because of the contrast of deer hair against white snow.

Practice a bit now, and then again during the summer and fall, and by the time hunting season opens in October, you’ll be amazed at how much more you hear and see than before. Gaining a familiarity with listening and looking will allow a hunter to make great strides in their ability to hunt successfully.

And best of all, with practice, acquiring these arts can be accomplished during the winter.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Digging Through The Snow

Several deer were seen digging through the snow cover the other day. They were working over a winter wheat field, and what I’ve noticed is that deer seem to be moving well.

A friend in Traverse City is feeding deer behind his house. He had a timbering operation on his property late last year, and said that deer are all over the place in knee-deep snow. They are pawing up his food plots for some clover tidbits.

“The old clover is OK but these deer are going from one pile of tree-tops to the next, and eating the tender twigs off the ends of the branches,” he said. “There are tracks all over the food plots, and little black holes where they dug through the snow for clover and winter wheat. Another friend always leaves a small field of standing corn for the deer, and it is like a magnet to them.”

Both friends also put out carrots, corn and some old sugar beets, and the chop up the frozen carrots and sugar beets to make it easier for the deer to feed. It’s important that deer hunters do what they can to help whitetails at this time of year.

Mineral blocks will add some key ingredients to a deer’s diet at a time when such trace minerals are most important. Late winter and spring is a good time to add mineral blocks and supplemental items such as 30-06 and others will offer deer a boost when they need it most.

Remember one thing. Everything a buck eats will go to body growth, and any nutritional values not needed for helping to grow the body will go toward improving antler growth. If a deer gets enough nutrition during these lean months, and have access of minerals and other nutritional aids, it will give their antler growth a big boost.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Identifying Quality Deer Habitat

I hate to fly. I’d rather take a physical beating than to sit down inside an airplane.

My fears of flying are well-known, and they have been with me ever since a good friend of mine was killed in an airplane crash many years ago. I have flown two or three times since that plane went down, but it’s not a pleasant experience.

So my favorite mode of travel is in my pickup truck. That means putting plenty of miles of my vehicles, lots of hours on the road, and the main reason I’m writing this blog.

My favorite pastime while driving is analyzing the quality of the local deer habitat. I find myself assessing the croplands and heavy cover easily seen from the road, and trying to pick out a stand location while zooming by at 60 to 70 miles per hour.

It’s a great deal of fun, and seldom am I able to positively determine whether my choice of stand location is right. At times, if I pass that way again just before hunting season begins, and spot a tree stand or a wood hunting coop in my hastily chosen location, I’ll know I’m right.

Identifying good deer habitat becomes easy once a person knows what to look for. Consider a deer’s three primary needs: cover, food and water. Most deer can get enough moisture from rain, so they are really just two things to look for—good bedding cover and a constant nearby food supply.

Cover can fall into many different categories, but one thing holds true for deer: they like thick cover. Where some hunters get lost is they confuse thick cover with lots of cover. Thinking that way makes many bow hunters overlook some key hiding spots.

I’ve jumped big bucks out of a 10-foot by 10-foot piece of sumac. Other times I’ve found bucks bedded down along a fence row grown up to shintangle brush, dogwood, grape vines and other thick growth. A buck, curled up with his head low, can be very difficult to spot.

My ranch has a huge huckleberry marsh on it, and fingers of this dense cover are found everywhere. Tag alders are a common bedding area, and I have a considerable pocket of cedars, pines and shallow water.

Bucks don’t mind walking through water, and often they have a high spot back in the middle of a watery thicket where they can stay high and dry. One clue is to spot deer coming with wet legs. Find the closest thick cover with water, and you may be one-up on other bow hunters.

Tall marsh grass is perfect habitat, and we’ve spotted white antler tips in the middle of yellow marsh grass, and then the trick is to learn how to determine how and when and where the buck will leave such cover. It is impossible to move through marsh grass silently, and a bow hunter that enters such cover will either force the buck out the other end or the deer will allow a hunter to walk past and relax after they leave.

