Grow the Hunt

A Summer Thought

-By Brandon Wikman

Deer and turkey season has all but piddled into a simple memory as we begin the sweltering month of July. The summer months are a time of grilling, camping, swimming, and tempting our lips with the bittersweet taste of lemonade. Although seasons have passed, memories never fade. There always seem to be a few unforgettable memories that never cease the mind, especially in my case - my very first Illinois deer hunt.

My friend and I were visiting a local pro shop and we jumped into the subject of last deer season. After he explained his misfortunes and sour luck at missing the almighty Bullwinkle, I had to brighten up the scene with my interesting hunting adventure.

The day before Illinois firearm season began, I ventured south toward Putnam County, IL. A county that isn’t as publicized as the infamous Pike, Brown or Adams County, which are near the southwestern portion of the state. I was invited to hunt the ground by a friend I met at a Bass Pro Shops Grand Opening in Indiana. As soon as I heard Illinois, archery and deer hunting all in one sentence, I began drooling at a chance to hunt the Land of Lincoln. Illinois has produced some wicked racked whitetails, and the odds of getting a crack at a trophy buck in this agriculture haven are pretty good!

Muzzleloader in hand, I trekked my way toward the tree stand with my cousin, Joe Nawrot, running camera hoping to capture some great bruiser buck video footage. The first day of our hunt we caught a glimpse of a doe scampering through the woods. We both anticipated a buck to be hot on her trail, but nothing showed up. We sat for another two hours until noon. The slow deer activity and lack of sightings left us puzzled, but it was only the first day. After we grabbed a makeshift gas station lunch, we hopped back into the tree and sat the rest of the afternoon. Temperatures teetered around 40-degrees, all the snow was melted and the post-rut activity looked scarce. The afternoon proved unsuccessful with not one deer spotting.

There’s nothing more mind boggling than to experience a solid day with deer activity on an all-time drought; especially when you’ve only got 3-days to hunt, and you’ve traveled hundreds of miles.

The second day started out rough. Winds blowing up to 40-mph swayed our tree back-and-forth, making it nearly impossible to get a solid aim or align crosshairs on vitals. As you would’ve guessed, we saw a grand total of zero deer during the entire day’s perch. Things began getting emotional as we hung our heads and stuffed our faces with comfort food. I remember faintly wincing at the television screen awaiting tomorrow’s forecast, afraid to listen to the weather. The weatherman announced a winter storm warning with ice and rain mix, along with high winds. Joe and I looked at each other and tampered with the idea of heading back home before the storm erupted. I don’t know why, but we opted to stay. All variables were against us, with the most critical being rain - moisture and video cameras don’t blend; it’s as simple as that.

We arose the morning of day three with open eyes and watched the snow powder the hotel’s parking lot. Joe and I debated what to do. We could either hunt hard without the camera, or stick around the hotel room watching Sunday morning’s lineup of cartoons. We decided to hunt.

The storm seemed to engulf every sign of life in the woods. From snow, to rain, to ice, there was not a critter to be seen. As noon approached and the storm ensued, we began to strategize a plan. We both knew where the bedding location was on the property, so I told Joe to slowly walk through the bedding area and hopefully with enough luck, a buck would squirt out.

No more than ten minutes into the one-man drive, a herd of deer followed the lead doe across the woods en route to another thicket. I peered through the scope brushing away water and spotted a racked deer. As soon as he stopped to look back, I fired a 250-grain sabot into the deer’s vitals. It just happened! Joe came running through the woods toward my stand as I scaled down the tree. An enlightening moment of sheer luck enriched our soggy souls as a team effort approach and a will to succeed surely paid off!

Memories like these captivate and hold our passions true to the outdoors. Living the outdoors experience, stockpiling memories and sharing the encounters with good friends are what hunting is all about.

