Whitetail Wizard

My idea of hunting clothing is different than that of many hunters. I’m still wearing the same camo coveralls that I wore 10 years ago. They are a bit frazzled around the ankles and threadbare at the elbows, knees and seat.

It’s what I wear. It’s comfortable for me, and what many hunters don’t seem to realize is that I don’t dress to suit them. I dress to suit me.

Some of my friends have tried to conspire with my wife to get me into a new hand-made outfit. They soon learned that isn’t a good idea. I’m happy with what I wear.

A pair of knee-high rubber boats complete the outfit. I don’t bother with a face mask or painting my face. Sit still with your head down and the cap pulled low over your eyes, and it doesn’t make much difference. Don’t move or make noise, and the deer won’t know you are there.

I’ve had people come to hunt, and some are tricked out in the latest fashions. Their clothing is stiff while mine is soft and comfortable. Theirs still has the new smell that clothing has while mine smells like a fall day with a bit of a cedar odor. A garden hose will rinse off my rubber boots, and it doesn’t affect the boots or the deer.

My clothing has no odor, and is seldom washed. There is a problem with how most people wash camo clothing.

Most detergents contain whitening agents. They live up to their advertisements by producing whiter whites. Hunters don’t need brighter looking camouflage.

Those whiteners will make your camo clothes clean but the patterns are much brighter. Use a product like SportWash that contains no whiteners. Wash the clothing in clean water, hang it out to dry, and the dirt will be gone without any odor or brighter patterns.

There is a bunch of clothing companies that manufacture camo clothes. Savvy sportsmen know that if a person is hunting in the hardwoods, they should wear a hardwoods pattern.

Those who hunt out west and in desert country know that a pattern with tan and gray is ideal. Learn to match your camo with the season and terrain being hunted.

A friend hunts in wool clothing in cold or warm weather. He’s also convinced that wool doesn’t make a bad noise. He’s convinced it sounds like the fur on a squirrel or raccoon rubbing against the bark.

It is warm when the weather is cool, breathes well, and is not overly warm in warm temperatures. He swears by it, and he shoots one or two good bucks every year.

For him, it means the clothes makes a natural woodsy sound. Wool doesn’t rasp when rubbed against tree bark. Many of the fleece patterns work equally well, but I warn people about fleece backed with a hard finish cloth. It can be very noisy in the woods.

Most hunters want comfort and quiet clothing with their hunting attire. It is difficult to find both qualities in new garments. Another friend, when he buys new hunting jackets and pants, washes them a dozen times before wearing them in the woods. Frequent washing will help break down and soften the fibers of the fabric, and means a quieter hunting garment.

Many hunters always have a loose plan for the day. They may tighten it up or switch plans, but most successful bow hunters will always have a plan in mind. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

*Have a somewhat detailed plan and a good idea of how and where you will hunt.

*Have a good knowledge of the terrain and where deer travel.

*Always be downwind of where deer move. The key word is always.

*Know which deer frequent your hunting area. Some areas are better noted for big bucks than anything else. Have everything in your backpack you’ll need. An extra release, more Game Tracker string, compass, light, matches, Space Blanket and other items.

*Wear clean clothing and clean rubber boots.

*Shoot two or three times at a target before going out. Know exactly where your bow is shooting.

*Use a Game Tracker device. It can help eliminate long hours of searching for a weak or nonexistent blood trail.

*Use only razor-sharp broadheads. Factory sharpened heads are rarely sharp enough.

*Wear a safety harness when hunting from a tree stand.

*Visually inspect all stands before committing to them. Don’t take unnecessary risks.

*Inspect areas within shooting range for open shots, and commit them to memory. Know where you can shoot.

*Use a grunt call sparingly. Too many hunters call too loud and too often. Err on the side of too little and not too loud or often.

*Know your best shots and wait for either a broadside or quartering-away shot. Never take a low-percentage shot.

*Pay attention to what other deer are doing while you wait for your buck to turn and offer a good shot. Make certain you can draw without being seen or heard.

