Grow the Hunt

Mother Nature Wins Again

-By Rich Miller

With all of the different things whitetails can throw at you, hunting them can be a frustrating endeavor. Throw in the challenges that Mother Nature adds and it is a wonder we even bother.

The drought has hurt us over the past couple of years and now the rains that we have been getting are washing everything away. I did get lucky last week and it was dry enough for me to plow and get everything ready to plant. After getting all of that done I got around five acres of food plots planted Friday afternoon. That worked out perfect because we got over 1 ½ inches of rain Saturday night. It was a lot of rain to get in a short period of time and it did wash out in several places in the plots but the timing couldn’t have been better.

With my food plots finally in and off to a great start it isn’t looking like the deer will be in them for a while. Every year it seems like it is feast or famine around here when it come to the mast crops. This year it seems that we are in the famine mode. Every acorn and persimmon tree in the woods seems to be loaded this year. In the past few days it seems like every one of these trees decided to unload their fruit and it sounds like it was raining acorns in the hardwoods. The drawback to this is that it makes it hard to pattern the deer because there is too much food. Don’t get me wrong this is a great thing for our deer but it doesn’t help us hunters out very much.

This past weekend I had something happen to me that has never happened to me before. I got in the woods bright and early Saturday morning and climbed up a tree in a place that I haven’t hunted in a couple of years. I was in a creek bottom that is usually loaded with acorns and it funnels down into a perfect ambush point for a bow hunter. I had been in the tree for about an hour and it was good daylight.

It was the perfect time for me to start seeing some deer. That is when I noticed what I thought was a horsefly buzzing around my head. Shortly after noticing him he was joined by a few friends. I got curious to the commotion they were making and stood up to check them out. What I though t was a few horseflies turned out to be hornets and they immediately started dive bombing me.

I just grabbed my bow and started chunking my stand down the tree as fast as I could. The whole time the hornets were stinging me as much as they possibly could. When I got to the bottom of the tree I don’t remember how I got out of the tree I just remember I was just on the ground running. After I got finished slapping those stinging devils off of me I tried to figure out where they came from. There was a hornet’s nest in another tree about ten yards in front of me. I had gone in there early and never noticed the nest. I guess when it warmed up and they came out of their nest they recognized me and were not going to tolerate me being there.

I don’t know what I could have done any differently that would have kept them from attacking me. I would like to think that the next time I climb into a stand in the early season I will look for hornet’s nest after it gets light. There is one thing for sure the next time I hear what I think is a horsefly buzzing me I will probably start down the tree.

Rainy Season Opener

-By Rich Miller

For the past couple of years we have been in a drought where I live in the South, but for the last week it has done nothing but rain. I don’t know if Mother Nature wasn’t ready for everyone to hit the woods on the 15th but she did a good job on making it hard to hunt. Last Tuesday when our archery season opened it rained pretty much all day. We had a lot of pictures of some really nice bucks using our food plot on a regular basis and had planned on getting one of these deer on film.

We hung out under the barn waiting on the rain to break until about four o’clock and decided we better go ahead and get in the stands in case the deer moved a little early that afternoon. The rain did eventually quit shortly after we were settled in our stands but as hunting goes we never saw a deer that afternoon.

With work and family obligations I didn’t have a chance to get back into the woods until Friday afternoon and yes you guessed it, it was raining again. I didn’t care if it was raining or not I had decided that I was going anyway. Plus I had checked the radar and it looked like it was going to clear up within an hour or so. The good thing about the rain was it made it really quiet getting to the stand. I got my climber up the tree and settled in and after pulling my bow up I turned around and noticed a deer standing about sixty yards down the ridge. These two spotted fawns stayed in the area for about twenty minutes before they fed back into the thicket where they came from.

Shortly after the two fawns left the rain stopped and the sun started to stick its head out. It was good to see the sun out but at least I had seen deer when it was raining. I wasn’t seeing anything so I just sat back in the stand and enjoyed being in a deer stand full of anticipation and excitement. It had been months since I had that feeling.