The Game Camera Buck

Moultrie recently received this great success story from one of our customers. If you have a success story that was achieved with the help of Moultrie products and would like to share it with our readers, please e-mail us at growthehunt@moultriefeeders.com.

On June 22nd, my wife and I put my new game camera in a bedding area off of a bean field. I always put my cameras around summer food sources because deer are concentrated there this time of year. On June 27th, I checked my camera and had over 200 pictures. I had just purchased the new Moultrie I-40 infrared game camera and I was excited to see what the pictures looked like and what type of bucks were in the area. I was about half way through the pictures of does and smaller bucks when all of a sudden this giant non-typical was in front of my camera. Living where there is heavy hunting pressure and a poorly managed deer heard, I was in shock. I could not get to the store fast enough and start printing pictures. I had over 20 pictures of this deer. From that point on, my wife Jackie, my buddy Mike, and I dedicated our season to this deer.

We already had spots set up around bedding areas and funnels between the bedding areas. Now the waiting game began. I pulled my camera and did not put it back there until the end of July. After three days I took my camera out of the area and rushed home to view the pictures. There were over 300 pictures on the card. Going through the first 200 pictures there were some does and a few nice bucks. Scanning the rest of the pictures, I began to worry that we were never going to get another velvet picture of the buck. Near the end of the pictures, my heart began to race. You could see a giant rack peeking out from behind a tree. As my heart raced even faster, I continued to scan through the rest of the pictures and was amazed to get seven more pictures from all different angles of the giant buck. He had exploded into a 200 inch plus non-typical.

The first time we hunted this area was November 1st with no sightings of any deer. After sitting all day in different stands based on the wind direction, my wife and I saw a few smaller bucks, but no signs of the big one. It was not until the afternoon of November 8th that I finally saw the giant buck. He was on a doe at 45 yards and never stopped for a shot. Although my heart sank at not being able to get a shot, I was excited that I had at least seen him during the daylight.

I continued hunting him with no more sightings during bow season. Not being much of a gun hunter and having a month long gun season I was not going to hunt him hard until late-muzzleloader season when he might make the mistake of feeding during daylight. On Tuesday November 20th, with gun season in full swing, I decided to hunt a wheat field hoping to shoot a doe. I was in the stand for about two hours when I saw a doe coming out of the thicket heading for the wheat field. Preparing for the shot, I saw some movement behind her and noticed a drop-tine. It was him! I could not believe it! With my heart pounding in my chest, I cocked my hammer on my Thompson Center Prohunter and fired. The shot was only 30 yards but with all the smoke I did not know what happened. When the smoke cleared I saw him lying there thrashing around. Being cold and excited it seemed like forever for me to reload. I shot him again and it was all over. After climbing down and examining the deer, my first shot hit him in the spine. I got very lucky. The buck that I had spent months dreaming about was now in my hands. After spending countless hours in the stand bowhunting to then shoot him while muzzleloading for a doe still runs chills down my spine. This is one hunt I will relive over and over for the rest of my life.

The buck has an official non-typical Boone and Crockett score of 221”. It is the new number one non-typical whitetail taken with a muzzleloader in New York State and could be the largest whitetail taken in the Northeast last season. Keith’s buck is being mounted by Jim Block and Charlie Jaenecke at The Buck Stops Here! Taxidermy studio in Pendelton, New York.

The spot where I shot this deer is a spot I usually don’t hunt much because there are other people that hunt it. If it weren’t for your camera and pictures I would have never known that it existed there. Since then, six of my friends have purchased your cameras. My Wife and I are moving to Wisconsin to chase big whitetails. I can’t wait to put your camera out there and in Iowa.

-Keith

Survival Mode

-By Randy Cooper

The drought of ’07 that affected most of the Southeast will have long lasting effects. Lakes that never get low or go dry DID. Georgia is still battling Alabama and Florida over the water that comes from our state.

