Grow the Hunt

The Fall Season

- By Brandon Wikman

This is my favorite time of year. The forests across the Midwest have been charmed with splashes of magnificent color. Vibrant reds, awesome oranges, and pretty purples fill the woodland canopy. To me, the only verification of fall is a transformation of colors and the sound of stampeding bucks hounding doe. Now, I am finally convinced.

Fall is a wonderful time of year to experience nature’s one last gasp of fresh air. The wildlife is plentiful and scenic beauty is marvelous. Not too long after this season comes winter, which stains our illuminant landscape pure white. I’ve always relished the moments spent outdoors during this period of time. It’s what I always remember when I think of hunting, fishing, and spending time lavishing in nature. The weather is typically cool and the breeze is always refreshing. The fragrance of our natural environment has never been so inviting. The strong aromas of leaves bursting into decomposition happen to be a true scent of relaxation.

There are few better places to experience the full-fledged fall sensation firsthand than Buena Vista Park, in Alma, Wis. Last weekend I visited the magnificent spectacle. Buena Vista Park overlooks the entire Alma community. Thousands of feet above the Mississippi River, the park towers into the clouds. Once on this hill of destiny, a person can see miles upon miles into the vast land of western Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota.

I sat on the rock ledge for an hour soaking in the view. I spotted boats from afar drifting into the harbor and bicyclists pedaling down the wooded trails. I may have been alone on the cliff, but my heart and soul hasn’t felt anymore comforted.

Sometimes it’s the natural cures in life that mend the wounds of battling everyday life. There are no prescriptions, drugs, or stimulants that will ever give you the feeling that nature does. It is truly a medicine that costs no more than an afternoon adventure.

If you have the chance to spend time outdoors with your friends or family, I’d advise you to do so now. There are no greater memories made in the field and woods than with the people you’ve come to love and respect.

Would You Rather Hunt Pre-Rut or During Rut?

- By Rich Miller

It is tough to live a thousand miles away from somewhere you really want to be this time of year - Kansas. Especially when every time I turn around I am hearing how many bucks they are seeing out there. I am getting phone calls saying that the bucks are on their feet and really starting to move. On the plus side, right now most of the bucks they are seeing are younger deer so it should be another week or so before the big bucks really get going. What makes all of this so bad is I still have about 10 days before I am supposed to leave to head that way.

I planned my dates earlier in the year for my Kansas hunt and I guess I could leave earlier, but last year I left on the 2nd of November and hunted for about eight days. Although I did get a nice buck, it seemed like we were there about a week early. Trying to figure out which days to be there is always one of our biggest decisions. We only have a limited amount of time to get the hunt done and we need every advantage we can to get a step on these big deer.

You always hear everyone saying they are trying to hit the rut when they travel for a hunt, but that is not what I am after. I want to hit the pre-rut more than I do the full rut. I want to catch these big bucks on their feet, cruising for does and checking scrapes. This is the time of the season when the bucks can be called in and are more predictable in the areas that they have been using.

When bucks are acting like this, grunting, rattling, and decoying works as good as you could ever dream. During full rut, bucks seem to get on a doe and they will not pay attention to anything other than the doe he’s after. You have to count on a lot more luck to get these deer to stop in bow range when they are running a doe. Don’t get me wrong I have taken a lot of deer, and luck was involved in a bunch of them. I will take all the luck can get, but I would rather count on being prepared and correct timing to get it done.

To make me even more anxious, over the past couple of weeks several of my buddies have called and told me about connecting with a Midwest brute already. Chris Parrish tagged a great Missouri buck, Tracy Breen took a trophy Kansas 8-point, Matt Swain thumped a monster buck yesterday afternoon, and Mick Bowman would have been done a week ago if he wasn’t so picky. The stories and pictures from my friends make me want to load the truck tonight and hit the road, but I think it is just going to keep getting better over the next couple of weeks. There is one thing for certain it won’t be long until I am perched in Kansas tree during sweet November.

What about you, would you rather hunt pre-rut or during the rut?

Three Ways Not to Take a Trophy Photo

- By Brandon Wikman

There’s nothing that refreshes a memory better than an actual photographic print. I love taking pictures of my prized animals for several reasons. A snapshot can be tossed around and showcased to friends or family. Some photos can be sent to magazines and newspapers running their annual “Big Buck Contests.” My favorite reason to take pictures is simple. I just love looking at them! Whether they’re placed into a fancy frame, tossed into an album, or filed into a heaping pile of family photos, pictures truly do say a thousand words.

