Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Developing The Right Hunting Attitude

It’s difficult to do many things that require skill unless one has the proper attitude. One thing I find about some hunters is they lack drive or motivation, and this usually comes from not having an attitude.

There are good attitudes and bad ‘tudes, and a bad one isn’t conducive to being an effective deer hunter. Hunters with a bad ‘tude are constantly griping about the weather, the lack of deer, too many does, too many hunters, and on and on.

Can’t remember the name of the guy but years ago he held classes that praised the power of positive thinking. He believed that thinking in a positive way made a major difference, and I completely agree.

Think of deer hunting the same way. You climb into a tree stand or ground blind, feeling good about yourself and your ability to sit still and shoot straight. You know you can shoot that buck if it comes your way, and offers a high percentage shot.

This positive thinking attitude doesn’t work every time. If it did, we would all soon tire of deer hunting, rolling a 300 game while bowling, or clobbering two home runs in the local softball game.

What this positive thinking does do is allow a hunter to do everything else right. A buck starts heading your way, and you spot it immediately. You sit still and don’t wiggle around, and you’ve got the wind in your favor at all times.

This positive attitude allows hunters to scout more efficiently, pinpoint key buck areas, and to be in the right spot at the right time. This occurs because they believe in themselves.

Hunting means you must believe in yourself, your abilities and hunting skills. If you think negatively, chance are good you’ll be daydreaming about the boss you intensely dislike, and a buck will sneak past and be out of range or back in thick cover before it is seen. You’ve blown perhaps the best chance of the season!

Daydream long enough, and a buck will slip in behind you, squire a doe, and she will lead him past your stand too fast for a shot. You won’t shoot because your bow was not in your hands where it should have been, and you were ill prepared to take a shot.

Turn this whole scenario around, and you head into the woods with hope in your heart, and a good feeling about hunting. There is a feeling that you sense more than feel, that today will be a day when a nice buck will offer a shot. You can sense that buck, and you sit tight with bow in hand, and when he shows up, you are fully capable and prepared to shoot it.

The power of positive thinking is something that many people rarely think about. They might be thinking about a beer after the hunt, and be thinking of that brew when they should be thinking about a buck.

This is a mental concept that is very difficult to explain, and in all honesty, hunters must have a few bucks under their belt to make it work. They must know their way around the deer woods, and must learn to think like a deer. If I was a deer, where would I enter this area from and why? You study the terrain, figure it out, and sure enough, on many occasions the deer will travel the trails you’ve puzzled out.

Hunters with a positive attitude have their game face on whenever they enter a stand. They are out there to hunt, not just spend time outdoors, and they are constantly running the angles through their brain. They are, without knowing it, trying to will a buck to them.

That is a bit of a stretch, and although I’m not saying a person can will a deer to them, I believe the hunter with the right attitude will do more things right than hunters with an indifferent mind-set.

Hunters often refer to those people who always shoot a nice buck as being “lucky.” They are not lucky in the normal sense of the word; instead, by having the proper attitude, and the willingness to think things through and do everything right, they make their own luck.

I can’t teach you or anyone else how to develop the proper deer-hunting attitude. You either have it or you don’t, and those that do, know what I’m talking about.

Those that don’t will never know unless they put this column aside and read it every day before they go hunting. Then, maybe with a tiny bit of common sense and the right attitude, a buck may walk within range of a hunter who is mentally and physically prepared to shoot it. â??â?? The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, July 28, 2008

Spotting Deer In The Tag Alders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, July 25, 2008

Why I Sell Red-Dot Sights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Take a Kid Hunting With You

Spending time with someone else, and watching them take a shot at a buck, is just as exciting for the watcher as for the shooter.

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.

Take them out hunting. Show them. Teach them, laugh with them and be proud of them if they cry over their first deer kill. Give of yourself, and that giving will be returned ten-fold in the years to come.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Fooling A Snorting Doe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Whitetail Deer Travel Trends

I noticed a trend in deer travel on my land long before it was high-fenced. The deer traveled in two distinct directions, regardless of wind direction.