In the woods I noticed many trees were so stressed out from lack of rain that they went into a dormant state and began sap reduction. Sap reduction caused their leaves to take on fall colors and start dropping two months before they should have. God only knows what effect this will have on them going into this spring, summer and next fall. I also witnessed changes taking place in persimmon trees. The fruit literally dried up on the tree like prunes before it even fell. The acorns also fell earlier than usual.

Everything in the woods, both plant and animal, suffered from the heat and effects of the drought. In my own yard, deer were hitting anything green and tender that they could find. My wife put out a hit list on a group of deer that completely wiped out all of her HOSTAS that surround a nice island in front of our house. My wife was ticked to say the least. I just hope the plants come back this spring.

On a side note, I used a trick that I found years ago to keep the deer from coming back. I took bars of Irish Spring soap and notched it where I could tie a string so it wouldn’t slip off. I tied these very strong smelling soap bars up in the trees that surround the island. I guess the strong perfume-like smell kept them from coming back. A few years ago I actually got permission to hunt on a ladies farm because her flower garden was being destroyed by deer. They descended on everything including hostas, rose bushes, monkey grass, day lilies, hydrangeas and tulips. This poor lady wanted to pay me $25.00 for every deer I could harvest! For the next two years I filled my tags at her place.

When nature takes a hit because of the weather, the down stream effect often is dramatic. Deer get hungry and show up in places you would have never thought possible. They do odd things too. When the deer would show up at the ladies garden, her husband would get a shotgun and shoot up in the air to scare them off. They would run just out of sight and as soon as his front door closed, they came right back. I remember asking the lady where would be a good place to hunt. She told me to sit on the front porch!!!

This past weekend I checked a camera that is watching a feeder in my back yard. I was stunned to find 62 pictures taken in one night. On my way to check the camera, I saw skid marks and signs of deer running in the chewed-up grass and in the dirt. I thought that something strange must have happened for deer to have been running full blast and then skidded to a stop like that. At first I thought coyotes were the cause. When I checked the camera though, all became clear.

By now, deer around here are in survival mode and are just trying to get by until spring. Food is hard to come by and there just aren’t enough groceries in the woods left to go around. Any kind of food is at a premium and deer will do almost anything to get it, EVEN FIGHT!!

When I checked the pictures taken on my Moultrie M-60, I couldn’t believe my eyes. On three different frames, bucks were fighting at my feeder. On two others, a small long-horned spike was showing aggressive posture toward another buck at the feeder. The hair on his back was bristled up with ears laid back and his head low. He meant business. I think they were all fighting over a food source plain and simple. They are hungry and no one wants to give up their place in line.

Check out these rare pictures in the middle of February. Since then, I’ve put an additional I-60 out at another angle that will take five-second video at night. I’m hoping to catch another fight on film.

This passion hunters have is a never ending learning process. If someone had told me that they saw bucks fighting during the middle of February, I would have thought they were nuts. Once again because of the help of these wonderful tools we all have available to us, our eyes are opened to more important information than we ever thought possible. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being amazed at whitetails and what they do. Get yourself a trail camera and you too will be amazed at what you catch in the act.

Too many things to do and not enough time

-By Randy Cooper

Now that deer season is over, I feel overwhelmed with everything I need to do and want to do in the coming months. There are so many things on my list that my head is spinning like Linda Blair in “THE EXCORIST.” I really wish I had the luxury of more time. Since I don’t, I have to cram as much as I possibly can into my weekends. Right now I’m having a hard time keeping my mind on any one thing.

I’m in the middle of my post-season scouting and still have more ground to cover. I’ve found some new funnels that I didn’t know about. I’ve also found new scraping areas with plenty of white oak trees for deer to feed under. I’ve marked a few places with surveyor’s ribbon, and on my topo map for further investigation. I’m not finished searching yet. It takes time, energy and lots of foot tracks on properties I THINK I know well. I’m always finding new places. Man, if I could only retire right now so that I could dedicate all of my time to this.

