#2023366 - 08/09/10 04:04 PM
Long and Probably Boring
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bowriter
Non-Typical
Registered: 08/31/02
Posts: 40299
Loc: Lebanon,TN USA
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Online
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But maybe you can glean something from it. I wrote it years ago.
JOHN L. SLOAN Copyright 1998
UNDERSTANDING WHITETAIL BEHAVIOR .
PART I
It was the last Sunday in August and across the waving grasslands and fields of western Manitoba, deer moved against the glow of the setting sun. Skylighted against the vanishing light, was a high, wide, heavy antlered 12 point with a still in velvet rack to drool over. I planned to have him in arrow range within three days. The season would open the next day.
Most hunters dream about hunting the western Canadian provinces during the rut. Not me. That is the same time the temperature huddles below my lower limits. That is when the deer have quite a bit of pressure placed on them by hunters. By then, the bucks are traveling far and wide, seeking the does. Me, I prefer a little different approach, one slightly more predictable. I like the idea of seeing a buck in one place, on one afternoon, and feeling pretty sure he will be there the next afternoon. I like early season hunting. If you understand early season deer behavior and do some homework, you can plan a hunt with a more than average chance of success.
First of all, understand, early season hunting is not limited to Canada. It can be productive in Illinois, New York, Alabama or just about anywhere there are whitetail deer. No matter where you hunt them, their actions are governed by the same set of rules. In this two-part series, I'll define those rules and explain how they apply to hunting tactics. This information is based on 47 years of hunting and studying whitetail deer with both gun and bow. This is what I have come to believe and how I use it. But first, did I kill that Manitoba Monster? NO. Eight days of rain put the kibosh on the hunt. He was killed the day I left and scored just over 170 inches. It was on September 6 and he was killed within 30 yards of where I had seen him. On the days I was able to hunt, I passed up over a dozen shots at lesser bucks.
Keep in mind as we get into the basics of whitetail behavior, this is not about hunting monster, trophy bucks. This is about deer hunting. But also keep in mind, those monsters are also deer and are not immune to arrows, just because it is not the rut.
For most of us, early season means bowhunting. The early season in most areas ranges from late August to mid-October. In some states, most hunters don't even bother to hunt until the rut begins. I think that is a mistake. In that early season-from opening day, about a two or three week period-the entire deer herd is concerned with only one thing. FOOD. The bucks and does and fawns are all ruled by their stomachs. It is the time of plenty. For that reason, all early season strategy must be planned around a food source. If you can not identify and understand food source preferences, you are in trouble. Let's take a look at two food sources and how they effect deer behavior.
AGRICULTURAL- Agricultural food sources, things such as corn or beans or wheat or food plots, by necessity and to varying degrees, dictate late evening or nocturnal feeding habits. Agricultural food sources are in open fields. In open fields, the only cover is darkness. Therefore, the mature, more cautious deer come to feed later...but they do come to feed. They come in a feeding order. There is an order to how the deer enter the field. It is not carved in stone but it applies most of the time. First will come the spike bucks. Spikes and button bucks are the easiest of all the deer to kill. They have not yet gained the wariness of the mature does or the caution of the more aged bucks. Next comes the family group, consisting of one doe and one or two fawns. In some cases, it may be a family unit, made up of two or more does and their attendant fawns. Not often will two family units mix. Usually they enter the field at different places and stay apart while in the field. However, the fawns will mix. Last into the fields will be the bachelor groups of bucks and very last, often after dark, will come the mature bucks-those over 4« years of age. Now what does this mean to you?
Quite simply, if you are just deer hunting, shoot the first deer you see. If you are wanting to fill a doe tag, (and I hope you will do so.), wait for the family units to arrive. If you are buck hunting...any decent buck, wait until just before dark. If you are trophy hunting...hang your stand well back off the field edge. Look for the approach trail back in the woods.
Before you can hang a stand, one with a reasonable chance of success, you must have determined two things. (1) The food source. (2) How are the deer reaching the food source. With agricultural food sources, the identification is simple. To determine how the deer are reaching that food source, I use three methods. One is to watch that field from some distance and see where the animals enter. This is non-invasive scouting. The other two involve getting out there and walking, looking for the trails coming into the field and then following them back into the woods a short distance. I like to do this just after a good rain.