The animals moved from west to east in the evening, and from east to west in the morning. Back in those days, no one hunted the front woods on November 15, the opening of our firearm deer season.

Hunters set in stands on the east side of the second woods to the west on opening day, and it wasn’t unusual to see 100 to 200 deer move through the front woods and across the big field. Some days they traveled with the wind on the tail, into a crosswind from the north or south, or even into the west wind.

Wind direction seemed to made little difference. The deer headed east in the evening and west in the morning. All the stuff about deer always traveling into the wind didn’t count for much back in those days.

If the easterly evening travel was on a west wind, the deer wouldn’t have any advantage. The opposite was also true in the morning.

And, guess what? The fence has been up for many years, and quite a bit of the deer travel inside the enclosure is still east in the evening and west in the morning. The one thing I’ve learned is wind directions aren’t always as important as some outdoor writers believe.

Deer do follow trends on my land, and will follow a somewhat regimented morning and evening travel route, but if a deer is shot and other deer see human activity, those travel plans are subject to change on little or no notice.

Often, especially with a bow, when a deer is shot, it runs off 50 to 100 yards before falling. Other nearby deer may look to see why it is running away, and then go back to feeding or they run as well.

All of that changes if a doe detects danger by spotting movement, hearing any type of noise or if the hunter tries to climb down too soon after shooting. It makes far more sense to stay seated, and wait for all of the deer to move off before going after the fallen deer.

This is especially true during the cooler weather of the rut. A deer shot in early October, when the weather can still be very warm, places a heavy demand on the hunter to field dress the deer as soon as possible to start the cooling process.

Travel patterns also change as crops are harvested. We try to keep deer numbers at a relatively stable number but if too many animals are taken from one location, we’ll see a minor or major shift in how the deer travel.

These trends are based somewhat on food supply. We don’t have oak trees and acorns on my land, but in areas where mast crops are heavy, it’s much easier to see travel patterns develop as the acorns crop diminishes. A stand of oaks are eaten quite regularly as the animals advance from the first ripe acorns to the last ripe ones. There is almost a visible line in the woods where deer move to feed on late-dropping nuts.

Deer change their travel plans as they start entering standing cornfields in cold weather. A popular stand years ago was a hay-bale set in the middle of a cornfield. The hunters always entered and left along the same path, and the deer didn’t pay much attention. As the end of shooting time approached, the deer would be filtering past the blind in steady fashion. Sometimes they would even stop to snatch a few mouthfuls of second-cutting alfalfa, and several hunters shot bucks while the animal ate their blind.

Once December arrives, and deer are moving through cold weather and often snow, the trend is for deer to lay up during the day fairly close to the food source. October bucks may travel a mile or so to reach a food site, but travel is reduced once cold and snow sets in.

Watching these travel patterns change according to the food supply, hunting pressure, human foot traffic or weather conditions, is one part of the bow hunt that many hunters seem to tune out. They may wonder why deer moved here last week, and are moving somewhere else the following week, but that is about as far as it goes.

Check it out, and you’ll often find some reason for such movement changes. Learn those reasons, and plan for them, and you’ll climb one rung higher up the deer-hunting success ladder.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Gain Confidence & Shoot More Deer

On occasion, I have sold a person a new C.P. Oneida Eagle bow and then invited them to hunt and take a whitetail doe. Some have accepted the offer and others have refused.

Those that have accepted had already taken my course in drawing, aiming and shooting a bow. It’s incredible, but most of them end up shooting a doe the first night with their new bow from a strange stand.

It’s not nearly as difficult as some people would make it out to be. The first thing I do is get people shooting accurately, and praise them on their form, how they pay attention to my directions, and comment on how they have absorbed the lessons.

Confidence is the key ingredient when hunting whitetails and when shooting a deer. The hunter must execute all aspects of the shooting process with confidence and skill. Oddly enough, confidence is the greatest skill builder there is.