As I was soaking in all of Mother Nature’s sights and sounds my evenings hunt was quickly coming to an end. I don’t know where my mind was at the time but I looked up and I noticed a color behind a dead bush that hadn’t been there previously. As I stared at it I saw an ear move and then put the shape together - it was a big bodied deer. The deer was already in range so I just stood up and carefully reached for my bow. I still hadn’t seen the deer’s head gear but I just wanted to be ready because the body of the deer was so big. Eventually the deer moved its head out from behind the bush and I got a good look at his rack and knew immediately he was a shooter.

When I did get a good look at his rack I knew why I couldn’t see them when he was behind that bush, his antlers were so dark they were almost black. Fortunately for me the buck was on a trail that was going to lead him within 15-yards of the tree I was in. When the buck’s head passed behind a tree that was between us I stuck an arrow through both lungs for what I felt like was a perfect shot. As usual the buck immediately took off in another direction but in a matter of seconds I heard a big crash and then it went quiet. That’s when the adrenaline kicked in and I got the feeling that no drug can produce and what a feeling it was. It was only a couple of days into our deer season and I already had a great buck on the ground.

By the time I got my stand off of the tree and found my buck it was dark and I still had a long walk and a lot of work to do. It was a good thing my cousin Greg was kind enough to help me get the deer out of the woods, get him field dressed, and to the processer. I was sure glad that he was there to help out but it was even better having him there to share the hunt and celebrate with.

A Hunter's Work Is Never Done

-By Rich Miller

Every year it seems that there is more and more to do to get ready for the upcoming hunting season. This year is proving to be no different either. Keeping up with the areas that I hunt locally is bad enough but when you throw in the lease in Kansas it is even worse.

Last week I flew to my home away from home to visit my good friend and fellow Knight & Hale Pro Staffer Mick bowman. Even though we always have a good time when we are together the purpose of this visit was work.

We tried to get as many stand sites prepared as possible before the season opens. Though it will be November before I am there to hunt, when I show up all I will have to do is get in the tree. We were able to get four different stand sites prepared for a hunter and cameraman. We hunt some of these places year after year and we always see a lot of deer activity.

We checked out a couple of new places that looked very promising but it was so thick out there right now and they will look totally different come November. We trimmed some of the brush from around the stand sites and they will only get better after the leaves fall off the trees.

In several of these places we are not able to plant food plots because it is in pasture. The farmers just won’t allow us to plow up parts of their pastures no matter what we are planting. It didn’t matter anyway because the ground was way too wet to allow us to plant anything. Our solution to putting a food source in these places is Moultrie feeders. Most of these pastures are 80 or 160 acres in size so we put a feeder or two in the middle of the property to help draw deer into these areas.

We place the feeders in areas that are natural travel routes for deer and it doesn’t take them very long at all to find them. The does use these feeders on a daily basis and as you well know, where there are does in November the bucks will be cruising through to check them out. These feeder sites are a great place to set up our Game Spy cameras so we know what uses these feeders. It also provides me with a lot of anticipation every week as I wait on Mick to send me the weekly pictures from our cameras.

I was there for five days and we did manage to get a lot of work done but as it always goes there are never enough hours in the day. It was time for me to fly back home before we knew it. It will seem like time is dragging until I get back out there to hunt in November. There is an upside though, bow season opens here tomorrow. If I have never mentioned it before, I love this time of year!

A June Haircut

-By Brandon Wikman

As June’s green foliage sprouts like the end of my shaggy bangs, I am reluctant to say that it’s time for some serious trimming. I typically head into the woods during this time for my ritual of summer pruning, clearing, and cutting. Trimming shooting lanes, scraping debris off of trails and marking them is important to do within the coming weeks.

The acreage I hunt only encounters my handsaw about once a year. Even though one cutting seems as little as shaving a few centimeters off a thick head of hair, the results will magnify. I’ve always been told that a little goes a long, long way. The more I experience this common phrase, whether it’s used for dispersing deer scent, providing bait, or hunting a particular stand; it couldn’t be anymore accurate. I’ve been taught to only snip, cut, and bust as few branches, shrubs, or undergrowth as needed.