Understanding that agriculture-meaning fields-indicate afternoon feeding sites, takes care of the afternoon stands for the time being. But what about morning stands or areas where there are no crops?
WOODLAND FOOD SOURCES- There are several types of woodland food sources. What do deer eat? The truth is, they eat just about anything but there are foods they prefer. They love emerging foods, those just coming ripe. Fruits such as persimmons and crab apple are two favorites. Deer are browsers. They love such things as honeysuckle and greenbriar and trumpet creeper and black berries. They eat the leaves of many trees and bushes. So you look for areas of high concentration of these browses. Most are found more predominantly on ridge tops or in thickets at field edges. The deer in total woodland settings, during the early season are moving, mowing machines.
But above all, the most important woodland food source is the acorn. Of the acorns, the most important is the white oak or members of the white oak family. And a woodland food source is huntable any time of day. Never overlook midday in the early season. And never forget, food sources change...overnight. A short story.
One year in Alabama, just a day so after the season opened, I was on a bowhunt. There were over 200 food plots on the plantation I was hunting. "John, the deer have left the green fields." Said the head guide. Less than an hour later, I had my stand hanging in tree that gave me a clear shot at three water oaks-members of the white oak family-that were raining acorns. In one afternoon and one morning, I saw and could have shot, 17 does and nine bucks. I shot the ninth one and he scored over 130 inches. This was a full 2« months before the rut. The temperature hit a low of 73 and a high of 89. The moon was almost full. I found the food preferred source and I waited for the buck I wanted.
As the food source changes, as acorns begin to drop, understand that there are also changes in behavior of the deer herd. As we move later into the fall but still not into pre-rut, we see a distancing of the family units. Now the respective does begin to separate themselves from the units, with them go their fawns. They are still a part of the unit but not as closely bound. They are preparing to begin weaning. Now it is common to see the fawns first and then the doe. Obviously, if you have a couple fawns come in and you are looking for a fat doe...just wait. During this time period, you may see the spikes and other small bucks at any time. Some of these younger bucks have been “dispersed” from the family units by the big does. Some have come from the break up of bachelor groups.
Whatever the food source is, these juvenile bucks are very vulnerable. Some are out on their own for the first time and they are still ruled by their stomachs. But they are also curious and looking for company. Light sparring and rattling can be very effective during this time. I have seen some impressive bucks come to light tine tickling in early October and even late August.
Still part of the early season behavior pattern is the break up of the bachelor group. It is during this time that the mature, dominant bucks begin to establish...well, I guess I'll call them rules. I almost said territories but I don't believe bucks are territorial. I believe they'll go anywhere the does are. I don't believe they defend territories. In fact, I know they don't but I'll get to that information later.
You may still see the some of the medium and smaller bucks traveling together. But now, the big boys are playing solo. And now, in preparation for the coming week or so, they are feeding like mad. Now is a superb time to find and put together a game plan for a big buck. If this buck is heavily feeding, and he is, then is it not reasonable to assume he is moving to do it? The traveling buck is the huntable buck. Find and understand your woodland food sources. Now you concentrate on the oak trees, especially those members of the white oak family. Look for emerging food sources. By now, you the hunter may have developed a pattern. Break that pattern and hunt from 10 A.M. until two P.M.
If the big bucks have patterned you and they will very quickly, then change your pattern. Understand their behavior and use it to your advantage. This is a great time to find a food source near a bedding area. Now is when you look for transition zones and feeding corridors.
From my perch, 18 feet up the side of a brilliantly colored beech tree, I could look across the shallow draw to the strip of knee-high buckbrush, bordering the pine trees. On the edge of the pines, shining brightly in the morning sunlight, ran a row of fresh, sap-oozing rubs.
My pet gun, a Parker Hale .308, topped with a sensible Nikon 3x9 scope, was resting dead steady in the fork between the tree trunk and a big limb. The crosshairs were centered one inch in front of the buck's shoulder. I waited for him to take that one step forward. He did and that is the last step he took.