Each person is taught the proven methods that work, especially when using a red-dot sight. They are told that they must use the same anchor point, time after time. Shifting one’s anchor point a fraction of an inch can send an arrow somewhere we don’t want it to go.

Correcting old bad habits is difficult. Of course, they listen to me as I teach them to shoot their new bow, but when I’m not around, they tend to relax their training and go back to shooting the old way. Their old way, I demonstrate to them, is the wrong way to shoot.

Hunters with a new bow must show a commitment to learning. My method isn’t difficult to absorb, and can easily be learned in five or 10 minutes. There is no hocus-pocus involved; it deals strictly with a constant anchor point, holding their head up straight, keeping both eyes open while aiming with the red-dot sight, and making a smooth release.

I tell them that a red-dot sight will help them correct any flaws in their shooting form. If they cant their bow, they won’t be able to see the sight. In fact, if they drop their head or cock it sideways, they won’t be able to see through the red-dot scope. If they see only a portion of the red dot, it means they must correct the error, whatever it may be.

Many bow hunters squeeze their bow like they are trying to choke it to death. A too-tight grip can torque the bow in one direction or another, and twist the red-dot sight just enough so it is impossible to shoot with it. The bow should rest gently between thumb and forefinger, and with just enough forefinger pressure to hold it in position. A clenched-fist grip isn’t required.

The form should always be the same. Feet spread apart at shoulder width, head up and both eyes fixed on the target. Come to full draw, and if your head is properly positioned and your anchor point is firm, you will be looking straight through the red-dot sight at the target.

Many hunters close their other eye, and this robs them of proper vision. Having both eyes open enables you to see the target with both eyes, helps prevent torquing or canting the bow, and provides a better chance of seeing where the arrow hits.

Too many hunters have told me, after they’ve wounded a deer, that they hit it in the heart or lungs. Often, after a long trailing job, we find their deer with an arrow in the guts or the rump. Having both eyes open when a shot is taken eliminates the guess work.

One other thing I coach bow hunters to do is follow through. Continue holding the bow in place, and don’t lower it until the arrow disappears behind the animals front shoulder. Then, when you say it was hit in the heart and lungs, it is more than guess work and wishful thinking.

Shooting a bow isn’t difficult. Shooting a deer isn’t hard. If you don’t believe me, stop by my Buck Pole Archery Shop a half-mile north of the Marion blinker light on highway M-66, and let me prove it to you.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Practice Tree Stand Shots Now

I wonder how many people really pay attention when they watch television shows as our host shoots a buck from a tree. Many of those shots are taken from 25 or 30 feet in the air, and some appear to be even higher up the tree.

A deer traveling very close to the tree will offer a very small target. Watch most of these shows, and it appears that some television hosts know little about shooting down at deer.

I finally watched a show a few nights ago, and the host knew what he was doing. He came to full draw, bent from the waist, and shot a bear feeding at a bait site.

Study some television shows, and the shot is taken in broad daylight, but it’s long after dark when the deer is found. Brush or grass is piled up near the entrance wound, and they prattle on about the buck only went about 80 yards.

If that is so, why did it apparently take a few hours to find the animal? I often wonder about such things.

It may sound as if I’m against television hunting shows. I’m only against them when they do one thing, and it’s shown on the screen, and the next thing we know hours have passed while they look for a buck killed with a “great” shot.

Shooting down from an elevated position is a great way to miss or make a bad hit, and the higher up in a tree, the easier it is to make a bad hit or miss completely. The higher the hunter, the more acute the angle. Most such shots sail harmlessly over the deer as they shoot high.

The hunter who shoots with a steep downward angle and bends only from the shoulders will probably make a bad hit or a complete miss. Often the hunter is shooting at something that appears to be two inches wide.

The hunter who concentrates on a firm anchor point, maintains that anchor point while bending from the waist, will probably kill the deer. Whenever the anchor point changes while shooting at a steep downward angle, the odds of missing are high.

