John's Articles

Hunting pressure has a direct correlation on deer behavior, and a mistake made in a heavily hunted area may not be a mistake in a lightly hunted area.

In heavily hunted areas, up to 90% of the bucks taken during bow and gun season are sporting their first set of antlers. This means that 2½ year olds are far and few between and 3½ year old or older bucks are rarities. In such areas the few mature bucks that survive react much differently to human presence than their brethren in lightly hunted or managed areas.

In pressured areas hunters struggle to pass on a buck, knowing the next hunter will not. To most hunters in these areas every antlered buck is a target and surviving bucks quickly learn they must alter their habits to avoid hunters. The most common reaction is to turn totally nocturnal until the rut phases begin.

On the other hand, most hunting shows and videos are filmed on exclusive managed property or in areas with low hunter densities where bucks are rarely targeted until they are at least 3 ½ years old. With no consequences for their actions while growing to maturity their vulnerable patterns have no reason to change. It is quite obvious when watching hunting shows that in lightly hunted areas there are more mature bucks and they are much easier to get close to.

To statistically reinforce these claims; listed below are a few states at opposite ends of the hunter density spectrum along with their 2004 Pope & Young entry ratio per licensed hunter.

-Ratios calculated from the 24^th Pope & Young recording period summary book

Lets look at the 10 most common mistakes made by hunters in heavily hunted areas.

1. Scent control

Many hunters strictly hunt the wind, and that does not yield the best results on potential opportunities. It is an undisputed fact that when bucks are chasing during the rut-phases, they can come from unexpected directions, often putting them downwind. Many bucks I have taken were at some point downwind of me, and many deer passing prior to them were as well. Success rates will climb when every deer is allowed to pass unalarmed.

Activated carbon is still the most adsorptive substance known to man and it has been and still is used in literally thousands of filtration applications. A properly cared for Scent Lok suit, gloves, and headcover, worn in conjunction with scent free rubber boots and a frequently washed fanny or backpack will keep your human odor so minimal that scent detection will be a thing of the past. I hunted many years without this regiment and many with it, and the difference in detection, is not up for discussion.

This topic is rarely mentioned because most nationally recognized hunters do not hunt pressured areas. Hunting pressure affects deer movements more that any other factor, PERIOD!!!! Not paying attention to, and reacting to it, is a costly mistake.

Whenever scouting or hunting, all pertinent information about other hunters locations such as; treestand height, quality of location, concealment cover, shooting lanes, are they hunting short crop field edges or open areas, are they hunting singular sign, do they bait, etc. should be noted. You can estimate the competence level of other hunters by their hunting locations.

Quite often they will not be much of a threat, and simply act as deer deflectors, but you must learn their habits and adjust your locations, seasonal, and daily timing around them.

3. Scouting

Most hunters do all their scouting and tree preparation during pre-season, setting up on summer traffic. Mature bucks can’t differentiate between scouting and hunting and simply react to the sudden influx of human activity by turning nocturnal. During the rut phases when mature bucks testosterone levels rise, they begin moving during daylight hours. They abandon their summer routines making most set-ups made during pre-season rather worthless.

Limit pre-season scouting to setting-up a couple trees for the first few days of season and get out. Don’t come back until the opener.

Since nearly 60% of all Pope & Young entries are taken during the rut phases, most scouting and tree preparation should be done during post-season while looking at sign left during the previous rut such as scrape areas, rub-lines or clusters, converging runways, etc. During pre-season the previous seasons rut sign is grown over and difficult to identify. Yes, you may locate some fresh rubs or scrapes during per-season and they should be set-up for the first couple days of season, but those areas are often abandoned during the rut phases when bucks alter their movements around current doe activity.

During post-season you can scout as often and prepare as many trees as you want without fear of altering fall movement patterns. The property and trees during the rut phases will also look similar to what you are looking at, indicating how much cover your set-ups will offer.

4. Secondary locations

Hunting rut phase locations between the season opener and the rut phases (the lull) alters doe traffic at those locations during a time when mature bucks are primarily nocturnal. Since all buck traffic during the rut phases revolves around doe traffic, rut phase locations should be left totally alone until those phases begin.

Secondary locations should be set up in areas where your entries, exits, and hunting will not in any way affect deer traffic in your rut hunting locations. Realistic chances at a mature buck in a secondary location are slim, but if you must hunt during the lull, secondary locations are where you should be.

5. Tree preparation

In pressured areas mature deer look for hunters in trees and unlike what is seen on TV and in video’s, they immediately spook when a hunter is noticed. This has a direct correlation on tree preparation and stand height. Setting-up low, too exposed, and in inferior trees are common mistakes and quite often hunters would be better off hunting from a well-concealed ground blind.

Early in the season trees offer foliage and background cover, negating the need to hunt high. During the rut phases most trees other than conifers and oaks have lost their foliage and setting-up above 20 feet will increase your odds of an actual shot opportunity. This height will create poor shot angles and practicing from a similar height is advised.

6. Hunting open areas

Hunting short crop field edges are great if you want to see deer or take subordinate bucks. Unfortunately, other than the first few days of season when you may catch a mature buck in his summer routine, this type of hunting is most often a waste of time. It is common to see big bucks taken along short crop fields on TV and in video’s, but keep in mind where they hunt.

For consistent success in pressured areas you must commit to hunting locations that offer security and transition cover.

7. Midday hunting

Most deer movements occur in the mornings and evenings, and that is when most hunters hunt. While mature bucks everywhere naturally have a midday movement pattern during the rut phases, bucks in heavily hunted areas pattern hunter activity and are rarely seen during mornings and evenings like their brethren in lightly hunted areas.

Rut phase movements by a mature buck will usually be as follows: He will stage or move into his bedding area before first light and bed. If a doe passes, she will be checked for receptivity, and if in estrous she will be pursued. If nothing of interest passes, utilizing the best available cover, he will scent check his core area during midday (10am to 3pm).

This midday movement is often his only point of vulnerability. This is one of the most lethal methods, yet least seldom practiced.

A buck I took on November 11^th 1997 was a prime example. Perched in my Ambush Saddle two hours prior to first light, I could feel the bite of the cold damp air, it was going to be a long cold day.