*Pick your shot. Never shoot at the center of mass, but pick the exact spot to aim. Concentrate on not lifting your head at the shot because it can cause the arrow to go high. Follow through!

*Know your ideal shooting range and never exceed it.

*Always sit quiet and motionless. Be still and be quiet, and draw the bow smoothly and silently.

*Know a deer’s body language. It will tell hunter what the animal will do. Each deer is as different from other deer as fingerprints, and that means that each animal can and will react different to various stimuli.

*Hunt alone. A solitary hunter is quieter, moves less, and there is less chance of one person spooking a deer than two people.

*Be prepared for a shot at any moment. Deer hunting means paying attention. Never be caught with the bow anywhere other than in your hand.

But there is a great deal of work left to be done. Everything needs to be tightly edited, we must look for those little holes that often find their way into a book, and fill them with more useful information.

We are kicking around some ideas. One is to have an eight, 12 or 16-page color portfolio. It would feature some really big bucks, some that have been taken, and some of the book would cover other topics that pertain to bow hunting.

We’ve got a list of about 10-12 possible titles for the book. We seem to be deadlocked on two titles among those of us who are considering the title, and we still haven’t pinned it down yet.

We also are talking about both a paperback and limited edition hard-bound copy. Obviously, the limited edition will be personally signed by me. Another thing we are talking about is to do the limited edition first, and follow it up with the more inexpensive paperback printing.

I’m not prepared at this time to discuss the contents, but it will be an in-depth look at my bow-hunting methods. I tend to do many things a bit differently than other hunters, and those little tricks are what makes me successful.

Success in the deer woods is a relative thing. It’s possible to be successful without shooting a buck, but most people want to know some tactics that will work. They are hungry for the meaty “how-to” things, and I promise that this book will be loaded with such items.

Mind you, I’ve been around this bow hunting game for many years. Over 60 years of hunting whitetails with a bow has taught me a great many things.

Sure, you’ll read about how to play the wind ... and for good reason. It is the most important aspect of deer hunting. There will be some things in the book on that, and you’ll learn about different methods and ways to play the wind.

Some of what I do flies in the face of traditional bow hunting tactics, and so be it. If it works, I use it. If it doesn’t, discard it.  I’ll let ill-informed writers brag up the wrong tactics. It won’t take readers long to learn the difference.

I’ve found that there are some exceptional writers who deal with deer hunting. Those who nail it are the ones that hunt often, and in some cases, a few of these writers spend almost the entire season in the woods. Anyone who spends that kind of time hunting, and pays attention to what he observes, is bound to learn some interesting things.

This book will be interesting. Consider this: I own a deer ranch so I can pick and choose where I’ll hunt. To observe, in the wild, what I see on the wide open spaces and swamps and woods of my ranch, has given me a greater education on what deer do under certain circumstances ... and why they do it.

Some will say that tame deer act differently. My deer are not tame or even close to it. They see more humans than wild deer do, and I’ve yet to have one come up to me for a handout. They quite possibly may be wilder than wild deer.

Bucks on my land are as wild, and perhaps wilder, than many deer on the outside. This gives me a different and unique viewpoint on deer and how they react to danger, seasonal changes in their life, the rut and everything else.

Combine my 60+ years of deer hunting with hard-earned information about deer, and you’ve got a different approach to deer hunting. Learn some of the fallacies about deer hunting, learn how indoctrinated some bow hunters become to the old ways when the techniques used seldom worked.

Bow hunting today, like everything else in life, continues to progress and move forward. If it doesn’t, it will falter and die.

Bow hunting in this state, and this nation, is alive and well. Very few slob hunters are found in the ranks of bow hunters, and they don’t last very long. Savvy bow hunters don’t want the slobs ruining our hunting heritage.

Everyone who has ever authored a deer hunting book puts his personal spin on the text and photos. I’m no different in that respect, but my spin on many topics is much different than that used by other bow hunters.

I’ve encountered numerous injured deer over the years. Some are the result of a doe kicking one of her fawns, others have been gored in a buck fight, and a few have been wounded by a hunter.