Looking for ideal pockets of deer habitat is one of the first steps to success. Check and see how the deer move from one thicket to another, and such funnels can be easy to spot.

Deer favor creek and river bottoms. Such locations offer plenty of cover, and a way to stay out of sight of many hunters. If food is nearby, it’s pretty simple to figure out their travel route.

Hunters should practice this whenever they hunt new country. Put yourself in the place of a good buck, and study the terrain with an eye to locations that offer cover while being close to a proven food source.

Master this art of spotting quality deer cover, and then narrowing it down to how deer should move from cover to a known food supply, and you will have made a huge step in figuring out the travel patterns of whitetail bucks.

Reach this point, refine your techniques, and you’ll become a superb deer hunter.—The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, February 12, 2007

Optics Can Make The Hunt

My truck was parked on a high hill that gave me a good view of a rolling open field. My Bushnell spotting scope and quality binoculars were close at hand late last summer.

I was scouting the easy way. A window mount held the spotting scope, and all I had to do was jockey the truck around a bit to see almost everywhere in the field. I was looking for bucks, and trying to see what was available.

The deer were accustomed to a moving and motionless truck, and it was easy to look at the deer. The animals hadn’t been hunted for six months, and they paid the truck no mind.

I dialed the spotting scope down to gain a larger depth of field, and once deer were spotted, slowly I increased the power of the scope. The next step was to focus tightly on the buck, and just like magic, the velvet-covered antlers sprang into view.

The first buck seen was a decent 8-pointer. It wasn’t very wide, and the tines were still spindly, but two years from now he would be a shooter buck. The buck standing nearby was a case study for preseason scouting from a distance.

This buck was a half-mile away, and he showed all the promise of a trophy animal. He too was in velvet but already this animal was outside of its ears with a spread of 18 inches. His G2s were long and evenly matched on both sides, as were the rest of the tines, and the brow points were nine to 10 inches in length, and the main beams went up, our and around, adding substantially to his score. And even though he had mass around the bases, it was obvious this buck would be in the 150- to 160-class.

This would be the trophy buck of a lifetime. I studied him long and hard from several angles, memorizing exactly what he looked like.

There were an assortment of smaller bucks milling around. They would lay down, get up, walk around, feed a bit and lay down. As I watched the field bucks, my eyes were peeled watching the tree line across the field. I wanted to learn where some of these bucks entered the field, and where they headed as the sun started slipping low in the sky.

It was that period, halfway between sundown and being too dark to see when a majestic nontypical buck stepped out of heavy cover 300 yards away. I lifted my head from the spotting scope, and could see the heavy rack of antlers.

This buck was an exceptional animal. It was a basic main-frame 10-pointer, but everything else was different. It had a six-inch drop tine coming off the bottom of one antler, and a forked brown point on each side. The opposite antler had two or three kicker points coming off the back of the main beam, and some gnarly little one-inch points around the base of each brow tine.

This buck was higher than he was wide which helped give him the appearance of greater mass. Roughly green scoring this buck in my head, adding points and deducting points when the two sides didn’t match up, gave me a lower score than I first believe.

My initial guess was 180 as a nontypical, but after doing the math, adding and subtracting his score, he would probably come in at 150 to 155 points. Not as big as he looked, but certainly the nontypical rack of a lifetime for a person who loves the lack of symmetry that is found on all nontypical.

Darkness kept approaching, and my binoculars came up as the buck drew closer, and I decided that my final scoring was very close. Both deer were seen but the nontypical wasn’t taken last fall.

He will be around in the fall, and with any kind of luck, he will be even more impressive. For me, checking out deer with binoculars and spotting scope during the summer, is as much a part of hunting as jumping into a camo suit and heading into the woods with a bow in hand.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, February 11, 2007

How Many Ways To Shoot A Buck?

Twenty years ago my son, Matt, and I practiced shooting at deer targets from various tree stands on the ranch. I’d shoot a dozen or more arrows, and then we change positions.