This is a shot that requires considerable practice. It comes naturally to some bow hunters but seems uncomfortable or awkward to others. It’s easier to stand upright, bend a bit at the shoulder, and such shots usually go high.

Is there a better way of shooting deer? Not really, especially if the hunter is high up in a tree? Shooting that same buck from ground level would be much easier, but many hunters do not have that option.

Take turns working with a fellow hunter. Have one person in the tree stand, and another on the ground to move the target and retrieve the arrows, and practice often to make certain the shot is perfect every time.

Many hunters shoot while sitting down, and this means clearing their legs out of the way for a smooth draw and an easy release. Sitting down and drawing on a deer well below you eliminates some of the exaggerated angle from which a bow hunter must shoot.

There is another reason why some hunters miss these steep downward shots. They are standing, leaning out against the tension of a full body harness, and whether they will admit it or not, there is a fear of falling.

We’ve all seen those tree stand ads where a hunter leans out, and they are not perfectly balanced. The body will always attempt to correct the balance when such shots are taken, and a tiny twitch when the arrow is released is enough to throw the shot high or wide… or both.

If you hunt from up high (over 15 feet off the ground) it pays to practice this downward shot. It is not an easy position to shoot from, and the closer the deer is to the tree, the steeper the angle is. One of my hunters made a straight-down shot on a buck last year, and the Carbon Express arrow went through the spine, exited through the sternum, and the deer died under his tree.

I repeat: these shots are rarely taken, and shooting down at a steep angle can cause the arrow to shoot high if your anchor point shifts. Now is the time to practice such shots. Don’t wait until October to practice on live deer.—The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Remembering Some Old Stands

Today seemed to be one of reflection. My topic on this windy day concerns some tree stands and ground blinds from many years ago.

It is rather amazing how a stand will be productive for several years, and then fall into disfavor. It’s not so much the blind or stand wouldn’t still produce a nice whitetail buck, but for whatever the reason, I don’t hunt there anymore.

Sometimes a stand dies a sudden death because crops are planted elsewhere, or because another nearby stand turns hot. In some cases it is because the stand is no longer just right for the prevailing wind direction, is uncomfortable to sit in, or for many other reasons.

Thirty years ago I had a crooked tree that was so uncomfortable to sit in that a person needed a Posturpedic mattress, chiropractic adjustment and time in bed to recover. The tree produced plenty of bucks over the years but anyone who hunted there needed a new mattress, and that set became known as the Posturpedic tree.

Another old favorite tipped over years ago. It was a dead popple tree near a fence crossing, and it was in steady demand by me and some of my friends. Hunters could sit there, watch deer walk toward the fence hole, step through and offer a clear shot.

I hunted it one night, heard a creak deep in the dead tree, and didn’t move around much after that. I climbed down, and walked away, looking back at what once was a popular stand. It fell down the next day, and no other nearby tree could offer such an advantage. When it went down, a long-standing tradition went down with it.

The old Execution Knob was a pit blind on a hill. It offered a great view of the area, and it was made for firearm hunting only. I can’t remember how many bucks were taken from that stand. but if I had a Ben Franklin ($100 bill) for each one, it would go a long ways toward paying my feed bill and property taxes this year.

The Knob grew into disfavor. Why? Who knows, but I quit hunting it once we were able to hunt from elevated stands with a firearm. A new bow coop now sits on Execution Knob, and it produced a really big whitetail buck for me this past season.

The Beaverpond Corner coop was another favorite. There are two elevated coops, one on the south and one on the north side of the beaver pond, but this corner coop set on the ground alongside the main north-south road.

If offered clear shots for 200 or more yards to the north and south, and people who sat there during the firearm season always shot bucks that the hunters in the other two nearby coops never saw. It too fell into disfavor, and was moved somewhere else.

There used to be an old foundation back in a field, and it was crumbling and falling into the basement. One day I had a bright idea, and pushed the rest of the cement into the basement with a dozer, filled it with dirt, packed it down, put more dirt on top, and built a 15X30-foot building filled with windows on all sides.