A leg injury may put a deer on the mend for a few days, and recovery is possible if the animal can lick the wound and keep it clean.  Deer wounded or injured by another may not make it if the injury is in a location where it can’t be licked.

Two decades ago we had a few hunters who couldn’t shoot straight. Me, and a few of my close friends, would hunt those wounded animals. If they looked like it would lead to a fatality, we would shoot the deer to end its suffering.

Some years ago Minnesota conducted tests to prove the fatality of wounded deer, and they found it wasn’t nearly as high as some people thought. Three years ago we had a very nice buck that had been hit high in the shoulder, and several of us saw the buck, but the animal was always too far away. One hunter saw the wound was filled with pus, and I gave the order that anyone who saw that buck within easy shooting range, must shoot it.

This animal looked like a hunchback. Every time the right front leg would go forward, the hump high on the shoulder would raise six or eight inches when it took a step. The wound was where the buck couldn’t lick it.

Two days after I passed down the order to kill the buck, one of my hunters tagged it. The deer had been hit high in the shoulder, and the animal lived long enough to grow the hump. It was never seen eating but was always on the move.

A deer hit in a front leg usually survives. They lick the leg, and keep an infection from forming, and soon the deer is up and moving around without a problem.

Some bucks have been shot, and the arrow zipped through the chest cavity without hitting the heart or lungs, and such bucks often survive. It may lay the deer up for a week or two, but death doesn’t always follow a pass-through shot.

Several years ago I passed up a buck that walked down a trail near my stand, and it appeared to have a slight limp but was moving fine. I let him pass, and noticed some hair was missing from the off-side front shoulder.

The next day found me in the same tree, and here comes the same buck on the same trail. When the buck presented a high quality shot, I drew and shot, killing the buck.

The reason for the limping buck was obvious. Another hunter had shot from a tree stand, and the replaceable-blade broadhead had hit high. It missed the spine, and caught the buck high in the shoulder but near the spine, and the buck couldn’t get to it.

I skinned out around the earlier wound, and it was filled with pus and the shoulder was green with gangrene. It would have eventually died from the wound, but was still moving well when I shot it. Interestingly enough, two of the three replaceable blades broke off and littered the wound area.

A thin blood trail with bright red blood usually means a minor muscle wound that will eventually clot and stop bleeding. Most shots hit the brisket or the inside or outside of a front leg. The chance of recovering such a deer is very slim.

Knowing where an arrow hits can tell hunters 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.

Leave gut-shot deer alone for several hours and hope the coyotes don’t pick up its blood trail. After a lengthy wait, a deer will travel only 100 yards or less, lay down and stiffen up or die. Push gut-shot deer, and it can travel long distances and may never be found.

Several weeks go by as this is the fawning season, and then the little ones—long-legged, skinny and spotted—start showing up to feed with their mother. It’s fun to watch fawns run and play and chase each other about.

My daily observations continue without skipping a beat. I’ll sometimes spend hours watching deer, especially if it appears that the antlered bucks, their head-gear all fuzzy with velvet, begin to hang out in certain locations.

Knowing where they are in late spring and early summer gives me a leg up on knowing where to look for deer in October.

Watching deer is a good way to become more familiar with seeing the animals. It helps hunters avoid that dreaded “buck fever” that seems to strike everyone at one time or another. Seeing deer up-close is a major factor in becoming accustomed to them, and it can remove some of the jitters.

Watching deer means more than looking at them. It also means studying their body language, and it enables hunters to know what certain deer actions or postures mean.

This may all sound a bit simple to longtime hunters, but it’s important to remember that many sportsmen are becoming deer hunters for the first time. Few people ever tell them what to expect, and this daily weblog is for the beginning and proficient hunter alike.

For instance: a deer of either sex, that stands with its head held high and with its ears swiveling, is on full alert. The ears are trying to hear any foreign sounds that could mean danger, and the nose is working overtime sorting odors on the wind. An attempt to shoot a wary animal in a head-up position, especially on a calm day, is very difficult. The deer often can hear an arrow gliding over the rest as the bow comes to full draw.

