Hunting Fishing Blog

Over the weekend I shot, according to my standards, a subpar Whitetail Buck.  The short version of a long story is that he was trotting at a moderate pace through the woods at 85 yards when I shot him and he appeared to be a respectable 8 pointer.  When I got up to him and put my hands on him, I learned that I had shot a perfectly balanced 6 pointer with no brow tines.  Immediate disappointment flooded me.  It was overwhelming that I had just shot a buck that was much smaller than many other deer I had let walk this season.  After some time of feeling down-and-out, I decided that what had happened, had happened and that I had best accept it.  So, the search for the silver lining began.  Suprisingly, there were many silver linings, and one of them led me to write this blog entry.  Here is the list:

1.  He is going to taste great!

2.  I won't have to worry about my increased work schedule affecting the outcome of my season.

3.  The $24 I paid for my Firearms tag won't go to waste.

4.  He is still a mature deer.

5.  I'm saving money that would have been spent at the taxidermist.

6.  His inferior genetics have been eliminated from the gene pool.

The last reason is the focus of this blog entry and is debateable.  I have heard that if a 3 1/2 year old deer doesn't have brow tines, he never will.  Others have told me that maybe he will have brow tines at some point, but will probably be a maximum of 1 to 2 inches long. I've been told that this is a genetic trait and it should be eliminated from one's hunting area if they didn't want bucks around with little to no brow tines.  Indiana's regulation of 1 antlered deer per year leaves little opportunity to cull deer with poor antler genetics.  So, I found comfort in knowing I had done my part in removing this undesireable antler trait from the local herd.

So, I'm now at peace with taking such a small antlered buck.  Sure, I'm getting a lot of teasing from my buddies, but I'm okay with it.  It will also give me a lot of motivation to do my homework during the offseason and my wife is happy that I will be able to focus on things that need to be done around the house.

Hopefully, you all kill record book bucks and don't have to relate to my list of reasons for being okay with killing a genetically inferior buck.  But if you do, rest assured that it isn't the end of the world, and there are a number of reasons why you can be okay with it.

When it comes to whitetail bowhunting there are different schools of thought on what qualifies an “ok shot.” “Yes you can take the long shot if you can make it,” and “No you should never take a shot that long.”  I personally think the second one is unfair.  Let me premise this blog by making some things very clear.

• We do NOT approve of shooting an animal and leaving it for dead in any event ever. Get your knife out and finish it.
• We do NOT approve of a lax part-time hunter out trophy hunting and taking a shot they can’t confidently make. 
• For the same reason we don’t advocate bad angle shots, taking animals out of season, taking animals without a tag, poaching, etc…

All that being said, I am talking about avid hunters only, who practice routinely, care very much for the integrity of the sport, work hard to perfect their marksmanship, and make the humane harvesting of mature animals a priority.  In this reality, the accurate shot is unique to each hunter.  Who is one hunter to judge and correct another hunter based on their own preference.  The  “okay shot” should be defined as that shot which a given hunter is accurately and ethically confident and capable to take in a high pressure situation. 

Don’t agree?  Is hunting not a sport?  Is a hunter not an athlete?  If yes on both then wouldn’t we have to agree that athletic ability varies depending on how far a given athlete pushes themselves?  If, for example, I run 15 miles a day and run with barbells and start my mornings off with one handed push-ups and haven’t skipped my daily 50 round archery shot routine in 6 months….do I have your permission to take a 60 yard shot at whitetail deer when it is broadside with an excellent shot window? 

I believe the hunter who has qualified his ability with practice should be granted the respect he or she has earned by that.  I can ride a bike without training wheels but I most certainly cannot pull a Lance Armstrong on a 50 mile ride, and I wouldn’t try.  To each athlete his own preference and from the rest of us in our treestand or the peanut gallery how about little faith and respect?  I want to know what you think, post your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you are anything like me, you may get restless pending hours in the treestand deer hunting with no sign of life outside of a few birds.  On these occasions you could try some stalking through the woods but this should be done right, especially if you are stalking as bow hunter and not a gun hunter.  With the limited distance of a bow a hunter must be must stealthier in order to be effective. 

Stalking is pretty straightforward, walk quiet and slow, but understanding the walking pattern can give you an advantage.  This pattern refers to moving through the area like another native big animal would.  Whitetail deer do not typically walk through the woods at a continuous pace; they stop frequently and graze or check their surroundings.  So an ideal walking pattern would include the following:

• Walk slow, heel to toe
• Pick your feet up and place them down, do not drag them
• Try not to snap large twigs, it is an unnatural sound
• Stop every ten to fifteen steps to mimic the pause of a large game animal

Got any other things that work great for you?  Post them in the comments below and we will try to update this article to include them.

In the last article I covered how scent control is vital to monster buck hunting and now we will discuss location.  Hunters don’t like moving through brier bushes and thorny shoulder high brush.  For the whitetail buck, though, this is ideal territory.  With their smooth fur coat, the briers slide across them and do not snag as they do on most hunting gear and camo.  Monster bucks typically avoid major cow paths, deer highways, and typical animal crossings.  Their preferred territory puts them deep in the thickest and hardest to reach areas.

This major detail is one reason why many successful hunters prepare to embark far from the beaten path to connect with a bruiser buck.  Especially when hunting public land, it is highly recommended that a hunter travel into unmarked territory.  In studies via GPS- researchers found that most hunters travel only a short distance into public land areas and their more successful fellow hunters travel much farther.

Got any other things that work great for you?  Post them in the comments below and we will try to update this article to include them.

All experienced deer hunters know there is a difference between buck hunting and doe hunting when it comes to whitetail deer.  As a hunter we always tend to see more does and small bucks than we do monster bucks and as we know this is for good reason.  As we head into deer season I just want to recount some of the major factors that experienced hunters use to ensure they see those monster bucks, starting with scent.

Scent is possibly the single most important and easiest to overlook aspect of buck hunting.  If you manage to make it to the stand and a doe is in the vicinity she may flag you and run.  In the same event a buck may have been in the vicinity but you’d never know it.  Perhaps it is God’s implanted survival of the species, but the largest male bucks will always approach an area from downwind and may smell you even if you are careful.  Whitetail deer can smell seven separate scents at the same time and identify them, so throwing on your carbon suppressed and silver lined clothes and spraying down may be relatively useless if you skipped the other steps to avoid scent. 

Additional areas successful hunters keep in mind to ensure a scent free approach to the treestand are:

• Keep your clothes separate from scented clothing (soaps, cleaners, or other scents)
• Use scent free soaps on your body and hair
• Avoid lotions and colognes like the plague
• Spray off with a scent killer and be sure to get the bottoms of your boots
• Avoid gassing up the vehicle on the way to your stand site
• Walk to the stand with heavy clothes off to prevent too much sweating then put them on in the stand

Got any other things that work great for you?  Post them in the comments below and we will try to update this article to include them.