Grow the Hunt

Wintering Whitetails

-By Brandon Wikman

I’ve always been the type of hunter to cringe at the sight of a thermometer dipping into the teens. Late in the season deer are nerved, food is scarce and the weather prohibits your ability to remain focused. I’ve been able to learn some great insight on late-season whitetails from Ty McCombs, owner of Whitetail Outfitters of Ohio. Ty is a mastermind at playing the late season deer game.

“The one way to get a buck out of his snow tunnel is baiting and a blast of a consistent cold weather streak,” says McCombs. “Not only will it get him up and moving before dark, but quite possibly into tree stand range. Deer hunting during the late season calls for a passive-aggressive approach, where sensing the amount of stress on your deer herd, weather conditions and other variables supplement the probability of killing.”

I’ve known McCombs for a couple of years and I will have the opportunity to hunt with him the day after Christmas for Ohio’s late season muzzleloader hunt. He uses a combination of corn and attractants to spice up his baiting sights. With the attractant, deer find it hard to resist. He believes using bait during this time of year is not only important for hunting, but for your deer herd’s health.

During cold weather, deer will herd and gather wherever there’s food. Sometimes it doesn’t matter where they called home during the fall; a ‘wintering whitetail’ goes to food, period. With the combination of food and a hidden tree stand, your odds increase greatly, but here are a few more tips that will help.

Late season primetime comes an hour before dark. So if you can sit at least two hours in the evening, cold weather shouldn’t faze you. I’ve always been told to dress in layers. I wear a base layer that wicks away moisture. Polypropylene is an incredible fabric to wear that keep you dry. Moisture is our enemy in both scent control and trying to keep warm. I usually wear a couple layers of fleece over my base layer and toss on an outer layer that blocks wind and rain, but still has the ability to breathe.

It isn’t a bad idea to bring a deer grunt. Deer are most susceptible to calling during the rut, but you never know when you might strike the right chord with a deer. I’ve learned using calls or lures may trigger interest during different stages of the whitetail season.

Most people use their scouting cameras during summer and early to mid-fall. You may want to grab those cameras one more time and set them at bait sites to find out when there is the most action.

McCombs says, “I’ve got four camera/bait setups on four different properties. When I can get a buck consistently coming into a sight, odds are he’s in trouble. Deer are ‘fairly’ easy to pattern when all the right instances are played out.”

With the right lineup of tactics and a bit of luck you may strike luck late in the season and bag a monster buck. McCombs and I will be putting this technique into action as we prepare for our own late season hunt in a few weeks!

The Importance of Tracking Harvest Weights

Last Thursday we touched on using the weights of harvested deer to manage your herd. The Quality Deer Management Association posted an excellent article on their website by Robert Smith, a certified wildlife biologist, that explains just how to do this. According to Smith “collecting deer harvest data helps hunters and managers make educated decisions about their deer herds. Good deer harvest records generally result in good management decisions, whereas poor or incomplete records often result in faulty decisions.” Smith suggests collecting the following data after each harvest:

• Deer identification number
• Date of harvest
• Sex, weight and age (jawbone) of deer
• Location of kill
• Hunter’s name
• Any comments or unique observations
• Additional data collected on bucks include number of points, antler spread, antler length, circumference, and other antler characteristics of interest.

“Weight is very important because it provides an index of population size relative to habitat carrying capacity,” Smith writes. The best way to judge habitat quality is by comparing the weight and age of your does and yearling bucks. Buck weights are not a good indicator of habitat since they can lose up to one-third of their body weight during the rut. Keeping track of weights yearly will help give you a better idea of how your herd is holding up and what kind of management program will best suit your property. Smith’s article states the best way to get consistent weight records is to weigh all of the deer before they are gutted due to different variations in dressing methods. As mentioned in the last entry, Moultrie’s digital game scales can be a useful tool in managing your deer herd.

By keeping consistent yearly harvest records you are able to know if your ultimate management goals are being met or if there are some areas that need to be modified.

Happy Holidays from Moultrie

Moultrie would like to take this time to wish you and your loved ones Happy Holidays. We hope each and everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday.