During the first two hours of daylight several does and fawns and a couple twin six points meander through the tight funnel of heavy cover. About 10am it started to snow and by 10:30 it subsided, leaving a 2 inch white blanket on the ground.

The beauty of the first snow of the year was interrupted by another bowhunter. As he walked beneath me I got his attention and we had a quiet discussion before I asked the trespasser to leave. I watched as he left his footprints in the moist snow with his breathable leather boots, leaving his scent in every track.

At 11:30 the buck I had been hunting for 4 seasons was moving in my direction. This was only my third sighting of this buck, with the 2 previous times being in heavy rainstorms, once during midday and the other right at dark while pursuing a doe.

His current course would take him through the lane the trespasser walked out on. As his nose entered the lane I drew and the instant his chest was exposed I vocally blatted to stop him before cutting the other hunters tracks. The shot was true and he expired within 50 yards. The 14-point buck was aged at 8 years old and had survived in an area with heavy hunting pressure by adjusting his daytime movement patterns to midday and only during inclement weather conditions.

Not all locations make the cut for midday hunts. Unless with an estrus doe, a mature buck will likely remain in the thickest cover available while scent checking his core area, making open areas relatively worthless.

8. Daily timing

During the rut-phases mature bucks usually continue to bed before daylight and hunters arriving just prior to daybreak often unknowingly spook the buck they are pursuing with their entries. Being quietly set-up well before they pass by to bed is a must for any chance of them coming back through when scent checking their core area during midday.

During the rut phases only, be set-up at least an hour and a half prior to first light. The extremely early arrivals are unnecessary during the rest of the season.

9. Tactics

Improper and over-use of tactics such as rattling, calling, scents, and decoys can cause bucks to avoid your location. The aggressive tactics performed on TV and in video’s work great in lightly hunted areas where there are multiple mature bucks competing for breeding rights. However, in pressured areas mature bucks rarely fight over breeding rights because there are not enough of them to warrant it, and in such areas aggressive tactics rarely have positive responses.

While I have rattled in and taken several mature bucks during the first few days of season with subtle sparring sounds, my most consistent results have been during the rut phases. Rattling should be kept to a minimum of 20 seconds per sequence, and other than the initial clash (to get a bucks attention) the sequence should be subtle, not aggressive. Rattling at the crack of dawn or about a half hour before dark has yielded my best results and keep it to 2 or 3 sequences about 5 minutes apart, then quit for the remainder of the hunt.

Cold calling (grunts and doe bleats) for mature bucks should be done during the same time frame as rattling unless you are calling a buck that is visually not coming in your direction. Grunt and bleat calls should be short and punctual not long and drawn out like a sheep. My preference is to make 4 grunts and stagger them about 5 seconds apart. Two or three doe bleats with 10-second intervals may also entice an interested buck.

I have had mature bucks alter their routes or become extremely leery when smelling scents, both of which can lower the odds of an actual shot opportunity. For scents to work with any consistency they must be used in moderation and appropriately during the proper time of season.

While I had some success in my home state of Michigan with decoys in the early 1990’s, I rarely use them in pressured areas anymore. It is common for does to spook from decoys and let every deer within hearing distance know something is not right, and since all buck traffic during the rut revolves around doe traffic, decoy use is not advised in pressured areas.

Decoys have worked awesome on my travels to states with low hunter densities. On a hunt in Iowa in 2007, I took a big 10-point that came within 25 yards to check out a Bob’N Head Deer decoy.

For tactics to work with any consistency, your location must offer perimeter and transition cover.

In heavily hunted areas most mature bucks likely have previous wounds and have heard or seen every trick in the book, making them very leery and usually reluctant to respond to tactics.

10. Motion cameras

Hunters like to know what bucks inhabit their area, however using motion camera’s in your hunting location can be detrimental to success. A camera has to be set-up and checked periodically, requiring several visits. In pressured areas every visit is detrimental to that locations potential. When using camera’s set them up in areas away from your hunting locations, not at them. The best pictures are you with with the buck.

Seasons over and you have to pack your hunting gear away until next fall. But if you’re smart, you’ll keep out some of those long johns and do some post-season scouting and tree preparation.

Why scout after season?

Bucks living in heavily hunted areas that survive their first antlered season react severely to human presence of any kind. They can’t differentiate between pre-season scouting and actual hunting, and more often than not become nocturnal before the season opens when there is an influx of human activity.

During pre-season you set up on summer sign not rut sign, and statistically with 55% to 65% of the annual P&Y entries over the past ten years being taken during the rut phases, rut sign is what you want to set up on. Simply put, rut sign does not exist during pre-season as it does during post-season prior to any new spring growth.

Yes, there is a chance that the buck that made the sign you are looking at no longer exists. Even so, if the area he resided in, and patterns he used offered cover and doe traffic, it will likely attract another buck when the does start their estrous cycles.

During post-season, the foliage is gone you get a true feeling of how dense the undercover is and what your set-up sight will look like during the rut phases when you hunt it. During pre-season everything looks dense, and you will only be guessing at what your set-up will look like once the foliage fall.

If a runway is out of range, using branches and brush you can block runways and alter the traffic closer to your location, and by fall the deer will have adjusted to your alterations. During pre-season sudden visual alterations along with human odor from warm weather tree and lane preparation can alter deer traffic from the immediate area.

You can scout as often as you want and prepare locations to your hearts content without fear of altering fall patterns. You simply can not do that during pre-season without major adjustments in deer behavior.

Most properties I hunt in Michigan are less than forty acres in size, and unfortunately as small as they are I usually have to share them with other hunters who also have permission. This situation is common in heavily populated states. Some areas have had aerial counts in excess of eighty gun hunters per square mile (from: Quality Whitetails by Carl Miller and Larry Marchington ) on opening day of gun season. While bowhunting numbers are about half of that, it is still a staggering figure.

Statistical Foundation

To statistically reinforce hunter density claims, listed below are some states at opposite ends of the bowhunter density spectrum, and most of these densities are at least doubled during gun season.

These statistics should make it clear that in heavily hunted areas, you must depart from the hunting methods seen on most TV shows, and video’s, where hunts are filmed on large tracts of property managed for big bucks and hunted by few. Their generic information and hunting practices will rarely yield positive results when hunting pressured areas. Anyone who believes that this type of hunting pressure does not affect mature buck numbers, how they react to human presence, or the skill level required to take them is living in La-La land.

