Whitetail Wizard

Friday, November 23, 2007

Deer Movement In The Snow

I guessed that deer hunting would be good tonight. It was, but no deer were taken, and that also can be a good thing.

My gut instinct told me that with the air temperature at 20 degrees, and some snow falling, that the deer would move. Some did but not many came past me.

Gut reactions, instinct, call it what you will, but hunters have these thoughts or premonitions of what an evening hunt will deliver. Trying to second-guess the influence of weather causes all of us, including the weatherman, to incorrectly predict what will happen.

Sadly, all of us miss the boat on occasion. I saw some deer, and some close enough to shoot, but the deer movement wasn’t nearly as intense as my instincts told me it would be.

One man saw 10 bucks tonight, and not a single doe or doe fawn, and he allowed every deer to walk on by. Another man and his son sat about 500 yards apart in different tree stands, and both of them saw deer but not in any numbers or size. It was as if most of the deer were waiting until long after full dark before moving from thick cover.

The man who shoots photographs of my deer made out better than any of the hunters. He has a new 600 mm lens, and can shoot photos of deer at a half-mile. He probably saw 15 bucks, including some really big ones, but they were moving in areas where there were no hunters. These animals aren’t dumb!

Another man, a guest, saw a number of does but none offered a broadside or quartering-away shot. He didn’t shoot.

Tonight was one of those nights, like high-school graduation night, that seem to hold so much promise but then fizzles out. There wasn’t much activity, and everyone was in place by 3:30 p.m., long before the deer should move, but this evening seemed to be the night for small deer.

Some nights, I learned long ago, are best suited for small deer while other nights are key times for big-buck movement. The latter seems to come during the rut when a severe storm blows through, but that doesn’t mean that a similar night can’t or won’t occur sometime during December.

I realize that I hunt more than most people, and that many people have daytime jobs that start early and end late, and prevents midweek hunting. For those people, it’s difficult for them to see the logic of my next statement.

The more nights a bow hunter is afield, the more likely that hunter is to be present when the big-buck travels take place. I have to be really sick to miss a night of hunting, but there are many nights when I think I’d been better off in the house.

Whitetail hunting is more than just something to do for me. It’s a major part of my life, and if none of my friends show up, it doesn’t bother me to be out there alone. It gives me the choice of one of about 40 coops and tree stands to choose from, and I go hunting.

There is something about being afield, with bow in hand, that is very meaningful to me. I enjoy the weather, revel in seeing deer, love to spot a trophy buck I’ve never seen before, and get a kick out of watching the antics of fawns, and the aloof attitude of a wary old doe.

I like reading sign in the snow, see a track heading into an area where tracks have never gone before, and that instills within me a spirit of adventure. I want to know where that single track is going and why. Solving whitetail mysteries has become a defining role for me, and answering such questions becomes a meaningful experience.

Above all, the challenge of hunting a single buck to the exclusion of all other bucks is a magnificent thrill. Sometimes I take that buck, and quite often a particular buck will win this matching-wits experience.

Hunting means being afield with bow in hand. It means trying to outwit a deer that is at home in the woods and fields, and learning to solve these hunting puzzles is a big thrill.

It happens just often enough to keep me coming back for more. Bow hunting for bucks is a challenge, make no mistake about it, and the bucks usually win. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Family and friends are two important things to my wife, Ruth, and I on Thanksgiving, and we enjoy sharing this time together. It doesnâ??t matter which day of the month it is to me, all of my family and friends know I live to hunt deer.

Deer season is open so I will hunt deer daily during the season, holiday or not. It appears as if Sunday will be nasty, or so the forecast goes, and perhaps the rain turning to snow will cause deer to move. The deer are starting to move more now during the dark of the moon, and it should keep increasing as time goes on.
This is a day when I give personal thanks to all those who have helped me in one way or another over long periods of time. Some have given of their time, others have given mightily of their time and talents, and others have just been there to help however they can.

A few of my friends have been around for 30 years, back to the day when I owned a machine shop in Marion and was hunting open land behind my home. Those folks have helped me develop Oneida bows for the original company, develop the red-dot sight industry, and was there when I bought Oneida several years ago.

Theyâ??ve been through the evolution of my forming C.P. Oneida Eagle Bows, developing the Black Eagle, the Extreme and other bows, and have helped in so many other ways.
To these people, who have been there during the formative periods and up to the present, I offer my deepest gratitude. Theyâ??ve offered words of encouragement, never gave up on me, and have given of themselves to help me and my businesses succeed.