Post-season deer scouting is the perfect opportunity to prepare for turkey season. While I’ve been scouting, I’ve also been looking for turkey scratching, droppings and feathers. Even now, if you get into the woods about daylight you can hear hens fly down and give a cackle on the way. Hearing this is a good way to pinpoint favorite roost sights. Our turkey season opens on March 22nd. I’ve got some new shells to try in my shotgun as well as a new choke to see how it patterns. I’ll talk more on patterning my gun in another entry.

I love turkey season. It’s so much fun to hear a Gobbler and know he’s responded to my calling and is on his way. Between deer and turkey, my son always preferred turkey hunting. He loved hearing them fly down and start calling. That’s what really got him going. This year I’m going to try to get him into the woods again for the first time since his brain injury that changed his life. I’m looking for a ground blind with a floor in it big enough for me and my son in his wheel chair to get in. Hopefully, getting him back into the woods again will do wonders for his rehabilitation. He needs to be able to once again do those things he and I loved to do together so often before he became disabled.

Aside from scouting for both deer and turkey, I’ve been trying to take down my tree stands. With my wife’s help I’ve gotten a couple down. Like I said, just not enough time. It’s important to get them down not only for repair and to keep them from rusting, but the varmints will get a hold of them if they’re left in the woods too long. You have to protect your tree stands from squirrels, raccoons, opossums and especially the two-legged varmints who love to help themselves to stands.

I’ve also been busy taking soil samples and applying lime with my new Moultrie ATV broadcast spreader. It works great and has a remote control slide gate that, with a touch of your finger, lets you open up the gate as little or as much as you want depending on the kind of seed, lime or fertilizer you’re spreading. It was easy to set up and mount on my electric golf cart. It plugs right into a cigarette lighter and you’re in business. The motor is so quiet that you can’t hear it running at all. I really like it. It is another one of those tools that makes the chore of planting food plots and even liming or fertilizing your yard or garden a pleasure. Now I’m finished in a third of the time that it took me with a handheld spreader.

There is still so much to do! I’m going through all my hunting gear and putting it in scent-free containers. I’m separating other hunting equipment that I tried and just didn’t measure up. I’m tuning and practicing for 3-D archery shoots. With all that I have going on that’s deer and turkey hunting related, and with all the planting I have ahead of me, I think I’m going to put my two-day notice tomorrow - that means I’m quitting TODAY!!! A guy has got to have his priorities….RIGHT???? Well, at least I have some vacation coming to me (and a few sick days). Matter of fact, I’m feeling a little sick right now. I’d better go ahead and call in so I can be in the woods at first light. Next week I’ll continue with what’s ahead - getting ready for springtime planting, turkey season practice and some new equipment I’m using and how it works. I’ve got to go, daylight’s burning.

Looking Back

-By Randy Cooper

It’s sad but true. Deer season is over. As I sat in my stand watching the sun go down yesterday I started thinking about this season. It has been truly fun and educational thanks to many different things. The most valuable asset I’ve come away with this season are the lasting friendships I’ve created with the landowners whose property I hunt. Without their generosity I wouldn’t have had a place to hunt deer and turkey at all.

My son had a life changing, catastrophic brain injury in March of ’05. He can no longer walk and suffered severe nerve damage to his vision and hearing. I can no longer hunt two hours away from home because of his condition. He needs our care and I have to be close to home in the event he needs my help. Prior to a massive blood clot changing his life, my son was my best hunting buddy. He was always with me hunting and fishing. I miss all the times we shared and my prayer every night is that we will be blessed with another miracle and restore Jeff’s life back to him.

I’ve learned the value of blind faith when a very nice lady entrusted me to write about my passion for the first time. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in anything I had done or was involved in doing that involved planting for wildlife or hunting. She encouraged me to do something I didn’t think I could do. It has been a great experience and I have received the chance to plow new ground. This year has been one of evolving and change. I’ve learned new and better ways to hunt and plant for wildlife because of the tools I’ve had the opportunity to use and put to the test.