Matt is an excellent bow shot, and working at the Buck Pole Archery Shop is a good way to maintain our shooting skills. We have people coming in every day to buy a bow, and we show them our shooting technique. It gives us plenty of time to practice shooting.

I well remember those practice sessions from the trees. Some shots were taken while sitting, others while standing, and some were shot from contorted positions. Back then, we practiced a variety of shots.

Now, we hunt from tree stands or elevated coops. Many of our shots are taken while sitting down, and that changes things dramatically for those sportsmen who shoot only while standing.

The sitting position doesn’t allow for much side-to-side movement, and as a result, we position our stands to provide broadside or quartering-away shots. If the stand is perfectly positioned for such sit-down shots, all we have to do is wait for the buck to walk within easy shooting range and he offers the perfect angle.

We are both right-handed, and an ideal shot has the buck coming from behind the tree on the left side. We can draw and swing our bow easily to the left but not to the right. If we are hunting over bait, the bait is directly in front or slightly to the left which enables an easy draw and shot at a perfectly positioned deer.

Those corkscrew contortions we practiced years ago paid off on occasion but knowing where the deer would come from and which direction it would take to get there is all we need now. We know where the unspooked deer will wind up, and that allows us to position our stands appropriately.

Most of our stands are 15 feet up the tree. A hunter who sits and shoots is 18 feet off the ground while a standing hunter would be 21 feet in the air. Part of this proper tree stand positioning hinges on the prevailing wind direction. If the wind shirts, and places your scent stream heading toward the deer, a hunter shouldn’t be using that stand on that day.

I know hunters who build cubbies where they want the deer to stop. A cubbie is a three-sided enclosure built from fallen tree limbs. The only open side is the side closest to the hunter, and the cubbie has wood tree limbs and brush piled high enough to prevent the deer from standing at the back or either side and lean across to feed.

Its purpose is to force the animal to move into the only open spot, and when it does so, it offers only a broadside or quartering-away shot. Hit with an arrow, the deer almost always charges through the cubbie, and it must be rebuilt again. One advantage of this system is that busting through the brush and limbs of the cubbie will cause even more cutting if the arrow and broadhead remains in the deer.

The cubbie system was used by Native American centuries ago because it works. Of course the limbs used to construct a cubbie must be free of human scent. One guy I know has used round hay-bales to form the cubbie, and it works very well.

Practicing shots are important, but so too is placing stands so the deer will move to where they will present a high-percentage shot. Study your hunting area, learn where deer prefer to travel, and position you stand according to the prevailing wind direction so you will be downwind at all times.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Just How Bad Are Deer Injuries?

Over many years, I’ve encountered injured whitetails on many occasions. Some had been kicked by another deer, some had been gored by another buck, and a few had been wounded by a hunter.

A minor leg injury may lay a deer up for a few days providing it is in a spot where the deer can lick the wound. It can be an entirely different story if the wound or injury is where the deer can’t reach it.

Years ago, before my property was fenced, we had some hunters who couldn’t shoot straight. Me and two or three of my friends would shoot the animal if it looked as it couldn’t survive.

Tests have been conducted in Minnesota and other locations, and they prove the fatality of wounded deer is not nearly as high as some would think. Two years ago we had a pretty big buck that was shot high in the shoulder, and several of us saw the buck, but it was always too far away. One hunter could see the wound was filled with pus, and the order went out: anyone who sees that buck up close must shoot it.

Two days later a hunter tagged it. The deer had been hit high in the shoulder, and the animal lived long enough to grow a hump on its shoulder. Every time the right leg would move, the hump would go up and down.

A deer that gets nicked in a front leg will probably survive. They lick the leg, and keep an infection from forming, and soon the deer will be up and moving around.

There have been a few bucks shot where the arrow passed through the chest cavity without hitting the heart or lungs, and that buck would often survive. It may lay him up for a week or so, but mortality doesn’t always result from an arrow wound.

One time I passed up a buck that came down the trail near my stand, and it appeared to have a slight limp but was moving just fine. I let the buck pass by, and noticed some hair was missing from the off-side front shoulder. By now, I was studying the buck through binoculars.