Over the years, I killed two or three nice bucks in that same place, at about the same time of year, early November. This area, this meeting of three distinctly different types of vegetation, was a transition zone. If you are a bass fisherman, think of it this way. It is where a mud bank and a gravel bank meet. Or where gravel and chunk rocks come together.
Deer are fringe animals. They live and travel on the fringe of things. It is on fringes that they first begin rubbing and scraping. Consider it. Don't the first rubs and scrapes usually show up on field edges? A field edge is a transition zone. Where a clearcut meets standing forest is a transition zone. Where hardwoods meet conifers is a transition zone. Wherever one type of cover or vegetation meets and changes to another type, you have some form of transition zone. But this term may also apply to terrain. Where a creek or dry bottom meets and begins to ascend to a ridge, you have a transition zone. Conversely, at some point, as you descend from a ridge top, you will find some sort of transition zone. Streams and rivers almost always create some type of transition zone. Know this. Deer, especially bucks, love a transition zone.
As we leave the time period we call the early season, and enter into that time period we call the pre-rut, the transition zone becomes the prime place to place stands and hunt the moving deer...especially bucks. The reason for that is explained in the understanding of deer behavior at that time of year.
The bachelor groups are now split...usually but not always. Certainly, you will still see bucks in the 18-30 month age group traveling in two's or sometime threes. These bucks are not likely to be in serious competition with each other so they may still "hang" together for a while. But the mature bucks, those of over 3« years, for the most part, are now traveling alone. And the key word here is traveling. For it is at this exact same time that a change occurs in the family unit or the doe herd.
The older, mature does, now begin to distance themselves from the family units. They are in the process of weaning their fawns. A few of them may have weaned the fawns and are traveling or at least moving alone. It is these does that bucks are looking for. Because, it is these mature does that will first come into estros. These does may or may not be scattered. Certainly, they will be in areas of the best food source. And the bucks, the larger, more mature bucks, will be traveling, moving to find them and let them know, they are in the area and available. As they do this traveling, they instinctively do it in transition zones. A transition zone offers three distinct things to a deer. (1) Cover. Cover almost without fail, is thicker in a transition zone. But it is not so thick the deer cannot be seen by other deer and by the savvy hunter, the one with the well placed stand. (2) Often, a transition zone offers a superb food source. Due to several factors-more open canopy, fertilizer leaching, better access to rainfall, etc.-here is where you find the hardier, more tender forms of browse or better tasting acorns and soft mast. (3) More visibility to rubs and scrapes. Common sense. Can you see a fresh rub all the way across a field? How far can you see one from back in the timber, several yards back into woods? So that is where the bucks travel.
Now how do you find and use these transition zones? The single best way is from scouting and application of previous year's experience. Post season scouting should help you find these zones. Make careful notes as to just where you find rub lines from the previous season. If you have a topo map, mark them on the map. You'll soon notice that these areas tend to follow certain common factors. They are on the edges of things-fields, roads, thickets etc.-and they are on ascensions and decensions of ridges. Transition zones.
If you know that in advance, before the rubs appear for the current season, then is it not logical to hang a stand in that area before the bucks start rubbing and traveling those routes? No harm, no foul. If the stand is in place, all you need to do to hunt, is slip in quietly and climb up. Do it right, he will never know you are there. In Y2K, in Illinois, over a three-day period, hunting nothing but transition zones, I saw 27 bucks and 11 does. Only two of the bucks, to the best of my knowledge, were seen twice. The other 25 were completely different bucks. They were very susceptible to rattling but gave little attention to scent attractions. I saw these deer during all time periods.
I had five stands hung on two distinct types of transitions. Three stands were on what I considered to be afternoon travel routes. These stands were all placed within close proximity of food sources. Two were on the edge of small, linear shaped grass fields, filled with honey locust trees, (a primary food source once the acorns are cleaned up.) My thinking-the does would come to feed, and they did, and the bucks, traveling the edges, the transition between the woods and the fields, would rub and scrape in these areas. A properly placed stand, should afford a shot. The third was just off the edge of a large, grown over clearcut. The rubs were a few yards inside the timber, just where the briars and thick undergrowth began to thin into hardwood timber.
