Scout Now for Next Year's Trophy
Big Bucks, Public Land, and How to Find One on the Other
By Todd Amenrud
Because of both biological and social carrying capacities you just can’t fit that many animals into a small area. Rather than trying to supply bedding areas and create “housing,” possibly the easiest piece of work for the small parcel owner to take on, and the element that will typically produce the greatest and fastest returns, is adding preferred food sources to the property.
By Todd Amenrud
To some 300 acres may be a “small parcel.” However, I receive hundreds of emails from readers and people with whitetail management questions that have properties much smaller – some maybe 20 acres or less. Is it worth it to manage these small tracts? Can you have an influence over buck size, herd health and hunting opportunities? You bet you can! Here’s how and why.
I always hear the “small acreage excuse” - “I killed the buck because he was going to hop the fence. If he hops the fence Billy-Bob is just going to shoot him anyhow.” I do promise you that if you have this uneducated, testosterone infused, jealous justification of “if the buck hops the fence my neighbor will kill him anyhow,” you will never make hunting any better for you, your neighbor, or anyone else in the area. You must set your goals and stick to them and not worry about what your neighbor does. Even with a small parcel, if you stick to this aspiration you will in all likelihood see noticeable results in only a couple years!
Whitetails are “homebodies.” Once an adult whitetail chooses the spot where they will reside after their first year spent with their mother, hardly ever will they roam too far from that spot. Since whitetail live in a defined home range, what you do even in a small area has influence over all of the whitetail whose home territories encompass that spot. If their home range happens to include your property, you have an influence over that animal’s health, growth possibilities and how often it frequents your parcel.
If you are a serious hunter or you manage your property for wildlife, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the “Food, Water, Cover” (F+W+C) formula. In recent years an “S” that stands for “Sanctuary” or “Security” has been added to the modus operandi. All parts of the “recipe” are very important, so which should you start with? Well…that will all depends upon what you already have. What are your property’s strong suits, and what do your neighbors’ have?
You must face it - with small parcels it can be difficult to absolutely impossible to provide all the elements needed to produce consistent trophy bucks. Since you know that whitetails are using your property for only a portion of their needs you must do the best with what you have and you’ll undoubtedly have to “borrow” or “share” some of your neighbor’s resources. Manage your property to mesh with what’s around you.
You will need all parts of the formula somewhere nearby. With small acreage, however, you need to bet on the fact that they most definitely will be crossing your border. You need to have at least some part of the formula on your side of the fence to bring them back, but be smart and “use” your neighbor’s resources to your benefit.
Managers of small properties will most often be lacking the space necessary to “house” many whitetails. Because of both biological and social carrying capacities you just can’t fit that many animals into a small area without putting major stress upon them or having major degradation of the habitat. Densities vary widely throughout the country, but Missouri for instance, in 2009 was estimated to have approximately 22 deer per square mile state wide. So as an example, let’s use the estimate of 30 deer per square mile. That means with 640 acres in a square mile and 30 deer in that square mile, your 20 acres is likely to house 1 deer. If you do things right you most certainly can hold more, but you can see my point. Are you better off devoting ground to bedding or to feeding?
More than likely on small parcels the one part of the formula that’s easiest for a property owner to deal with is the “food” portion. A perfect example is my brother-in-law, Mike Berggren. He owns 20 acres southeast of Minneapolis. But it’s the “right 20 acres” and he does a phenomenal job of giving his herd everything they need right on his parcel. He is continuously producing trophy bucks.
Mike’s property is probably the prettiest 20 acres that I know of. It is the head waters for one of the most pristine brook trout fisheries in the world and it has several springs pumping thousands of gallons of the clearest, coolest, cleanest water you’ve ever seen. The high hills and weaving ridges near the St. Croix River, which is the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin in that area, makes it so that the 20 acres “hunts” like a property twice that size and gives bucks a place to escape hunters that would think of harvesting them before their time. He has some of the most nutrient rich soil I have ever seen and mega-buck genetics run through the veins of the local herd.
In my opinion the biggest thing Mike’s got going for him are his neighbors. In a nutshell, they are just nice people. Mike treats them with respect and they do the same in return. These neighbors own much larger parcels and they don’t hunt. In fact, they only let very few, select individuals even step foot on their properties. Without being greedy or taking advantage of his neighbors, Mike uses, or should I say, let’s the local whitetail herd use, their resources to his advantage. Mike understands better than anyone that his hunting hinges on what his neighbors around him do.
