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!

Scent control to the MAX! - Part 2

-By Randy Cooper

As I said last week, chlorophyll is where I start but there is so much more to being scent free for hunting season. I try to get everything together before the season starts so that it is as effortless as possible and I don’t run out. Let me simply go through what I do when getting ready for a hunt.

I’d like to make an observation first. I have found that most women go out of their way to be as attractive in every way they can, even the way they smell. Every one of these women have one thing in common. They shave under their arms. The hair growing under a guy’s arms is a bacterial factory. When perspiration and bacteria mix with oxygen you have B.O. Plain and simple. This is why most guys, even after taking a shower in the morning, will smell ripe by 3pm if not before.

I know this is a touchy subject but let me continue. I have always weight-trained and I found that shaving under my arms did a lot for my appearance when I did a double bicep pose or was checking my form in the mirror while doing pull-ups for my Lats. Much to my surprise, I also found out that when I started shaving I didn’t smell nearly as bad late in the day as before. I’ve been shaving ever since. I’m a firm believer that this really helps me to stay as scent free as possible.

My scent-free regimen the day of a hunt starts by showering that morning. This does a couple of things for me. First, I wash off the oil on my skin and this makes a noticeable difference when it’s cold outside. When you expose freshly-washed, oil-free skin to the cold your pores shut and your body actually begins to insulate itself.

I then use a scent free shampoo and soap made by one of the well-known hunting supply manufacturers. I apply a scent-free deodorant as well. I’ve already washed my hunting clothes, underwear and everything I’m wearing with a scent-free, UV-free laundry detergent.

Here in Georgia we have what’s called the WAFFLE HOUSE. It’s a place you can eat 24/7. We always stop there for breakfast before going to the camp. At first we started going there just to eat; after a while though, we went there for entertainment. I would just laugh when we would sit down to eat and see hunter after hunter come in dressed in EXACTLY what they were going to hunt in including their blaze orange vests. They always sat in the smoking section. By the time these bozos got to the woods they smelled just like A PLATE OVERWELL WITH SAUSAGE AND HASHBROWNS SCATTERED, SMOTHERED AND COVERED. Don’t forget the dirty ashtray. It was hilarious and a crying shame all at once.

I never put on my camo until I get to my hunting site. There, I take it out of the scent free plastic bag I have them stored in. I completely spray every inch of the clothing with a scent-killer spray before I put them on. I spray my daypack and bow, too. You can also use one of the cover scents that smell just like leaf litter on the floor of the woods. I use rubber boots or, most recently, a special set of leggings that are waist high and come with a pair of slip-on shoes made of a scent free material. The manufacturer says that in tests, bloodhounds couldn’t track a man wearing these leggings. I’ve killed my biggest two bow bucks to date while using this product. I’m convinced the bucks never smelled my entry or exit trail to the stand. After all, isn’t that the whole idea?

The last thing I do is to use a mouthwash that totally deodorizes my breath even after brushing my teeth. I carry a small atomizer filled with scent killer in my daypack to use if it’s warm or I start sweating. If you’re hunting close to home and want to go ahead and dress before going, just put a couple of scent-free, large-size garbage bags over the back of the seat and one on the seat itself.

Sound like a lot of preparation? Maybe it is, but when I go through these steps my confidence is through the roof. I’m going up against the best nose in the woods. I need every advantage I can get to just be a spectator in his world. To be there without ever being noticed, like a ghost.

The bucks I hunt are older age class and got that way by being smart. One mistake on my part, one slip up because I got lazy then I might as well stick a fork in it because I’m done!! These are the techniques that I’ve found over many years work for me. Try them, tweak them and make them your own. You’ll thank me for it when the buck of your dreams walks into your shooting lane and you bring him home.

Scent control to the MAX!

-By Randy Cooper

I'm a fanatic about scent control. When the guys I hunt with hear about what all I do to prepare for a hunt they laugh. "That's way too much trouble to go to. Who has time for all that?" The way I see it is that I've had all year since the season ended to prepare. After all, this is my passion and, as with all passions, you're going to take extra pains or go the extra mile because it's what you love to do.

I start about a month out from the season opener by going to the vitamin supplement store and buying two bottles of chlorophyll tablets or liquid. Chlorophyll occurs naturally in the body. It is the essence of all life. When shopping for this supplement, just like any supplement, you want the highest PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE they offer. This is the best quality. I started using chlorophyll years ago when I read about it in a hunting newsletter.

The article said that if you used chlorophyll, your entire body would be deodorized, even your breath. I bought some. It was a mint flavored tablet that you took three times a day with meals. I'll never forget that bow season. My friend Jon and I had been using this product for a couple of weeks before a three day weekend hunt here in Georgia. It was September and the temperature was in the high 80's all weekend. To make matters worse, there wasn't a place to take a shower. Not even a creek to bathe in. We went all weekend hunting and scouting. We walked miles.

On Sunday afternoon as we went to our stands for the last hunt of the trip, I stopped and told Jon that I needed to ask him the most personal favor I'd ever asked. He hedged a bit and with a look that told me he thought he was being baited he asked, "What do you need?" I reminded him of the tablets we had been taking to stay scent free and told him that now was the time to see if it really worked. Sooo, I asked Jon to SNIFF MY PITS.

Man, I thought he was gonna pass out! But, being like brothers for about 20 years and never turning down an opportunity to do something we'd never done before, he agreed with the condition that if he did it, I had to do it.

To my shock he said he couldn't smell anything! Nothing, nada, zip, zero. I sniffed his and got the same result. We were sweating at the time as well. This stuff really works. Long story short, I won't even think about starting my season until I've gone through my ritual of using the chlorophyll tablets for at least two weeks prior to the opener and then continuing until the season ends. Believe me, your wife or girlfriend will love you for it too. It is so effective that your saliva even begins to taste cleaner. I know as I sit here writing this that some of you are probably saying to yourself that this guy is CRAZY! You might be right but you'll never know until you’ve walked a sweaty mile in my hunting boots. I challenge every hunter reading this to try chlorophyll and see if you don’t start seeing more deer than ever before. I did.

I guess my nature and rule in life is that if you can't do something right, don't do it at all. Mom taught me something else that sorta went like; "There are two ways you can do anything, fast or halfast." I prefer fast and as right as I know how to do it. It is with those hard learned, profound lessons that I delve further into what I do to be as scent free as possible next week. Till then, get yourself some chlorophyll and give it a try. You'll be amazed at the result.