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!

Treestand Safety

Treestands have become an essential part of the hunt for many deer hunters. They provide many advantages, but also carry an element of danger. The following safety tips will help make sure you make it back for that big buck time after time:

• Always read and understand the manufacturer's instructions and warnings
• Inspect your stand before each use
• Always use a full-body harness when using a treestand
• Take your time, never hurry in a treestand
• Make a plan, tell someone where you are going and when you should be back

The Sit

-By Brandon Wikman

There’s no place I’ve sat longer in a fixed position than a tree stand, period.

As we approach the ultimate whitetail rut, our sitting time will increase almost 40-50 percent! The usual evening sit will compare to absolutely nothing once late October rolls around. A time when bucks roam by nose and that moment of truth can happen in a split second, you know it is show time.

I’ve learned over the years a few tricks that may make the time go a bit faster, or at least seem so. Being in the video and television business, I’ve also learned that you sit until the end. For as much money, time and effort put into the hunt, you must sit every waking minute of daylight in the tree to hopefully pay it all back with a television show or video. For the most part, no kill, no show. It can be an exasperating endeavor, and a lot to ask of someone like me whose attention span is about as long as my pull-up rope.

I remember filming in southern Wisconsin one year my cameraman actually brought an I-Pod to prevent him from going insane with boredom. We communicated by nudges if I heard something or saw something. It’s probably not the best idea to rock out in your tree stand, but if it makes you stay in it longer, so be it. I’ve also had cameramen bring handheld gaming systems. Trust me, I’d rather be playing games than staring at the same leaf, tree and dirt for 9 hours.

Some people are better at staying completely focused than others, my cousin being one of them. He is the only person I know who can sit for over 5 hours, without saying a word or cracking a joke back to me. I give him props. I think the cut-off point for most people is roughly after the sixth hour and it may come earlier if you haven’t seen any deer.

I know a lot of hunters who walk into their setup 45 minutes before daylight, only to sit until the sun makes its rounds. I typically do things a bit differently. When hunting during the rut, I’ll usually walk into my setup as light begins to enter the woods and I’m able to see my feet. Some people chastise me for doing so, but I’ve had much luck time and time again with this systematic approach.

Walking in complete darkness even with a flashlight is difficult, especially when you are trying to be quiet and sneaking through the leaves and sticks on the forest floor. When there’s soft light, you are able to trek lightly and ease your way in, which sounds more or less like a deer anyway. Another reason is that many instances hunters will kick back bucks or does that are going to bed by simply intercepting them, which in turn bumps them and you are done! I’d like to think that going in a little later makes the sit easier and shorter and does have its benefits.

We all have our own styles and approaches, but that’s what makes all of us unique. Whether you’re like me and carry a cell phone in the woods to text and play solitaire or perhaps do the traditional style of sitting without anything but the sheer feeling of being outdoors, I commend you. In my way of thinking, I’ve never shot a deer off the sofa or lying in bed. In simple terms, the more you’re out in the stand freezing, staring at that brown withered leaf, the more likely you’ll come out of the woods with a prize.

Hung Up

-By Brandon Wikman

I've finally finished dangling from oaks, pines and elms to hang my tree stands. It is good to be back on the ground.

I began in Wisconsin, hit up Minnesota and declared myself hung up in Illinois. It's never fun hanging tree stands, but once they're up, you're anticipation of killing something out of a set escalates.

Between mosquitoes, sweltering in the heat and the annoyance of your buddy always being unsure, undecided and unwilling to help (other than pointing out where to ultimately hang the set of stands) . . . It makes for one heck of a day.

But to be honest, I'm no different when it comes to questioning stand placement. It's very tough to find that "one" spot, in that "prime" location. Toss in the variables of hunting with a cameraman and you've got yourself a mind clustering mess.

It's always a little tougher to hang two stands in a tree. Making sure the tree is big enough and has a sufficient circumference to diminish the skyline effect.

When you watch hunting videos and shows, beware that most setups are tailored to the cameraman rather than the hunter. Our job is to retrieve the best footage possible, even though it may not be the perfect stand within 15 yards of that beaten-down trail, it's a site where cameraman and hunter split 50/50.

Amongst all odds, luck and hope, I can only wish the grueling work of scouting and hanging will pay off come fall. And you will be the first to know if it just so happens that I did my job right (or wrong) this season by the encounters and kills.