Grow the Hunt

Finding Bedding Areas

In Hunting Circle’s Blog on May 4th, he gives some tips on scouting now for bedding areas to hunt during the season. When you locate a possible bedding location, try setting up an infrared game camera close by to see what type of deer are using the area. When setting up a camera you want to use the same scent control techniques that you would use during the season. By using a larger memory card and external power source, you can extend the time between visits to the camera. Be careful not to disturb the area too much or you may pressure the deer to move to another location.

Growin' the Bone

-By Brandon Wikman

The infatuation of two simple bone protrusions upon a deer’s head has captivated hunters from around the world in pursuit of goliath-racked bucks. Although, this isn’t your average type of bone, this is pure, gnarly, twisted and massive beauty we’ve come to know as antlers.

We as hunters desire to learn the necessary tips and techniques for growing a deer’s headgear far past its usual potential. I recently had the opportunity to discuss antler growth with a good friend of mine, Paul Bernegger, who is the owner of MaxGrow Mineral. He has taught me some valuable insight on antler growth, which I’m very excited to share.

During growth season, which is basically as soon as deer shed their antlers, the antler is composed of nearly 80% proteins. When antlers begin to harden late in the summer, the antler is comprised of equal parts of protein and mineral.

The two most common minerals are calcium and phosphorous. They are both stored in the deer’s body and account for 35% of a deer’s weight, which is only a small portion of what it needs to grow into the next walking world record! The only way to make that dream evolve into a reality is to supplemental feed deer with mineral, manage the herd, and get very lucky. Optimal antler growth is a science, but can be attained using the right resources.

The typical soil around the country lacks the essential nutrients to boost a buck into a giant. When you look at where most of the largest whitetails have been taken, the hot zone is nestled in the fertile farming grounds of the Midwest. And I am proud to be living among it!

Using the proper combination of calcium, phosphorous and sodium—minerals that most lands lack—is critical in maximizing antler size. Whitetails deposit calcium and phosphorous in their skeleton before antler growth. During this phase is when minerals are transferred from the skeleton and into the development of the antlers.

Spring is best known for rainy days and the lush colors of green rebirth. Due to the tremendous amount of water, deer are usually in constant need of sodium from the high water and potassium content in forage. I found it interesting that deer need the essential minerals at different times of the season to meet the proper body maintenance and antler growth.

Applying mineral the correct way may not be as confusing as you had thought. Simply find a well-established deer trail and pour a few pounds of power-packed, antler-juicing mineral onto the ground. After you’ve applied a generous amount, mix it directly within the soil. Not only does this substitute lacking trace minerals in the soil, but also provides you with your very own permanent lick station. Be sure to hang a game camera over the lick to capture some stellar photos of deer enhancing their nutrition.

Chainsaws: A Valuable Wildlife Management Tool

If you are looking for a great tool to add to your habitat management collection, consider adding a chainsaw. A chainsaw can be used for many different applications in habitat management. Some of the uses include creating wildlife openings, creating bedding cover, cutting shooting lanes, and clearing trails.

Reducing tree density reduces the amount of canopy overhead allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. The sunlight stimulates the growth of herbaceous vegetation creating a deer salad bar. Felled trees create temporary cover for deer, turkey and a host of other animals. A chainsaw is a great habitat management tool. Do yourself a favor and invest in one if you haven’t already. Be sure to use caution when using chainsaws and let someone know your location.

Enhancing Natural Food Production on Your Property

-By Randy Cooper

I’ve been asked a lot lately about how to get natural vegetation, fruit and mast bearing trees to produce more on hunting properties and attract more wildlife. The answer is to fertilize the already existing plants and trees that benefit deer, turkey, quail and the host of other critters on your hunting property.

Through scouting, I’ve noticed the places deer like to feed and the travel corridors they like to use. I’ve found several varieties of oak trees on my property that deer love to feed on when acorns are falling. Knowing the area and lay of the land really helps put the puzzle together in plotting a hunting strategy. I’ll find a stand sight in a tree with good foliage cover that allows me a bow shot at an oak tree I know from experience the deer love to hit when the acorns start falling.