There are ways to reduce this noise: shrink-wrap rubber tubing can be fit over the prongs of an arrow rest, and they can help silence a bow. Some people use moleskin to cover the arrow rest to make it silent, and others coat the arrow shaft with silicone so it travels silently across the rest.

Sportsmen should work with their local archery shop, and take every precaution possible to silence a bow when it is drawn and shot. There isn’t any compound bow that is completely silent on the shot, but the most critical time of all is when the hunter comes to full draw. Little creaks or squeaks as the bow is drawn is what will spook deer.

Studying deer during the summer can teach a hunter how and when to draw on a deer. This how-to-draw business is reasonably easy: draw when the deer is properly positioned for a high percentage shot, and when the deer is occupied with other deer, feeding, looking elsewhere, and when watching oncoming bucks.

Make certain the deer to be shot with a bow is busy doing something else, and that no other nearby deer are looking in your direction. Don’t raise the bow in a herky-jerky manner. Make the draw as smooth as possible with a minimum of movement, and once started, continue until you are at full draw.

Many hunters are caught while drawing on a deer. Intense study of the animals will tell a hunter when to draw. A hurried draw, large amounts of arm and body motion, noisy bows or a squeaky stand as the bow is drawn are just several other things guaranteed to spook deer.

The major thing about spending time afield and watching whitetails is that is allows sportsmen to become accustomed to seeing deer. It allows us to study them as they feed, nurse their fawns, move from thick cover to open crop lands or back to cover, and it enables us to learn how to read what the deer’s body language tells us.

After that is the editing processing, filling in some gaps that haven’t been found, and getting a price. Once I have a printing cost, I’ll have a better idea on what to charge for the book once it is printed.

So hang tight. Deer-wise, there isn’t too much new to report except fawns are coming and the antlers are growing. Stay in touch, and we’ll get this book done as quickly as possible.

It’s long been said that turkey hunting is a one-man game, and that, for the most part, is true. Hunts can be shared by people who hunt alone but share the trip with someone else.

More families than ever before have come to share their hunts. My friendâ??s wife, Kay Richey, once shared a successful bow hunt with three grandchildren. The youngest was still sucking on a bottle, and Kay had the kids all seated in an elevated coop.

“Look,” she whispered, “there is a nice buck. Sit still, don’t move around and don’t make a sound. Grandma will see if she can shoot it.”

She eased the elevated coop window open, made sure all the kids could see without moving around, and waited for the buck to walk in. It stepped into her shooting area, and was slightly quartering-away, and she waited for the near-side front leg to move forward before drawing and shooting.

The buck ran off, and Eric who has eyes like an eagle said: “You got him, Gram, you shot him right in the heart. Let’s go find him.”

She got all three kids safely to the ground, went back up, lowered her bow and quiver of arrows to the ground, and began following the Game Tracker string. She had to rein in the kids to keep them from running ahead and getting tangled in the line.

It was starting to get dark in the woods, and she took the kids back to the car. She knew the deer was dead, and soon her daughter Nancy, and son-in-law Roger, and I, arrived.

The kids were right into it. We quickly found the dead buck, and set about field-dressing it. The girls stood and watched as the entrails came out, and when Dave held up the heart, Eric blurted: “I told you, Gram, right through the heart.”

The youngest of these kids was about two years old at the time, and it didn’t gross them out. They probably would have helped with the field dressing but we didn’t want them to get bloody for fear some well-meaning person might have thought we’d been beating them. They probably wouldn’t have understood taking the kids out hunting either.

Children must learn to have patience, and it is a necessary part of a bow hunt. Most kids, especially those who do not hunt, have a patience level of seven or eight minutes—the time between television commercials. That type of patience won’t work in a deer stand.

Kids must learn to sit still, and to remain silent. They can learn what an adrenalin rush feels like when Dad, Mom or Gram takes a shot. They learn, first-hand, that hunters always try to kill cleanly and quickly, and utilize the flesh of this animal for the nourishment of their bodies.