Introducing Moultrie's Game Scale Kit

Congratulations! All of your hard work and planning has paid off with the harvest of a big buck. But what happens next? Work. Now the work of cleaning and processing the animal begins. Moultrie makes weighing your trophy easy with the Game Scale Kit, which includes a digital game scale, hoist and gambrel.

The 6-wheel pulley system and gambrel makes hanging and weighing your game simple. You don’t want to pass up the opportunity to collect crucial management information like deer weights. The digital scale not only gives you the exact weight of your harvest, it is also a useful tool in managing your deer herd.

We’ll dig deeper into using harvest weights in conjunction with game management next week.

Introducing Moultrie's Camera Security Box

Moultrie introduces the latest in game camera accessories, the Camera Security Box. Built strong with 10-gauge, powder-coated steel, the Camera Security Box creates a protective housing to keep your game camera out of harm’s way.

Safeguard your camera from damage caused by animals. Deter thieves with the included steel-braided security cable, brass padlock and key. Moultrie’s Camera Security Box is compatible with most game cameras, and mounts to any tree or permanent structure.

Getting Permission and Keeping It

-By Randy Cooper

Here in Georgia, I’m proud to say, I have four different landowners who have given me full access to their property to hunt. I have nurtured my relationship with these people over a period of years and we have become close friends. We know each other well enough that if we ever needed one another, for any reason, all it would take is a phone call and we would be there. It’s hard enough to find a friend like that in today’s world, let alone one that will let you hunt his property.

Being a bowhunter has helped open a lot of doors for me. People are afraid of a stray bullet coming through their house or having a family pet or an expensive cow or horse killed by mistake. They know that a bow is a short range weapon, virtually eliminating the chance of mistaking livestock for game.

I’ve put together a very effective PERMISSION REQUEST LETTER that covers some important issues to help the landowner feel more comfortable giving you permission to hunt.

• Include contact information: address, phone numbers, and even e-mail address at the top of the page.
• Tell the landowner about yourself, including how many years you’ve been hunting and how long you’ve been shooting a bow. It’s important they know that your very proficient and haven’t just started shooting.
• Assure the landowner of your respect for them and their property; you won’t leave gates open so cattle can get out, won’t park in the way of any vehicles or farm equipment, etc.
• Stay in contact with the landowner and always call and ask if it’s okay to hunt. They may have family in or it may just be inconvenient. Never assume it’s okay and just show up.
• Offer to do chores. I mend fences and even post property lines if they need my help. I also offer to share any game I am able to harvest.
• Always present yourself in the best way you can, with respect and politeness. Assure the landowner of your passion for hunting and that you are an ethical hunter.
• Lastly, offer the land owner a liability waiver that waves any responsibility to them, their property, family, or business if your are hurt or killed on their property while hunting.

Writing an effective letter has helped me access properties that I could have otherwise only dreamed of hunting. It has also led to some fantastic relationships with great people. At this time of year I want the landowner to know how much I appreciate his kindness in allowing me to hunt his land so I give him a gift. Throughout the time I’ve spent talking to the landowner and getting to know him I pick up on his interests, the things that really mean something to him in his life.

Giving a gift of your heart to him always takes him by surprise because he never expects it. It goes a long way toward securing permission on his property for the next season as well. This holiday season, give a little something to the person whose property you hunt on. One of the most appreciated gifts I’ve ever given was an aerial photo or a plat of his property that I purchased from the tax assessors office in his county. I placed it in a nice frame. The landowner beamed with pride and hung the picture on his living room wall for all to see. His property is his pride and joy and to have a picture of it to share with friends and family made his day. It doesn’t take much to just say, “Thank you so much for your kindness, I really appreciate it.”

Try putting your best foot forward next time you find property that you would like to gain permission to hunt on. You may find that doing some of these little things may lead to the best places you’ve ever hunted as well as some great friends.

The Kill Shot

-By Brandon Wikman

There’s nothing more rewarding than grasping onto a set of antlers and sporting that million dollar smile of accomplishment. With the simple click of a shutter, you can capture that emotion forever.