I’ve witnessed several hunting buddies yank up their sleeves, take out their chainsaw and do work on the grounds near their tree stand. By the time they finish sinking their chainsaw into trees and piling brush, there’s not much cover left! I’ve seen them literally clear an entire 20x20-yard spot in the forest. The once thick and tangled vegetation that the deer loved transformed into a mini-sized field in the middle of the forest. This is bad for several reasons.

If you decide to turn a lush, green hunting spot completely bald and stricken of cover, you are doing more harm than help. Mature deer depend on weaving through thick cover and tangled brush in the cloak of sunset. It’s what makes them feel safe, secure, and invincible. By removing their cover, we’re actually convincing them to skirt the clear cutting and change travel patterns.

We all understand the process of regeneration. That is why it’s so important to make select and strategic cuts on timber. It opens the canopy and sheds beams of light to the ground, which in turn lift seeds from the soil into the air. If we slice into trees and bush hog the woodland’s floor intensely during the summer, new plant life nearly always takes longer to grow. Summer is known for its serious droughts and there’s no telling the amount of rainfall we may or may not receive. It may take years for the new vegetation to lift and the plant life to turn thick.

Instead of going cut-crazy and altering your honey holes’ effectiveness, make a few select openings that will improve your shooting capabilities. Chomp into the branches with a nice pair of shears or let the bite of a handsaw eat and do the work. As you begin piling brush comprised of tree limbs, shrubs, and bushes, use them to your advantage. I like to construct brush fences along certain deer trails and manipulate game movement to my benefit. Trails that intertwine downwind of my stand location are always choked by heaping piles of limbs or tipped trees. I’ve learned this technique from attending several seminars conducted by leading hunting professionals and land managers.

Last year I was able to sink an arrow into the vitals of a nice deer by persuading it to move according to my direction. Hunting is all about trying new strategies that will improve your odds of success. The fact of the matter is that there’s no secret, magical black box that will rein in monster whitetails every time we use it. The field-testing, first hand experiences, and trial-and-error are what ultimately make us better hunters. Tag two techniques with one job this summer by making select cuts and using the excess debris to your advantage.

Caring for Your Tree Stand

Mike Hanback brought up a good point about tree stand safety in his May 18th blog post. Many hunters leave their stands out all year long. Hanback points out that not only is this an open invitation for stands to get stolen, it also can be a safety hazard. The elements take their toll on tree stands. The combination of sun and moisture can weaken straps and ropes leading to premature failure.

It is a good idea to pull your stands and store them in an area that is out of the sun and rain. Before you hang them again in the fall check them and replace any rusted bolts or straps that might be questionable.

Not only can storing your stands and a little preventative maintenance prolong the life of your hunting gear, it might also save you from a future malfunction resulting in injury.

Northern Alberta Bear Hunt

-By Rich Miller

After taking a big bear on the first afternoon of hunting the pressure was off, and I was able to be a little picky and wait on a bigger or color phase bear. After the celebration and stories that followed my first night’s success it didn’t seem like we had very much rest before it was time to head out to the stand for another afternoon’s hunt.

There were already bears on the bait when we got to my stand site the second day. There was both some good and bad news about the bears being there. The good news was it was a huge cinnamon colored bear; the bad news, it was a sow with three cubs by her side and she was off limits. It didn’t take her long to get her cubs and exit the scene, which was fine by me, because I didn’t want to deal with the angry mother.

As soon as I was in the stand and the guide was leaving it wasn’t but just a few minutes and there was another big boar that came into the bait site and he was there for the rest of the afternoon. He was a really nice bear but I didn’t want to be without a tag for the next four days so I held off and watched him.

For the next couple of evenings I saw bears on every stand and a couple afternoons I had several different bears at the bait at the same time. One of them in particular I saw two days in a row and called him patches. He had two big brown patches on his shoulders and had a white V on his chest. This bear should have been in the circus because he tried every way in the world to reach the bait tied up on a pole for two evenings. Once he even fell off of it but caught himself before he hit the ground. It was great to experience all of these bears acting like little kids while I was only 10 to 15 yards away from them.