Adults can get their children into shooting. Never give a kid a hand-me-down adult bow that is too long for them. Shop around to find a short-draw bow that will work fine for two or three years.

Teach them to shoot, and teach them how to read deer sign in the sand, snow or mud. Show then how to determine wind direction, and why it is so important to be downwind of deer.

Show children what a broadside and quartering-away shot looks like and coach them that these are high-percentage shots. Show them which shots should not be taken and why they seldom produce a killing shot.

Teach them respect for these animals we hunt. Allow them to learn to read the body language of a deer, and how the animals will react when danger threatens.

Take them out when preseason scouting, and take them out once the season opens. Teach them tree stand safety, how to use a safety harness, and how to stay safe in an elevated stand or tree stand.

Most of all, talk to them afterward. Listen to their stories, and share yours with them, and give up your time to sit with them if they are not 17 years of age. Be supportive of their efforts, and install a sense of needing to practice to avoid having to make a long trailing job on a poorly hit deer.

We had a mighty slim choice in bows in those days. There were long bows and recurves, and that was it. Many who were interested in bow hunting made their own bow or bought one from one of the state’s few bowyers.

There is little comparison between the accuracy of those early bows and the modern bow. Our old cedar-shaft arrows made it almost impossible to find a straight arrow that would shoot straight, and bent or warped arrows were subject to very erratic flight.

Clothing and other hunting gear has changed. Those old days of old wood bows and clunky cars are nothing when compared with the bows and hunting gear now being sold.

Most broadheads from that long-ago era of 60-70 years ago were two-blade heads. I still shoot two-blade broadheads but they are much lighter than those of bygone days.

I’ve made and sold bows for 25 years in one way or another. Bow manufacturing has undergone countless changes over the years, and my C.P. Oneida Eagle Bow Company makes several models of hunting, bow fishing and archery bows.

The difference between the bows of yesteryear and those of today are like the difference between the ill-fated Edsel and modern gas or diesel (or hybrid) powered vehicles. Everything changes with the times or it ceases to exist because of a decreased demand for an obsolete object.

The entire archery business for compound bows is about change. Hunters demand these changes, and wise bow makers meet the challenge on a yearly basis. Hunters now are obsessed with arrow speed. They want flatter nock travel, a smoother draw, a lack of felt recoil when an arrow is released, and they want that bow to feel comfortable in the hand and shoot well.

My interest is to make our bows shoot extremely well. My efforts are to make them the smoothest drawing and shooting bow in the industry, and year after year we strive for major improvements to provide customers with the finest compound bows that money can buy.

Is this easy to accomplish? No, it’s not because we want perfection in every bow we build. We want to make our bows different and better, and our bows are the only ones with recurve limbs and that is just one thing that makes them look and shoot different.

Our customers seek something different than other bow makers offer, and they like the smoothness of our bows. They come to our Buck Pole Archery Shop north of Marion, Michigan, and know we will provide them with a higher degree of training.

Our in-shop training sessions can make customers better shots within minutes, and when they leave, they do so knowing they are a far better shot than when they came in.

We sell the Pollington Pro-Sight, a 33mm red-dot sight that has revolutionized the way people shoot bows. And if customers don’t want a red-dot sight we can teach them how to shoot instinctively. Our systems work, and our bows make accurate shooting much easier than ever before.

Making and selling bows is just one part of what we do. We also strive to make people better hunters, more efficient and deadly archers, and people who come, soon learn there is much more to deer hunting than just killing a whitetail.

This is our intent. We certainly want to sell what we make, and we want our customers to know how to best use a new bow. We far exceed the efforts of some bow shops to teach people how to shoot accurately.

Our bows, sights and training systems work very well, and it’s what makes us and our customers happy. It’s also what makes them come back every year for a bit of refresher training.

We don’t want to just sell arrows, bows, releases, rests and sights. We want to sell the whole package of bow hunting to people, and we feel the best way to do it is to provide them with the best possible training that can be had.