When?

If there is snow on the ground, don’t waste your time. Wait until the snow is gone because some of the sign you will be looking for is buried beneath the snow. Also during post season mature bucks revert back to a feeding pattern, moving between their bedding area and easily accessable feeding areas, negating sign left in the snow as previous rut traffic.

With an aerial photo and notebook, walk the property and mark any pertinent sign with a number and describe what that number represents in the notebook. After all your scouting ventures are finished you will have a reference on paper to prepare a plan of attack.

The pertinent sign to look for is; primary scrape areas, funnels or transition areas between bedding areas, food sources, bedding areas, fingers of cover protruding into crop fields, funnels between bedding and feeding areas, water sources, rub lines, converging runways, other hunter locations.

A primary scrape area consists of several scrapes in a small open yet protected area. They are perennial unless there are changes in crop rotation, mast, or property development. These areas are found in high doe traffic areas, usually near a preferred food source. For daytime activity in a pressured area they must offer perimeter cover, thus eliminating the common short crop field edge scrapes as hunting locations.

A mature buck will use the best available cover when transitioning between bedding areas in his core area to scent check for possible estrous does. It is for this reason that many big bucks go unnoticed by hunters that hunt open areas.

Both primary scrape areas and transition funnels between bedding areas should not be hunted, scouted, passed through, have motion camera’s set-up in, or even gone near until the rut phases when testosterone levels rise and bucks move more during daylight hours. The doe traffic in these areas must remain unaltered by human presence, because all buck traffic during the rut phases will revolve around that doe traffic.

Crop rotations alter preferred food sources and travel routes, so find out what crops are going where prior to scouting. If a field is going to be in standing corn, it is likely to have daytime buck traffic to and from it due to the security transition from cover to cover. Mature bucks will frequently bed in standing corn if the field is large enough.

Short crop field edges are fun to hunt because you usually see a lot of deer. Although many bucks are taken from field edges on TV and in video’s, you must remember that they are most often filmed in micro-managed areas that receive minimal hunting pressure, you likely do not have the luxury of hunting under similar circumstances.

Short field edge hunting is a practice I abandoned 20 years ago when I began to understand heavily hunted mature bucks. It is a simple fact that when hunting pressured areas, mature bucks rarely enter exposed crop fields before dark, unless with an estrous doe, and then it is usually on an uncharted course.

Mast and fruit trees such as oaks and apples only drop so much mast each day making them a first come first serve destination area. In areas where few mast or fruit trees exist they often become primary scrape areas.

If an area is abundant with oaks look for the white oaks, their acorns are preferred due to their lower levels of tannins that give them their bitter taste. White oak trees are identified by their rough bark and the rounded lobes on their leaves.

Depending on their size, sanctuaries or bedding areas should have at least one location set up in them. Forget the, “I keep that area as a sanctuary” statement. Only if you have unlimited land to hunt, can you afford to make that statement. For the life of me I can’t understand why hunters do not strategically hunt where the mature buck resides. If I wanted to catch anybody who is reading this article, my best bet would be to wait inside their house.

Other than the first few days of season when a buck may still be entering his bedding area after daylight, bedding areas should be totally left alone until the rut phases. My preference is to save a bedding area location as sort of a hail-mary pass play in football, hunting it just prior to gun season.

Hunting inside a bedding area requires a specific plan, otherwise you will spook deer from it. You must commit a full day to it and be set-up a minimum of an hour and a half prior to daybreak and not exit until after dark.

Fingers of cover protruding into preferred crop fields are usually narrow areas of low or high ground that were unable to be tilled into part of the crop field. They are used as transition zones, and will often be prime locations for scrape activity.

Funnels of cover between bedding and feeding areas are prime locations for early season hunting.

If your area has few options for water, any water source can become a destination area. During unseasonably warm weather conditions deer usually drink during midday between noon and 4 pm. If your water source offers good transition and perimeter cover a midday sit during this time frame is advised.

Rub lines will generally have a pattern to them. If the rub-line enters a bedding area set up far enough away from the edge that so you will not alert bedded deer with an evening arrival. Before being pressured, bucks often bed just inside the edge of cover.

Rub line locations require a scent free visit once the bucks are rubbed out to check for new rubs. If fresh rubs are found, hunt it during the first few days of the season.

Scattered rubs or scrapes without any pattern are interesting to look at, but less than optimal as hunting locations. Always remember, you are looking for sign that offers a pattern and gets revisited.

If your property permits always follow any decent runway until it converges with another. Why hunt one runway when you can hunt two or more from a single location.

While other hunter sign is at the bottom of the list, it is often the most important. In pressured areas you must know where your competition is. Look for marks on trees from hang-ons and climbers, cut lanes, and scars on the ground from bait. Keep your locations away from theirs, because you have no idea how they hunt, practice scent control, and alter deer traffic.

Baiting dramatically alters deer traffic and daytime movement patterns. If the parcel is not large enough to utilize the bait person as a deer deflector for mature bucks, and you do not want to cut off the runways leading to the bait, the property is likely not worth hunting for you. I have often abandoned small parcels after seeing that other people were using bait.

One very important constant when setting up any location in a pressured area is cover, without being set up very near or in it, daytime opportunities are unlikely.

Tree Preparation

I hunt exclusively from a Trophyline Ambush saddle that is carried in my backpack, negating the need to set up multiple treestands. It takes away any possible chance of theft, someone hunting my location when I am not there, noise associated with set-up, creaky metal, and I only need one saddle to hunt all my trees at any moment.

Once mapped it is time to set up locations and clear lanes. Unless in a conifer, large crotch, or oak that holds its leaves late into the fall, try to set-up a minimum of 20 feet and 25 feet or higher if you are comfortable with heights. This height will aid in keeping you out of their peripheral vision, make it less likely to get winded, and allow minor movements at crunch time. Sighting in from a similar height is advised.

Prepare a location in every good spot on the property, and make your lanes wide enough to allow for summer growth. This ensures that if a location heats up you will have a tree prepared, giving the deer no warning of your presence. A surprised buck often ends up a dead buck.

After all your locations are set-up strategically place reflective tacks so you will be able to easily find them in the dark. I often use dark reflective tacks because they are more difficult for other hunters to see in the daylight. Mark your map with small dots along each locations entry and exit route where you placed the tacks.

