Claude Pollington the Whitetail Wizard
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Enjoying the Moment
The buck minced along a fence line in no hurry to enter the field before dark last night. It stopped every 10 feet, lifted its head to look around and sniff for danger before moving slowly toward the dinner table. The day, still warm but overcast, threatened rain. The buck, more wary than it should have been, wasn’t in a rush to leave the heavy cover. It poked along, feeding along the edge of a corn field, after leaving a thick swale where it and several other deer had been bedded down. The buck, sporting six points in a small basket rack, was only 1 1/2 years old. It was plenty old enough to know enough to stay with other deer his age and not get mixed up with larger, older bucks. However, he had taken to hanging out with some big bucks on my ranch. My stand was 15 feet up a towering maple.
The buck was still on the same path it had used during August and September, and apparently saw no reason to deviate from its chosen course. Would it follow the same trail again? Yeah, it would because he always traveled the same morning and evening routes, and it would soon pass within easy bow range of my tree stand. My stand wasn’t too far from my wife Ruth’s covered pit blind. The does and other yearlings had already passed by and continued on into an open field 200 yards away. The buck, moving slowly and daintily like his feet hurt, was taking all the time in the world. He was in no rush to go anywhere. Many things would have to come together before a bow shot could be taken, and I knew I wouldn’t shoot him.
The buck seemed to be buddies with some trophy bucks. Now, some of those boys were shooters. Would I be ready if one of the big bucks showed up? Daily practice and well over a half-century of studying big whitetail deer at close range had chased away any possible jitters. My mind and gear was ready. The buck moved a few steps closer. He stopped to sniff where his sister, mother and cousins had paused, and the young buck looked around as its mother had done countless times before. He wasn’t running with Mom now but was in the big leagues with the big guys. My bow, sighted in to be dead-on at 25 yards from 15 feet up a tree, was waiting. An arrow was nocked, and it was ready to use when and if the right time arrived. I was ready for one of the big bucks, not Junior.
The six-pointer hopped over a single strand of barbed wire, and paused again to study the upcoming terrain. Other deer, 300 yards away, were heading out to feed as the sun began to sink in the western sky. And then I saw them. Three big bucks were using an adjacent trail. They were only 40 yards away from me but the thick brush would deflect any arrow sent their way. The young buck turned again, and slowly stepped a few feet closer to my tree. Its head came back, and its nostrils flared as it snuffled the air for danger. None was detected, and satisfied, the buck began to move again, now toward the big bucks. My tree stand was directly downwind from the buck, and it couldn’t smell me. Rubber boots and a downwind position kept the buck from detecting my presence. The buck bent forward, nibbled on a few sprigs of grass, and moved again. The buck was only 20 yards away and quartering toward me. It wasn’t a shot I would take even if the buck had been huge.
Patience would now become a factor as I waited for the animal to turn and head for the other deer. I could only hope a big buck was lagging behind. I’d watched that small buck walk to that exact place many times before, and knew he would turn slightly and offer a quartering-away shot at 10 yards. I didn’t move, and the buck followed the same pattern he had traveled for months. The buck slowly turned, quartering away, and my bow came up. It felt like an old friend in my left hand, and as it came up the arrow was cautiously drawn back as my eyes tracked the buck. The bow was held back at full draw, and my sight settled low behind the buck’s near-side shoulder. One more ounce of pressure on the release would send the Maxima carbon arrow through the buck’s chest. He stopped momentarily to look around, and my finger softly caressed the release trigger without applying the pressure needed to send the arrow on its deadly flight.
Slowly, as the buck began walking off again, I eased up on the bow and let the buck walk away, unaware and unharmed. No other bucks came along that trail. For whatever reason, the bigger animals had taken a different route and were far out of range. It was really too early in the season to shoot a whitetail buck without studying all of my hunting areas, and patterning this six-pointer and his friends had been easy. There would have been little need to arrow a deer in early October, and besides, there would be other opportunities to take an animal in the coming days and weeks.
This exercise was good practice. It provided me with superb outdoor recreation, numerous deer sightings, and the chance for a close shot at a nice young buck. Who knows? Perhaps next time my finger will put that extra ounce of pressure on the release trigger. And then again, perhaps I will again choose not to shoot but wait for a larger animal. It’s always this unknown question: whether to shoot or not to shoot, and my deep respect for the deer I hunt, that allows me the wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the magical difference between hunting and killing. For me, on this hunt, it just wasn’t the right time to shoot.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Play the Wind
It’s human nature. We fall in love with our opening-day ground blind or tree stand because we’ve thought about it for months on end. Does this mean your hotspot will be hot on opening day? Perhaps it will and maybe it won’t. It all depends on wind and weather conditions. 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! However, if you’ve followed wind patterns the past few years as I have, you’ll remember that nearly half of our October days featured an east 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.
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. 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. 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 them. A simple V-shaped wooden structure with just enough room to shoot can work if a box-type blind is not used. If an east wind blows on the Saturday 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.
Once deer are spooked from your hotspot stand, the odds are that they either won’t return past that site or will approach it with a great deal of caution. Be a savvy hunter. Play the wind like a fine violin, and never discount the ability of a whitetail deer to catch your scent.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Opening Day at the Ranch
About 20 people showed up at the Buck Pole Ranch to greet the archery opener tonight, and those hunters had mixed results. The weather turned with rain and northwest winds, and the temperature hovered at about 59 degrees, and the deer didn’t move well as the front came though.