I’ve included three basic photo-taking principles that I abide by. These are general rules that many other outdoor writers and photographers follow. Below you will find three different ways how not to take a picture of your wild game.

1. The ‘Terrible’ Tailgate
   
   I’ve always been known to be the guy who’d hop on the tailgate of my truck and have a pal snap a few quick pictures of me wrestling my deer into frame. Not only did it look gaudy, but truly juvenile. After getting older and more mature, I felt that I needed to show more respect for the animal. The pictures taken from the back of a truck aren’t as glamorous as placing the animal in the natural setting of where it was harvested.
   
   Take time to prop the animal into a bedding position overlooking a hillside, river, or pasture. This will give you a fond memory and feel for how the hunt unraveled. I know that you’ll appreciate the photos for years to come by captivating the true feelings of the outdoors.



2. The ‘Bloody’ Buck
   
   I’ve hunted for ten years and have been blessed to wrap my hands around a few sets of charming antler. I still acquire a sour feeling when I see a photo of a deer smeared in red. The outcome of killing an animal can be a bloody mess, but there is no reason to exemplify the gruesomeness.
   
   I always carry a set of paper towels with me to cleanly wipe away excess blood on the face and chest of an animal. Imagine the feeling an anti-hunting group would have. It would only add more fuel to the fire. It’s important to take all necessary precautions to treat your kill with the utmost respect and do it by taking care of it. Treating your kill with honor speaks volumes for not only you, but also the entire hunting community.



3. The Deer Rider
   
   Deer are meant for showcasing, not riding. I’ve had several friends that have been caught on camera sitting on the back of a buck, cranking its antlers back and smiling cheerfully. These types of poses look very unprofessional and beg for a good chuckle. Typically you saddle up a horse, not a whitetail.
   
   There are several alternative ways to take quality photos with your deer, hopping on its back isn’t one of them.

I’ve learned that placing deer in a bedding position for pictures is the most eye-catching. Tuck the animal’s legs underneath its belly and sit or kneel behind the animal. Lift up his head by muscling up one side of the antler. You can pose him anyway you’d like. I prefer facing the buck’s nose directly at the camera. Now smile big!

Taking quality field photos can swallow a little time and effort. They require a slight bit of planning and creativity. I consider it all a part of the hunting experience. You invest thousands of dollars in purchasing hunting equipment; spend countless hours in stand, and now its time to celebrate your accomplishment! Ask yourself, what are a couple more hours to ensure that you’ll have a stellar photo to share with family, friends, and hunting partners for the rest of your life.

Where the Big Bucks Are

- By Rich Miller

You think that bucks that have a lot of bone on their head would be hard pressed to stay hidden all year and stay out of sight. Big deer have a knack of disappearing around April; stay hidden until the middle of October and then only stick their heads out periodically. They start making appearance in some areas sooner than others, but it is going to happen as October starts coming to a close. Over the past week I have heard story after story and people sending me pictures of big bucks one after another.

I scored again last Tuesday on a nice 8-point at my hunting club. I saw a lot of deer activity last week and saw several small bucks chasing does. The buck I shot wasn’t chasing he was just cruising in an area that had a lot of buck signs in it. Ii was not the only one that scored last week, a couple of my buddies also connected with some of their best bucks to date. Sunday afternoon, my cousin Greg killed his best buck and has been on cloud nine ever since. He scored on a 200 lb., 8-point that was one heck of a deer for South Carolina. The good thing is that it is just getting started and it is only going to get better from here on out.

Back in September when I went to Kansas, we put some trail cameras and deer feeders in several different places. We have done this for several years and every year there are a lot of deer that start using the game feeders pretty quick after we put the cameras out, but no bucks. Every week I am anxious to hear from my buddy, Mick, who lives there to see what has shown up, but no bucks week after week. Every year we wonder where all the bucks are and try and figure out where they could be hiding.

Well, after several weeks of worrying, the ground has opened up and the bucks have started coming from everywhere. Mick called me Friday afternoon and said “there here” and they are some good ones too! From the looks of all the photos he sent me, not only are they starting to move but there was a lot of daylight activity also.