Time passes quickly, and so does our memory. Each animal I kill is photographed like a celebrity. I usually take 30-40 pictures of each kill and only end up with 2-3 perfect pictures that ultimately satisfy my picky attitude for a great photograph. Over the years of working with several professional cameramen, I’ve been able to gather enough information to teach others the basics of the, “The Kill Shot.”

Every time I go hunting I pack a camera enclosed in a plastic storage bag in my pack. I use a semi-professional camera, but a 4-8 mega-pixel digital camera will work just fine! I also take a few other items that help me get that great shot. Nobody wants to see a bloody animal with its tongue hanging out so I take along a package of wet wipes to clean the deer’s face, upper shoulder and any other noticeable flaws that really stand out. I’ll also carry a pair of glass deer eyes that can be purchased from any taxidermy magazine. You can simply slip the glass eyes over the eyes to diminish the ‘foggy glare’ look.

Now that you have the basics of what to bring into the field for photo preparation, it’s time for positioning the animal. Photos can be deceiving and easily manipulated. It’s always nice to prop deer up in a bedding position and crouch low to the ground behind the body. This leaves the rack sky-lined, which if pictured at a low angle can make your deer look another 20 inches bigger! Also, pushing the object toward the camera and backing yourself up making you look tiny has always been used as a size trick.

Oftentimes we remember the kill for a specific reason. For instance, my Nebraska Merriam turkey was shot in the middle of an open prairie. I photographed the bird with a scenic background of where I shot it to give me the exact feeling I felt as everything unraveled. Countryside is beautiful, but using background objects such as barns, fence lines and creeks are just as nice.

Be creative in your shooting. Don’t be afraid to take a lot of photos, try new things and be original. Photographing is a fun way to capture a specific moment in time and remember it for the rest of your life. Life is all about making memories and there’s nothing better to recall than a great harvest.

Preparing for Spring Planting

-By Randy Cooper

It’s not even officially winter yet but my thoughts are on what lies ahead in preparation for spring. Lime is the key to a great springtime food plot or vegetable garden. The trick is that it takes about 3 months to affect any change in the soils PH level. Lime needs to be broadcast now to have the soil ready for planting by Easter week. I’ve always used this as a landmark date to plant my garden by.

This year's Easter week, the ground was still frozen so hard that my tiller wouldn’t dig. I like using my Moultrie ATV Food Plot Spreader to spread the lime. It will handle about 50 lbs. of pelletized lime at a time. I use about a ton an acre. It doesn’t take a lot to make a ton. This product is heavy. Pelletized lime comes in 40 lb. bags, or you can hire a lime spreader truck. They usually are equipped with 4-wheel drive and can get into a lot of out of the way places. I rotate lime applications on the food plots. I spread lime on the plots that are geared to spring time planting now. The plots designed for fall and winter food will get lime in May and will be ready for planting by late August into September.

During the last month prior to planting, use a good general purpose fertilizer like 10-10-10. Spread the fertilizer, and till it and the lime in together. I like to till in the lime and fertilizer at least 3 times before planting. This gives me a good loose seed bed and mixes everything evenly. Now all you have to do is pray for rain to wash the lime into the ground and sweeten the soil. The result will be plants that both you and the wildlife will enjoy.

One other chore I like to take care of during the mid winter is to fertilize existing vegetation and mast bearing trees while the sap is down in them. The way I go about doing this is to once again get a general purpose 10-10-10 fertilizer and spread around the base of honeysuckle, greenbrier and low lying browse that I’ve noticed deer eating during the season before the leaves fell.

Mast bearing trees and other fruit trees like persimmon, crabapple, muscadines and honey locust require a different approach. On these applications I take a 5-gallon bucket full of fertilizer and go around the DRIP LINE of the tree. This is the distance away from the trunk of the tree that the limbs stick out. Just get under the tree and look up. Put the fertilizer out even with the limb tips that stick out furthest from the trunk in a circle around the entire tree. You never want to put the fertilizer against the trunk of the tree as it could burn it up and kill it. Over the winter and into spring, the rain will wash the fertilizer into the ground and into the root tips that will take it straight to the trunk. The result is that next fall, you’ll have a much healthier mast crop and the tanic acid content in the acorns will be low. This means that the trees fertilized will have the sweetest acorns in the area and that’s the ones whitetails will seek out.