The next day found me in the same tree stand, and here comes the same buck moving down the same trail. When my shot presented itself, I drew and shot, killing the buck.

There was reason for the slight limp. Some hunters had shot the buck from a tree stand, and the replaceable-blade broadhead had hit high. It missed the spine and caught the buck high in the shoulder near the spine, and the animal couldn’t get to it.

I skinned out that area of the previous wound, and it was full of pus and the shoulder flesh was green with gangrene. That buck would have eventually died, but it was still moving well when I shot. Two of the three replaceable blades had broke off and littered the wound channel.

Knowing where an arrow hits is important to a successful retrieval of the animal. Many hunters claim they have shot the animal in the heart and lungs, but blood trailing and following a Game Tracker string soon proves just the opposite.

A thin blood trail with red blood usually means a minor muscle wound that eventually clots and stops bleeding. Most such shots hit the brisket or the inside or outside of a front leg. The chance of recovery of such animals is slim and none.

Knowing where the arrow hits can tell you whether to wait two or three hours or take the trail immediately. An obvious wound in the paunch, far back from the lungs, can mean a long trailing job unless a vital organ, such as the liver, is hit.

It’s best to leave gut-shot deer alone for several hours and hope the coyotes don’t pick up its trail. Often, after a lengthy wait, the deer will travel only 100 yards or less, lay down and stiffen up or die. Push a gut-shot deer, and it will travel long distances and may never be recovered.

All of this points to the reasons why a hunters must know how his bow shoots, where the animal was hit, and with some experiences, most wounded deer can be recovered. Those with a minor nick on the leg will live to become a much wiser buck in the future.—The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, February 09, 2007

10 Major Mistake Tree Stand Hunters Make

of my best ideas for blogs come from customers at my Buck Pole Archery Shop in Marion, Michigan. All come in seeking either a new C.P. Oneida Eagle compound bow or hunting information.

Some of the questions I field offer good topics for a daily blog. A gent came in today, looked at some of the big bucks on the walls, and posed the question.

“What are the 10 major bow hunting mistakes that hunters make when hunting from a tree stand?”

It’s a good question, and worthy of an answer here. These are 10 thoughts, and in no particular order except for No. 1 because it is so important. You might have 10 other answers but these work for me.

1.) Knowing how to hunt the wind is paramount to success. The really savvy deer hunters test the air movement several times during a hunt because the wind seldom stays from just one direction. To be an effective tree stand hunter, one must either be directly downwind of the deer or across-and-downwind. I use milkweed seeds once they have dried out, and release one or two several times during the hunt. If any blow toward where the deer come from, you are in trouble. Learn to play the wind, learn how to stay downwind, and you’ll shoot more deer.

2.) Know your equipment. It’s always nice to have a new bow, but a hunter must become familiar with their bow. We must know what the bow will do under any given circumstance. If we shoot an unfamiliar bow, and find ourselves having a problem hitting the sweet spot of our anchor point, the chance of a miss or wounded deer is possible. Become familiar with the bow to the point where drawing, aiming and shooting becomes mechanical. Develop good shooting habits.

3.) Know your ideal shooting distance. It’s important to know your limitations and never exceed them. My outdoor writing buddy Dave Richey < [url=http://www.daverichey.com]http://www.daverichey.com[/url] > has bad eyes, and his effective shooting range is 15 yards. He never stretches his limitations, and kills deer every year. Your ideal range may be 30 yards, but in a wooded situation during that 30 minutes after sundown, judging 30 yards is difficult. Most people find their effective shooting range is shorter in a shadowed or wooded environment. Never try to stretch your established shooting distance. It usually doesn’t pay off.

4.) My favorite trees for tree stands are cedars and pines, but it’s not always possible to find such a tree. Hunting from hardwood trees can be equally productive if the hunter chooses the right tree. Me, I prefer deer coming from behind me. I can usually hear them coming, and there is no need to move until it’s time to shoot when the buck walks past and is quartering away. Obviously, this means knowing exactly where deer travel and choosing a tree wisely.