It happens to everyone at one time or another. We miss an easy shot at a nice whitetail buck or doe, and it runs off â?? alarmed and spooked â?? but unhurt. Many hunters dredge up an excuse of some kind.

Instead of trying to come up with a believable excuse, it makes much more sense to go through the entire sequence in your mind. Donâ??t let the fudge factor kick in, but analyze it from the viewpoint of learning from your mistakes.

If the scene is replayed and you study the missed shot from all angles, youâ??ll probably find that something happened that could have been a contributing factor to missing the animal,

Some hunters cut wide shooting lanes in all directions, and the coop or stand looks like the hub of a bicycle tire with spokes leading off in all directions.

Deer often are frightened by such cleared areas. Hunting in thick cover is much more difficult, and many of the stands on my ranch are established in thick cover or very close to it. Some stands are out in the open, but over many years Iâ??ve learned that thick-cover locations can be very productive.

They also can lead to some missed shots. Often, in many tree stands, there will be only one good shooting location. Often, that is all we need. But, know this, deer moving through such areas can travel on any trail or make one of their own. Knowing where a shot can be taken is very important.

Always check for the one good natural shooting lane, and then start looking for other possibilities. Bigger bucks often hand in heavy cover, and learning how to pick a hole through the cover for a bow shot can be a lesson in frustration. Do it right, and donâ??t forget about leafy branches, twigs sticking out or that often unseen branch half the size of your little finger that can deflect a shot.

Study that area where a shot was missed, and do so from the ground and a tree, and thereâ??s a good chance youâ??ll learn why you missed. Taking a shot in heavy cover means picking a hole where the arrow must pass.

This means careful attention to detail. Donâ??t forget that it takes only a twig â?? a tiny twig â?? to deflect an arrow and cause it to fly harmlessly off course. Miss one of these shots, and it becomes increasingly important to study where the shot was taken and why it missed.

The most common reason for a miss was the arrow clipped an unseen twig or a branch jumped out in front of the arrow. We all use Game Tracker devices for trailing deer, and one blade of grass can snag the line and stop the arrow in mid-flight. These things do happen, and when they do, figure out where a mistake was made. Learn to pick a hole where the arrow will pass through without nicking anything.

Those little holes become increasingly difficult to spot once the sun does down. The heavy cover is darker, and tiny twigs are virtually impossible to see. You must know where they are located.

Blaming the wind, a piece of blowing dirt in the eye, shooting into the rising or setting sun, and a whole raft of other excuses are a waste of time. Learn to study the situation, replay the shot, and determine where the wheels fell off this shot.

Studying your missed shots can be a brutal piece of beating yourself about the head and body, but knowing what you did wrong makes it far easier to avoid a similar problem in the future. Making a mistake is human nature, but brushing it away with some lame excuse simply enable the hunter to commit the same mistake again.

One thing I’ve learned over many years is to watch other hunters. It doesn’t take long to determine who are the great sportsmen, and who are braggarts. I’ve hunted in a good many camps over the years, and the loudest and most aggressive hunters are usually the ones who make the dumbest mistakes.

An old say goes like this: it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. The best rule is to keep the mouth closed and pay attention.

Picking people’s brains, and learning what they know, is fun and can provide valuable information. Savvy hunters never venture an opinion unless they know what they are talking about/ That is especially true when talking about hunting whitetail deer.

Southern folk have some great sayings. They’ve been distilled from years of hard work and minding their manners. One saying that has a whole bunch of learning in it is: My momma didn’t raise no fools.

Folks who gather around savvy hunters should keep that thought in mind. That means do less talking and much more listening.

Last year a man brought his son up for a hunt. The boy would come up to the house, make a dumb remark about deer hunting while several of us planned our evening hunts. We were tossing about ideas, and discussing where everyone would sit, and discussing the present wind condition.

The boy kept nattering on and one. He was take up precious planning time by constantly interrupting us.

One of my helped eventually spoke up rather bluntly and loudly, and said: Boy, you better learn more about deer hunting before speaking your mind. You want to learn about hunting, sit down, shut up and listen. You’ll learn more than you will talking nonsense about a topic you know nothing about.