Seeing pictures like that makes me wish I was there right now. There were several brutes on the pictures from last week that I would shoot first day and be happy as can be, but the smaller bucks usually show up first. The later part of October and the first of November is when the really big boys show up.

All I can do now is sit back wait and dream of the monster that will show up next week. I still want to know where they have been for the past six months. Here at home I get pictures of deer all year long and can keep track of how they are growing. Out there is a different story there are very few sightings by trail cameras or by our fellow hunters and farmers for most of the summer. I guess it really doesn’t matter where are hiding all of those months as long as they show up in November when I am in the stand ready for them.

The New Spot

- By Brandon Wikman

There’s nothing quite like the excitement of slapping a trail camera against a fresh tree overlooking a totally new area. Yesterday I hopped in my truck after class and sunk my rubber boots into an area that’s shielded from human existence.

I’ve always searched for different spots where no hunter has set foot. It is obviously near impossible discovering a place so void of human sign. Hunters and hikers have made a slight indentation on nearly every sand, snow and ice granule across the planet. After countless hours staring at Google Earth, I was able to find a hunting spot that is dislocated from any roads, four-wheel trails and public access. It’s not often when you find a potential sweet spot buried in the map, hidden from even the keenest set of outdoorsman eyes. I was just plain lucky, so I thought.

After packing up a few of my Moultrie cams, I burnt rubber and ventured into the woods. A backpack is a wise idea to bring with you on any journey. I was able to fit a few cameras, bait and water bottles to quench my thirst after an endless trek into no-man’s land. I felt as prepared as I could be for a new exploration. High hopes complimented a silly grin as I gave my best attempt to lose myself in nature. The smile didn’t last long.

The walk was brutal. A map only shows a simple illustration of terrain. Needless to say, I found myself battling impenetrable patches of thorn bushes, waist high swamp waters and viscous swarms of blood thirsty mosquitoes! I was about as unprepared as a hunter without his weapon. I wore shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, which was a huge mistake. The thorns sunk into my naked skin like razor blades. I forgot to bring any type of mosquito spray. In fact, the scratches and cuts on my arm made me even more attractive as prey for bugs. I turned my own body into a dinner platter for swamp critters. When I arrived at the halfway point, things got real ugly.

I escaped the dagger field and eluded most of the swarms of bugs, but when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they surely did.

My knee-high boots vanished into the depths of a seemingly endless mud hole. Black water oozed into my boot as I desperately struggled to win back my leg. Sludge-choked water nipped at my toes until my entire boot filled with swamp water. I had it. I was done.

My risky business of venturing into the hellhole of an abandoned marsh wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever stumbled upon. I found myself pulling a 180-degree turn the heck out of there! Sometimes I think we as hunters try way too hard trying to find the most out of reach location on earth to hang a stand. It always makes me laugh (not really) when I hear hunters say they shot their giant buck a mere couple hundred yards behind their house. It never ceases to amaze me how the whitetail brain works, but I think we can all ask an even better question…how in the world does our mind wrap around the concept of trying to nail everything a deer would know? It is better left unsaid.

At the end of a tireless, wet and distasteful voyage into the cattails, my job isn’t done yet. I will sling a Moultrie around a tree down there, but just not today.

The Passion of Bowhunting

-By Rich Miller

Bowhunting, in my opinion, is one of the greatest sports on earth. It is an adrenaline filled sport that I cannot seem to get enough of. I don’t know if it’s the challenge of getting so close to the animals that I am chasing or if it’s knowing that I have handicapped myself with a stick and string, but when the season is in if I am not in the woods its all I am thinking about.

When a hunter decides to start hunting with a bow, there are several things that he needs to accept before he heads out to the woods. The first thing is the need to practice until you think you can’t do any better, and then practice a lot more. It doesn’t matter how good you think you can shoot, it all changes when the moment of truth arrives. Personally, I like to shoot my bow every day and shoot it so much that I familiarize myself with the bow. When I draw my bow, I want to anchor the same place and way every time without thinking about it. If you have a monster buck standing in front of you, I promise that thinking is the last thing your mind.

