Hunting Fishing Blog

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.

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.

I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the things to do and look for after the shot. After you have made the best ethical shot possible on a whitetail, the first thing I think about is shot placement.  Was it a little back... maybe a little low? What was the whitetail's reaction post impact? If the buck goes down in sight then your hunt is all but over short of putting the tag on him. If the buck runs off where you couldn't see or hear him fall and your not sure of the shot, that's when things get a little tricky. If your not sure about the shot then it's best to wait rather than taking the chance of jumping him up. First thing I do is locate my arrow and look at the blood sign on the shaft, vanes, and the beginning of the blood trail. If you have a lot of bubbles it's a lung shot. If it's dark red it's a liver and or gut shot. You mainly want to go with your gut feeling on what to do. I always try and remember through all the adrenaline and excitement that the hard part is over.  All I have to do now is wait and hope the following day, if the weather allows, I can put my hands on my prize.

A Buck’s Nose may be to the Ground, but its Eye is to the Sky (2/2)

Ok, so now from my previous entry to the juicy stuff! “How does all that mumbo jumbo science terminology and technical stuff help me find and kill larger deer?” Once a hunter has a firm understanding and grasp on a whitetail deer’s behavior, movement, or patterns it swings balance of power (or advantage) from the deer’s keen senses back to a more even playing field. This dramatically increases the odds of seeing and harvesting larger more mature deer.

The rut cycle ebbs and flows like a wave from one phase into the next. This year the rut is predicted to appear “normal” or more accustomed to what one might expect. It will hit heavy and hard, and die off rather quickly, unlike last year. Expect to see a lot of deer on their feet in late October through mid-November (add roughly a month for Southern States) barring any suppressant activities (I’ll discuss this later). So to balance the scales on this season’s “rut”, the most opportunistic times of each phase of the breeding cycle will be listed below based on the moon calendar.

The best days predicted for white-tailed deer hunting for the Northern States this year (2011) will be between November 13 & 18. For the Southern States, December 12-17^th looks to be the prime time to be in the woods whitetail hunting.

• Seeking Phase Northern Hemisphere: Starting in late October [26-30th] but peaking by the end of the first week of November [6-10^th]
• Seeking Phase Southern Hemisphere: Starting in late November [28-31^st] but peaking by the end of the first week of of December [6-9^th]
• Chasing Phase Northern Hemisphere: Overlapping the end of seeking phase in November [9-12^th] but peaking in the middle of the second week [13-17^th]
• Chasing Phase Southern Hemisphere: Overlapping the end of the seeking phase in December [8-12^th] but peaking in the middle of the second week [13-16^th]
• Tending Phase Northern Hemisphere: Moving through the chasing phase in November [15-20^th] with the main breeding taking place [21-24^th]
• Tending Phase Southern Hemisphere: Moving through the chasing phase in December [15-19^th] with the main breeding taking place [20-23^rd]

“Suppressants” can alter the predicted whitetail rut schedule, so there are several things to remember when planning your time to be in a treestand. Most hunters know that warm temperatures will put a damper on deer activity during hunting hours rather quickly as the animals will turn nocturnal to stay cool. If this happens play to that and hunt early morning and late evening in areas that you’ve seen your query. Increased hunting pressure will also cause deer to become weary and pursue mostly at night.

As a hunter we always bring our “A” game, but in case you need to pull out the stops: Take every extra precaution with scent, noise, and repetition to prevent that monster becoming suspicious of your presence. If you aren’t seeing the deer you’re accustomed to spotting, consider a possible change in food source that you didn’t account for. Did the farmer plant a different crop? Or did the crop not do as well for any number of given reasons. As the rut intensifies, deer burn an extreme number of calories. During their quick replenishing period they may be in a different area cashing in on the highest nutritional food available. Finally, nothing will induce them faster than low light conditions. If during this expected “rut” period a large storm front moves in that constantly is producing dark hazy days and cloud covered nights, look for the action to pick up early. This is especially true if the front is accompanied by a cold front! Watch out and be prepared!

Hope these pointers help you in your pursuit of a trophy! Let me know how accurate these predictions are in relation to the areas you hunt!