Although Mike has some excellent bedding cover, good water, great mast crop trees and other essential whitetail needs, his main focus when it comes to attracting mature bucks are his food plots. To get the whitetail imprinted on his plots he will supply summertime forage like Clover Plus, BioMass and Lablab. When late July and August comes the annuals (BioMass and Lablab) are disked under and crops with hunting time appeal like Outfitter’s Blend and Full Draw replace them. Because of his limited acreage his food plot program takes some planning to make sure that the crop rotation works and the menu is diverse at all times. With food plots, I believe a well-rounded program will devote acreage to both attraction and nutrition.
QDM Cooperatives are becoming more and more popular. If you get five to ten property owners with 20 to 40 acre parcels you can have your own whitetail Mecca. Even with larger properties the best option is to work with your neighbors rather than continuously competing against them. It is amazing what a group of “like-minded” land managers can do. It is how “monster buck hot spots” like Scotland County Missouri, Pike County Illinois and Buffalo County Wisconsin got started. One person set some goals, stuck to those goals, had success, a neighbor recognized it and started doing the same things and it just spread from there.
Scout Now for Next Year's Trophy
By Todd Amenrud
Shed hunting is a great way to get your family involved more in the outdoors. In deep snow it can be tough to spot a shed antler all that may be present is the tips or a small portion of bone.
With all of the Midwestern deer seasons closed, many hunters don't think about visiting the whitetail woods again until the following hunting season. These hunters don't know what they're missing. Much can be absorbed by observing movements and habits all year long, but the time from January through May can be especially important for several reasons.
Late winter and early spring are my favorite times to go through my spots with a fine-toothed comb. Even the property’s sanctuaries are fair game for a little peak to make sure everything is “tuned properly.” I can now go through the areas I was afraid of spooking deer in during the season. If you bump a buck now he has months to go back about his daily routine. Scouting this time of year is important if you wish to consistently harvest mature bucks, or if you are serious about managing your whitetail herd.
February through April is filled with general scouting and shed hunting. Some areas whitetails inhabit year around, and other territories they move out of, and into "yards" or wintering areas. For this one reason I don't put a lot of confidence into a pair of sheds leading me to a buck the following season. The buck that owned the antler you found might be living twenty miles away during hunting season. Then again, if you’re in an area whitetail live the year through it is possible to learn something.
Some people go absolutely bonkers for shed hunting. Most of the time I just go for the purpose of scouting and if I happen to run across a shed that's a bonus. It has become so popular that some people have started training dogs specifically for finding shed antlers. I’m not that into it, but I can say that shed hunting is a great way to get your family involved more in the outdoors. It’s like “CSI Minnesota” when we go searching – (Cast Shed Investigators). We treat it like a game and it gets them outdoors. They have better eyes than I have and they’ve already learned to look for the subtle signs that an antler might be present, like just the tips being exposed or the snow melting differently.
Trail cameras are still very useful after the season has closed. During the colder winter temperatures I use a small, rechargeable 12 volt battery in my trail cameras, rather then the AA, D or C sized batteries I normally use - if the camera is set up for this option. This saves me hundreds of dollars on batteries. Cameras are especially important to me this time of year so that I can learn for sure which bucks made it through the season, where I need to concentrate my efforts, and what management decisions need to be implemented.
March through May is my favorite time to do that “fine-tooth comb” type scouting. I want to learn every little detail now so that closer to the season I don’t have to put pressure on the spot. With the foliage off the trees rubs you've never seen before start to pop out at you. I do put a lot of confidence in these. Travel routes, direction of travel, and size of buck can be told. You have to hope that the buck will be back the following season. But at least most of this sign is sign that was made during the hunting season.
If you time your scouting just after the snow melts, it seems that all of the sign made last fall and through the winter has been frozen in time for you to find; droppings, tracks and often you can even find scrapes that haven’t been covered by leaves.
Even though the season has ended, I still rely heavily on glassing. I don’t like to put pressure on my food plots at night by using a spot light so I use my Night Search night vision. With the snow background, with a little moonlight often just a good pair of binoculars or a spotting scope will work just fine. Some would argue “their antlers have dropped, how do you tell what you’re looking at – is it a buck or a doe?” These are usually the same people who still harvest year-old basket-racks each year. When you see the body of a mature buck that’s three years old or older, there’s normally no mistaking it. There can be exceptions to the rule, but for the most part you know a “shooter buck” whether he’s carrying antlers or not. After many hours observing whitetail you can begin to tell the difference between bucks and does just by the way they walk, run, stand or act around other deer.