It sits outside of my enclosure, and offers shots in four directions. The only bad thing is that hunting in the old foundation was like hunting from a gigantic pit blind. Every day an ermine would come out for a visit, stare at the hunter, and go on about his business of killing and eating. The ermine disappeared when the foundation was filled in.

Another stand that died a quick death stood 15 feet up an old willow tree. A person could only hunt from it on a calm day because it swayed in any kind of wind. It got hit by lightning, and lost most of its branches. The tree is still there, but it hasn’t been used as a stand in many years.

There are many other ground blinds and tree stands that have disappeared, but whenever I pass one of the better ones that is no longer being used, a bit of nostalgia settles over me.

Nothing lasts forever, and that can certainly be said for ground blinds and tree stands. The deer change their patterns, move elsewhere on the ranch, and they stop getting used, and new and better stands take their place.

But, on occasion, I like to remember those blinds and stands that have gone before. All were good at one time, and were then replaced. It like so many things in life. They get used until they are used up, and are soon discarded.

It’s fun, however, to remember way back when ...—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, July 13, 2008

What About Moon Phases & Solunar Tables?

Millions of deer hunters are found across this great nation, and we all seem to have different philosophies on hunting. We seldom agree on wildly varying topics.

Some hunters refuse to hunt various wind directions. Anything from the east is bad. For years, October featured south and southwest winds and then west and northwest, and by December we were hunting northwest, north and northeasterly winds.

My philosophy is that a deer hunter won’t get much hunting in if they sit out every day with a bad wind. I hunt but switch from an open tree stand to an elevated and enclosed coop on such days. A few stands are set up primarily for an east wind, and they are in demand when the wind goes sour.

Many are the deer hunters who believe they should only hunt during the dark of the moon. Others only hunt the week before the full moon, and others never hunt during a full moon.

There are those who believe in hunting around the Harvest Moon, the Hunters Moon, the Rutting Moon, and some who will only hunt just before the second full moon after the autumnal equinox. The nice thing about living in a free society is each of us can indulge such pleasures.

I personally don’t care which day of the week it may be, which way the wind blows, what the moon phase happens to be, or anything else. I find it difficult to kill deer while sitting in the house rather than hunting.

There are others who place great emphasis on hunting the rut. Little do they know that the 10 days before the full rut begins, deer go through the chasing stage or the pre-rut. It is a wonderful time to be hunting, regardless of the moon phase or wind direction.

Many feel the rut begins Oct. 20-25, and that is the beginning of the chasing stage, and it will last for about 10 days before the full rut begins. It’s possible to find many people who would disagree on when the rut actually begins.

The peak of the rut near my ranch will occur on or about Nov. 3-4, and it is winding down before the Nov. 15 firearm season kicks off.

There are variations, depending on where you hunt. Weather conditions and people pressure can alter these dates a bit.

Some hunters are addicted to the Solunar Tables. These tables, first invented by John Alden Knight many years ago, are based on the sun and moon and their effect on tides and the earth. They contend there are normally two minor and two major periods each day when fish bite, and when wild game move about.

Some sportsmen hunt according to the Solunar Tables and kill deer, and I know other folks who hunt whenever they can, and they also have good hunting success while hunting outside of these major and minor periods.

I’ve hunted many years with great success. Good hunting habits bring wonderful hunting success, and simply being afield whenever possible is a good reason for being more successful.

I forget about all this other business, and go on doing what works best for me. That means that I hunt whenever possible, and try to hunt every day of the season.

Take the normal precautions with the wind, stay downwind of the deer, and it becomes fairly easy to build

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Choosing East Wind Stands to be ready for Opening Day

It’s human nature. Many hunters fall in love with their opening-day ground blind or tree stand because we’ve thought about it for months on end.

Does this mean this so-called hotspot will be hot on opening day? Perhaps it will and maybe it won’t. It all depends on wind and weather conditions, and sadly many people don’t play the wind properly.

One major problem hunters face is setting all of their stands for the prevailing wind direction. During Michigan’s bow and firearm deer seasons, the prevailing direction is south and southwest in October, west to northwest in November and northwest and north in December.