Hunters were spaced all over my 1,000 fenced-in enclosure, and half a dozen people were hunting my land outside the enclosure. Reports of deer sightings this evening varied from none to 12 for one hunter, and another sportsman said he saw several bucks still traveling together in a bachelor group. The biggest buck in that group was a heavy-antlered 8-point.
One hunter shot at a buck and missed, and another hunter hit a buck but followed up on it too quickly and it jumped up and ran. He came in, had something to eat, and two or three people went back out later to look for the animal. So far, they haven’t returned.
I went to a spot where I’ve wanted to check for deer activity, and saw just two but both were bucks. One was a very nice 10-pointer, and the other was a nice buck with eight glowing-white points. Both deer stayed just far enough away to avoid me having the temptation to shoot one of them. The 10-pointer had a 22-inch spread and respectable G-2s. One more year on that buck will turn it into a dandy that any hunter would be proud of.
It’s been a long, hard day and I’m ready for bed. Hope your deer hunt went well today. Tune in here tomorrow for more on deer hunting. Good Luck!—The Whitetail Wizard
Photo From Last Night Bucks
Trailing Wounded Deer
I’ve helped many people blood-trail wounded deer, but one look at the spoor of this whitetail doe told the story. It would be a difficult trailing job. She had been hit through the paunch, and finding gut-shot deer is never easy. There was very little blood to follow. I knew if we pressed the deer it wouldn’t lay down, but would continue to run all night, resulting in a lost animal. The arrow was covered with digested food, tallow and specks of blood. It was a bad hit, and the hunter was baffled. “Where did the arrow hit?” I asked. “How did the deer react when hit?” “I thought it went in behind the front shoulder,” he said. “The doe humped up when the arrow hit her, but it should have been a good lung hit.” It wasn’t. A gut-hit deer often humps up when hit and can travel long distances before succumbing. A hunter’s only hope is to walk away, have a late dinner, and return several hours later to begin a tough tracking job. We hoped to find the animal before the coyotes did. We hoped the animal would lay down and stiffen up instead of moving away from pursuing hunters. Waiting several hours would improve our chance of recovery but also increase the risk of losing the it to coyotes. We recovered that animal, but it required an hour that evening. The doe covered a half-mile of thick swamp before bedding down, and we lost the trail several times before finding the animal under a fallen log.
A gruesome story? Absolutely, but any hunter worthy of the name must do everything possible to recover the animal. Hunting ethics demand nothing less than a concentrated effort. Blood-trailing wounded deer is the responsibility of the hunter who shot the animal, but some skill is required. A good lung or heart shot usually anchors the deer within 100 yards; a gut-shot animal may run miles. Unfortunately, what looked to be a good arrow hit to the hunter, and what actually took place, were two entirely different things. It’s important to observe the exact point of arrow impact, and know how the animal reacted when hit. Clues, like color of deer hair found on the ground where the animal was shot can indicate where the arrow hit; white hair usually indicates a belly hit. Train yourself to key in on the exact location of the arrow wound, and learn if the arrow exited the animal, leaving an entrance and exit wound. A bloody arrow, a steady blood trail, frothy blood that indicates a lung hit; can help the hunter make wise trailing decisions.
The Game Tracker, a string tracking device, is a great tool for bow hunters. The string attaches to an arrow behind the broadhead, and once the head slices into the deer, the line pays out from a canister attached to the bow. It is easy to follow the line (use orange Game Tracker line) to the fallen animal. A double string means the arrow passed through the deer; a single line means the arrow is still in the animal. A sharp broadhead kills by severing arteries, capillaries and veins, and by slicing through and disrupting the function of vital organs, thereby creating massive hemorrhaging. All deer, unless hit in the spine, will run and offer some type of blood trail although it may take 50 yards before the flow exits the animal.
Trailing wounded deer can be a time consuming task. It often means a slow approach from one drop of blood to the next, and the task cannot be hurried. Too many people charge wildly through the trail and obliterate all sign left on the ground or nearby vegetation. Move slowly, one step at a time. Mark each drop of blood with a piece of tissue paper to establish a line of travel or leave one person at the last blood. Move cautiously forward until more blood is found, but don’t lose track of the last blood. Never allow well-meaning bystanders to move ahead; serious blood trailing is a one- or two-man job. Look for blood on grass, leaves, twigs or weeds. Blood on autumn leaves will look rusty, and a squirt of hydrogen peroxide will cause blood to bubble. A russet-colored leaf will not foam up. Look for any sign that might indicate a deer’s passage. A scuffed leaf, matted marsh grass, hoof prints, broken tree limbs near the ground or any blood, tallow or bodily fluid. Wounded deer often run in a straight line until they reach heavy cover. Then the animal often follows established deer trails until it begins to weaken, and then it may head downhill or begin to travel in a circle. A badly wounded deer with a heart or lung hit may not bleed until the last 10 to 20 yards before dying on the run. Be alert to sudden direction changes, and if necessary, spend time on hands and knees when searching for sign. A Coleman lantern works better for blood trailing than a flashlight. Blood is more visible under lantern light. Blood trailing isn’t fun, but it is a necessity. It also is the ethical and proper thing to do.