Whitetail definitely don’t move as much during the winter months, but their stomach and their need for food will still make them travel, and if you plan it right you can learn a lot. If you anticipate the weather changes or wait until bad weather breaks it sometimes seems like the “whitetail flood gates” have opened. Just before or just after a major snow storm, when we get a warm up after several days of severe cold temperatures, or after a long period of harsh winds are good times to make a stake out near a food source.
Major trails stick out like a sore thumb this time of year, especially when the snow melts but the ground is still frozen. And even though it is possible to find good spots in major funnels, access trails to bedding areas, and other possible situations whitetail may use the following season, most of my ambush sites are created during the late summer and early fall, or shortly before I hunt an area.
During late winter and spring, as I said, I don't worry as much about spooking the animals. But on the other hand, why let them know you’ve been there if you don’t have to? I always take the same precautions, as far as scent elimination goes for scouting as I do for hunting, even this time of year. Rubber boots, trapper’s gloves, and Scent Killer are my most important scouting tools. Not only do we have to pay attention to the odors we carry on us, but also the ones we may leave behind.
Just before and during the actual hunting season, I back off of an area and try to be especially stealth. If you have a good understanding of a region from your winter - spring scouting, why spook a potential trophy? I'm sure you'll find that scouting during this time of the year will help you line things up for next year’s whitetail season.
By Dave Price
Notice everything is dead and brown except for the food plot that this heavy horned buck was eating in. He came in from the protected back side of the plot and was never more than 20 yards from cover. I shot him during late morning, when he was confident that he was close enough to cover to quickly escape danger. I believe in food plots!
Food plots are the rage in any quality deer management program, but they don’t need to run your life! Depending on where you live and the length of your local growing season you can plant food plots during the spring or as late as the summer. Food plots planted in mid to late summer are healthy and green when hunting season rolls around while natural browse is starting to turn brown and dry. There’s no guarantee that planting food plots will keep deer on your property all year, but it does provide local deer with a nutritional incentive to visit your farm and stay for an extended period of time.
In order to plant an effective food plot you need to plant it at least two weeks to four weeks before hunting season begins. I recommend planting small plots close to cover, and follow the curvature of the terrain for increased effectiveness. If you have a tractor with plowing implements attached then use it, but a simple rake can be just as effective for making a small food plot. Rake the area, broadcast the seed then rake dirt over the seed to cover it up. Make sure the seeds aren’t too deep so that they have a chance to sprout. Deer will find each patch so plant the food plots where you want the deer to travel. Be sure to maintain some cover around the plot where you can watch deer, but the deer will feel safe to feed. Plant food plots in areas that receive good sunlight, and make your plots within reasonable shooting distances for the type of hunting to be done (archery, muzzle loader or rifle). Fertilize your plots by broadcasting fertilizer or cattle manure on the field before preparing the seed bed and broadcasting your seeds.
I recommend planting low cost seeds such as winter wheat, oats, peas or other seeds that will germinate on top of the soil. The objective is to produce a crop quickly after the first rain and get the deer accustomed to feeding on the plot. Food plots don’t have to be expensive – for what we’ve laid out including fertilizer and seed you’ll have less than $50 and an hour of sweat equity invested in each plot. If you hunt each plot once or twice per season then you’ll have a good chance of taking a nice deer there.
While everyone else hunts major agricultural fields in hopes of finding an older buck you can hunt your small, hidden plots. Some bucks might show up early in the morning or late in the afternoon on their way to a staging area where they can feed after dark. Think of the food plot as appetizers on the way to dinner.
Use an aerial photograph or Google Earth picture of your land before deciding where to plant your food plots. Look for meadows, swampy areas and pine groves with third-row thinning. These are good areas for food plots. Pick out stand locations where you can set up ground blinds or tree stands, determine the direction of the prevailing winds and scout for thick bedding cover. After you’ve done your basic research plant the food plots, and enjoy the fruits of your labors when hunting season arrives.
Contact your local county agricultural agent to determine what seeds to plant in your specific location. There are a number of commercial seed blends to choose from on the market, such as Bio-Logic. Be sure to choose the right one for your soil, water and growing conditions. Planting successful food plots is the next step in farming for whitetails!