So here is this hotspot stand set up for opening day. It has the stand downwind for a south or southwest breeze. Good thinking! Come Oct. 1, Joe Hunter has been thinking about it for weeks and plans to sit in the stand and shoot a deer that he has patterned.

However, if you’ve followed wind patterns the past several years as I have, you’ll remember that nearly half of our October days featured an east or southeast wind. An east wind, unless stands are specifically placed for such wind currents, makes other stand locations nearly impossible to hunt without being detected by approaching deer.

It’s easy to advocate having stands in key hunting locations for an east wind, but it’s sometimes quite difficult to find good spots where it will work.

Most bow hunters, like me, prefer hunting out of a tree. One way to get around this problem is to hunt from an elevated coop. Keep the windows closed until it’s time to take a shot. It’s certainly not like being out in the breeze, and feeling the wind on your nose or cheek, but it allows a hunter to effectively hunt when bad winds blow.

A choice can be made. Hunt from an enclosed coop or don’t hunt. To hunt out in the open when the wind is wrong simply courts trouble.
The best way is to look at how deer travel, especially on an east wind, and locate that one key spot where whitetails filter through. Try to be downwind of the whitetail traffic, and don’t move.

Fishermen have long known that angling success often takes a nose dive on an east wind, and deer hunters - especially bow hunters - know the same holds true for them when hunting on an east wind.

I’ve long known that an open tree stand may cause your scent to drift to the deer when the wind huffs from the east. An enclosed and elevated wooden blind with shooting windows can save the day.

One thing is certain. The hunter who deliberately puts himself upwind of deer on an east wind will probably ruin that hunting spot for the rest of the season unless he can prevent deer from smelling him. A simple V-shaped wooden structure, and forced down between two limbs with just enough room to shoot, gives the hunter something to stand on. It can work if a box-type blind is not available.

Just try to stay downwind or at least crosswind whenever possible. Hunting on an east requires some checking around, some good luck, and the ability to pick the ideal tree. It’s not easy, but good thinking and proper placement, can make the hunt work.

If an east wind blows on the opener, and your stand is not placed properly for that wind, it’s better to sit out the day than to risk spooking all the deer from that location. Once deer are spooked from your hotspot stand, the odds are that they either won’t roam past that site or will approach it with a great deal of caution.

So try to be a savvy hunter. Play the wind like a fine violin, and never discount the ability of a whitetail deer to catch your scent. - The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Hunting Means More Than Killing

It’s become something of a habit for me. Once the fall hunting season ends, there’s a good chance that once a day I’ll think back to another hunt from another year where a big buck was taken or the opportunity was lost for one reason or another.

It’s this ability to recall past hunts, successful or not, that allow us to wallow through nine months of not hunting deer with a bow. It’s rather easy to look at one of the big bucks on my wall, relax, kick back, and dredge up a fond memory or two to help me through the day.

There was a big buck running around my hunting area several years ago, and he was as regular as a dish of prunes. The problem was he was back in thick cover, and would eventually leave it. Each time he stepped out, he was in a slightly different location than before.

All too often he was just a bit too far away for a clean shot, and shooting that 10-pointer wouldn’t have been easy. My decision to wait until he exited the tag alders within 20 yards was an easy one to make because I couldn’t and wouldn’t take a bad shot.

Day after day I’d see him. Sometimes he was close but 10 feet back in the tags, and the next day he would be 65 yards away. I believe he bedded in those alders, and moved around a bit each day. Deer don’t always bed down in the same location, and this guy championed the art of bedding and exiting tags in a different spot from day to day..

This buck was a tempting rascal but I’d hunt other blinds to avoid becoming patterned at this nearby stand. I was always downwind of him, but it was always just before shooting time ended when he stepped out. I felt he occasionally would make his move a little earlier, and it was a matter of being there when he did. Hopefully, his move would let him step out, and take several steps that may put him within range.