Iâ??m grateful for the opportunity to have a chance to build bows, and do it my way. Look at one of my C.P. Oneida Eagle bows, and it will quickly become apparent that these bows look unlike any other compound bow on the market. There is a look of originality to my bows, a look that makes them stand out from all the others.
This is not by accident. It is a matter of design, and the design changes these bows go through from one year to the next may not be easily seen but they can be felt when drawing and shooting the bow.

My bows look different because they are different. This design, I feel, offers a much smoother draw curve while delivering faster arrow speed and flatter arrow flight. I never knock someone elseâ??s bows; I just want mine to look different and shoot different. Based on sales, many bow hunters agree with my philosophies on bow development.
So, my family and friends are very important to me. Some make subtle design change recommendations, others help generate publicity and give readers a new look at what we have done to make our bows smoother, and some supply a strong back to help when needed.

None of these friends rate higher marks than others, and on this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks for all of those who have stood by me over many years. All have my best interests in mind, and each of them know who they are and why I appreciate their efforts.

Claude Pollington and C.P. Oneida Eagle bows, Buck Pole Archery Shop and the Buck Pole Deer Ranch wouldnâ??t have been possible without the caring and efforts of many people. To one and all, including my many customers, I deeply thank you.â??The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Meet Claude Pollington the Whitetail Wizard

MEET CLAUDE POLLINGTON, THE WHITETAIL WIZARD

Hi, my name is Claude Pollington and my daily weblog will provide hunters with some great information on bows, hunting, and the many things I have done to make bow hunting easier and more fun for a very large cross-section of the hunting world.
Click on Whitetail Wizard for my daily weblog. It will cover a wide variety of bow hunting topics, and I would hope that after you read several days of my copy, you will tell your friends, neighbors and relatives about my site.

I’ve always been a bit of a maverick when it comes to bow hunting for whitetails. I’ve learned to trust my gut instincts while hunting, and some of my findings may fly in the fact of what other hunters believe.

C. P. Oneida Eagle Bow Company is my company, and for the past several years we’ve worked hard to develop new bows that feature a smooth draw curve, fast arrow speed, and are easy and quiet to shoot.

I live in Marion, Michigan, 15 miles southeast of Cadillac in the Lower Peninsula. We opened up my Buck Pole Archery Shop many years ago just before it became the largest selling Oneida dealership in North America. I also own 1,000 acres of the finest deer range in the state, and about 900 acres of this land is under high fence.

My hobby is studying deer, and the best way to do so is to have enough land under fence where deer will behave as they would in the wild. We offer trophy deer hunts, and they are listed on our Buck Pole website.

This weblog is an offshoot to the archery business. I’ve had countless requests for more detailed information about deer hunting, and decided a daily weblog is the best way to do it. A weblog is a daily journal of what I see, what I think, what I do, what I feel, etc. If this were a newspaper rather that an internet weblog, this would be similar to a daily newspaper column. The difference here is my webblog is free.

Some weblogs will be long, some will be short, but all will be informative and provide readers with things they really should know about deer behavior and hunting methods that work.

I have been into archery development since 1982 when I began selling Oneida Eagle bows. However, long before that, I was an avid archer with many magazine and newspaper columns written about me.

In 1980, Outdoor Life, in a feature story by David Richey, called me “The Whitetail Wizard.” The name has stuck for all these years, and people still come into my archery shop to ask for me by that name.

Studying whitetail behavior is my passion. That, and developing what many hunters feel are the finest made compound bows in the world. My latest “The Extreme” is a fine example of the bowyer’s art.

My goal is to make every person who visits my store a better archery shot, and I strive to make a novice bow hunter successful on their first hunt. Obviously, how hunters shoot a bow will determine accuracy. People who follow my easy steps become successful hunters.

It is my intention to make this blog successful. Each day readers will learn something more about hunting deer. There will be stories of some of my hunts, fun things to read about bow hunting, tips and tricks I used to out-wit whitetail deer, and some of the many observations I’ve made over nearly 60 years of hunting with a bow and arrow.

Place my weblog address in your Favorites list, and check me out every day. Most of my weblogs will be illustrated with a color photo, and it’s my intention to make this weblog fun and interesting for you.
Click on my weblog every day. There will be new copy on this site on a daily basis, and anyone who reads it will learn something new.

