Grow the Hunt

Beat the Cons of Opening Weekend's Blaze and Buzz

-By Brandon Wikman

Many states around the country have already welcomed hunters to grab their bow and shimmy a tree in pursuit for whitetail. In fact, the land of dairy opens its archery whitetail season in two weeks. Much of the United States offers an incredible opportunity to enter the zone of big bucks during the blistering heat of September.

For some of us, this is just another opening weekend that has barely been thought about, but to others, a true moment of enlightenment in their dream! Taking advantage of early season whitetail habits is a crucial way to bombard an arrow into your next trophy. Hunting during September can be fruitful, as long as you’re robust enough to withstand the blazing heat and endless swarms of mosquitoes.

There’s nothing that boils my temper more than a muggy summer afternoon. The air is hazy, heavy, and humid. Hot and clammy weather is a downer. It makes the walk to the stand miserable because you’ve sweated out of your own carbon-lined clothes and are literally a walking sauna. Your clothes are moist, you’ve built a lather of stinky human odor, and you feel as uncomfortable as seeing an ex at a house party. The recipe for disaster begins at scent prevention. In other words, the less you sweat, the fresher you smell; obviously.

Hunting the scorching heat of opening weekend can be done effectively by taking note of these steps to literally, reduce ‘spoiling’ a good hunt. I’ve learned from some seasoned hunters how to beat the heat. As any wise hunter who’s conscious of their scent would do, they immerse themselves in scent free shampoo and soap. After drying off, they slip their camo clothes into a storage bag and toss on shorts, a tank top, and light walking shoes. It looks as if they were going on an evening stroll or hiking venture.

With a bag of camo slung over their shoulder and a bow in the other hand, they make their walk to the stand slowly. Walking slow is the key. As any natural cooling body function of a human would do, it sweats naturally. Before your body begins to do so, spray scent-eliminating spray upon your skin. As they walk to the stand they are naturally cooled from the cooling sensation of scent prevention spray evaporating from their skin. When the stand’s in sight is when the bag is opened and the lightweight camo is put on.

Now that you know how to minimize sweating, what about battling those pesky bugs that drive outdoors people insane, the mosquito. They come in swarms with a taste for blood and a relentless motivation to annoy us. There’s nothing that bothers me more than the buzzing sound of a bloodthirsty mosquito trying to slip into my head net or penetrate his beak into my skin. I’ve learned that there are two proven methods to shoo these bugs and it doesn’t involve swatting them.

The Therma-Cell is a product that you can purchase at almost any outdoor retail supply center. They are an inexpensive handheld device that functions by a mini-propane lit capsule that heats up a scented wick and disperses a zone of mosquito be-gone! Each wick and propane container lasts for nearly 12 hours. It is a great way to relax and enjoy your hunt without having to come back to camp all swollen. If you don’t have a Therma-Cell, you may want to invest in some bug proof clothing.

Many clothing manufacturers now sell bug-suits designed for the hunting community. They come in a set with a lightweight top and bottom that are extremely breathable and sewn to block bugs from biting. I wore a bug-suit for my first time when I was in Canada during a bear hunt. With the combination of a bug-suit and Therma-Cell, you can effectively beat the pesky bugs and finally enjoy nature without having to constantly scratch bug bites.

The early season brings an aurora of new obstacles and challenges that we must face in our pursuit for success. As any diehard outdoors person will tell you, it’s the ways of defying the odds that truly sculpt our accomplishments in the field. I hope you find these tips and techniques worthy and put them into your arsenal during your next hunt!

Missed Opportunity

-By Rich Miller

You wait all year long for opening day of hunting season and when it gets here it is never what you expect. There are a lot of things that can affect the outcome of a hunt. When opening day arrives the hunt never seems to work out the way we have imagined it to. No matter what conditions greet us, we have to go and give it a try because the season is open.

Our deer season opened in the lower part of South Carolina on August 15th and because of work I didn’t have the chance to go until this past weekend. I worked a store promotion Friday afternoon not far from a farm that I have had the good fortune to hunt over the last 12 years. I had made plans to try to make it to the stand after I left the store.

When I left the store it was storming badly and I was debating on whether or not to even try to go to the stand. When I arrived at the farm the rain had stopped and the temperature was 79 degrees which is about 15 degrees below what it normally is this time of year.

I was hunting a peanut field and had a long walk across it to get to the stand. When I got about halfway to the stand I noticed some deer were already in the far corner of the field. They were a long way from where I was and luckily the stand I was going to was in between me and the deer. I didn’t think I would be able to make it to the stand without spooking them but I hunkered down and eased to the stand and made it.

When I got settled in the stand and started glassing the field there were around twenty deer already in the field and nine of them were bucks. This farm has been strictly managed since my buddy Mark took control of it 12 years ago. For a buck to be taken it has to be a mature deer, it doesn’t matter what size rack he has as long as he is five years or older. Since I started hunting this place I have never shot a buck.

The bucks that were already in the field were all 3 year olds and younger but several of them were showing a lot of promise. These deer stayed in the field the entire evening and around seven o’clock they were joined by three buddies. When I laid eyes on these three deer I went from watching deer to trying to figure out which one I wanted to shoot. These deer weren’t the kind that needed to be judged they were all nice deer but one of them was a sure enough a monster. I ranged the deer and was getting ready for a shot, but that was the tough part. Every time I would get ready to shoot the deer would move or another deer would get in the way. Eventually the monster buck got in the open and I made the shot. As soon as the rifle bellowed a shot and the recoil was over all I could see was deer running everywhere and I couldn’t tell where my deer went. When I looked at where the deer had been standing I couldn’t see anything there.

I had marked where the deer was before I shot so I got out of the stand and headed that way before it got dark. The whole walk over there I was expecting to find my deer lying in the field. When I got to the last spot I had seen the deer I didn’t find any sign that I had hit the deer. After searching until it got dark I went and met Mark to tell him the whole story. We decided to get his tracking dog and make sure it was a clean miss. We ended up searching until after eleven o’clock that night and never found anything.

This was my first hunt of the year and up until the shot it was a perfect first hunt of the year. That deer was the biggest deer that I have ever laid eyes on in my home state. Needless to say, I have been sick since Friday. I don’t know what happened. I was settled in and made a good shot or so I thought. The only thing I can tell is I shot where he wasn’t. I have had visions of that buck in my head since Friday. The season can only get better after that hunt.