I’ll mark these trees with surveyors ribbon so that in the winter, when all the leaves have fallen and the sap in the trees is at its lowest, I can find and fertilize them. There is a specific way I go about this that I have learned from the advice of farmers, QDMA members, respected wildlife biologists and from hard learned personal experience.

If I can find a tree that deer seem to pay more attention to than any other tree in the area, I’m in business. Usually the reason they are hitting this tree and ignoring the others that are dropping just as many acorns is that this is what I call a “SWEET TREE”. Simply, this means that the tannic acid content in the acorns this oak tree is producing is lower than any of the other trees in the immediate area. The acorns don’t taste as bitter to the deer, therefore they are sweeter. Finding one of these special trees takes some looking but when you find it, you’ll know what you’re looking. From the base of the trunk, all the way out to the drip line and beyond, there will hardly be a leaf to be found and the ground itself will look like a roto-tiller has chewed it up with all the tracks and droppings there. It truly is a sight to see! By fertilizing this already good tree, I’ll make it even better next fall.

I like to do this after the season closes. I’ll get several bags of 10-10-10 fertilizer. The first number is for nitrogen, the second number represents phosphorus and the third number is for potassium. Along with this I like to add zinc in a granulated form. I mix the zinc with the fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket and then fill my handheld broadcast spreader. I spread fertilizer around the entire tree at the DRIP LINE. This is the imaginary line formed by how far out from the trunk of the tree the limbs grow. Underground, the root system will reach out to the drip line and that’s where you want the fertilizer to reach when the rain soaks it in. You don’t want to get any closer to the trunk of the tree than that.

A good rule of thumb as far as how much fertilizer to use is: 1POUND OF FERTILIZER TO EVERY INCH OF DIAMETER OF THE TREE TRUNK AT ABOUT CHEST HIGH. So if the diameter of the oak is 14 inches, use 14 pounds of fertilizer.

You can also fertilize greenbriar, honeysuckle, persimmon trees, crabapples and muscadines in the same manner. I buy persimmon, apple, crabapple and sawtooth oak tree saplings from an online supplier. They ship them in good shape with very little soil on them. They are wrapped in wet newspaper surrounded by plastic sheeting to hold the moisture in. I plant these in the corners of my food plots. I usually use potting mix and about a cup of lime mixed together in the hole I’ve dug for the sapling. I water it in with Miracle Grow mixed in the water. For support, I stake the tree to the ground using rope tied to it in three directions. I also use a piece of flexible black drain pipe that we’ve all seen with the drain holes in it to put around the trunk of the tree to protect it from bucks rubbing it and possibly killing it until it gets to be about a year old. At that time I can just cut it off with sheet metal shears and the tree is on its way.

I know all this sounds like a lot of work and it is. For me, I get the thrill of truly seeing the FRUITS of my labor. If you’re as passionate about farming for wildlife as I am and so many more that I know, it’s an accepted part of the big picture we all want to see each and every fall and we don’t mind doing it. I live for doing this in my beloved woods and absolutely love seeing the difference I’ve made in the health of the deer, turkey and other animals that live there. This is one more way that I attract and hold deer on the properties I hunt. Try employing some of these time tested tactics that I’ve used on your property and see the difference it makes in your wildlife and in your experience.

Do game cameras spook deer?

Mike Hanback’s blog posting on April 30, 2008, poses an interesting question about whether or not trail cameras spook deer. The subject seems to be a hot topic these days and opinions differ. Some hunters have had negative experiences using flash game cameras. On the other hand, Moultrie receives hundreds of pictures and stories from hunters each year capturing the same big buck on a flash camera time after time. Case in point, there have been many instances when a flash camera is set up to take a “burst” series of shots (Moultrie Game Spy cameras can be programmed to take three in a row) and the deer will turn to look toward the flash. However, the deer remain in the same spot unbothered by the flash, and are photographed returning to the camera’s location days and weeks later.

It is true when a series of pictures is taken by the infrared game cameras, not as much attention is drawn since the infrared flash is virtually undetectable. While there is always the possibility that a “worry buck” may be spooked by a game camera, it is evident that the benefits of using a game camera far outweigh the negative. We receive countless stories from hunters that were able to fill their tags with a trophy buck due to the information that has been provided by these great tools. We would love to hear your opinions on using game cameras. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.