And, if you are in the neighborhood, feel free stop in and visit. We are located at 20669 30th Avenue (highway M-66) about one-half mile north of the Marion blinker light on the west side of the road.
Hope to see you on the hunting trail. - Claude Pollington

Monday, November 05, 2007

Wondering Why I’m Out Here

A thought kept running through my head tonight like one of those tunes you know but can’t remember the title. I asked myself: what’s a nice guy like me doing in a place like this?

I was in one of my ground blinds near a huckleberry marsh. It’s a spot that has produced many bucks for me over the years, but it wasn’t to be on this evening.

It was cold outside because of the stiff wind. My little catalytic heater seemed incapable of putting out anything more than a feeble bit of warm air. I held my hands next to it, and the wind seemed to be eating its way through the wooden coop to get me.

It was a nothing night. No chickadees, snow buntings or turkeys came to visit, and the deer stayed home and tucked away in thick cover as well. They knew better than to move once the full brunt of this late autumn storm slammed into our area.

Once I thought I saw a movement, but on second glance it was a bit of snow twisting across the woods. I’m supposed to know a good bit about whitetail behavior, and I also pride myself on my common sense.

I know that deer seldom move through the open on nights like this. I asked myself: what are my chances of seeing a buck in these strong winds? The answer was clear.

None, boss. It’s time to head for the barn.

I walked to the truck, turned off my catalytic heater, climbed inside and the cab felt like an ice cube. Five minutes later I was pulling off my coveralls, and soaking up the warmth of my home.

My many years of hunting whitetails has taught me one thing. If a person is masochistic, and enjoys self-inflicted pain, they can stay outside and hunt for some deer that won’t come. Or ... we can head for the house, snuggle up to the warmth, and hunt deer another night.

That’s my plan, and I hope tomorrow evening is not a repeat of tonight. If so, more years of hunting deer tells me that it would be another good night to sit at home.

Deer don’t move in strong winds, and my smartest move was leaving the stand when I did. If I were truly smart, I would have stayed home and stayed warm instead of going out.

It’s always good to make the effort. It’s something that deer hunters do. —The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Playing Hunches Can Be A Tricky Business

I’ve hunted my land for so many years that I know where the travel routes of big bucks are found, and I played a hunch tonight and it didn’t pan out. Here’s what happened.

We had a dozen hunters tonight, and I knew the bucks would be moving. I had all of my hunters in a great spot for bow hunting inside my enclosure, and weâ??d moved a new coop onto a high piece of rolling ground in the middle of one of my big fields.

I drove to it with several stops along the way. I had a Bushnell range-finder, and stopped at a dozen places where I knew bucks would cross the field. One location was 301 yards, another was 311, one was 266 yards, and all the others averaged 200 to 275 yards. The one I was most interested in was for bow hunting, and it was 22 yards.

Someone asked if I write down the yardage of each location, and I told them they are stored in my head. If I spot a buck at a certain location, I know it is 311 yards. My rifle is sighted in to be dead-on at 300 yards, and it wears a quality Swarovski variable power scope and I’ve had a bunch of practice shooting at long distances with it. The rifle business could wait until Nov. 15 but I was more interested in tonightâ??s yardage because I knew a good buck was crossing at that 22-yard distance.

The new coop had two major problems, and both needed fixing today. One was that it was a hunting coop with windows on three sides, and those windows had screens. A hunting coop doesn’t need window screens for any kind of hunting.

Two of us quickly removed the screens. I tried to call Jeremy Castle to come and cut a door window in the coop. I couldn’t raise him so we went looking, and found him finishing up a repair on another coop.

“I’m going to sit in my new blind tonight and see if I can spot that big buck,” I told him. “I need a hurry-up window cut in the door, and a piece of Plexiglas installed.”

Castle drilled four holes, connected the dots with a battery-operated saw, and the window was cut. He would install the Plexiglas tomorrow, and the coop will be ready for me for the firearm opener.

After sitting there tonight with my binoculars I thought that perhaps I’d need a hunting partner on the firearm opener. There are so many areas from that coop where a 300-yard shot would be possible, but the major problem is being able to keep watch in all four direction. Youâ??d need your neck on a swivel.

I saw a bunch of bucks but not the one I was looking for, and none crossed at the 22-yard range, but quite a number of does were seen. The animals were freely feeding throughout the field, and were seen to all points on the compass.

We’ll get the Plexiglas installed for the door window, and I’ll probably set there again between now and the opener to see what is moving through the area. While I was playing my hunch, and hoping to see the big buck move across the field to me through the little brushy draw, three fine bucks were shot by hunters.