Your map can now be used as a quick route reference prior to entering the woods, because the early season locations will look much different when you return in the fall.

Other than your interior bedding area locations all others should be revisited during midday a month prior to season to trim new growth, and to hang stands if they were not hung earlier in fear of theft. An activated Scent Lok suit and gloves are advised for any fall visits.

Taking mature bucks looks easy on TV and in video’s, but in pressured areas it is anything but easy, it requires a lot of work. Add post-season scouting to your repertoire, and if done properly it will definitely make a considerable difference in your hunting success.

Carrying the Proper Hunting Gear

Having the proper gear with you at all times can make the difference between success and failure.

When pursuing whitetails, preparation is a key ingredient to success. This can not be accomplished by stuffing your pockets with a few things and calling it good. Starting with your bow and ending with a sharp knife, lets look at all the goodies that can aid in making a hunt successful.

Shooting Equipment

Bow – The noise a bow makes after an arrow is released is not nearly as critical as any noise made during the draw process. Bows should be checked for noise during the draw process. Teflon cable slides, tight screws, and covering your arrow rest with fuzzy stuff or other soft material is essential so your bow, cables and arrow does not make any noise during the draw process.

If there is noise that you can’t get rid of, take it to a reputable pro shop. Many noises come from loaded surfaces that require a bow press and an archery technician to get rid of.

Arrow Rest – Use a rest that is right for your personal shooting style (release, fingers). Most rests require proper installation and tuning for your arrow weight and for consistent accuracy. See a pro shop technician when picking out a rest and have them set it up and tune it.

Sights – Sights with pins that are visible in low light conditions are my preference. Over my 40 plus years of bowhunting several shot opportunities occurred at the edge of darkness on both morning and evening hunts.

Peep sites – Peeps for hunting should have aperture holes large enough to see through during low light conditions. While I do not use a peep I have heard many horror stories of hunters drawing on deer and not be able to see their pins or the deer beyond the peep hole. Aperture diameters of 3/16 to 1/4 inch are recommended for low light conditions.

Kisser button - If you struggle with a floating anchor point which causes inconsistent accuracy, a kisser button will take care of the problem and give you a consistent anchor point.

Wrist strap – A wrist strap should be used with a proper open-handed grip to keep you from grabbing your bow after an arrow has been released, causing poor accuracy. A properly fit wrist strap should not put pressure on any part of your upper wrist during a shot cycle.

Stabalizer – Stabalizers are not required, but do aid in reducing recoil and balancing your bow during a shot cycle.

String silencers – Silencers aid in reducing string noise after an arrow has been released. Silencers made from fabric hold water when it is raining adding weight to the string, sometimes reducing arrow speed up to 6 feet per second. Silencers made from rubber do the same job with minor loss of speed.

Aluminum arrows – If you use aluminium arrows, do not to use the same arrows you practice with for hunting. They tend to get unnoticeable bends from pulling them out of targets and small dents from hitting each other during practice sessions. These small flaws will affect accuracy, especially with conventional or fixed blade broadheads. When using aluminum arrows, have a set of practice arrows and an identical set of hunting arrows.

Carbon arrows (without aluminum cores) – Carbons are either straight or broken, it is really that simple. Your carbon practice arrows could actually be used for hunting as long as the fletching is in good condition.

Quiver – Use a quiver that is easy to get arrows in and out of during cold weather yet holds them securely and quietly. My preference is a detachable quiver along with a quiver adapter that will screw into a tree to hold the quiver while hunting.

Some mechanical heads (G-5’s Tekan II) open so easily that a foam lined hooded quiver will not work, due to the heads opening up on contact with the foam. Quivers for some mechanical heads require an open hood so that there is no broadhead contact and two arrow holding arms, one slightly below the heads and the other more than halfway down the arrow shafts.

Broadheads – Broadheads are the working end of the arrow. Use a head with a cut diameter that is appropriate for the poundage you are shooting and the game you are pursuing. If uncertain of proper cut diameter, see a pro shop technician to confirm your decision.

Make sure your broadheads, whether conventional or mechanical, fly true out of your bow before hunting with them. Never ever assume your broadheads will fly the same as your field tips under any circumstances, no matter what anybody tells you.

Release Aid – See a pro shop for a proper release aid that is easy on your string and has a reliable consistent trigger pull. With short axle-to-axle bows a string loop is also advised to keep the knock from being pinched off the string during the draw process and to extend the life of the string.

Clothing – An activated Scent-Lok® suit, headcover, and gloves will give you a definite edge when pursuing mature whitetails. Many deer will continue to be taken by hunters without carbon clothing technology, but you can not argue the scent eliminating technology advantages of activated carbon clothing over cotton or other non carbon based clothing.

Activated carbon lined clothing is modern day technology that should be taken advantage of and is without question the biggest innovation in bowhunting since the compound bow. Every country in the world that potentially has to deal with chemical warfare uses this same technology in their clothing to adsorb chemical molecules so the molecules do not reach the soldiers skin.

Activated carbon is also used in literally thousands of purification and filtration applications. PROPERLY CARED FOR carbon suits along with stringent scent free care of backpacks and rubber boots will allow you to go undetected by deer that come in or pass by downwind.

I will make this very simple, if you are using a properly cared for carbon suit and are still spooking deer, you are doing something else wrong. It may be hunting too low and too visible, over hunting a location, hunting over an unnatural bait pile, not washing your pack that you get into every day to reload with your bare hands, not wearing rubber boots, or using scents improperly.

Rubber boots – Scent free rubber boots are another necessity to keep foot odor contained while on stand and while walking to and from your hunting location. Every successful fox and coyote trapper wears rubber boots and rubber gloves for the same reason. Make sure you air out any new rubber boots long enough so that they lose that new rubber odor prior to use. Boots with leather or Cordura exteriors breathe, and if they breathe they leave odor, it is a very simple concept.

Fanny pack or backpack – Packs should be made of a quiet material that is washable or lined with activated carbon. I have talked to many hunters who use carbon suits and continue to get winded, one thing most of them had in common was they never washed their pack that they handle every day and have carried on their sweaty backs for years. Every hunter I know repacks their backpack after each hunt and it is usually done with bare hands, turning the pack into a large human scent wick.

