MikeHanback.com

First Look: Eyedeal Camouflage

Mike: Didn't know if you have seen this camo pattern yet. It's definitely different and wondered what you thought. Thanks, Jim

I had not seen it, so I checked the Eyedeal website. One thing I read does have some truth and merit:

Most other camouflage patterns create a dark blob that deer can spot in a tree. Eyedeal Camo fools a deer’s eyesight with a vertical illusion, and you blend in perfectly with the tree and sky-line behind you.

I qualify that by saying the “dark blob” would only be a potential problem in mid- to late-season woods when leaves are down (like in the picture) and even then it is arguable that a blob (you up in the stand) would spook deer if you kept still. But I will say this is an interesting concept. By adding the vertical strip it further breaks your silhouette, and that is always good, so I am certain it would work OK in a tree stand.

What do you think, would you buy it?

The bigger question, can a specialty pattern like this go up against Mossy Oak and Realtree and survive, especially in this economic climate? Many have tried, few have suceeded.

Knight & Hale Red Locator Beacon

Today’s earlier post jogged my memory. While I am generally not a gadget hunter, the Knight and Hale Locator Beacon is a good idea and worth $28.

Remember mornings you've tromped in the dark, cracking sticks, falling down, cussing, spreading scent, spooking animals, ruining a spot? This is not just a nimrod mistake. I have done it when I knew exactly where my perch was, and with stands I had bright-eyed with tacks. They go missing in the dark :) One time in the Alabama swamps, I got turned around, ended up on a county road 3 miles after daybreak and to this day have never found the damn lock-on. I didn’t get my buck that morning, LOL.

Hang Beacon on stand, walk into general area, hit small remote, look for red light (will flash up to 100 yards away), go to stand. Sensible gadget.

Buck-Doe Scent Trail

I saw this Double Drag system over at www.codebluescents.com and thought it was interesting and worth $12. You douse the short wick with hot doe and the long one with buck urine/tarsal to simulate a horny buck trailing a hot doe. Will this make your scent trails better? Who knows, but it couldn't hurt to put down both scents in the rut.

Do you lay scent trails to your stands? When? How? What brand? Does the ruse work or is it overblown? Ever had a big buck follow your trail right in?

Buck on a Truck Decals

BIG DEER blogger Mark has started a cool gig. If you're looking for a new sticker for your truck, help a hunting brother out:

Mike: We at www.buckonatruck.com provide hunters with a custom decal of YOUR buck. You sweat, scout, freeze and hunt hard to get your buck, so why not put that proud rack on your truck (or car)? Rather than sticking some generic deer decal on the window, show YOUR buck’s kickers, mass, spread, G-2s, dog catchers or big drop-tine :) Whether it’s a huge non-typical for your 4x4 or a nice, clean 8-pointer for your new hybrid, we’ll make a cool decal for your ride.

Right now we’re offering 10% off for our fellow BIG DEER bloggers, valid until August 8. Go to our site, select a design, upload a photo of a buck you shot, proceed to checkout and enter the code HBKBIGDEER for your discount. We’ll build and send you a durable vinyl decal of YOUR buck. We do elk and muleys too!

Thanks Mike, your blog is great and can’t wait to see the new site! Mark in Texas

Do Deer Look Up in Trees?

Let’s stay on stand gear. It’s not a bad idea to spend $40 for the Pro Cover Treestand blind, made to Velcro to any climber, lock-on or ladder you have. The camo will break your outline and more importantly cover your hand movements and fidgeting when deer approach and look up. They do look up you know, more so in some regions than others.

I once had an old Alabama redneck (term used fondly) tell me, “Boy, our deer walk around with their heads back, looking up in the trees, cause so many of their brothers and sisters and second cousins have had an arrow run through ‘em.” If you have bowhunted pressured, spooky-ass Southern deer you know what my old redneck friend is talking about. 

BTW, I read where a biologist said a deer’s eyes are oriented to pick up predator movement at or just below the horizon. He said a deer is much less adept at picking up movement above the horizon, so you can get away with more movement in a high tree stand than on the ground.

Sometimes, maybe. But when an 8-pointer or old doe is 100 yards out and coming straight in on a string (animal eyes with a wide field of view) you’d better be damn still. Actually, freeze and let the deer walk right in below your stand, then move. Rarely will a deer crane its head and look straight up, unless you bang the stand with your boot or do some other foolish thing. 

Back to the tree stand blind. It is a good idea but not a novel idea, as there have been several versions around for years (or you could just duct-tape a camo mesh skirt around the base of your stand). It couldn’t hurt to cover your moves, so why haven’t blinds caught on? Too much hassle to use, I guess. Come to think of it I’ve never fooled with one either, but it’s still worth 40 bucks.

Like your Tree Stand Big or Small?

Gorilla Treestands introduces King Kong, a 17-foot-high ladder stand with a 39” by 39” platform. Pull a tape out to 39” and hold it in front of you—that's big, man. The company says it built its largest stand ever because “hunters continue to look for stands that offer more comfort and more room."