One was a massive 11-pointer, another was a big 10-point, and one hunter shot a heavy wide-beamed 8-pointer. From the looks of things, opening day of the firearm season should be excellent.

And I’ll spend it, alone or with someone, in my new coop on the hill. Perhaps the big buck will show up then and it wonâ??t matter if he is 22 yards away or at a distance of 301 yards. Iâ??ll be ready. —The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Tackling A New Buck

The tingle always begins with a brief mention from one of my scouts. People who hunt my ranch help me keep track of big deer, and there is one thing that really trips my trigger.

It’s the opportunity to hunt a big buck I’ve never seen before. I just got a report last week from a photographer friend, and he was driving back to my home after a short drive around some of my property when he spotted this rutting buck bedded down in tall marsh grass.

He stopped, stuck the camera lens out the open window, and got ready to shoot photographs. The buck jumped to its feet just after he stopped, and it darted 20 yards through the marsh grass and into the woods.

It stopped near some trees, shifted sideways just a bit, and he clicked off one picture. Just one photo, but it was enough to get me all excited once again about what I call a “new” buck. Old bucks are those I’ve seen time and again, but a “new” buck is one that has managed to live for three, four or five years on my ranch without ever being seen by me or any of the folks hunting here.

His photo turned out to be a spectacular 10-point buck with an almost perfect 5X5 rack. One brow tine is an inch or two longer than the other side but it’s a buck I’ve never seen before. It is the animal that I now dream about.

There have been countless other dream bucks over many years. One was a three-beam buck that I shot last year, and it is now being mounted by a taxidermist. There is another three-beamer on the ranch, and probably the offspring of last year’s buck. I’ve hunted him several times without success, but a few of my hunters have seen him at a distance.

There was a big 12-point that grabbed my interest several years ago, and it took me a couple of years to catch up with him. I’ve got another big buck with a fairly heavy drop-point that also excited me a few years ago.

It’s the same old story, year after year. A buck will live for several years, and manage to escape my attention and that of other hunters, and these are the bucks of which dreams are made.

Another big buck is roaming my ranch, and he has turned into a rogue. He became a killer, and in the past 10 days I’ve seen three examples of his ferocious handiwork.

It began with a big doe, and this killer buck disemboweled her. Her stomach and other abdominal organs were ripped right out through the holes this rogue animal had ripped when he repeatedly gored her.

Two bucks have met similar fates, and were found crumpled up with their guts strewn throughout the woods. We don’t know for sure which buck is causing all of the problems, but we want to locate him before he kills some of the other trophy bucks on my ranch.

It has become an intensive effort. I’ll hunt the buck but on 1,024 acres, this killer buck could be anywhere. The three deer that we know he has killed were found in a fairly good sized area. He could be anywhere inside that area or he may just roam in to cover new locations whenever this mood strikes him.

There are at least two bucks now that I am hunting. Of the two, I’d like to see this big rogue buck with bloody antlers. However, if I meet up with the buck pictured above, I’d be tempted to try for him.

The above buck, photographed by noted wildlife photographer Dennis Buchner of Grawn, is a lovely animal and hopefully we will cross paths soon. If not, I’ll have to start hunting the rogue killer buck, and that may be an extreme challenge.

Stayed tuned. Have fun hunting and enjoy the outdoors.—The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, November 02, 2007

A Slow Deer-Hunting Night

It’s impossible to cover all deer travel angles during the rut. Deer suddenly change directions as bucks haze does, and sometimes hunting is poor.

Several people hunted my Buck Pole Deer Ranch tonight, and everyone was placed in the best stands for the wind direction. All but one person saw deer, but none of the buck sightings were close enough to offer a shot.

It was one of those nights: fairly warm, squirrelly wind shifts, and for some, a lackluster pattern of whitetail movement. Three hunters reported seeing bucks hounding does, but the buck’s travels always took them everywhere except in front of a hunter.

One man said he saw over 50 deer tonight, which is not surprising, but none of the does managed to lead a tending buck close enough for a shot. And, although many hunters feel the rut is an easy time to hunt big bucks
, the deer always have the ability to make us wonder what they will do next.

We can predict and project our theories of deer movement, but in the end, it’s the whitetails that choose where and how heavily they will move.

One hunter saw six bucks but all were trying to surround one estrus doe, and she was outnumbered in this situation. Bucks were sniffing around young does who may soon come into their first estrus, if not soon than perhaps next month, and the hunting tonight seems to have slowed a bit, and it’s quite likely that a last-minute quirky wind shifts and warm temperatures were the culprits.