My preference is a backpack with a main pocket of at least 1200 cubic inches and several exterior pockets. The main pocket is used for carrying extra layering clothing and the exterior pockets for easy access to some often used items such as calls, rattle bag, rangefinder, binoculars, water bottle, pee bottle, folding saw, rope, flashlight, etc..

Gear that might be used during the course of a hunt

Treestands – Platforms whether fixed or climbers must be dead quiet whenever you transfer or shift your weight for a shot opportunity. A five point (shoulder) safety harness should always be used for safety.

Ambush Saddle - Chris and I exclusively hunt from an Ambush saddle when hunting from trees because it is dead quiet, safe, and has huge mobility and many other advantages over any other type of hunting system. It takes a little getting used to, but the advantages well outweigh what little effort that takes.

Rope - My recommendation is to carry a ¼ inch diameter nylon rope. The larger diameter rope will not get tangled like thin rope and heavy string.

Bow hangers – Carry several of these for hanging items like rattle bag or antlers, pack, binoculars, bow, quiver, etc.

Quiver adaptor – A quiver adaptor screws into the tree and your quiver solidly attaches to it. With the quiver attached to your bow it can limit your range of shot mobility in the tree, and with bright fletched or crested arrows, be noticed when preparing for a shot.

Flashlights – Always carry a couple flashlights, a small AAA penlight for navigating in the dark and a larger flashlight for blood trailing. Extra batteries are also advised.

Rattle system– A rattle bag or antlers should always be in your arsenal during the rut phases. Unlike antlers, a rattle bag can be stored in an external pocket of a pack with easy access when needed.

Grunt calls – I recommend two grunt calls, an exhale and an inhale. The exhale call is louder than the inhale call and I choose the call according to the volume necessary for the situation at the time. Grunt calls should also be stored in an external pocket with easy access.

Doe bleat call – Quite often a doe bleat call is preferred over a grunt call when calling a buck in during the rut phases. Quaker Boys new Squeeze & Bleat for 2007 is a very controllable call for both volume and length of bleat.

Reflective Tacks –They can be used to mark a blood trail or a recovered deer that you have to come back for after dark with help. When the foliage is up it is amazing how difficult it can be to relocate things after dark, and the reflective tacks will make the task much easier.

Binoculars – When hunting open areas a set of compact 8 X 32 binoculars will give a good field of vision in low light conditions. The small 8 or 10 X 25’s that you see for $20.00 are rather worthless in low light conditions and sometimes even in broad daylight.

Laser Rangefinder - This item is used to find exact distances to possible shot locations. Knowing exact distances can make the difference between a kill and a miss.

Treesteps - I always pull the bottom six steps and carry them in my pack. This puts the treesteps remaining in the tree out of eye level to other hunters that hunt or scout the area.

Antihistamine tablets and cough drops or syrup – Usually by the time the rut phases roll around so does body fatigue and colder temperatures that can cause colds. An antihistamine will break up congestion and stop a runny nose. For hacking, cough drops and a bottle of the best cough syrup available are suggested. Due to their strong odor they are kept in a sealable plastic bag.

Air activated hand, and toe warmers, and Grabber’s adhesive body warmers – Most hunters are familiar with hand and toe warmers, but Grabber’s Adhesive Body warmers are relatively new. They adhere to your bottom layer of clothing in key locations to keep your core body temperature warm. I stick one over each kidney and one on my chest, and occasionally when temperatures dip below 10 degrees or in heavy winds I will place one on my upper back. Until you have used these gems, you have no concept of what it is like to stay comfortable on stand in cold weather.

Unlike hand and toe warmers Grabber's the Adhesive Body warmers have a very controlled temperature rating of 127 degree’s and were originally designed for medical applications, such as arthritis. They last 12 hours and can be reused 2 or 3 times if sealed in a Zip Lok bag between hunts.

-Sealable 1 gallon Zip Lok bag - for storing sweaty bottom layer from long walks to stand (I change my upper body bottom layer once on stand).

-Extra bow-if possible have an extra bow set-up and sighted in just in case a string breaks on your main bow or it starts to make a noise. Reputable pro shops are often a distance away and are not always open, and a back-up bow is a great safety net to continue hunting.

Everything in your pack should be kept in the exact same pockets and place every time. This allows you to memorize where everything is and get out whatever you need without having to look in or at the pack. When a situation arises in which you need something out of the pack, remembering where everything is will not only save time but more importantly movement.

Equipment should be periodically checked during season. Being prepared for any situation that may arise is definitely a key to being consistently successful in pressured areas where opportunities are few and very far between.

Recovering Bowshot Deer
By: John Eberhart

When a deer is hit with a questionable shot, knowing what to do, and when to do it can be critical to its recovery.

Recovering wounded deer is a topic that gets very little ink, and most TV shows and video’s usually edit out any difficult recoveries, even when the hits were obviously poor. Unfortunately, not all deer are hit perfect and die within sight or hearing distance.

With today’s high performance bows, arrows, and broadheads, pass-throughs are common, and should always be our goal. When hunting from elevated stands, a high entry that does not pass-through will often not leave much of a blood trail, whereas the same shot with a complete pass-through will.

When a whitetail has been hit, watch it until it is out of sight and hearing distance. Unless the deer expired within sight, immediately mark the last sighting with a landmark that will be easily recognized from the ground. If you heard the deer running for quite a distance beyond that landmark, while still in your tree, use your compass and take an approximate reading as to which direction he went from the landmark on the ground. The compass reading will give you a direction to search if there is a lack of blood when you begin to trail him.

Wait at least 20 minutes prior to exiting your stand, otherwise the noise you make getting out could possibly spook him if he is standing or bedded down nearby without expiring.
While waiting to get down, rethink the shot procedure to ensure you of the angle the deer was facing, and where the arrow entered. Knowing the angle of the deer, and the entry location of the arrow should give you an idea of what vitals, if any were hit. This information should give you an idea of how long to wait before trailing.

If your arrow passed through, check it for the following clues.

Blood with small air bubbles in it indicates a lung hit.

Heavy blood with some coagulation usually means that a main artery was hit (heart, jugular, femoral, or front section of liver).

Decent blood, but not a tremendous amount of blood indicates a flesh hit, or small artery hit.