In the second area of transition, my morning stands were placed on trails that made the transition from deep, dry creek bottoms to high, hardwood ridges and dense thickets. All of these areas showed signs of heavy use and long lines of fresh rubs. Daily, new scrapes appeared. Yet, the rut itself, the actual chasing and breeding of the does, was still 14-21 days away. It was prime, pre-rut. Now was the time top break out the big antlers and make some noise when rattling because now is the prime time for two mature bucks to cross paths.
During this period, although the emphasis in the world of the whitetail buck, is shifting from food to sex, he still must eat. Even more importantly, for the does, food is still the prime objective. But as I previously mentioned, this is the time of travel or movement. For the bucks, a trip of four or five miles is nothing. Ten miles is not unheard of. As these bucks travel, they still eat. As the does travel, covering a much smaller range, they too eat. The does are not actually going anywhere. They usually stay in the same general area, but they are "moving". Both of the sexes have one thing in common. They tend to move through feeding corridors. What is a feeding corridor?
It is not that easy to explain. The simple explanation is that it is a travel path that goes through an area that provides one or more types of food sources. Here is an example, one that has provided me with a few nice deer over the years.
Not far from my house, is a small thicket. The entire thicket is less than 30 acres and it is a mixture of hardwoods and cedar. It is thick with patches of honeysuckle and greenbriar. On one end is a house, yard and highway. On the other is a large field, grown high with weeds and briars. One side is bordered by houses and 2-5 acre yards. The other side is a selectively timbered plot with large open areas and little in the way of food or cover. As the deer move from the field or to the field, they pass through the thicket. It provides superb cover and a large, nutritious supply of browse. They meander along, moving from browse patch to browse patch, browsing as they go. It is a feeding corridor. My stands are in four places. I have a stand on each side and one on the field end. I have one right in the center at a crossing of an old fence.
During this period, this pre-rut period leading up to the big show, many of us having filled our doe tags, are buck hunting only. Some of us are hunting a specific buck. That buck being one with a minimum spread or a minimum number of points or a combination of both. We are buck hunting and hunting places in which we expect to find the bucks as they travel. The traveling deer is the vulnerable deer...always. If deer don't move, we can't find them. But now, the deer behavior is about to change again. And so, we must change our thinking and our tactics. Our understanding of whitetail behavior and what they are about to do, is the key to our successful hunting.
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WHITETAIL BEHAVIOR - PART TWO.
Through the early season and well into the pre-rut, the whitetails are preparing for one event-The Rut. Actually, it is a series of smaller events leading up to the main attraction. And it is these smaller events that form the bedrock of the whitetail behavior that can best used by the understanding hunter.
Those of you who have reached sufficient years, may be able to reflect back upon your high school days, and see the correlation between the rut and your own experiences. Think of it this way and break it down into three stages. All of the three stages make the buck more vulnerable.
It is the first day of school and you spend most of your time finding your way around the new school and checking out the possibilities of the opposite sex. You remember those days? Same for a deer.
The rut is quickly approaching and he is moving into new, often unseen territory. He is finding his way around, following signpost rubs and trails left by other deer. He does not yet know where the stands are located. He is visually and scent checking the opposite sex, looking for possibilities. How can we exploit this behavior?
By now, we have moved a sufficient number of stands to travel trails. those same stands that were effective during the pre-rut will be equally effective during the actual rut. Because the bucks are still traveling, the trails are still being used. But that is not the end of our game plan.
Now we also have stands on the edges of thick cover near known food sources. Why? Much as we, as school kids, did in the lunch room, the bucks approach the food sources to check out the does. When possible, they prefer to do so from cover. But we also have some stands that will allow us to see and shoot into the food sources, (crop fields). Now is the time for the "bean field" rifle. If the bucks have just about quit eating, then why is this important? Because the does come to feed and if they are receptive, the buck will come right out into the open, chasing them.