IMO they are spot-on about the trend. It is mainly because our hunting population as a whole is aging. Guys with graying hair or no hair, bad knees, achy backs and/or a spare tire around the belt like and in fact need more room and comfort, not to mention something  that is safe and easy to climb. Also, it seems to me that a lot of new hunters are not so savvy about hanging and climbing lock-on stands. If those guys are safer in a Kong-size ladder, that is a good thing.

BTW, years ago I would not have been caught dead hauling a ladder into the woods for bowhunting, much less one with a platform you could dance a jig on. I always thought the smaller, the higher, the easier the stand to hide from a buck, the better. I used to happily hunt 25 feet up on a 12” x 12” platform, squirreling my way up and down on screw-in steps.

Hell, no more. I don’t know if I’m quite ready for a stand as big and heavy as Kong (120 pounds) with a gun-shooting rail (we used to call it a "sissy bar") but I admit to fondness for a ladder. Pain in the ass to haul in and/or move, but easy and safe up and down for sure.

What about you, like your stands big or small? Does size matter to the deer? In other words, if it’s too big and looks funny stuck on a tree, will a buck freak and spook?

Buy It: Hooyman Tree Saw

You need to spend $40 for this thing, especially if you hang a lot of bow stands. The Hooyman saw fits in your pack and telescopes out to 5 feet. Whether you’re on the ground or strapped into a stand 18 feet up, use it to reach out and trim branches, vines and shooting lanes.The carbon blade is guaranteed sharp and durable. You'll never lug a big, heavy pole saw into the woods again. You'll never miss another deer because your arrow clipped a @%&&**$ branch you could not reach.

Ruff & Tuff Electric 4-Wheeler

Ruff and Tuff, whose mission is “to help save the planet by providing people with transportation methods that are better for the environment and that save people money versus the gasoline powered alternatives,” announces the launch of the first-ever, single-motor, 4-wheel-drive electric hunting vehicle. The Hunter 4x4 is supposedly powerful (14 HP), quiet and has a 50-mile range on a single charge with its “clean and green” dry-cell battery system (48 volt, onboard charger). It can reach top speeds up to 25 mph.

The question: Would you spend $9,500 for an electric 4-wheeler (base price)? With $5 gas this fall and maybe $10 next season, I’m betting a lot of hunters would (will). Sales of electric scooters and even grass mowers are through the roof, so why not hunting buggies?

Personally I would like the hum of this machine--one of my theories is be quiet as you can so you don’t tell a big deer you are coming in to hunt him. But I’d want a thorough test drive to see how powerful this thing is. Would it have enough giddy-up to bust up out of a bog and onto a ridge with a 200-plus gutted buck on the back? The website says the 2-person model (picture) can "tackle hillsides with up to a 1,000 pounds of people and equipment aboard" so it ought to do the job.

Full-Body Kooler for Your Deer

Cool idea. Shoot a big deer, gut it, stick it in the Trophy Bag Kooler, ice down and hit the road. Meat, hide and cape stay chilled and clean (no dirt, road grime or green flies). Plus, remember last year when we talked about strapping a bloody buck to the top of your SUV and transporting it out in the open? Some people have a problem with the image that creates (BTW, not me, I never apologize for being a hunter and shooting deer and gutting them and yes, they bleed). But shucks, even I’ve got to admit this camo bundle will look better atop your Tahoe or 4Runner (or greenie-weenie hybrid :) Cost of $210 to $230 will scare some people away, but still a neat idea.

New CRP Debate: Crops vs. Wildlife

A wildlife habitat crisis is brewing, especially in middle America. Thousands of farmers are seriously debating whether or not to pull millions of their acres out of the federal Conservation Reserve Program. For the last 20 years CRP has paid landowners roughly $50 an acre not to plow and plant their land. As the lands have sat idle for 10 years and grown tangled with trees, shrubs, brush and grass, game has flourished. CRP has been a huge factor in the big-buck boom across the Midwest, not to mention all the pheasants.

Now the prices a farmer can get for corn and other commodities are soaring (not to mention the ethanol factor). "I'm all for conservation," a North Dakota farmer said in this good article. "But the market is the market -- farmers are businessmen, too." 

Opinions are flying. Most people, including me, do not begrudge a man’s right to make money off his land. Farming is damn tough business. But then there are people who say: “The farmers can’t have it both ways. When crop prices were in the tank, they took the money from CRP and ran. Now that they can make more by planting more, they want to say the hell with it, let me plant every acre I can.”

Big Daddy posted the other day: The world is a lot bigger than hunting. Yes, there are millions of hard-working Americans with no dog in the hunting/wildlife fight who believe that if farmers can plant more acres and grow more crops, and if that will help keep soaring food prices down, do it. They don’t give a wit about a cock pheasant or a buck deer, they want to feed their families and make ends meet. Tough as hell to argue with them.

One thing is for sure: If and when more CRP acres are cleared and planted, wildlife will lose. Deer will still survive and thrive in the edges, but there will be less cover to grow as many old, big bucks. Hunters will lose access to more private acres, which is perhaps an even bigger issue. Clean air and water quality will suffer.

It’s another tough but important issue driven by our new economy. So what do you hunters and farmers think?