I personally didn’t see much tonight. A couple of does and yearlings, but one or two smaller bucks were looking for an estrus doe. The odd thing is that in some areas the bucks were chasing does hard, and in other areas, there wasn’t much deer travel at all.

The rut often has its slow nights, and they seem to correspond to the temperature. It was in the 50s tonight, and we’ve often found that cooler evenings with a north or westerly breeze can be much more productive.

No one, no matter how they wish they could change the weather, has the ability to do so. The best thing any hunter can do is put sportsmen in proven locations, spots that have produced good bucks in the past, and hope for the best.

Tonight’s hunters were in ground blinds, elevated coops and tree stands, and nothing worked as we expected. Michigan has had a long history of unpredictable weather patterns and wind shifts, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what happens when the weather warms up and the winds blow from the wrong quarter.

The result is heavy deer travel through open fields, little and late deer movement in thick cover, whitetails doing a sudden disappearance when the wind switches direction, and more fawns moving about than adult does. The buck movement can be medium to heavy during such times, but sometimes deer fail to move near baited or unbaited locations.

Hunters who were near funnels often saw deer, but such areas can produce late movement if the animals pick up any human scent. The wind switched to the around tonight, which is always bad, and it greatly inhibits deer movement in many areas.

Hunters would do well to remember that the rut doesn’t always mean seeing bucks within shooting range, and when the weatherman fails to cooperate, it can mean reduced deer sightings and less movement. Add warm weather to this mix of rutting woes, and hunters suffer from the curse of bad rutting weather.

The only solution is to ride it out, and hope for a weather change the over the weekend or next week. It usually works eventually.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

How Long Will The Rut Last?

Someone asked me today how much longer the rut will continue at its frenzied pace. It’s a good question, and the breeding period has been going strong for about a week.

Many deer researchers feel the main or primary rut will last 10-14 days, and that seems about right. Much depends on weather, hunting pressure, available food supplies and other factors beyond the control of you or me.

Hunting pressure isn’t heavy on my ranch, and there is an abundance of high-protein food. The weather is the major unknown factor we must deal with from year to year.

Wind is another thing that can affect deer movements. A strong wind is troubling for deer under the best of circumstances, and during the rut it can limit their movement and breeding activity. The deer really began chasing and breeding does about Oct. 25, and if researchers are correct, we may have until the middle to the end of next week for the peak of the rut.

Unseasonably warm weather can slow the rut, and a combination of fairly warm temperatures and strong winds are not a good omen.

Two weeks ago we checked a scrape along one of our little side roads, and a buck had pawed the dirt and kicked it around. It was the first time I’d seen that scrape, and it was freshly opened up each of the next three or four days, and then the buck stopped using it.

Once bucks abandon an active scrape, it usually means the rut is in full swing. Sure, a small buck may visit the scrape in hopes of lining up a doe to breed, but Big Boy keeps track of where the estrus does are located.

Hunters who visit my ranch at my invitation have seen rutting bucks for several days. I saw some big bucks in the distance tonight, and they were moving hard to keep up with the dwindling supply of estrus does.

The rut is better understood now than when I first began hunting, and I’ve studied bucks on my ranch for many years. My land is about as wild as it can get, and we’ll start seeing less rut activity each night in the next 10 days.

My ranch foreman agrees. He said last night he figures the rut will be wound down by the middle of next week as the first rut ends. He is out in the field every day, and he can accurately gauge rutting activity based on what he sees.

Of course, in 28 to 30 days, some of the younger does will come into estrus for the first time and will be bred. This second rut is a mere shadow of the first session, but I’ve seen bucks breeding does in January and have had large bucks hold their antlers into March.

Nature has its way of regulating the rut, and the main purpose is to have most of the does bred in late October and early November so they will have their fawns once the spring’s lush new growth appears. The newborn fawns will have plenty of food to eat.

On the flip side, does that are bred late in December or January, or even February, have fawns much later in the spring and those tiny deer often don’t get enough to eat. They may starve to death during their first winter.

Hunters who hunt every night as I do will know when the primary rut is over. It’s a widely speculated event, but it’s over when it is over and there is no need for the fat lady to sing.

Until then, I’ll be hunting every night for that one chance at a big buck. He’s out there, and I’ve seen him, but hunting a trophy buck—even during the rut—is never easy. â?? The Whitetail Wizard