5.) Any hardwood tree can work but if must be positioned absolutely correct. Make every attempt to situate the stand so that you can achieve full draw without being seen and without any movement. Reach full draw, allow the deer to walk past and shoot it when it is quartering-away. If it sound easy, it’s because doing so is easy.

6.) Learn how to sit still. Most bow hunters want to stand in their tree stand, and soon their back and legs get sore. They change positions slightly, and a deer that is out of sight and perhaps 100 yards away may spot the movement. Once you’ve been spotted, the deer can and will pattern your and will avoid your stand at all costs. Teach yourself to ignore a pain in your back, butt or leg; avoid swatting a early October bugs, and sit motionless.

6.) Check your tree stand before each use. If it squeaks or makes noise when climbing into it, it will make noise when you sit or stand in it. Eliminate any and all noises while checking for any defects. A squeak at the wrong moment will send bucks heading for cover.

7.) Avoid cutting wide shooting lanes around your stand. Instead, look for holes in the vegetation where a killing shot can be made. It’s one thing to remove a few twigs, and another to remove all the brush. Deer travel where they do because of the brush. Learn to hunt with it.

8.) Always wear a safety harness. Most tree stand hunting accidents occur when climing into, out of or down a tree. Even with a harness, always maintain three firmly anchored points of contact with the tree. This means two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand. Falls can occur when only two contact points are used. Wear the safety harness, make certain it is attached firmly to the tree and get used to it. The life it saves may be yours.

9.) Practice shooting from an elevated position. Shooting at a steep downward angle can cause your anchor point to shift. Learn how to shoot sitting down to remove most of the movements required, and know how your arrows fly from up in a tree.

10.) How high is too high? It’s a matter of personal feelings, but most of my tree stands are 15 feet up. A hunter who sits will be shooting from 18 feet in the air, and a standing hunter will be shooting from about 21 feet. I know, and you probably do too, people who hunt 35 to 40 feet high. In my opinion, and that of many hunters, such heights are dangerous. Learn to play the wind, know how to sit still, know when and how to draw on a deer, and 15 feet is plenty high enough.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Where An Arrow Or Bullet Goes Is Most Important

Years ago there was an ongoing feud between the legendary Outdoor Life firearms and hunting writer, Jack O’Connor, and another equally famous gun writer, Elmer Keith.

Keith touted the large heavy-caliber rifles and handguns while O’Connor cited more moderated rifles like the .270. Jack urged readers to properly sight in their firearms, and to choose a bullet appropriate for the animal being hunted.

Keith, on the other hand, believed in shooting heavy bullets from a mini-cannon. Back and forth they went, and there were many O’Connor fans then and his influence lives on. Keith wasn’t a very big man, but he wore a cowboy hat big enough for two people, and he preferred his handguns and rifles to be a part of his “big-bore” theory.

O’Connor passed away first, and some feel he was trying to make up what he and Keith had lost through constant bickering.  Both were highly capable writers, and although O’Connor had been a professor, I’ve read a few raw examples of Keith’s prose. He knew his firearms and ammo, but many an editor labored long and hard on his words.

The “big-bore” theory that Keith espoused is a bit similar to broadheads with big blades and lots of weight. Some hunters favor broadheads weighing 165 grains or more, and sporting four or five blades.

I tend to follow O’Connor’s choice of accuracy and putting the broadhead where it is supposed to go. The larger and heavier arrows and broadheads are more difficult to tune and to fly where they are supposed to go.

Where Keith’s heavy bullets lumbered along, the same is true with the heavy shafts and broadheads. If it hits something, there will be plenty of damage, but it may not immediately kill the deer.

Conversely, even though I don’t recall O’Connon ever writing a story about hunting with a bow, his philosophy stressed accurate placement and a bullet that would do the job. He saw no need for a 300-grain bullet on antelope or deer.

My argument follows somewhat the same lines. The arrow should have a flat trajectory, and the hunter should be able to place the arrow and broadhead in the precise location where it will do the most damage.