Now you may also remember, back in high school, when we found a girl that we liked and one that would tolerate us, we often went "steady" with them. The same is true for the whitetail buck. When he finds a doe that is just about ready to stand, he follows her everywhere, seldom leaves her side and will fight off any other competition...or get fought off. Kinda the way we were. Key point here; he follows her, not the other way around. It is her territory, not his. But now you really bring on some antler racket.
If you were like me, you went to a lot of functions you would never have considered, had you not been going steady and following the girl. Same with the buck. Because he is following a doe, he will go places he might not have gone by himself. And that may be his downfall. That is how they get caught out in open fields during daylight. That is why they run right by hunters and never give them a glance. True Story.
In early November of 2000, two hunters in Nebraska, shot the same buck. He came by hunter number one, chasing a doe and the hunter stuck him pretty good. Then he came by hunter number two, still chasing the same doe, and caught another arrow. He went over 200 yards, still chasing the doe. Me, I was never that tough. We are talking serious, single mindedness.
Stage three begins when you, speaking back a few years now, got tired of the same girl. Maybe a new face or something caught your attention. Nice as you tried to be, the end result was, you went separate ways and usually ended up not speaking to each other. Same with deer. Once the buck has bred the doe, he is gone, looking for a new face. He may move as much a mile or so. Men are such sluts. And when he does that, he is back traveling again.
Game plan: Hunt the travel trails early in the morning and during midday. Hunt the food plots or feeding areas, late afternoon or whenever you would expect the does to be there.
Okay. So far this has been a sexist article. I freely admit that. I have only looked at the whitetail behavior from a male viewpoint. Fact is I am best equipped for that view. But the female of the species, just as it was in high school, have some easily recognized traits that can allow observant hunters to pinpoint just where the bucks are likely to show up.
With the does, as it was with high school girls, most of the social activities took place in the lunchroom...and the restroom. I'm not sure about just what all went on in restrooms but in the lunchroom you usually saw this. There were groups of girls who always ate together. As a group they were unapproachable, (family unit). This is by design. Safety in numbers, no pimply faced boys, oozing testosterone, bothering them. Large groups of does, as far as a buck is concerned are unapproachable. A hunter, seeing does coming into a field in threes and fours and larger groups, can just about rule out any of them being in heat. Therefore, little buck attention.
But then, you remember, just before the Thanksgiving dance, Jenny Sue Whatsername came into the lunchroom and sat by herself. How long did it take Freddy Football Star to sit next to her? Boy! Were they some item for a few days. And then, not too much later, there she was, back with her friends and unapproachable again. Key Point; Look for the single doe, the one away from the herd. Look for does traveling alone. Listen for them.
Does, just as it is with women, use all three senses to attract a male. They want to be seen-look for does out in fields during the middle of the day. They want to be heard-does will bleat to attract males. They want to smell good- this is a prime time for estros scents to work... so they say. Just as girls of all ages, get all dressed up and go to places they will be seen and giggle and laugh and smell good, does do the same thing.
Now let's take a look at some other things I have learned about the rut. Let's start with rubs. I would venture to guess that 90 percent of all deer hunters believe mature bucks are territorial. I did too for many years. But I challenge any hunter to prove that theory. Most will say, 'The buck defines his territory by making huge rubs.' To that, I reply, balderdash...or something similar. I'll admit, big bucks make big rubs. And I'll admit they use them both as visual and olfactory sign posts. But you know what? Other bucks use the same rubs. Often as many as four or five or more bucks will rub on the same tree. Whose territory is it? If bucks are territorial, how come they do so much traveling? And know this, a buck can move four or five miles overnight...easily. And when he gets where he is going, he will
rub there too. No, bucks are not territorial and rubs do not delineate a specific territory. But do we ignore rubs? Certainly not. They may provide us with as much information as they do the deer.
Scrapes are valuable as tool in determining the progress of the rut but are of little value in ambushing a real mature buck. It can happen but not often. In many if not most cases, once a big buck makes a scrape, it is taken over by smaller bucks. The big boys, as general rule, don't have to scrape. They do so, but how often they revisit a specific scrape is questionable. I prefer to hunt known doe areas and travel corridors. Of course, you find a lot scrapes there too.