Rubs are a great way to learn the patterns of the bucks in your hunting area.
By Todd Amenrud
One of the marks of an adult buck, the so called "rub," is one of the best scouting aids a hunter has. During late summer very increased amounts of testosterone start flowing through a buck’s body - antler bone hardens, his velvet dries, and they all start on their way to making rubs. They continue to make rubs all the way through the season and into winter until they shed their antlers. Before trail cameras hit the market, reading rubs, scrapes and other physical sign was the best way to get close to a buck. If you learn to read it properly, it still can be.
The first rubs of the season happen as soon as their antlers harden. I’ve heard them referred to as “velvet rubs.” When the buck’s antlers harden the antler velvet dries, from this point on they start to rub on saplings, brush, tall weeds, fence posts, telephone poles and many other objects. Some think the first rubs of the season are to help peel the velvet from their “crown.” I believe they’re just testing out their new, hardened antlers. In fact, sometimes they don’t need to rub the velvet off at all. It just falls off or I’ve seen birds or other deer eat it off.
The famed rub is made from a buck scraping or rasping his antlers on a tree or sapling. It is likely made for several different reasons. One reason, and probably the most important, is to mark territory - not only visually, but by scent as well. A buck will rub his forehead and/or preorbital gland on the tree. This tells the other deer in the area exactly which buck made the rub. The first visible rubs in an area are usually made by the more mature bucks in the region.
Whether the bucks know they are in “training” or not, this feat also helps build up their neck muscles. It's nature’s way of seeing, that for the most part, only the strong survive and perpetuate. There are always going to be some inferior 1.5 year old bucks that will do some of the breeding, but with a fairly balanced herd the more dominant, stronger, older bucks do the bulk of the breeding.
For whatever reason the rub is made, it's an excellent way to learn much about a buck. Following their daily movements and then ambushing them along one of these paths is a proven tactic for harvesting trophy bucks.
When you come across a good density of rubs it usually means you've found an area where a buck is spending a good majority of his time. Called a "hub," "core area" or "secure area," it's definitely a spot we're trying to find. Whitetail will often have a number of different secure areas and many travel routes to and from them. They choose which bedding site or which trail to use depending upon where they have the best advantage to noticing predators. They may change secure areas and travel routes depending on time of year, the availability of cover, pressure or food source changes during the course of the season.
Once located a buck’s "bedroom" is a reliable origin to begin the hunt. Food sources, travel routes and other factors are not as dependable as their bedrooms. They pick these spots for a reason – consistent safety. If not spooked, or if the conditions don't change drastically, they'll usually go back to these spots day after day.
Different deer have different personalities. Some deer seem to love to rub on tees and others don't. The number of rubs can have something to do with the age and breeding status of a buck, as well as the buck to doe ratio in the area. Sometimes the type or size of the trees in an area can also influence the amount of rubs. If there aren’t many trees of the right size or type, obviously you won’t see as many rubs.
Direction of travel should be easy to tell. If a buck is traveling north, he's facing the south side of the tree, so the rubs should be on the south side of the tree. Size of the buck can be told too. You've all heard, “big deer rub on big trees; small deer rub on small trees.” For the most part that's true. However, big deer will also rub on small trees, but small deer don’t as often rub on big trees. If the rub is on a small tree, how high it is off the ground is a good indication - the higher off the ground, typically the bigger the buck. Unless the tree was so skinny a smaller buck could have pushed the tree over and worked up the tree that way.
As far as where to intercept a buck along a rub line - I like to work from his core area. I don't mean bust right into his bedding area, I mean use it as a starting point. Use it in conjunction with other things in their domain.
Once I've found out where a buck is spending the majority of his time, I try to put very little pressure on that spot. If you spook him from his secure spot, you may have to start all over again. Some bucks will tolerate very little before vacating the area.
You'll have to determine when and where is he going to give you a shot during legal hunting hours? Is he going to dawdle on his way back to his bedding site in the morning? Does he like to get up mid-day and drop downwind to scent check his bedding area?
Rubs are one of the best scouting aids available. Aside from an actual animal sighting or trail camera photo, you can gather more information from it then any other form of physical sign. If you search out rubs in your hunting area, they just might lead you to a buck this season.