Bullets kill through massive tissue and organ damage, and the kinetic energy of a properly constructed bullet striking the animal in the right spot represent a major advantage. However, if the archer places a sharp broadhead through a vital organ, there is very little kinetic energy. I’ve shot deer with my two-blade broadheads, and have it slice right through and the animal would die where it stood.

Arrows and broadheads kill game by cutting through arteries, capillaries and veins, creating heavy bleeding. If the broadhead cuts through a vital organ, it results in a blood loss that kills quickly.

There isn’t much difference between Jack O’Connor’s philosophy of killing game and mine other than he chose to use a rifle, and most often a .270, while I choose a 100-grade broadhead with two blades.

It’s not so much the size of the broadhead or the bullet used. What obviously is far more important is shot placement. A deer shot in the rump with a huge bullet or a large broadhead is going to run off.

Hit that same animal in the heart and lungs with a small, medium or large bullet or broadhead, and you’ll collect the animal. Make a poor hit, and the chances are it will get away.

And, unlike Keith and O’Connor and their verbal dust-ups, there can be no argument with this philosophy. It’s not a matter of how big it is as but a matter of accurate shot placement.

Do it right, with bow or rifle, and the animal dies.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Understanding The Whitetail Rut

The breeding period, or “rut” as most hunters call it, is one of the most misunderstood aspects about hunting whitetail deer. With ignorance comes a wide variety of old wives ‘ tales.

The falsehoods about rutting whitetails are many. The bucks are dumb. The does deliberately lead bucks past hunters. Bucks tending a doe always grunt like a pig. There are many such thoughts among hunters, and most of them are not true.

One glaring error is about when the rut begins, and most people feel it is caused by a cold spell. The rut is determined by dwindling minutes of daylight. It triggers glandular secretions that boost testosterone levels in bucks and estrogen levels in does. Cold weather has nothing to do with it.

As a rule, rutting dates depend somewhat on the area, human presence in the woods, weather and shorter days, make the rut begin in late October. There are three distinct phases.

The pre-rut can be the best time to hunt, and it usually kicks off somewhere between Oct. 20-25, and this is the time period when bucks are visiting scrapes, raking trees, urinating in scrapes under overhanging branches, and it is a time when deer move often to follow rub lines, scrape lines and their presence is highly visible.

Some older does are bred during the pre-rut, and this portion of the rut lasts for seven to 10 days.

The peak of the rut is easily defined. When bucks stop coming to scrapes, and when a once active scrape is no longer used, the rut has begun. The time period in Michigan usually runs from October 28 through Nov 10-15, and much of the actual rutting activity will take place at night although it’s not uncommon to watch a buck catch and breed a doe. That usually occurs between Nov. 10-14 is the best for me.

Some bucks grunt with every step they take while tending an estrus doe, and other bucks do not. It, and the pre-rut, is when the deer are most active. Ambushing a buck is a bit easier during the pre-rut than the rut, but I’ve found that once the rut is in full swing, calling and rattling do not work as well as it did during the pre-rut.

Mid-day hunting is a perfect time to hunt during the pre-rut and rut, and often deer will move reasonably well during the 10 a.m. to 2 [.m. period. If anything, the bucks during the rut will be found in some of the thickest cover or out in the middle of open fields.

Weather sometimes plays an important role in the rut. A temperature or weather change, especially to colder and snowier weather, can trigger hot deer movement just as a front moves in.

The post-rut seems to drag on for a month or two, and it is more a time of opportunity for mature bucks. Deer, like people, do not mature at the same time. A two week period will cover most of the rut, and after mid- to late-November, young does will come into estrus at different times.

It’s very difficult to plan a hunt around the post-rut, but cold snaps often trigger younger does to accept a buck, and much of the breeding will be done in heavy cover. Much of that is due to the deer having survived the Nov. 15-30 firearm deer season, and the animals are still spooky. They often stay holed up in heavy cover until just before dark.