Synopsis of tactics for the peak of the rut. Consider stands on travel trails back in the timber during the morning and midday hours. Concentrate on feeding areas in the afternoon. Look for the does; the bucks are. Pay special attention to lone does and look for them in open fields during daylight hours. Try to be in a position from which you can shoot the doe. Sooner or later, a buck is going to be by her side. Use scents and lures but do not depend on them to do your work. Don't go overboard on scrapes. Use them for information. Hunt all day. See, nothing complicated about this.
It is cold, four above and dead calm. The frozen snow crunches under the pac boots. The runoff from my nose freezes in my mustache and where my eyes water, ice drops form. It is 10:15, the sun is just starting to make an impact on the cold and I can still see the glint of sunlight off my truck's frosted windows. I look again through the Nikon scope, and try to decide if the buck is a shooter. Then, the one that steps up next to him erases all doubt. The muzzleloader belches, smoke hangs in the air and the bucks sail over the top of the ridge.
I stand rock still, listening for the sound of a deer crashing to earth. I hear...nothing. Wipe nose, reload muzzleloader, scan terrain and take the range again. It is 125 yards-very much within my limits. Then I see the hanging limb, small but not hanging when I shot. I have killed a hickory tree.
This took place on January 3, in a frozen section of Iowa and it was one of my most memorable hunts. It wasn't just the brutal weather-snow and bitter cold-I can experience that anywhere. The memorable part was the number of bucks, big bucks I saw on that trip. And no, I did not kill one. Contrary to what you may have heard, I don't kill many big deer and certainly not one every trip. I, you see, am human.
I love late season, post rut hunting. Sure, you bet, it can be tough, unrewarding hunting. But it doesn't have to be if you understand what the deer are doing.
The rut, for all intents and purposes, is over. In fact, now is when you should concentrate the most on thinning the doe herd. The bucks are tired, wary, wounded, (from fighting),in some cases nocturnal and in some cases, back in small bachelor groups. But they are also vulnerable. You need to exploit this vulnerability. Look at it this way.
These big, dominant, hard traveling bucks are worn out. Some of them may have lost as much as 30 percent of their body weight. They have been in skirmishes and alley fights. They need to gain back some weight to make it through the winter. That means they need to eat and they need to eat nutritious foods. But they have also been shot at and stalked. They are wary. The big boys may seem to be totally nocturnal. And that may be their downfall.
In almost a half century of hunting whitetail deer, I have come to this conclusion: No deer is totally nocturnal. In terms of movement-standing, stretching, feeding etc.-no deer waits, laying abed, until darkness. In varying degrees, they do move some during daylight hours.
Stay with me here. Let's plug in some factors of behavior. 1-The bucks may be back in small bachelor groups. That means two or maybe three bucks are staying together. In most cases, it will be one big, dominant buck and one or two younger bucks. 2- These bucks will feed during daylight. To conserve energy, they will feed during the warmest part of the day, and to conserve their life, they will feed in the thickest stuff they can find. 3-At night, they will venture into the crop fields, taking advantage of the cover of darkness. 4- They do not get to the crop fields by helicopter. They walk to them. 5-The younger bucks, still battling a case of hormones, will still be chasing the younger does, just coming into their first estros period, does. Sometimes, this will arouse the bigger bucks.
How can we use these behavior traits to kill one of these bucks? If, as I have supposed, the bucks are back in bachelor groups, of this group, which is the first to move? Yep. The younger buck. Hunting tip, look for smaller bucks and then look for what may be with him.
One method of hunting post rut, late season bucks is to slowly stalk the thick cover during the warmest part of the day. Best conditions are a new, soft snow and a steady but not strong, prevailing wind. Know what the deer are eating and look for that food source in thick cover. Unless you want to, don't shoot the first buck you see. Stand still and stay ready.
Understand that at some point, the bucks will move and they will feed. Where are they most likely to move and feed without human intervention? That is where you want to be. Now is the time you may carefully invade a bedding area. Operative word is carefully.