Gritty green or brown substance indicates that your arrow passed through the stomach or intestines.

A mixture of stomach matter mixed with decent blood indicates a shot towards the back of the ribcage, which probably caught both stomach and liver. This could also be a stomach, liver, single lung hit with a severe quartering shot.

A dull blade or blades indicate that bones were hit. This is important to note with a questionable stomach and liver hit.

Heavy tallow on the shaft likely indicates:

1. A high hit along the loin.
2. A brisket or low chest hit.
3. A high hind quarter shot.

Deer vary in color from reddish brown to dark brown, so only when I see white hair on the ground do I pay any attention to hair. Rather than get into what white hair indicates, it would be advised to know (pictures, magazines, or roadkills) where these white patches are located. This will give you additional information on location of hit or exit when there is white hair on the ground at the shot location.

Starting with number 1, I will elaborate on what to do in each circumstance.

1. Double lung shot. There should be blood at or very near the point of impact with a pass through shot. This animal will rarely go over 100 yards, and should be very easy to trail. In dry conditions it is common to hear the deer expire within 15 seconds after the hit.

If you had a straight down shot and think you may have only hit one lung, give him several hours before attempting recovery. A deer can actually live with one lung being partially cut. I have taken several bucks that had scarred over arrow wounds through one lung.

NOTE: A double lung should always be your target area. Lungs are much larger than any other vitals, leaving margin for error. The heart is a very small target that is partially protected by the shoulder blade from some angles. Even though many targets give you more points for heart shots, aim for the lungs on the real thing. Double lung shot deer will also expire faster than a heart shot deer. A lung shot deer actually drowns from the blood filling its lungs, whereas a heart shot animal runs until it pumps most of the blood out of its system.

2. Anytime a main artery is hit (heart, jugular, femoral, or the large arteries in the front portion of the liver) you will have lots of blood from shot sight to expiration sight. A high entry without an exit hole would be the only exception. The reason is that the inner body cavity will contain most of the blood.

Even with no blood trail on any of the hits so far, your deer should be easily recovered by making circles where the deer was last seen or heard.

3. Unless a decent sized artery was hit, a flesh wound will likely not kill the deer. However, any time you hit an animal you must make a concerted effort to find it. Blood can be misleading at times, and if you did not hit a large artery the blood trail will eventually just peter out.

Wait at least 4 hours before trailing a flesh wounded deer, allowing the deer to bed down and possibly bleed out or become week if a large artery was hit. If an artery was not hit, the blood will coagulate and stop bleeding. If you jump him and the blood trail is still heavy, back off again for another 4 hours and try again. Continue this process until he is recovered or the blood trail expires.

In December of 1967 I hit a deer just above its left rear hoof. I kept pushing that deer due to snow on the ground and blood in his left rear print. After about a mile and a half I was able to get close enough to finish him off with a chest shot. There was absolutely no way I could have trailed that deer without the presence of snow.

4. The dreaded gut shot! There are many animals lost to this type of shot, and there shouldn’t be. The procedure for this shot is simple. Wait for 30 minutes, quietly get out of your tree, and get out of the area. Do not even think about walking in the direction the deer went for at least 4 to 8 hours. If it is cold enough that the animal will not spoil give it even longer.

Most often a gut shot deer will travel no farther than 200 yards before getting sick and bedding down. If left alone long enough, it will likely be dead when you come back. Generally speaking the larger the animal, the longer it will take to expire (this is true with any type of hit). The down side of this shot is that there will be very little blood, and the deer will likely head for the thickest, nastiest cover available. Unlike double lung and heart shot deer, a gut shot still leaves the deer with its full mental capacities. If you push him to early, you will likely push him into an area where a recovery without a blood trail will be extremely difficult.

With a gut shot deer, a lot of searching may be required, especially early in the season when the foliage is still on. Unlike a lung shot deer that expires all sprawled out with its white belly showing, this one will probably be bedded nice and neatly in a hard to find place. Get as many friends as possible to help look, and take a bow. It is very possible that you will need to shoot this animal again.

Gut shot deer also find comfort lying in water, it must be soothing to their wound. I have aided in the recovery of several deer that died in creeks and lakes, and they were always gut shot.

If you are expecting rain, still wait the same amount of time. Remember, if this animal is pushed, your odds of recovery will be greatly reduced and you will probably end up somewhere you really did not want to go.

5. A stomach / liver hit. This is common hit, because many hunters tend to body shoot rather than pick a spot. This is a fatal hit, I have never recovered a deer that had a noticeable old stomach or liver wound.

Liver shots can have huge variances in expiration times. I have liver shot deer that expired in 10 minutes and have had others still be alive after 10 hours. The reason for such diversity is that the arteries in the front portion of the liver are large and the arteries in the rear of it are tiny. When the large arteries are hit, the expiration time is short, with the opposite being true when the small arteries are hit. A liver hit will often leave such a good blood trail that you will keep thinking that he can’t be much further.

Liver hit deer will rarely travel very far prior to getting sick and bedding down, usually less than 200 yards if there is cover. Like gut shot deer, liver hit deer also retain their full mental capacities, and should be left alone a minimum of 4 hours. Take your bow and if you jump him, stop, mark the spot and give him at least 4 more hours before resuming your search, even if the blood trail is easy to follow. If he can’t move very well, you can probably move into a position to shoot him again.

6. A solid bone hit such as a shoulder or knuckle with no penetration will obviously not kill a deer. This hit will make a loud whacking sound. Make every effort to find your arrow to insure that you did not penetrate deep enough to reach any vitals, and follow any blood trail until it expires.

7. An arrow shaft coated with tallow is not a promising sign. However with a rear, frontal, or high entry (from a tree stand only), you can have tallow and still have passed through vitals. Tallow can plug an exit wound, so with a low brisket exit through tallow if you do not find a lot of blood, do not be surprised. The arrow will likely be wiped clean by the tallow as well, leaving no indicator of what might have been hit internally. This hit should be treated similar to a gut shot unless you are sure that the arrow passed through some vitals.

TRACKING:

When tracking, mark last blood with something easily visible, and keep at least 2 other markers on the trail behind you to give a direction to go by. The direction of the blood splatters on the leaves can also aid in the direction he is going. When trailing gets difficult, slow down and get closer to the ground, and check where you put your feet prior to taking a step. It is not uncommon to go over the same trail several times before spotting specs of blood.