Prior to the trip we had Code Blue send up some of the Bear Magnet, and the new PST Sow Urine products to the Outfitter. I will give you bears hunters a piece of advice, if you haven’t tried any of Code Blue’s bear attractant you really need too. The first evening I carried some of the Bear Magnet liquid to the tree with me but when I got in my stand I remembered I had forgot to put it out. I decided to just take the top off of it and just tossed it about 15 yards away and let it just run out on the ground. The first bear that came in that night found it and tried to eat the bottle all the while licking the ground where it had poured out. The whole time that bear was in the area it kept coming back to the Bear Magnet. The big bear that I ended up shooting was headed straight to it but I just didn’t give him time to get there. After that night I would squirt some of the Bear Magnet on the bait barrel and a couple trees every time I went to my stand. I also would spray the PST Sow Urine periodically during my hunts and I saw bears on every one of my hunts for the six nights that I was there.

One of the best times of the whole hunt was on the next to last evening when I was on stand with Jim Strelec. He had already taken one bear so we were going to try to get him another one and get it on video. We saw about every different animal in the woods of Northern Alberta but we didn’t see a bear until he had climbed down the tree. I was still in the stand and was lowering everything down to him when the big boar that I had seen on the second night came into the bait and was only ten yards from him at ground level. I hurried down the tree and got the camera but we didn’t have enough light to film. Jim's nerves had gotten the best of him and he was really getting excited. The bear was on the bait right there in front of us at only 10 yards but he would not turn and offer Jim a good broadside shot. He finally got up to leave and Jim got him centered in the crosshairs and his Knight muzzleloader belched a huge puff of white smoke. He couldn’t see what the bear did but from my angle I saw that he only went about 30-yards. To say that Jim was exited would be an understatement. After we gave the bear a few minutes we had no problem finding him. It ended up being a very long night by the time we got the bear and all of the gear out of there, but seeing the look on Jim’s face when he got that bear made it worth it.

I did end up getting another nice bear on the last night and so did my buddy Don who ran the camera for me on the first night. There were seven bears taken out of seven hunters during the week. Three of the guys didn’t get a bear but it wasn’t because they didn’t have the opportunity. They had hunted up there before and they were being really picky. The outfitter that we hunted with was Bruno Martel and this guy’s camp is really five-star as far as a wilderness bear hunt goes. There is nothing that I would have changed about this hunt other than maybe Miss. Audrey limiting hunters to one helping during meals because I ate way too much while I was there.

Northern Alberta Bear Hunt

-By Rich Miller

When I was little boy growing up in South Carolina I cut my teeth hunting squirrels, dove, and eventually deer and turkey. Back then we didn’t have hunting shows on television 24 hours a day; all we had was a couple of fishing shows that came on Sunday afternoon. I remember thumbing through Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines looking at the photos and reading the articles. For me, reading the articles and imagining the writers on these great big game hunts, was like being there. As a kid obsessed with whitetails these elk, bear, and moose hunts were something that I could only dream of.

About a year and a half ago I was invited on a bear hunt in Canada by a good friend of mine. He rents a camp out in Northern Alberta for the opening week of bear season every year. There were seven of us that were going on this hunt for six days. To say I was excited to be going on this hunt was an understatement. Joining me on this hunt was good friend and Special Promotion Coordinator for Pradco Outdoor Brands, Jim Strelec. All of us had been looking forward to this hunt for over a year so when we all met up in Fort McMurray, Alberta on Friday afternoon we all had a very restless night in anticipation of the next day.

We arrived at camp around noon on Saturday and it was just what I imagined. It was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Aspen trees and Jack Pines. As soon as we arrived we were all busy getting unpacked and trying to settle in before Miss Audry had lunch ready. Jim and I shared a very roomy 16 x 20-canvas tent with a wood floor in it for the next six nights.