If the deer are coming to a crop field to feed at night, how do they get there? Now is a good time to hang a stand far back in the thick stuff approaching the feeding area. Hunt it for about two hours before dark. Approach it slowly and carefully and sit very still. Look for the smaller buck first. If you are trophy hunting, wait and watch, look behind the first buck and maybe even the second. Hunt until full dark or whatever the legal time is.
Keep a sharp eye out for young does traveling alone. If a small buck starts chasing one, wait and stay ready for larger competition. In my experience, if the deer you are hunting get much pressure during the season, leave your grunt calls at home.
If you live in an area where you can find shed antlers, remember where you find the biggest sheds. The biggest bucks are the usually the first to shed their antlers. They are done breeding, done fighting, don't need them anymore. Many of these bucks shed their antlers before the season closes. Might be a good place to stage a late season hunt.
Now is the time that good optics play an important part in your hunting strategy. These bucks will lay still and let you walk within 10 yards of them. Walk a little, glass a lot and look for just pieces of deer. In hardwood country, where there is not a lot of snow, I love to walk old logging roads. I don't even start until midmorning. I take a few steps and then look over the ridge side. I concentrate on the sunlit slopes. I see a lot of deer this way.
Learn to look for deer. Learn to see pieces of deer. Without snow, deer blend in very well. Look for horizontal lines and things that don't belong-white where everything else is brown; an ear moving.
Understand what deer do in the late season, the post rut. Understand how and why they do it. Then apply that knowledge. I promise you one thing. Hunting in the late season will make you a better hunter.
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_________________________
Constipation has ruined many a good day. Not as many as stupidity, though.
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#2023479 - 08/09/10 06:30 PM
Re: Long and Probably Boring
[Re: Football Hunter]
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tickweed
10 Point
Registered: 11/25/09
Posts: 3536
Loc: medon,Tn.
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GREAT article! Thanks for sharing.
_________________________
The hardest thing about Bowhunting Turkeys is leaving the gun at home!
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#2023500 - 08/09/10 06:45 PM
Re: Long and Probably Boring
[Re: tickweed]
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Double-D-Team
10 Point
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 3483
Loc: God's Country
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John, Good read and I enjoyed it...Thanks...
_________________________
Don and Dee (DOUBLE-D-TEAM)
THE RICHEST VALUES OF WILDERNESS LIE NOT IN THE DAYS OF DANIEL BOONE NOR EVEN IN THE PRESENT. BUT IN THE FUTURE--LEOPOLD
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#2023532 - 08/09/10 07:12 PM
Re: Long and Probably Boring
[Re: bowriter]
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redcorn
4 Point
Registered: 09/07/06
Posts: 252
Loc: Chattanooga, TN.
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Not long enough for me. I wouldn't mind even more elaborate accounts of your experiences, as you use them in this very informative piece.
If there were a school for deer hunting, then I think you would be a great teacher, as your writing style is concise and captivating. I certainly would want to be in your class. It's nice to read something and to believe that the person who wrote it did so without the typical embellishment and motivation infused in most circulated media nowadays.
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#2023560 - 08/09/10 07:30 PM
Re: Long and Probably Boring
[Re: redcorn]
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102
10 Point
Registered: 08/01/02
Posts: 3650
Loc: Tennessee
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John,
Well done. Good stuff. I teach the same stuff except I was taught the word EDGE instead of transition. The more edges the more variety and abundance of nutrition thus the more animals.
102
Edited by 102 (08/09/10 07:58 PM)
_________________________
God, Family, Job, Bowhunting
Luck is where Opportunity and Preparation MEET!
When in doubt...back out!
SCAPAS.stay calm and pick a spot.
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#2023669 - 08/09/10 08:35 PM
Re: Long and Probably Boring
[Re: 102]
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Carlos Viagra
16 Point
Registered: 11/20/04
Posts: 12934
Loc: Cumberland Plateau
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Thanks for posting, very interesting.
_________________________
Do not be slothful- for yesterday and tomorrow are thieves of today.
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