In many instances with a poor bloodtrail, you can actually go faster by looking for kicked up leaves or dirt, especially if has rained recently, which makes any alterations on the ground very easy to identify. When trailing through dense brush, tall ferns, or tall weeds you often find more blood off the ground than on the ground due to the deer’s body rubbing against whatever it is passing through.

Wounded deer that retain their full mental capacities, will almost always take the easiest route to get to their desired destination. When a blood trail is lost, check nearby runways, lanes, low spots or holes in fencerows to try and pick up the trail again. When trailing through a wooded area and he goes into a grass or weed field, which is difficult to trail in, look at the last two locations and get a line. Go across the field and look for blood inside the tree line where blood will easier to find on the leaves.

Trees should also be used whenever possible if you feel your deer expired in an area of tall weeds, marsh grass, or tall ferns. Climbing trees will enable you to look down into the tall stuff for a carcass.

If the deer runs into a standing cornfield there is a chance that it will stay in the same row. In this case, back off and get a friend (with a bow). From last blood have him give you a half hour before he starts trailing. Then you quietly cut over 20 rows (rows must be counted as he goes) from last blood, then quietly go down that row about 200 yards in the same direction that the deer is traveling, then cut back the 20 rows. This will hopefully put you in the same row the deer is in. Set up a simple ambush sight one or two rows off to the side and wait for him to start trailing. You may get a shot if he pushes the deer past you. This same scenario can also be used if you are pushing a deer towards a known funnel in a wooded area.

Whenever you are questioning whether to immediately look, or wait prior to blood trailing a deer, always wait, your odds of recovery will be much greater. These methods of trailing deer have been tweeked through trial and error through 42 years of bow hunting, and should increase your odds of recovery.

Just as being patient is the most critical part of successful hunting, it is also the most critical part of recovering poorly hit deer.

Simulating sounds to attract animals for one reason or another has been done for hundreds of years. Whether making the sounds of a small animal to attract a predator, mating sounds during breeding season to attract a mate, or fighting sounds to attract the dominant male. The difficult part is making the right sounds at the right time and having something within hearing distance that is interested.

Any animal can be fooled with the proper calling techniques if that animal is in the right frame of mind at the time. There is no doubt in my mind that if there was a species on earth with a higher intelligence level than ours that they could call us in with the right sounds at the right time. But if we knew we were being pursued, it would become more difficult to get us to respond.

When calling pressured whitetails you have to be a stickler on how often, when, where, and how loud you call. Prior to any pressure deer are much more responsive than after being hunted. The downside is that the mature bucks of 3 ½ years old and older generally are not interested in responding to calls until the pre-rut. By this time (around October 25th) most hunters have not only pressured their hunting property, but have done some calling, making responses from dominant bucks much less likely when the time comes in which they may be interested in responding.

Calling early in the season can definitely be done successfully if you pick and choose the right times to do it. Subtle sparring, grunting, or doe bleat noises will bring in mature bucks out of curiosity more than anything else during the first few days of season. Hunting a location with heavy ground cover and full foliage will also aid in getting a buck to come in close without the use of a visual (decoy).

On October 1st 1978 just as it was cracking daylight I rattled in a buck that had been sparring with another buck out in a hay field. I was set up in some heavy cover 50 yards from the field in a big pine tree. I could not see the two bucks from my perch. When I couldn't hear them spar anymore I did a 30 second sparring sequence with a split 8 point rack. Within minutes an 8 point came within 6 yards, presenting me a chip shot.

Twelve years later, on the morning of October 2nd 1990 while hunting in a bedding area along the edge of a marsh, I heard two bucks start sparring about 100 yards away. Looking at my watch it was 7:45. After 5 minutes they quit sparring, so I started gently rolling the sticks in my rattle bag to simulate two other bucks sparring. I made gentle sparring sounds for about 30 seconds and within minutes one of the bucks came into view. It was a very nice 10 point. He casually walked to within 8 yards to give me another chip shot.

Nine years after that on another morning hunt, October 8th 1999, I heard some deer walking through the woods towards a large bedding area. They were at least 100 yards away and not coming in my direction, so I decided to do a little sparring sequence with my rattle bag. Once finished I could hear that they had turned and started walking in my direction. As they moved closer to me I could hear them crunching acorns. It was an extremely foggy morning, and after a few minutes two sets of legs appeared under some oaks about 40 yards away. By the way they were acting I thought that it was a doe and a fawn.

After eating acorns under the oaks for several minutes they seemed to lose interest in the sparring noises that made them come in my direction. They started walking towards the bedding area again, which meant that they were going away from me. Being way too close to do a rattling sequence from 30 feet up in a tree I took my soft inhale grunt call out of my pack turned away from them and gave one short grunt. They again turned and walked right towards me. To my pleasant surprise this gave me a 12 yard shot at a 10 point that was being followed by an 8 point. They had been walking so casually through the woods that if I had been aggressively calling they probably would not have responded.

That was three examples of successfully calling early in the season. When you can hear deer casually going about their daily routine without being able to see them, and you are located in an area with some ground cover, you have a good chance of calling them in if your sounds are casual and realistic as. Pay attention to the noises they are making, and try to replicate them when the time is right. A mature buck prefers having ground cover to move through for a sense of security.

Rattling can be done with a split whitetail rack, manufactured horns, rattle devices, or a rattle bag. My tool of choice is an old Knight & Hale rattle bag with very loose wooden sticks in it. Lohman's new Dynamite Rattler is also a very good sounding rattle system.

Most commercial rattle bags need to have a stick or two taken out and then be re-stitched. When you want to get aggressive the loose sticks can be easily separated in the bag and clashed together louder than in a bag with tight sticks. The tickling of the tines or sparring sounds are made by simply rolling the sticks gently or aggressively to get the sound you prefer. Not only is a bag more user friendly than antlers, it does not get in the way when not in use.

After observing many sparring sessions and fights between bucks it has became obvious to me that bucks spend much more time pushing each other than actually rattling their antlers. The rattling sound during an actual fight only lasts as long as it takes to twist and turn their antlers until they securely lock up. Then begins the push for dominance. The loud rattling sequence rarely takes more than 20 seconds, with tine tickling noises occurring during the pushing stages of the battle. Therefore, the initial time spent aggressively rattling should be kept to a maximum of about 20 seconds, with tickling and grinding noises for about a minute thereafter.