Big Bucks, Public Land, and How to Find One on the Other
Finding not only deer on public land but big deer on public land doesn’t happen by accident, and if it does you want to stack the odds in your favor. Holden and her husband have been very successful in collecting record class bucks on public land with research, map reading, and knowing what big bucks head for when the hunting pressure is on. They call this “Reading.” Reading the research material, reading the maps for the selected areas and reading the habitat to find where the big bucks are holding up.
By Michelle Holden
One of Erik and Michelle Holden’s favorite and most consistent hunting trips is public land- general license- whitetail deer hunting. We have hunted National Forest land every year for the last 15 years for both deer and turkeys. With 193 million acres of National Forrest, BLM, State Ground and grasslands in the US, we all live within driving distance of great public land hunting.
In these vast lands it is imperative to learn a small area and learn it well. Get to know it like the back of your hand. Watch the patterns of the deer from year to year and learn which trails are most used. This is the secret to hunting and doing it on your own. As the years past, we have narrowed our active hunting plot down to a two-mile radius for both deer and turkey.
Opening morning we were on one of our favorite first light trails. As had played out many times before a buck worked his way up the trail toward us. It was a nice 4x4, a healthy young buck. Two other bucks followed. They were moving pretty fast as if they had been bumped by other hunters. They must have caught our scent because they stopped across the ridge from us not even 75 yards away. The second buck was big, real big. Erik didn’t even hesitate and took the shot. After the big buck reared and headed down the hill Michelle took the lead deer. It turned out Erik’s buck was a gorgeous 5x6 that scored 157”. Needless to say we revered that buck as a true trophy and a once in a lifetime buck. Both of us would say in conversations over the next few years that we would never see that class of deer on public land again.
November 2008, Erik dropped a nice 4x4 buck opening weekend. Michelle decided the next weekend to sit to an old go-to trail. Erik sat to her right helping spot any movement in the area. We were up on a ridge looking down in to a draw. The lure of hunting for Erik and Michelle is the unknown. You never know, as learned as you become, what an animal will do or where they will come from.
As the sky lightened we felt good about the spot where we were sitting. We kept scanning the trails that criss crossed through the oaks and pines, hoping to glimpse a buck worth pulling the trigger on. From where we sat it would be over a mile back to the truck, each of us packing half of a deer. The silence was deafening and it always seems like an eternity waiting merely minutes for an animal to make an appearance. Then Erik gave Michelle an elbow and whispered, ‘here comes a deer’. She looked to the left and heard leaves rustling, but had no visual. Erik said ‘It’s a good one too’. The excitement was obvious in his nearly inaudible voice. Michelle finally saw him coming up the trail, slowly checking tree branches and what we would later find to be scrapes. It took only a minute or so for the buck to check scents and work his way to the only opening for a shot. The whole time Michelle had this buck in her scope, she kept the cross hairs on his shoulder waiting for a shot. For only one moment, earlier, had Michelle seen his antlers as he lifted his nose to a high branch. It was a quick glance to see only that it was indeed a buck, and not a basket buck. As the deer approached the small opening, Erik blew his grunt tube. The buck stopped instantly and whipped his head up toward us. But all Michelle had was a head shot! Then for whatever reason, the buck shifted his weight forward just enough to expose the front of his shoulder. Michelle immediately pulled the trigger and he dropped right where he stood.
All the way home we debated about the size of this buck. Was it even as big as Erik’s? Was it bigger? He ended up scoring 163” gross and over 40” of mass.
What can you do to be successful on public land?
Reference: www.recreation.gov
This late season 6x5 loved the smell of Special Golden Estrus.
By Todd Amenrud
My dad taught me my first year hunting that many times it's the hunter with the most patience that bags the trophies. Late season can turn into an endurance test of seeing how long you're able to combat fatigue and possibly the frigid temperatures. I can remember hunting in -20 below actual temperature. In my opinion, it's not so much the temperature that gets you as the wind. Although, any time it's below zero, I don't pretend to be macho, that's cold – period. I maximize my hunting time better than I used to when I was younger, however, preparing for what you will encounter during late season is often the difference between success and failure.
The last gun hunter has passed through, the crops are down, and many times there's a blanket of snow covering the ground. The foliage is off the trees, deer are starting to reform their social structures, and tracks are easy to pick up if we have snow. Late season can be the time to catch up with a real "wall hanger".
