Archery
Finding a likely spot to arrow a buck is like putting a puzzle together. But some careful study can make it much simpler.
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Large whitetail bucks are the things dreams are made of. The visions of them inspire us to rise out of warm beds and crawl into frosty tree stands day after day, season after season. Just the sight of a real hog buck is enough to warm our spirits long after the season closes. Yes, a mature whitetail buck is what the majority of bow hunters desire to take. Yet statistics show that the success rate for archery-killed trophy bucks is very low. I'm sure everyone knows some bow hunter who seems to tag a whopper buck year after year. Very likely these productive bow hunters do not have exclusive places to hunt, they're not better shots, nor do they have superior equipment. Most of them do their homework by scouting year-round to put together the big-buck puzzle.
The scouting process varies somewhat in every section of the country where white tails live, although they predictably leave much of the same clues everywhere. It's the overall deer population, food and water sources, terrain, weather, hunting pressure, cover availability, timing of the rut and buck/doe ratio that makes the difference in how you decipher your scouting results.
In most of the country, bow hunting for white tails is a 3- to 4-month sport. Bear in mind that with this extensive season, many changes will occur in the daily life of the deer. Knowing and preparing for these changes will keep you ahead of the game instead of scratching your head in confusion over the absence of deer. Bow season predictably begins long before the first frost when an abundance of food choices are available. With soybeans, corn, milo and other grains ripening in the fields, and persimmons, wild cherries, dogwood berries, honey locust, pecans and a wide variety of acorns in the woods, it's very hard to rely on food alone as a sure way to tag your deer. How then can a bow hunter effectively scout and accurately pin point the place of success?
My secret has long been to be a year-round whitetail student. I hunt deer almost every day of the year, hunting only to discover and study each piece of the whitetail puzzle during the first nine months and hunting to harvest the buck of my dreams during the last quarter. The day our state-appointed hunting season officially ends, I am out gathering all the whitetail secrets I can find. Definite trails are now visible in the rain-softened earth and abandoned scrapes and rubs read like road signs. Areas with an abundance of last season's buck sign can almost always be relied upon to be frequented by male deer year after year. Staging areas are places with a large number of rubs and scrapes in a small area usually adjacent to a main food source. These are the places I like to hunt in the pre-rut period. Rub lines signify a travel route and sometimes a territorial boundary. These are recognizable by the often larger signpost-type rubs, which follow a distinct pattern. Hunting rub lines can be productive at any time, for this is usually the trail the buck feels secure traveling.
Deer usually choose the path of least resistance. They will go out of their way to find a hole or low place to cross a fence rather than jump over it, although they are very capable of doing that. Whitehall deer are excellent swimmers, yet they will usually ford creeks and rivers in shallow water and almost always where the banks are less steep. Anytime deer regularly move through a specific area, be it a fence line, drainage ditch or river crossing, it is called a funnel. Funnels are a basic stand setup site for whitetail bow hunters.
Choose your tree carefully. Trees void of foliage look completely different and may prove to be useless after the first frost. There have been many disappointed bow hunters who hung their stands in well-concealed treetops during late summer only to find themselves quite exposed when the autumn leaves fall. Selecting your stand trees during midwinter lets the hunter make a much wiser choice in regards to cover. Remember, deer scouting does not end with locating where the animals are or will be. It also includes scouting for the best possible vantage point for a close, well-angled shot.
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Good scouting will help solve the big-buck puzzle.
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All the intense scouting and the most perfect stand site in the world is useless until you are mentally and physically ready. You've mentally prepared yourself to sit quietly and patiently sometimes for long hours or even days for Mr. Big to appear. This kind of patience comes from having the gut feeling that you're in the very best possible place to get a shot. Gut feelings usually come as a result of all the preseason scouting you've done. Mentally prepared also means having the ability to handle the shakes and a runaway pulse while drawing down on the buck that has haunted you all season. But most importantly, mentally prepared is knowing your shooting abilities and limitations, and having the self control to let this govern your actions. Physically prepared is something you owe to yourself. Don't be cheated out of that dream buck because of the inability to draw your bow under pressure or from an awkward position. Practice shooting from standing, sitting and leaning-out situations. Shoot from elevated places as well as ground level. Put on your face mask and the rest of your hunting clothes. If there is interference or binding problems its certainly best to find out during the dress rehearsal. Physically prepared also includes hiking with all your gear, climbing trees and hopefully dragging out all of that venison connected to big antlers.
Having the right equipment is the greatest confidence booster of all. Just knowing that your arrows are flying perfect, that your bow is quiet and well tuned, that your pins are dead on and that your broad heads are razor sharp gives you the mind space to concentrate on hunting instead of fretting over equipment. Learning to do these things yourself or having a competent bow technician is necessary when it comes time to replace serving, strings or cables or perhaps basic set ups on new equipment. A well-stocked local pro shop with a knowledgeable staff is perhaps your first step in hanging that buck on the wall.
Successfully taking nice deer year after year with a bow is simply a matter of preparation, practice, persistence, proper equipment and an occasional dose of good luck
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