Once I saw his high and wide rack, all glistening white, coming through the tag alders. If he stayed his course, he would come out only 18 yards away and in a perfect location for a good shot.

His head swiveled back and forth as he tested the wind, studied the nearby terrain that day, and his ears were cocking forward and to each side in hopes of getting an early warning of possible danger. He was 4 1/2 years old, and had had many opportunities to practice his moves before coming out to feed.

He kept coming at a very slow pace. There was no hurry-up in this guy. Each move was a well managed lesson in survival. He’d take a step, stop, stand motionless for a minute or two, and then take another cautious step or two.

The buck would hold his head high, lower it to change the angle of his gaze, and move again. He had all the patience of a stalking cat, and moved as if he were ready to bolt at any second. Bolting wasn’t what I wanted him to do, but sometimes these things happen.

Suddenly he stopped, and gazed hard at something nearby. A big mature doe had walked out of the brush on the other side of my stand, and was standing there, watching the buck. Live decoys like this doe that had appeared out of nowhere can be a good thing. As long as she doesn’t spook, he may come closer.

The buck was upwind of me and the doe, and she wasn’t going to walk over and introduce herself, so the only course of action was for the buck to move toward her. He made a slow approach, and my arrow was nocked on the bow string, and my Gator Jaw release was attached.

She turned as if to leave, and the buck moved quickly to intercept her. The buck popped out of the tags like a jack-in-the-box, and after many sightings, there he was 20 yards away.

I let him move slightly, and offer a quartering-away shot. My red-dot sight was nestled low behind his front shoulder, and as that leg moved forward for another step, I laid my finger on the release trigger.

The buck moved right at that instant, turning away, and such low percentage shots seldom produce. I waited for him to turn and offer a quartering-away shot, but the doe walked over to him and they walked away like two old lovers. It had been a close call, but the buck had won another round.

There is a great deal of satisfaction in hunting one specific buck, and having everything eventually work out or fall apart because of a doe’s action. I’ve hunted numerous bucks where great planning just didn’t work, and that is why they call this hunting, not killing.

If we were to succeed every time we hunted, bow hunting would soon cease to hold any appeal. The challenge of hunting one buck to the exclusion of all others is what works for me.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Dreaming Ahead To Bow Season

Opening days, and last days, are a continuing part of the cycle that is bow hunting. We no more than end the 2007 hunting season, and are now looking forward to the Oct. 1 opener nearly three months away.

There never seems to be enough time to get everything done that we need to do before the next season opens. This past year was spent building or refurbishing new hunting coops.

These new coops are almost completely air-tight until a shooting window is opened. The stands have a solid floor underfoot, and can be a bit noisy but I’m hoping to carpet the floors and walls to muffle any possible sound.

I suspect we will build two or three more coops, and that will make a big difference because it will enable me to put stands in a few places where they are needed but where no stands currently exist. Each year we find two or three key locations where deer move but where there are no elevated or ground blinds available.

We’ve got to solve another issue. The north end of my property produced very few deer this past season. It’s almost as if the animals moved away from that end. At this point, I can see no conceivable reason why there weren’t as many deer there, but hunting success at that end was very low this year.

I suspect many of the deer moved south and west because it seemed as if there were more deer in that area than before. Further studies need to be done to determine how many animals are living in the northern part of the ranch.

Another issue that must be addressed is placing a drain tile along a new road that we constructed last year. By the time we wanted to place a drain tile for the creek to flow through, heavy rains had come, and the ground became too soft to work on.

Once everything freezes solid, we may go in, insert the tile, and try to fix the road. This trail is needed to connect two major hunting areas, and perhaps during the winter or the summer may be the time to finish this job. Everything depends on the weather, and available time, but in this case I’ll have to make the time to complete it long before the season opener.

Several other existing blinds will require some work, and hopefully we’ll be able to get this job done. New coops can be placed anytime before the season opens, and they are much nicer than some of the original ground blinds.

