Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Deer & Deer Hunting

You’ve heard the same story time and time again: A dedicated deer hunter spends the summer months meticulously setting up and monitoring game cameras to see what deer are likely to be using the property during the upcoming season. With some luck, a shooter buck turns up and all efforts become focused on learning his particular movement patterns. By early fall the stands are hung and he is still consistently showing up right where he needs to be. It’s now the night before opening morning and the hunter drifts to sleep, feeling as though tomorrow’s hunt will go exactly as planned. As you know if you’ve ever been this hunter, opening morning often does not go as planned, nor do many of the subsequent hunts throughout the season. Often, the…

A slow walk down the dew-covered trail at dawn renews your spirit. It’s deer season, but you have no intentions of shooting anything. Maybe you’ll check some trail cameras or just lean up against a tree and watch deer funnel back through to their bedding areas. There are no worries of disturbing other hunters. You have finally achieved every serious deer hunter’s dream: having your own piece of ground. The closing signatures have been put on paper, and the land is under your control. You think the toughest task is done and you’re ready to start managing for better deer hunting, but what’s next? One of the most common mistakes new landowners make is to start throwing money into the land or make drastic harvest decisions before developing an appropriate…

Denatured alcohol — An all-around safe and effective solution for cleaning oil and grease from gun metal. Firearm grease — Often required for metal-to-metal friction surfaces. The authors’ preference for triggers, bolt gun locking lugs, cocking ramps and low-speed precision parts is TW25B. For high-speed (gas gun) applications, Brownells Action Lube works well since it is a bit thicker and stickier. Gun oil — A dedicated lubricant (not a CLP) is always advisable for short-term protection of gun metal, lubricating metal-to-metal friction surfaces with close tolerances and protecting barrel bores. Mineral oil is also a perfectly acceptable substitute for gun oil. RIG grease — A long-term gun metal protectant — especially in barrel bores — for use when a firearm is stored unused for more than 30 days. Solvent —…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: When planned and prepared effectively food plots can provide incredible drawing power. Unfortunately, the majority aren’t effective. They are often slapped into the easiest locations, with little thought invested into how they can maximize hunting opportunities. To get killer results from food plots, one must do more than the minimum. This special Antler King section will explain how to get the most out of your fall food plots — and improve your hunting prospects.…

As is always the case, today’s column is nothing more than what I’ve found has worked best for me over the years. If you have different methods that are producing the results that you’re happy with, don’t let a word I’m about to write change a single thing, and please apply that to everything that I write and say. Today, let’s talk about making kids’ hunts fun for all involved. FISHING FOR ANSWERS Many years ago, I caught a break that helped me understand the challenge that I see facing most people when they take kids hunting. The first question being, does the adult try to find success and have the kids watch, or are they best served living vicariously through the children? When I was in college, I went…

I FELT COMPELLED to write this note after reading Larry Polenske’s article “Bless This Hunt” in the June issue of Deer & Deer Hunting. This story has so many similarities to my hunting history. In the 1970s, our group of hunters would go to Michale’s Special School to meet with the principal, Sister Lillian, and have a potluck supper. We usually would make a donation toward a scholarship, and Sister Lillian would bless all the hunters for a safe and successful season. This tradition went on for years. Time has taken its toll on our group, as I am the only hunter remaining. I started deer hunting when I was 12. I’m now 73. Mr. Polenske’s article was well written. Because of quality content like this, I have retrieved the…

While we all know that coyotes kill a good percentage of fawns, seeing it done is quite rare. My good friend and business acquaintance Larry Hayes who is part owner of Bob’s Gun & Tackle in Hastings, Michigan, forgot to pull one of his Browning trail cameras after deer season and was quite surprised when he pulled it the following June to see that the batteries were still working. Larry’s property is in an area with a good mix of agriculture and timber and where there are quite a few deer and a lot of coyotes and he’s very aware that coyotes take their fair share of deer. But he was still quite surprised when he viewed the camera’s pictures, especially a three-photo series. The first was of a fawn…