Your treated trees will be getting the most attention of any oaks or fruit trees in the area. Managing for wildlife is a fulltime gig. There is always something that needs to be done now or in preparation for an upcoming season. It’s always fun and satisfying to see the fruits of your labor come back to you in the form of a better deer and turkey population on your property. I look forward to learning more and more each season. Do like I do and make a list of what you need to do to make your property a higher quality habitat. When you’re sitting over a food plot in late season that is full of deer you’ll be glad you went to the trouble.

How you can help your local conservation officers

The National Wild Turkey Federation posted the following tips to help your local Conservation Law Enforcement Officer:

• Keep a cell phone with you and call your local department of conservation as soon as you witness an illegal act.
• Notify officers if you spot someone hunting out of season.
• Participate in your state's Operation Game Thief or other outdoor crime stopper programs.
• Be safe, never confront poachers or trespassers.
• If the person leaves before an officer arrives, try to get a license plate number or physical description of the suspect.
• Help keep trespassers off your property by posting "No Hunting" signs

Illinois 2nd Season Style

-By Brandon Wikman

Last weekend I hit up Illinois for my last opportunity to kill a true Land of Lincoln giant. A nasty weather system combined with the scraps of the 2nd firearm season had me apprehensive about whether to make the journey from Wisconsin or not.

I consider myself a weekend warrior, but in college, I find myself perched in a tree, between, after and sometimes during class, often times more than I should. Time frames are tight and a day in the woods is better than a day in class. I had to convince myself of that after I heard the weather report last weekend.

Illinois was expected to get dumped with rain, sleet and ice, while its northern neighbor, Wisconsin was awaiting nearly 8 inches of snow! I packed my bags, prepared myself for the icy roads and ventured to Illinois en route to my frozen tree stand.

I arrived in Northern Illinois Friday afternoon. It took my cameraman, Joe Nawrot and I nearly 6 hours to get there. Usually the typical 3½-hour drive isn’t so overbearing, but a glassy layer of ice underneath an icing of caked snow sure made things rough on my two-wheel drive vehicle.

Watching the icy rain pour, I shook my head in disgust and forced my frozen body toward my tree stand. There wasn't a deer to be seen.

Saturday was supposed to be better, according to the weatherman, but it wasn’t. The rain never quit all day. It rained so hard that we couldn’t even bring the camera out. Once a video camera mixes with moisture, your camera becomes worthless.

There is no worse feeling than anticipating a hunt, and not being able to go out Because of extreme weather conditions or other variables. It became so rough we figured we’d leave Sunday afternoon to save us misery, a cold, heck maybe even a potential car accident.

Sunday was sporadic. It rained off-and-on just enough for us to have confidence to hunt that afternoon. I was sure glad I did because what happened was one of the most random things I’ve ever experienced!

Joe and I sat in the local café at noon, watching cars slip-and-slide through the intersection. We just looked at each other in disgust and gobbled up the one thing that did make us happy, Belgian Waffles. I told Joe we needed to get in our stand by 2 o’clock, before we got blasted with sleet. He shrugged his shoulders and gave me the, ‘whatever you say nod.’

At 1:45 p.m. I entered the frosty woods with my muzzleloader over my shoulder. As I approached my tree stand I jumped a deer. All I saw were antlers dodging through the brush and briar thickets. I raised my gun and tried to spot the buck in my scope. As some wild and crazy luck would have it, I grabbed my deer grunt and blew as loudly as I could. I can guarantee it didn’t sound like a deer, but he stopped less than one hundred yards away and tossed his head back to figure out what we were. At that point I nestled my crosshairs into his shoulder and busted him.

As quick as it happened, I couldn’t quite grasp it! How lucky could I be? I downed my first Illinois whitetail, which sported a wide frame accompanied by 8 long tines!

Against all odds and luck, I had to be one of the luckiest hunters in Illinois last Sunday. The old saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good,” really sums it up. If anything else, banking your time in the woods has its rewards and this is just another prime example of it!