Moultrie’s sprayers and spreaders have helped make the year round job of trying to put in food plots, big or small easier than ever before. The trail cameras have added a totally new way to keep tabs on the many places I hunt. I’ve fallen in love with these valuable tools. I can hardly wait to get home from work each day to see what’s on the cameras! The whole family looks forward to seeing the pictures and always has time to look. The cameras have opened my eyes to what lives on the properties I hunt. They have saved me a lot of valuable time by putting them in areas that I thought might hold a good buck or on a trail I thought might be getting used and wasn’t. When you work crazy hours like I do, the last thing you want to do when you go hunting is waste time in an unproductive area. I guess what I like most is the information strip that these cameras provide. I’ve literally been able to put a journal together from the information gained. I’ve found the most active parts of the day or night, the right moon phase; movement according to the barometric pressure and temp and more.

I’ve never had more information to make educated strategies with than I do now. It blows me away to see deer that I would have never imagined were there show up on video; working scrapes, overhanging limbs and even sparing and fighting. Because of this learning experience, I’ll never hunt in the same old hit or miss fashion again. Now I have more confidence than before that when I decide to hunt a certain stand it will be productive based on what I KNOW is using the area.

I’ve witnessed some amazing things in the woods as well. I looked forward to seeing the antics of a big doe and her two fawns that I watched from the time they were first born till they were weaned and on their own. The “twins” would jump and kick and chase each other around their mother. They were so curious. It reminded me of when I was a child and every day the whole world was fresh and new, full of discovery. They were funny and I really enjoyed watching them.

I found a community scrape that every buck and doe in the area used. This was a magical find. In one weekend, 9 different bucks came and worked the overhanging limbs and then the scrape under this one tree. This continued throughout the season. I began to look at this place as a deer’s version of a singles bar in the woods! I saw bucks sparing, a red fox, a coyote and more beautiful hawks than you can imagine.

Now that the season is over, a new one begins; taking down stands, post season scouting, shed hunting, spreading lime, fertilizer, and planting for the spring, cultivating relationships with landowners, old and new. I look forward to what has become a never ending endeavor. For me, it’s year round. If I’m not doing something deer related, it’s scouting for turkeys and hunting them. 3-D archery shoots are already happening and I can’t wait to go. It’s so much fun!

I’ve learned so much this year that has forever changed the way I go about scouting and hunting deer. I feel privileged to have been able to work with the good people at Moultrie Feeders. They make fine products that will take any hunter to a new level in the pursuit of whatever they’re after. I applaud Moultrie and the products they make, that make the difference.

Now, I’m looking forward!

It's Snowing Antlers!

-By Brandon Wikman

Wisconsin has been hit with a cold punch from Mother Nature. Blow after blow we find ourselves 2 ft. deep in snow and have had weeks of pure negative degree temperatures that have lasted far too long!

Wisconsin isn’t the only state that has been iced-over. In fact, the entire country has experienced an unusual frigid streak. Over the past month the frigid temperatures have already began knocking off deer antlers! During a few hunts in late December and early January I spotted a handful of bucks that were antler naked! Seeing deer with red nubs standing only 20 yards away with my muzzleloader in hand isn’t the most enjoyable sight, but in any case it proves that stress has been a sheer factor within the deer herd across the nation. From Ohio down to Texas, deer have been experiencing a lot more stress, which reflects on their body. It’s especially rough on deer and turkey when the ground freezes, a layer of ice melts on top of the ground and then icy snow compacts together to make scavenging for food nearly impossible.

I have just returned from the ATA Show in Indianapolis where the topic of the weekend seemed to be bucks loosing their headgear. I spoke with several outfitters and friends that said they had trail camera pictures of bucks with single antlers.