Hunters will find that most of the breeding activity will take place before dark as a lone buck pursues a solitary young doe. Once hunters see that bucks are settling back into their bachelor groups and travel in small groups of three, four or five bucks, it is a good indication that the rut has ended. Of course, an occasional young doe may still come into estrus in January or February, and an antlered buck will breed her.

This latter situation accounts for some of those tiny fawns in October. Their mother was bred late, and she dropped her fawns late. The rut is far more complex than I’ve made it sound here, and books could be written on the various ramifications of the whitetail rut.

In a nutshell, it offers hunters most of what they need to know to become successful. Of course, a little bit of luck and some good planning can help.—The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Hunting Deer Is Not Just About Killing Game

There are some people who call themselves hunters who still believe the only purpose in hunting is to kill someone. The sad thing about this line of thought is they are so far off base but they never realize it.

I’m a big believer in getting more children and women into hunting, and to hunt with a bow is the perfect way to get started. Many get too cold during November and December hunts, but bow hunting in October is about as close to perfect as anyone can get.

We hunt for many different reasons,and although every hunter would give almost anything to down a big buck, they are sane enough to realize that really big bucks are widely scattered. The odds of shooting one is pretty much stacked against most hunters.

Lacking a big buck, many sportsmen want to shoot any buck. If it has bone on its head, it gives the hunter instant bragging rights, especially if their buddies have not scored. And, up to a point, that is OK providing the hunter respects the deer for something other than it having antlers.

There are many things that form the basic foundation of a successful hunt but shooting a buck or doe shouldn’t be the only yardstick used to measure success. Success for many hunters is seeing a buck, perhaps too far away for a shot, but seeing game is part of why we hunt.

As time passes, and hunters shoot some deer, it slowly dawns on them that many other things may be present. It’s some of these other factors that matter most, and taking home a buck would soon lose its appeal if we shot a deer every time we entered the woods.

I remember 30 years ago when the Buck Pole Deer Camp was formed. Outdoor writer Dave Richey < [url=http://www.daverichey.com]http://www.daverichey.com[/url] > was working on a story for Sports Afield magazine about the joys of a deer camp, and he needed a name for the camp. We kicked around Buck Pole Deer Camp, and today the old cabin is still there although it is seldom used these days, but from that brainstorming session came the name of the hunting camp which eventually became the the Buck Pole Deer Ranch.

In those days we heated the cabin with wood, and walking through the snow on a frosty day and smelling wood smoke in the air is something I still remember with fondness. There is the smell of fresh brewed coffee in the morning, bacon sizzling and popping in the pan, and helping other people drag in a nice buck to hang on the buck pole.

It means remembering friends who hunted here and have now passed on, some of their joys, and some of their sorrows after missing an easy shot. Deer hunting means just that. It is a hunting experience, and one that means different things to different people.

I remember the bucks I’ve hunted and never got, and I also remember some of the bucks I’ve taken. Most of all are the bucks that were seen but no shot was taken, and those are remembered the most.

Hunting means being with friends, watching a smile break out across their face as they come in to the Gate House with a big buck. They figured out the buck’s travel patterns, they moved around, and if the Hunting Gods smile, they get a clean shot. Hit or miss is up to the individual hunter.

Keenly remembered are some of those bucks that are seen once and never taken. I wake up dreaming about those bucks, and some are seen only a few times but are never taken or spotted again.

I marvel at whitetails of all shapes and sizes, and at the uncanny ability of some old does to steer clear of hunters. I think too of the few times when a heavy-antlered buck waltzes in to a hunter and offers an easy shot.

Deer hunting means sharing with friends, enjoying good company, watching antlers develop in the spring, summer and early fall, and watch a good buck bulk up just before the rut. Much of deer hunting is of a peripheral nature, and not just about killing deer.

Age and a hunting maturity brings fond memories, and behind every thought about hunting, stands the mental image of a great huge buck. It’s something we all dream about, and although some of us never realize the ultimate end of that dream, we experience all the emotions of a successful hunt.

A dead deer is seldom at the end of those dreams.—The Whitetail Wizard