After lunch and all of our licenses were handed out we all started getting ready for the evening hunt. After a long and very thrilling ATV ride through several different swamps I arrived at my stand location and there was already a bear on the bait. By the time my cameraman and I got settled in our stands it was 3:30. About forty five minutes after getting into our stands we spotted a bear coming into our bait site. For a rookie bear hunter like myself judging a bear is pretty tough. The golden rule for a first time bear hunter is never shoot the first bear you see because it will be the biggest bear you have ever seen. Adhering to this rule I just sat back and watched this bear and tried to enjoy the show. This bear looked to be about a hundred and fifty pounds and while he wasn’t big enough to shoot he sure provided a lot of entertainment. He climbed up several trees trying to get to a bait that was tied up and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get a mouth full of it. After exhausting himself on the bait and never getting hold of it he decided the barrel of oats would be easier. This little sucker rolled a fifty five gallon drum around for over an hour trying to get all the oats he could out of one small hole in the end of the barrel. Once he had a lot of the oats on the ground he just laid down in them and ate for what seemed like an hour. Occasionally he would lift his head and look around to make sure nothing had sneaked up on him and then he would continue eating. Sometime around eight o’clock we heard a limb snap and the small bear jumped to his feet and just stared in that direction. Then there was another snap and it seemed to be more to the right of the first one. Then I caught some movement and saw what looked like a black Volkswagen moving through the woods. That is when the smaller bear decided it was time to exit stage left, and when he did the big bear took off after him. When these two bears took off through the woods it sounded like they were tearing the woods apart. It wasn’t but a minute until the big bruin was circling us making his way back in. It was at that point that I got a really good look at him and I wasn’t worried about judging bears anymore I was too busy reaching for my bow. He walked straight in to the bait sight and ended up directly underneath my stand. I will tell you it had my nerves torn up having this huge bruin several feet below my stand looking up at me. Then he just turned around and started heading toward the bait. At that point my buddy running the camera told me he had him whenever I was ready. With the bear having his back to me it allowed me to draw my bow and get my pin settled on him for the shot. I didn’t have my bow drawn very long when the bear quartered away to the left and that is when my arrow found its mark behind the bears left shoulder. After the shot I kept waiting on him to fall but he ran out of sight and then we heard a big crash and then it was quiet. Throughout this whole hunt I was cool and calm. After the shot I turned to the camera and gave a short recap of the hunt and toward the end of it is when it hit me. That is when I really got tore up, my hands were shaking and my knees were getting weak. Don was laughing at me and I was laughing at myself but I still couldn’t get rid of the shakes I had. I guess the combination of excitement of the hunt and the realization that I had just taken my first bear hit me and it was a real rush.

After I got myself calmed down we picked up the trail and about a hundred and fifty yards later my 6.5 foot 300 lb. Black Bear was laying there. Even though we had one heck of a drag out of one of the thickest swamps you have ever seen I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. That hunt will go into my list of top five hunts for me. I never thought that I would be doing much bear hunting because I spend all of my time and money chasing whitetails and turkeys, but thanks to Frank Allen’s generous invitation I was fortunate enough to experience this awesome hunt.

Productive Turkey Hunting

-By Rich Miller

Well you guessed it; rain was in the equation again this past week. Not only did it rain again but there was some really bad weather. Strong thunderstorms, high winds, hail, and dreaded tornadoes ripped through the South on Friday afternoon. Though we had some trees down and lost power for a little while I feel like we were fortunate compared to a lot of other areas of the Southeast. Even though Friday night’s weather was so bad, Saturday turned out to be one of the prettiest days that we have had this year. As nice as it was I don’t think I could have found a turkey if I had been on a turkey farm. I guess the tornadoes and thunderstorms blew the turkeys into another county.

Even though I didn’t get on a turkey Saturday it did end up being a productive day. Just because you are in the woods turkey hunting doesn’t mean you can’t do a little scouting for deer season. I have found some of my best places to deer hunt while wandering around in the woods during the spring, chasing lonely gobblers. When scouting this time of year deer signs seem to stand out a lot more than when the leaves are fresh on the ground. You can see deer trails on the side of ridges and where they are entering food plots or other fields. You can also find rub lines that you normally wouldn’t have found during hunting season. If a little luck is on your side you might even pick up a shed antler or two.