Fixing other ranch roads is always necessary, and it is a costly project. Adding gravel to these roads helps keep them from developing major ruts, but when the rain is as extensive as it was this past year, it is doubtful whether adding more gravel will help. The ground holds too much water, and it doesn’t drain well. The result is rutted and sometimes impassable roads except on a four-wheeler.

There is always plenty of work to be done on a deer ranch. Fences must be mended if a tree comes down across it in a wind storm. More than one ranch has lost most of its animals if the fences aren’t mended promptly.

Maintaining a deer ranch means much more than hunting deer, managing doe levels, and providing food to deer. There is a great deal of hard work required to make stands safe, and locating them in the right locations for a shot. In fact, I keep a list of things to do in my head, and rarely are there free days when nothing must be done.

It may be hard work, but for me, it fulfills a lifetime dream of raising my own deer, producing large bucks, and satisfying those who wish to hunt here. It may be hard work, but it is fun.—The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Mapping Out Hunting Land

There is nothing better than putting down boot leather when it comes time to learn a new hunting area, and that is what most people do. A few take this “learning-the-land” proposition two steps further.

The use of topographical maps is one key element of learning new land, and aerial photographs is still another. Combine these three strategies, and a hunter will have a recipe for possible success.

Nothing is 100 percent when it comes time to hunt whitetail deer, but having a firm grip on the terrain is very important. There is a quarter-mile field that runs mostly north and south on my land, and through this open field are a series of small rolling hills and dips in the land. Deer have learned to use those tiny valleys and tiny hills to sneak through the open terrain.

Walking such an area is one way to learn how deer travel, and doing it with some snow on the ground is even better. There are places where bucks can enter the field on the west side, and by moving left and right, they can stay down in the dips and out of site of most hunters.

What I’ve done is build hunting coops and they are strategically placed so that most of these travel routes can be covered. Deer often move east in the evening and west in the morning, and hunters can place themselves in key positions to waylay the animals as they pass.

However, when hunting strange land that you’ve never hunted before, topo maps and aerial photographs, when combined with walking the terrain will enable hunters to determine good spots to hunt.

Funnels are an absolute deadly spot to hunt. A funnel is created by a narrowing of heavy cover. It can be a brushy fence row that connects a wood lot and swamp, two wood lots, a wood lot and a pine plantation, and other such thick and narrow places where deer movements are funneled through. They are natural travel corridors to hunt.

The bases of hills are another hotspot. Often the thicker cover is at the lower elevations, and if there are three hills, only one will be vitally important to hunters. Deer often choose the one that offers the easiest access and exit routes to heavy cover, and they will ignore other nearby hills.

Field corners that border on swampy or wooded areas are great, Again, only one field corner is most likely to produce deer, and again, it is usually the thickest corner that still provides animals with a good view of the field.

Saddles or breaks in flat or low-lying area or ridges that allow easy access to feeding fields are good. Such locations may have one good trail that leads from higher ground, down through the saddle, and through swampy or wooded areas that border the crop lands.

Dry or wet creek or river bottoms are especially good because there is a good deal of cover, the possibility of mast crops such as acorns and beech nuts, most bottom land areas are thick with berry bushes and other cover.

Walking this land is fine, but putting aerial photos and topo maps together enable hunters to obtain a birds-eye view, and the topo maps will show contour changes. Most topo maps have contour lines and special colors or symbols that indicate hills, wooded areas, swamps, creek or river beds and much more.

Spot the funnels, saddles and other topographical features, find their relationship to the aerial maps, and plot the best method of moving into these areas to hunt. Find such key locations, determine the bedding and feeding areas, and then begin scouting for active deer sign.

Locate the food source, and then find the bedding area, and the trails deer use will be relatively simple to find. Determine the prevailing wind direction. and start looking for good trees for a stand.

Finding hotspots in new areas isn’t terribly difficult but it requires some scouting time. Most of all, carry a compass or GPS, and know how to use them. Finding such out-of-the-way areas, where other people seldom hunt, and you’ll have your own little gold mine for deer.—The Whitetail Wizard