I also spoke with Tom Miller, Vice-President of the North American Shed Hunters Club, and he was eager to brief me on the abundance of deer that were suffering from the extreme temperatures, especially here in the Midwest. He said that he has already spotted dead deer and turkey, potentially from inadequate nutrition.

With a few more frosty months to go, we can only hope the wildlife can withstand the chill factor. It is amazing how ruthless Mother Nature can be and how wildlife can withstand it.

Now that many antlers have dropped, snow is keeping them buried and hidden from the floor critters that munch the bone away. Once this snow begins to melt, be ready, it’ll be a shed antler hunt fest!

Notice in this photo that the buck in the middle has lost an antler already. The photo was snapped in early January. This is one of many that I’ve captured and received from several hunters.

Post Season Scouting

As deer season comes to a close around the nation, many hunters are left wondering how they can pass the time until turkey season, or even next year’s deer season, arrives.

The end of the season is the perfect time to get back into the woods and prepare for next year through post-season scouting. The closing of the season gives you the opportunity to scout places you were unable to scout during the season for fear of spooking deer. Most of the vegetation has died off allowing you to easily spot trails, scrapes and rubs.

Many hunters tend to hunt the same areas year after year. Take this break to scout new areas. Post-season scouting provides extra time to check out those not-so-likely hotspots without the pressure of locating a deer. Take along a portable GPS or map and mark areas that have potential for next season. You never know where you might find that buck of a lifetime. Scouting now will greatly increase your odds of taking that monster buck next year. Remember: Next season starts right now.

Battle at Crescent Ridge

-By Randy Cooper

Over the course of the deer season here in Ga. I’ve had 3 Moultrie trail cameras out giving me information and insight as to what is using the areas that I hunt. One of these cameras is in a remote area on private land. I call this place Crescent Ridge. I named it so because my stand is located on the edge of a steep, crescent-shaped ravine overlooking a beautiful river bottom. I found this place through intense scouting and a little luck. Last year I was caught in a sudden rainstorm while hunting. I bailed out and took the straightest way I knew out of the woods to the truck. On the way, I topped a ridge that literally flattened out like an old road bed had once been there.

As I stood there in the rain looking around I started seeing buck signs you only dream about. There were horned trees the size of your calf, but what really got my attention were the worn down trails that crisscrossed the area. I took a few more steps and it all became clear why: I was standing on top of a ridge that dropped away at a very steep angle right into a beautiful river bottom in dense hardwoods. I was in a natural funnel for all the deer in the area. Because deer are creatures that travel the path of least resistance, they were coming around the rim of the crescent-shaped ridgeline rather than coming up the steep hill to it.

Along with all the other signs, I found three huge scrapes that measured four feet across. Every one of them was on a different trail that came through the area. The ridge was also a transition zone where dense pines made up a great deal of the area on top of the ridge then gently changed to mostly hardwoods, especially white oak trees, my favorite food source to hunt around. I took out some surveyor ribbon and marked the scrapes and a tree that looked like just the right place for a stand overlooking everything. The season was almost over and I vowed to hunt that stand near the rut the next year.

This year I placed a trail camera over one of the massive scrapes that I had flagged in 2006. I’d like to say right now that I’m glad I did flag those areas. When the trees are full of leaves in July and August, the woods look totally different.

I had seen good bucks in the area, but none close enough for a shot. I knew it was just a matter of time before everything would come together. In November I got a series of nighttime pictures of two really good 8-pointers visiting one of the scrapes. I knew there was a bigger buck in the area because of the size of the trees that were torn up and the sightings I’d had while on the stand. I changed the location of the trail camera to another scrape that seemed to be getting more attention than the others. I also placed a Moultrie Scent Boss scent dispenser over the scrape to see what would happen. I filled it with Code Blue Doe in Estrous.