After finding a lot of possible stand sites for the upcoming deer season I keep a log with which piece of property they are on and what is the best way to access these locations. I don’t know about you guys, but with deer season at least five months away for most of us if I don’t make notes of these locations I will never be able to remember them by the time deer season rolls around. Of course most years I don’t have enough time to hunt all of the places that I find, but when things start getting slow during deer season and I am not seeing many deer, these notes usually give me some new places to hunt. Another good thing about the log is that I will know exactly where the sites are and I won’t have to be in the woods disturbing the area before I am ready to hunt. These slow days turkey hunting can make for some successful days in the deer woods.

Ground Blind or Treestand?

In Whitetail365’s blog post on February 9, BuckTracker talks about hunting from a shooting house this season. The shooting house he ended up hunting from was actually just an elevated plywood blind. He posted some pictures of a shooting house that belongs to former Houston Astro’s second basemen Craig Biggio. The house looks to be complete with nearly every creature comfort that you could imagine.

Moultrie wants to know what type of hunting you prefer. Do you hunt from a swank shooting house decked out with every amenity? Do you prefer hunting from a ground blind or treestand? Leave a comment and let us know how you like to pass your time in the woods.

Curiosity (Calling and Decoys) Killed the Deer

-By Rich Miller

My much anticipated Kansas hunting trip was finally here. When I arrived in Kansas the weather couldn’t have been any worse for hunting whitetails. The temperature was in the high seventies and the wind was blowing thirty-five miles per hour. If there is one thing that shuts the movement of these whitetails down, it is hot weather during the rut. The first few days I did see a good many small bucks but the big boys were staying hidden. The bucks responded well to calling and decoying; we just needed the wind to die down a little and for the temperature to drop.

The day I arrived at camp we scouted a new piece of property that we leased this year. There were a lot of deer signs in the area, but they had not cut the corn yet. So I figured I would give it a few days and maybe they would cut it. After I hunted Sunday morning I decided to hang a stand on the cornfield to hunt that afternoon. When I got there the farmer had cut half the cornfield on the side where I was going to hang the stand.

Sunday was perfect as for as the weather goes. The wind had layed and it was in the low fifties for the high. So wouldn’t you know it when I got to the cornfield about three o’clock for my hunt the combine was in the field cutting corn. To say the least I was a little disappointed, but I was already there and I really didn’t have time to go anywhere else. Plus it looked like he was about finished. Well I went ahead and set up my Carry-Lite deer decoy and got in my stand.

The combine got out of the field about 4:00 and I had the first deer come in the field about 4:45. At 5:00 I saw a doe come over the horizon about a thousand yards away. While I was checking her out in my binoculars I caught movement coming from behind her and it didn’t take me long to realize that he was a shooter. Although I considered him a shooter I figured the odds of him coming into bow range were slim to none. I did feel like the doe should be headed for the cornfield that I was in to feed. While these two deer were easing my way, another doe coming from the north cut them off and came into the field that I was in. While the buck had closed the distance considerably he was still about four hundred yards out. I kept grunting and snort wheezing hoping he would see my decoy. He would look every time I called to him but all of his focus stayed on the doe he was following. He started chasing the doe pretty aggressively and she joined the other doe that was already in the cornfield and they were feeding in my direction. The buck wasn’t paying the decoy very much attention but the two does started heading in my direction. As the does were getting closer the buck started paying more attention to the decoy. The buck came around and tried to get between the two does and the decoy and gave me a perfect broadside 26-yard shot. When my arrow found its mark the buck never made it out of the field.

When I first saw this buck I never in my wildest dreams figured that I could get him in bow range, but I just kept calling and calling. I normally would have never called as constantly as I did on this hunt but it got to the point where I didn’t have anything to lose. I think between the calling and the decoy that the curiosity of the does is what killed this buck.