How many times have you seen or heard of a nice buck that consistently feeds at the same location every evening during summer only to disappear just before the season? In areas with heavy consequential hunting pressure, that vanishing act happens far more frequently than not. Unknowingly, many hunters create the situation with overzealous pre-season scouting and location preparation. TYPICAL SCOUTING: ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES By traipsing through the woods, busting through brush, hanging stands, clearing shooting lanes and marking entry and exit routes just before the season, hunters in areas with heavy consequential hunting pressure, or HCHP, let mature bucks know it’s time to alter their vulnerable summer habits to elude intruders. What do I consider an HCHP spot? Areas where bowhunter densities exceed 10 per square mile and gun-hunter…

Like thousands of other deer hunters across the country, the bowhunter was back at work after an extended November vacation chasing whitetails. He knew what to expect, having been in that situation many times before. His co-workers knew he saved all his vacation time every year to take advantage of the November whitetail rut. Their initial greetings were always the same: “Did you get your buck?” That year, his response was the same as it was most years. “No, not this year.” The answer seemed to come easier each season, and it no longer bothered him to admit he had not filled his tag. When other hunters returned to work with photos of their bucks, he would simply offer sincere congratulations while listening to their stories and checking out their…

The sound of a grunting buck chasing does through the dry leaves in the thicket in front of my stand gave me high hopes for the evening hunt. It was still two hours before dark, and my stand guarded the most likely exit route from the thicket as deer bedded there would surely make their way toward the ag fields behind me as evening drew near. I suspected the buck was a youngster due to the fact that it was still a full two hours before dark on a warm sunny day, and the rut was not yet on in full force. Soon a band of does and fawns exited the thicket and slowly made their way toward my stand. I stared intently down the path the deer had used,…

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The success of so many strategies is tied to how well one knows deer behavior. The more you know, the better your chances of structuring and executing a successful hunt. Fifty years ago, there were few if any forms of media to unravel the mysteries of deer behavior. In fact, until the early 1980s, the only way one could observe deer behavior was the old-fashioned way, which was in the field. In most cases this required years of study. This is obviously no longer the case. Now there are many thousands of videos that enable hunters to shorten the learning curve. However, in spite of all the whitetail behavior related items on the market, many hunters still try to take short cuts or force the issue when it comes to…

Ethan Hurlburt of Durand, Wisconsin, has squeezed a lot into his young life. At 13 years of age, he has already taken a 10-point, an 8-point and a 12-point with split brow tines in previous Wisconsin firearm seasons. “Busy” best describes the nine-member Hurlburt household. Ethan is the third of five kids. None have yet graduated from high school, and his mother is a substitute science teacher. The family also fosters two kids. For Ethan, deer hunting time is not easy to find when his after-school hours occupy him as a running back on his middle school football team. Even that’s a challenge because his dad farms 5,000 Buffalo County acres full of beef cattle, crops and mixed hardwoods. Hard work fills almost every daylight hour, especially from September to…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: The most eye-opening learning experiences that I had in my early years were when I started branching out from my home state of Wisconsin. Falling on my face a few times while trying to improve and manage new deer hunting properties taught me very swiftly that few things work everywhere. Deer all have their own personalities, the habitat changes from fence line to fence line and the specifics of each area are quite different. Combine that all and I’ve found it a bit risky to make blanket statements about whitetails, habitat and even the best habitat improvements. Too often, what’s best for one is an utter disaster for another. That applies to food plot plantings to a great extent, as well. Go to the northwoods of…

During my 25+ years of planting food plots, I have found that I enjoy planting food plots just as much as I do hunting over them. That’s why I eagerly await getting my fall food plots started each year! For me, when it comes to planting fall food plots, I do things a little differently than most people in regards to preparing the soil for a weed-free food plot. A few years back I was going crazy during the spring planting season. My food plot program consisted of 75% Antler King Trophy Clover and Chicory food plots, so I never had anything to do during the spring planting season. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I started thinking of changes I could make for my fall plantings that would help…