About a week after getting everything set up I got sick and didn’t get to go to the area for weeks. I wanted to see what kind of pictures I was getting but to add insult to injury, I had to have surgery on my knee that set me back even further. I know that you can relate to what I’m saying when I say that I was SICK about not being able to go to the woods. About ten days after the surgery, I was told to do as much walking as I could to build strength back in my knee. I HAD to go and check on my stand, camera and the area that I so desperately wanted to hunt. Man, was I in for a surprise!

I first noticed that the woods were torn up with new horned trees. The scrapes that were cold the last time I was there were now cleaned out and not a leaf in them. You could plainly see drag marks and wet spots in them. I got a tingling feeling up my spine like I’ve never had before. At that point all I could do was look up in my stand and wish I could climb the stick ladder to get in it. I checked the camera and found the batteries were very low. I pulled the SD card and swapped the batteries out. When I got home and put the SD card in the reader, I saw that I had 48 pictures, of those there were seven that took my breath.

The camera was aimed at the scrape that I had put the scent dispenser over. The seven frames showed two bucks having it out right by the scrape. On the last two, the flash went off and captured both bucks locked up on one and shows one of the bucks walking off alone on the other. When I zoomed in on the pics I saw more detail, including the lone buck’s bloody forehead.

After seeing the pictures I went back the next day and looked for blood and hair that I’ve found before at the scene of a buck fight. I didn’t find any blood or hair, but the floor of the woods was a mess where the fight took place. They fought from out of the sight of the camera and ended up right in front of it where it ended. It only lasted about three minutes. Take a look at this rare footage.  I feel so fortunate to have caught it on camera. If it were not for the Moultrie trail cameras I wouldn’t have witnessed something so rare. The date was Jan. 2nd. These bucks were responding to does that had come into estrous again for a third rut. I believe that smelling the estrous scent at the scrape provided by the scent dispenser added to the bucks’ aggression and may have caused the fight.

This is the culmination of what can happen when you find a great potential place to hunt and employ the use of fantastic aids like the trail cameras and scent dispenser made by Moultrie. It has opened up a completely new way to view everything I do all year long regarding deer and the way I go about hunting them. I now have more information than ever before and can make better decisions about what strategy to use. I wanted to share this with everyone. Try these cameras and other aids. You too can have more information and something fun to look forward to. Who knows, you may even capture your own picture of a lifetime when you least expect it.

Post-Season Scouting

-By Randy Cooper

All good things must come to an end, or at least be put on hold for a while. By the time you read this, the deer season in most states will have either closed or be close to ending for the year. In Georgia, most of the state closes on January 1st with the exception of bow-only counties where the season goes all the way to January 31st. I still have a full month of bow hunting left and will virtually have the woods to myself. I’ve learned a lot this season through observations on my stand, in-season scouting and what I’ve captured on trail cameras.

I have never seen anything that has excited me as much in the last few years as the new Moultrie trail cameras. I’ve been able to put together a journal from the information I gained by the pictures captured with these fantastic tools. I’ve heard hunters that are set in their ways say that they don’t need any kind of camera to help them get a buck. Hey, that’s OK with me. Their loss is my gain! I really believe they think it takes away from their woodsman ship if they rely on an aid like that. Their pride gets in the way of gaining more knowledge about what’s going on in the area they hunt. I don’t think you can get too much information. I thrive on it.

Now that the season is ending, it’s time to do my post-season scouting. To me, this is THE MOST important scouting I do all year. Now I can scout without fear of blowing a big buck out of his bedroom and ruining my chances at him in the upcoming season. The woods are so open because the leaves are all down and you can see for days. Now is the time to look for drainages, thickets that were used for bedding areas, transition zones and creek bottoms that funnel deer movements. If you can get up on a high ridge the view gives you a great observation point that allows you to see topographic features that you can’t see any other time of year.