Another factor of bowhunting is accepting the highs and lows that come along with the sport. I have experienced the highest of highs while holding a bow in my hand. It can be fulfilling knowing that you beat the animals you are hunting in their house and on their terms. There are also some lows when the deer don’t read the script and stay outside your shooting range. I have missed out on some monster deer because I had a bow in my hand instead of a rifle.

The last thing is the worst, but if you are going to bowhunt, the reality is sooner or later you will shoot a deer and not recover it. This is a truth that no one wants to talk about and no one wants to happen, but it will happen at some point and time.

Last night I got a call from a buddy of mine who told me that he had just shot a buck and made a perfect shot. After the shot, he said the deer walked off and stopped about 80 yards away. After that he lost sight of the deer, but thought he heard him lay down. He stayed in the stand about an hour after the shot. I met him at the edge of the woods and we headed back in with flash lights to find his deer. When we got to where he shot the buck we found some signs of where he hit the deer, but couldn’t find anything else. After searching there for a while, we moved up to the last place he saw the deer and found just a little bit of blood but we could not tell which way he went.

My buddy was really confused because we couldn’t find much blood at all and he thought he made a perfect shot on the deer. He thought that he had done everything right; he waited on a good shot angle and the deer was only 15 yards from him. It is hard to say what happened without seeing the deer, but the arrow could have hit a rib, turned out and exited farther back than what he thought. He went back out this morning and searched for a couple of hours but didn’t recover the deer. I hated it for him because he was excited and said it was a god buck.

We all try to make the most clean and ethical shot that we possibly can, but over the years I have found out that sometimes the perfect shot isn’t the perfect shot.

Successful Bear Hunt

A few days ago we were sent an interesting hunting success story by Sara Peterson. We thought we would share her story with the rest of the “Grow the Hunt” readers:

“Let me tell you about a great hunting experience that I had, it was made even more unique due to the Moultrie Game Spy I-40 digital camera that we had set up at the bait I was hunting.

I was recently bear hunting in Hibbing, Minn. The evening started with a quarter mile trek through the woods to my stand that was nestled a good 80 yards from the bait. The weather was rather balmy for this time of the year and the bugs were enough to drive a person insane, but I mustard up every ounce of sanity I could, and sat there waiting for a bear to come.

As dusk drew near I pulled up my rifle to take a peek through my scope to make sure I could still see my bait clearly. Just as I was starting to lower my rifle I saw movement to my left. I steadied my rifle and waited to see what was moving in. Out walked this beautiful bear. As he stepped into my line of fire, I aimed and squeezed off one round. As the round hit its target, the movement of the bear triggered our Moultrie trail camera. It took a picture of the bear right as it was hit, you can see where the impact is on the upper right shoulder. We had the camera set to take two pictures, so the next picture is of the bear dropping and rolling over at the bait. Needless to say there was no tracking involved that night.

When I tell this story, it is always accompanied by the pictures from the Moultrie trail camera. Thank you Moultrie for making a great hunt an awesome story. We can’t wait to see what other experiences we have with your cameras, and what you come out with next!”

Congratulations Sara! Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Off To A Good Start

-By Rich Miller

So far this year my deer season has been as good as it gets. I was fortunate enough to get a good deer early and I have been seeing a lot of deer activity every time I go into the woods.

It has been a long time since I have seen this much food on the ground and the deer are really loving it. Usually when there is this much food it is a problem keeping up with them and trying to figure out where they are feeding. When deer don’t have to move very far to find food it makes it hard to intercept them between bedding and feeding.

Luckily that hasn’t been a problem for me this year and I have been covered up with deer everywhere I have been. In the different hardwoods I have been hunting I have seen a lot of fresh signs from where deer have been bedding there. I haven’t jumped any deer going in to hunt but I have been worried that they will be there before I get there.

I normally take the opportunity this time of year to do some doe management but so far I have been really slack. I went down to my hunting club last weekend with the intent to take out some does and just have some fun with my bow. My hunts went as planned but when I had the opportunity to shoot I got lazy and started thinking I didn’t wasn’t to mess with cleaning a deer that night and never shot anything.

Another reason I didn’t shoot a doe was the amount of buck sign that I found when I arrived at the club. It had been a couple of weeks since I had been down there and there was almost no buck sign then. Man was I in for a shock when I stepped into the woods on Thursday afternoon. There were scrapes and rubs everywhere as I walked to the spot that I intended to hunt.