Oftentimes hunters feel that all the scouting was done earlier in the year and now is the time to hunt and reap the rewards. I adamantly disagree. I put in just as much time in scouting during late season as I do any other time of the year. Things are changing dramatically in the whitetail world during November through January and it’s important that you stay on top of the changes.
The frenzy of peak rut may be over, but the bucks are still ready to breed at the drop of a hat. Any sign of a receptive doe can encourage them to go berserk again. In some areas not all the does get successfully bred the first go. Some people call it a "secondary rut". It's a fact, sometimes a few does will make it through a couple of estrus cycles before being effectively bred. Many times this happens in areas where there are too many does.
If there's snow at this time, their food sources become limited as well. All the chlorophyll has dropped from the leaves, crops have been harvested, food is harder for them to come by and preferred food sources become much easier to locate. With snow, tracks are much easier to see and favorite travel routes are obvious.
Late season is a great time to intercept them cruising for that last receptive doe. Estrus scents like Special Golden Estrus or breeding scents like Active Scrape can work well this period. A couple years ago I was fortunate enough to harvest a nice late season 6x5 by placing out 4 scent wicks soaked with Special Golden Estrus. Once he got about 70 yards downwind of the scent, he came right in with his nose waving in the air.
Although there are many scent scenarios that you can create, during late season your application methods are a bit more limited. "Cool tools" like an Ultimate Scrape Dripper, now will freeze up in the late season temperatures, and in deep snow scent trails are more difficult to create. Just simply luring deer from downwind with lure soaked wicks is still a great method to use. Simply place out your wicks at your maximum confident shooting range crosswind from your position to lure in deer from downwind before they get straight downwind from you.
After all the does are bred whitetail will start to reform their social structures. The bucks start to tolerate each other more, and the does start to socialize in their doe-fawn family groups. Alpha- grandmother doe slowly starts becoming the dominant deer in the area again. Many times if the snow is early enough, you can catch them going into their winter patterns while there's still time left in the season. On the other hand, sometimes they'll totally vacate an area for one that will sustain them in the harsh months ahead. Look for areas with conifer trees and thicker brush to protect them from the elements. They are usually easier to predict in their winter patterns.
It wasn't too long ago that deer numbers were such that some hunters applied a doe license just so they had a reasonable chance of getting to hunt deer at all.
By Doug Leier
My guess is that most deer hunters don't tire of the “Turdy Point Buck” tune on the radio until the backside of deer season. For a change, though, I'd sure enjoy listening to a refrain about hunting doe in North Dakota.
Then again, doe hunting doesn’t quite get the credit it deserves. In fact, when stories of deer seasons past bounce around like an empty pop can in the box of a pickup, odds are you won't hear many recollections about “the time Joe got that doe down in the coulee.”
Seriously, next time the coffee conversation kicks up a deer hunting story and the rest of the crew begin adding their own into the mix, keep a mental count of how many include our antlerless deer. My guess is not too many, but when you really think about it in terms of total licenses, you realize that the majority of the deer hunting effort and harvest is does.
That wasn't always the case. It wasn't too long ago that deer numbers were such that some hunters applied a doe license just so they had a reasonable chance of getting to hunt deer at all.
Nowadays, about 90 percent of hunters in North Dakota’s first deer lottery drawing apply for a buck license, knowing there aren’t enough buck licenses to go around, but that antlerless licenses will be available in most units after the first lottery.
Part of the interest in these remaining licenses is that they can be used in their designated unit during the regular deer rifle season with any legal firearm or bow, the archery season with a bow, and also during the muzzleloader season with a legal blackpowder gun.
From a deer management standpoint in North Dakota, does are the key. Game and Fish Department big Bill Jensen relates, "The way you control the deer population is not by shooting bucks, but by shooting does.”
Jensen said each adult doe will, on average, give birth to two fawns in the spring. So, for example, if that adult doe is not bagged this fall, by next November there will be three deer running around instead of just one. “Deer are a pretty forgiving species,” Jensen said, “so if you just allow them to do their thing and reproduce, they are pretty easy to manage.
“But once you’ve hit your goals and you have to start controlling the population, then it becomes much more difficult in balancing the harvest rate. “We need to get a good doe harvest in order to control deer populations …it’s as simple as that,” he said. “And if hunters are not doing that, if they are not helping in the process of harvesting does, they are not fostering sound deer management.”