What I like most about scouting now is that it is cool and the trips are much more enjoyable than when you’re sweating and the bugs are about to carry you off. Not to mention the snakes and hornets. Everything on the forest floor is easier to see. Scrapes and horned trees will literally jump out at you. When I find a rub, I can stand in one place and usually see several more from that position. It gives me a good idea the line of travel that buck was taking from one place to the other. As I walk the rub line I find scrapes, staging areas near food sources and even an occasional fight scene where everything on the floor of the woods is torn up.

I start putting the dots together for my hunting strategy for next season. I find new stand locations, funnel areas, new food sources that went unseen in the heavy cover of the preseason. So much information is given up in the post season. If you wait until the first of March, you can find shed antlers that will give you an idea about which bucks made it through the season and are still on your property. When I find some really encouraging sign or a worn out travel corridor, I employ the use of my trail cameras once again. Some essential tools I use include a roll of fluorescent surveyors ribbon, a topographic map or plat of the property and a GPS unit. The places of interest you run across are now easy to find because the woods are so open; but in spring when green up takes place, you’ll think you’re on another planet. I mark the areas I find with ribbon, make a mark in red on my map and take a reading with the GPS. Believe me, you want to do this. It will help you go right back to these honey holes when you get ready.

Even now I can get an idea of what uses this new area. The process begins all over again until next opening day. Don’t hang up your boots just because the season ends. Let this be just the beginning of next year’s hunt. Be persistent, look at those places you wondered about all season. Keep using your trail cameras. It may lead to the best hunting you’ve ever experienced.

Magnum Guides

-By Brandon Wikman

By now whitetails are as nerved as a cat in a dog kennel. They feel trapped, uneasy and weary. They’ve been through nearly 120 days of pure torture and deer vs. hunter education. Considering the rut is over and done, the only thing big bucks, and deer in general, have on their mind is food and staying alive. There are two factors that play into killing a mack-daddy buck: food and weather. This week here on the panhandle of Texas in the small town of Mclean, the weather is on our side for a change and the amount of food is literally endless.

I am deer rifle hunting with Magnum Guides. I enjoy hunting Texas because of the extended deer season, amount of land to hunt, beautiful landscape and most of all the quality and quantity of deer! Throughout the season the owner, Steve Rortvedt, and his guides have been putting Moultrie game cameras to work and have pulled off some grand snapshots of impressive gnarly-horned bucks.  Implementing the cameras on the property has been a huge success in detailing the age, structure and quality of their deer herd. It has also been a great tool in showing hunters what type of bucks they may see, or at least the ones in the vicinity. Most importantly, Rortvedt educates his clients by showing photos of bucks that are shooters and those that are not.

Aging deer is as critical as antler size to Rortvedt. A successful deer management program takes action culling deer that don’t have the potential to grow big. An important factor to remember is not antler size, but age in general. A monster mature buck is going to be 4 ½ to 6 ½ years of age. Aging deer off the foot is another blog in itself, but basically body size and characteristics play into judging the age of a deer.

I began hunting yesterday afternoon with Rortvedt’s gun, because mine was mistakenly sent to North Carolina . . . good ol’ airports. In fact, this was the 4th time that I’ve had this happen to me. If you ever book a hunt, please be sure to ask the outfitter if he has extra guns to use just in case your gun is lost along the way.

With thousands upon thousands of acres to hunt, we’ve hunted only a small chunk so far, but we have already seen more bucks and does than my cameraman and I have seen the entire year on all our hunts combined. Reason enough to love Texas deer hunting!

The first morning hunt was in the travel corridor of a creek bottom. There aren’t many trees in the state of Texas, so when you find one with good deer trails leading near it, it’s a golden stand in the making. We filmed 10 bucks our first day and had two shooters that were out of camera distance.

I’ll be here for a solid week until the season here ends, January 7th. With the abundance of trail cam photos and deer feeders, there’s no doubt that we will have our opportunity. It’s simply a matter of time, before we hit it right. Time is what we have and it usually depicts the probability or odds of your harvest success. You know as well as I do, hunting is a practice of patience and persistence.