I had seen two really nice bucks in this area last fall and I was hopeful that they had made it through the season. With all of the sign I saw while setting up, all I could do was picture one of those bucks walking out and checking the fresh scrapes in front of me. I know the odds of seeing one of these mature bucks during daylight hours this time of year are not very good, but I still couldn’t make myself shoot a doe.

As the days get shorter and the temperature gets colder the hunting will just get better every day. It seems like someone is calling me to tell me about the big buck that they had seen or had the chance to harvest on a daily basis.

This is the time of year that we have been waiting months on so if you haven’t gotten out in the woods yet I think it is a perfect time to get off of the couch and get out there.

Good luck when you do!

The Changing Phase

-By Brandon Wikman

Welcome to the month of October. It’s a time when the nights becomes cooler, and the days become increasingly shorter. More importantly, it’s a time when whitetails make a sudden juke on our scheming hunting blitz.

I embellish the vitality of seeking brutes on brisk November mornings, but I’m usually lucky enough to have my opponent in the freezer by then. You’ve heard it said by TV hosts, outdoor writers, and seminar speakers over and over, “focus on main food sources that arouse the whitetail’s craving”. Soybeans, corn, alfalfa, and acorns are a popular choice of groceries in the Midwest. Deer indulge on farmers’ painstaking long hours of hard work in the fields, but there’s one problem.

Once the velvet vanishes, so too the handsome racked bucks from the harvested fields. It’s an ongoing cycle that happens every year about this time. People are dumbfounded by the process and truly believe high classed whitetail have a calendar memory chip deep inside their brain focused on the day of deer season. “They just disappear,” is a common quote I often hear.

Deer patterns change, food sources deplete, and human disturbance rises, which lead deer to flee. Unless you have whitetail on the Atkins diet, the animal has got to eat! Nutrition is a vital role in the life of a whitetail. Many of my friends are clueless to this ritualistic evolution of deer vanishing theory. It is often my same friends who don’t think outside the box. They never dig into the real meaning of why deer move or relocate during this time. Mature bucks would rather yawn in their beds and take a load off until the fresh dusk aerates the forest. They sit tight and in no hurry, while the hunter watches their optic fibers fade with the sunset.

To resolve this issue we must quit hunting field edges and get back into the forage. Once deep within the forest, look for acorn ridges, clover patches, or any scrumptious treat for deer to eat for an appetizer. Bucks and does alike will bypass time in these staging areas where they feel safe. Until the sun sleeps and the tree frogs socialize, then deer will sneak to their dinner in stealth mode.

Opening day of last year I participated in a management archery hunt. I tracked the field edge, found a trail that was trampled and followed it back until I found acorn heaven. I placed a stand and the same day I blew threw a hefty doe. The doe was simply eating appetizers before the main course of voluptuous alfalfa. Sometimes the forgotten spots are just under our feet.

Don’t be afraid to slip into the woods a hundred yards. There is more opportunity of spotting a buck in a staging area tucked inside the woods than having him flaunt his antlers in the middle of an alfalfa field. With that said, venturing too far inside his safe haven will hurt your odds of ever seeing him again. I always use the expression, “knock at his door, but never walk into his room.” You want to be smack-dab in the middle of things. Assume your position in the woods between the two hottest places in a buck’s mind during October.

Feral Hog Hunters Cautioned about Swine Brucellosis

With the feral hog population at an all time high and expanding on a daily basis, deer hunters across the country, especially throughout the South, are likely to encounter feral hogs. As the population has grown so has the necessity to control populations through hunting or other means.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources just posted a press release warning hunters of the potential for contracting illnesses such as Swine Brucellosis from the feral hog.

According to the press release “Swine Brucellosis is caused by the bacterium Brucella suis. Humans can get swine brucellosis through handling infected tissues of wild pigs. Brucellosis bacteria is found in bodily fluids, concentrating in reproductive organs and milk. The bacteria can enter the human body through cuts, nicks, abrasions or other breaks in the skin.”

The Alabama Department of Conservation urges hunters to use caution and wear thick rubber gloves while field dressing hogs. Hunters should also thoroughly wash their hands after they are finished field dressing.

Swine Brucellosis does not affect the edibility of the meat but as with all pork it should be cooked thoroughly.

Read the complete Press Release Here