I'm not exactly sure when or why doe hunting for meat became a stigma for some hunters. But obviously it is not that way for a majority of hunters, who eagerly snap up nearly all of the antlerless licenses the Department makes available.
Jensen partly attributes a societal shift to the change in philosophy of some hunters. “When I was growing up, and maybe this is misperception, but it was nice if you got a big buck,” he said.“But it was more important that you got meat.”
People had more of a tie to the land back then, Jensen said. They grew up on farms and looked at animals as something to garnish the dinner table, not adorn a wall. “Whereas now, there has been a one or two generational shift in families away from the farm, and hunting has become more of a social event, a rekindling of family traditions.”
I totally relate to hunting as a social event … but deer on the table as the ultimate objective. Whether it's me and my son, or your regular crew, the faces will change, but the passion for deer hunting in North Dakota remains, just like a good story at coffee, it never goes cold.
Leier is a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. He can be reached by email: dleier@nd.gov
Mock scrapes can be a fun, anticipation filled way of filling your tag this fall.
By Todd Amenrud
Using a buck’s scrapes as a focal point to get close enough for a shot is a great tactic from October through December. However, without the use of a trail camera or a heat activated scent dripper, it might be difficult to determine when a scrape is being hit. Mock scrapes can be a great way to entice bucks into an area and get them to hang around longer.
By using data collected from trail cameras set up both, at mock scrapes and existing scrapes without drippers, there’s no question that you’re odds are significantly better at scrape areas that have drippers. This wasn’t conducted as a scientific study, but I would estimate your odds are at leastfive times greater when using a dripper(s).
My best luck comes from making a series of mock scrapes and using Ultimate Scrape Drippers over them. The Ultimate Scrape Drippers are heat activated so they drip during daylight hours. This conditions bucks into showing up during legal shooting light and staying in the area longer. This method has produced several P&Y qualifiers for me.
Targeting the right area is important. I tend to pay less attention to scrapes made on field perimeters and concentrate on scrape areas closer to bedding areas. You want to target an area that a buck is claiming as his. Then move in and make it look and smell like there's a rival buck invading his turf. Look for the areas with the largest scrapes, spots that contain clusters of scrapes, and scrapes that you know have been freshened again and again.
Once I find the area, I search out the same type of tree with the same height licking branch that the buck originally approved of. When making your mock scrapes try to duplicate the variables that the specific buck that you're after preferred.
The actual mock scrape is best created with a sturdy stick found in the area. Try to make the scrape on flat ground if possible and make sure it is free from all debris. It is also very important to keep foreign odor out of the picture.
A hunter should use all other aids and information in conjunction with their scrapes. Know where the does are bedding, what the preferred food sources are at that time, where your target buck is bedding, and where he may have other active scrape areas. Take in the "big picture" of the whole area and use your mock scrapes in relationship with other factors when making your set-up.
By Todd Amenrud
The buck followed my scent trail with his nose to the ground heading away. I didn’t like to see him heading the wrong way, but I wasn’t too worried because I had planned accordingly. About a half hour later the buck reappeared following the same scent trail but now in my direction. When he reached 22 yards out I drove a Hoyt propelled CX shaft through both lungs and watched the buck topple over.
Some bowhunters complain of not having a lot of shot opportunities. Many see plenty of deer but just can’t get them into range. One of my favorite tactics to lure in bucks close is by leading them with a scent trail. If you can fool their unbelievable sense of smell, you’ve got it made.
We have many different tools to create scent trails with but my preferred way is with a device called a Pro-Drag. It is a super absorbent piece of felt tied to a string. I then can tie the string to a stick found in the area. This way I’m able to drag the scent trail off of the exact path my feet are leaving. Obviously, in thick brush or heavy timber you can’t drag the trail off to one side, but where ever possible this method will leave the cleanest, most pristine scent trail possible.
When leaving a scent trail in a straight line, you’ve only got a fifty-fifty chance the buck will follow the trail in your direction. A cure-all for this problem is a figure 8 scent trail. Create your trail in a figure 8 and place yourself downwind of the intersection of the 8. Then regardless of where the buck cuts the trail or which way he follows it, eventually he’ll wind up in front of you.
This may or may not be the best way for you to leave a trail; you have to use your judgment. But I’ve seen this method fool even mature Pope & Young candidates time and time again. Obviously, every situation is different. However, this can also be a great way to bring bucks in close enough for an easy archery shot.
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