The boy sat and listened for a minute, spoke up, and my helped looked hard at him, and the kid went running out the door. His daddy had money, and it’s almost certain that no one had every talked that way to him before.

I’ve been around whitetails all my life, and spent over 60 years hunting and studying the critters, but there are many others who know many things that I don’t know. I listen intently to them and learn.

There are countless ways to learn things but in-the-field experience is the best teacher when it comes to learning about whitetails. Hunting the animals, and studying them as you hunt and during the off-season, are the best way to accumulate knowledge. Reading about it, and absorbing that knowledge and putting it to good use, is another way. What is important is the hunter can convert than knowledge into an action plan that works in the woods.

Experience will put a fine point on your acquired knowledge. Some of my early deer-hunting knowledge came from talking to old-time hunters and guides, and using some of that information on my hunts.

The more days spent afield each year will continue to add to a solid founding, and one day after learning a great deal about deer hunting, you’ll know you’ve come a long ways in your gathering of deer-hunting knowledge.

I’m a major believer in getting kids 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 October bow hunting is the best time of all.

Me, and friends who hunt with me, all hunt for different reasons but we all share a common goal. To enjoy our hunt, and there is always the fond hope of seeing and getting a killing shot on a large antlered buck. The odds of doing so, as we all know, are pretty slim but that is just one of the many challenges to this sport.

Those who never shoot a nice buck are willing to shoot any buck. If it has antlers, it is fair game. Our deer herd would be far better if a hunter took a doe rather than a young buck, but the laws provide for that choice with a bow, and most hunters will put their tag on a buck of any size.

Many things go into the successful shooting of a deer, but killing a buck or doe shouldn’t be the only reason people hunt. Success for many sportsmen means seeing a buck, and although it may be too far away for a shot, seeing game is a big part of why we hunt.

After a number of years, and the taking of some bucks with bow or firearm, it slowly comes to many of us that countless other things make up the mosaic of deer hunting. The materials that make up the tapestry of a quality hunt often are more important to sportsman than killing a small buck.

The mere shooting of a buck or doe would soon lose all of its meaning if we consistently shot deer after deer. Soon the blood lust leaves a hunter, and what is left is the basic fabric of why we hunt.

The more we think about hunting, the more some of the other facets of this pastime come into play. Who among us doesn’t love the smell of wood smoke at hunting camp or the sizzling and popping of bacon being friend.

Waking in camp to the heady odor of freshly brewed coffee is something that makes my taste buds tingle. It’s hunting in a bracing cold wind, the early hunting amid gold, red and purple autumn leaves, and it’s spending time to help a fellow hunter blood-trail a deer to recovery.

It means taking out a young hunter, a wife or a minority hunter, and helping them take their first deer. It means teaching youngsters how to pattern a deer, and watch their eyes light up when the deer shows up just as if the entire hunt was choreographed around the hunter and the deer.

Some of hunting means remembering the bucks that we’ve hunted and never got, and remembering some of the bucks that we have taken. We often remember the bucks we see and never get long after we’ve forgotten some of the bucks that we have killed.

Whitetails come in all shapes and sizes, and many have that uncanny ability found in many old does to steer clear of possible danger areas. Also keenly remembered are those bucks that slip up once, allow themselves to be seen, but are never seen again.

One wonders where they’ve gone and what has happened to them, and in many cases, they haven’t gone anywhere. They just learned from that one experience to keep their head down and they will stay alive.

Hunting means remembering old friends, some of whom have passed on, and others who are still going strong. It means a shared friendship with some fine people, and it means a healthy dose of respect for the deer we hunt.

A long measure of hunting maturity brings fond memories, and behind our hunting thoughts, are the mental images of grand old bucks. It’s a dream all hunters want to experience, and even though some of us never capture that ultimate end of a big-buck dream, we can and must learn to experience all the emotions of a successful hunt ... with or without a deer.

Frankly, a dead deer is seldom at the end of those deer-hunting dreams.—The Whitetail Wizard