When rattling or sparring there should never be constant noises coming from your horns or bag. There should be at least 3 times more silent periods than noise periods. You are not hunting in a fence or on extremely exclusive property like most video hunters do, so you can't be as aggressive. If there is a responsive buck within hearing distance those first few seconds of aggressive rattling will be enough to get his attention. These sequences should not be repeated more than once or twice per hunt when hunting pressured areas.

With the tremendous Bowhunting pressure in most of our state, you can't expect to go rattle at any time or place and get a reaction. If it is not done properly and at the right time it will rarely be successful, and will more than likely be detrimental to your chances of taking a trophy buck during that hunt. It could also decrease your chances for the remainder of the season. It can not be stressed enough how much more careful you have to be not to make mistakes when hunting mature bucks in Michigan due to the extreme hunting pressure.

Without question most of my success on mature bucks has been either just as it is cracking daylight, just before dark, or mid-day (during the pre-rut and rut period only). Whitetails seem to have a calm about them early in the morning, probably because they have been feeding and moving all night without fear. Of all the times to rattle mornings are definitely my preference. Deer that have been bedded all day definitely use more caution when they get up to move in the evening, making it more difficult to get them to respond out of curiosity.

Bucks have personality differences, just as people do. Some bucks are more aggressive than others and are always looking to show their dominance during the rut periods. This is why rattling during mid-day from 10 am to2 pm. can be productive. One item you should have for mid-day rattling, however, is a decoy for the visual to make a buck commit to come in close. During mid-day bucks will usually hang up out of range without a visual aid. A decoy will also keep mature bucks from circling downwind by properly placing it upwind of your stand.

Another key question is where to rattle? My preference is along the edge of a standing cornfield for several reasons. Mature bucks bed in standing corn if the field is large enough and the corn is tall enough. The so-called nocturnal bucks that bed in cornfields are much more likely to be up and moving at daybreak due to the extreme security of the standing corn. My experience has shown me that mature bucks are more susceptible to rattling or calling while they are up and moving rather than if they are bedded.

On quiet mornings, you can hear a deer moving through a dry cornfield from a long distance away. Thick corn and low light levels at daybreak limits the bucks visibility which makes him more likely to step out of the corn to see what is going on as opposed to hanging back 3 or 4 rows and looking for a visual in broad daylight. You can also tie your bag or horns to your bow rope and lower it to the ground and gently tickle them in the leaves to give the buck direction when he is closing in on you. The rattling noise coming from ground level is obviously more natural than from 20 to 30 feet in a tree, especially when the buck is fairly close.

In late October 1993 while hunting a narrow peninsula of land that was surrounded by a standing cornfield, I did an aggressive rattling sequence just as it was breaking daylight. After about 10 minutes, a very large buck was quietly passing by my stand through the quiet wet grass. By the time I was in position and drew my bow he was past me and behind some brush. As I let up on my bow he kept moving towards his primary scrape area a mere 100 yards away. He was moving rapidly with his nose to the ground. After waiting for a minute I aggressively rattled for about 5 seconds then immediately lowered my bag to the ground and jiggled it in the leaves. The large 10 point came right back and gave me a 25 yard shot which I made good on.

One thing to keep in mind is that anytime you set yourself up along a cornfield or bedding area, your odds of seeing deer are very good. Try not to ruin it by rattling or grunting for an extended period of time. These areas are where bucks place their rubs and scrapes due to high doe traffic. So if your early morning tactics did not get a response the remainder of your hunt should still be good.

Along the edge of heavy bedding areas would be my next choice for rattling for many of the same reasons. Anytime you hunt near a bedding area you must be in your stand well before dawn. The bedding area location needs an earlier arrival time so that your chances of spooking any deer making their way back to bed prior to dawn are reduced. Remember that mature bucks tend to be more nocturnal after a few days of bow season in pressured areas and they may head back to their bedding area an hour or more before dawn. You have to be set up and quiet well before they arrive, otherwise you will spook him without even knowing it. Your odds of taking him from that stand, even on a hunt later in the season, are then more than likely close to zero.

Setting up inside of a bedding area prior to daylight will also work, however getting out without being detected is nearly impossible and will be costly for future hunts. This will make any mature bucks that become aware of your presence much less likely to respond to rattling in the same area for the rest of the season.

Your first rattling sequence should start as soon as you can see to shoot. After 2 or 3 sequences put the bag away for the remainder of the morning's hunt. If you see a buck later that is out of range use your grunt call to try and bring him in. Individual bucks will sometimes grunt as they are moving through an area during pre-rut or rut, whereas it takes 2 bucks to spar or fight. So if I can see a buck from my stand it is more than likely he can see the ground below me.

Without the visual of 2 bucks moving around fighting the odds of him coming in close enough for a shot are slim without a decoy. So once you have sighted a buck rattling should not be attempted unless there is abundant ground cover between you and him to mask his vision. However, 1 or 2 short grunts could come from a buck standing behind a little cover, so the odds of him coming to check that out are much greater.

Rattling has worked for me from October 1st through late December. Without question my highest percentage of shot opportunity has come during the pre-rut and rut periods. This is usually from October 25th through November 14th. Dominant bucks during this period are starting to come out of their nocturnal patterns looking for does in estrus and protecting their territory.

Grunting bucks in depends totally on the buck's attitude at the time. I only do it when I actually see a buck passing by out of shooting range. Don't just sit and blow on a grunt call, they do not work that way. When you grunt keep them about 4 seconds apart and very short. Bucks do not make long grunts like you would hear when sheep blat. They are very short and punctual.

One thing that can't be overstress is: DO NOT OVER HUNT ANY ONE LOCATION. The best location in the world is worthless for big bucks if over hunted. Once or twice a week in the same stand will keep it productive. In my opinion, too much of any one thing in the same general area will soon ruin its effectiveness for future hunts whether it is rattling, calling, using a decoy, or hunting an area or stand too frequently. Rarely do I rattle or use a decoy in an area more than once a week.

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GOOD HUNTING

John

Some of Chris and Johns articles