MikeHanback.com

Find Your Buck this Weekend (summer scout tips)

Hey Mike: I’m going to set my trail cameras over the 4th of July weekend while I’m out introducing my 3-year-old to camping on our property. Do you and the other BIG DEER bloggers have any tips for starting to pattern the big boys? Thanks, Doug 

Doug, try setting a cam in a spot you have never scouted or hunted before. It is uncanny how big deer sometimes live in out-of-the-way spots we neglect. Sneak into a new place with your kid. Look for a creek crossing, swamp point, ridge saddle, etc. and set a cam there. Leave it up and running for a few weeks. Check it and you might find a couple of bucks using the area; if so, chances are they’ll still be around when bow season opens. Or, you might get zero deer images. That’s okay too, because you’ll know not to waste time hunting that area. What a cam does not show is important, too.

Bloggers, please weigh in with more scouting/camera tips for Doug and the rest to try this weekend and for the next couple of months? Less than 100 days to find your buck, man!

One of the Best Deer Funnels to Bowhunt

Last week we got a good discussion going about suburban deer. Bill talked about bowhunting an urban zone near Indianapolis:

One of the best stand sites backs up against the interstate. Weird being in that tree before daybreak and hearing cars and trucks going behind me. But it turns out to be a great travel route. They go from park property on the other side of the interstate, follow a creek under the interstate and move through the property. Two 10 pointers and a good-sized 8 were taken last year.

He hits on a killer bow tactic. A bridge access or box culvert beneath a busy interstate or a lonely rural road is a great deer funnel. Whitetails are like us; they take the easiest, safest path from A to B whenever they can. Why jump a fence, clatter across 2 or 4 lanes of blacktop and dodge cars when you could stroll casually and hidden in a ditch or creek beneath a highway? Just look at the picture--if you were a buck wouldn't you walk through there?

I have never shot a buck in a funnel like this, but I know a lot of guys who have. Try it if one exists where you hunt. Check the creek/river bank or culvert mud and you’ll see all the tracks. Analyze the trail that runs out from the funnel and hang a stand maybe 80 to 100 yards or farther off the road (your state might have a minimum legal hunting distance from a public road, so know that and abide). Set up high on a bank if you can. If it’s open country like the picture and you can glass the funnel for a buck coming or going through it, that’s good. Anybody tried this?

Note: Strictly a bow tactic. For obvious reasons never gun hunt close to a road funnel.

Best Moons for Big Bucks: 2008

Hi Mike: Love your site and your TV shows. My hunting buddies and I are planning a Midwest bowhunt this year. We checked the moon phases and they (full moons) seem to be smack in the middle of Oct. and Nov. What would your suggestion be to hunt the rut this year? Thanks, Joe

PS:  I’m after that drop-tine buck too!

Joe, IMO you could do well hunting the dark-moon week of Oct.28, as the mature bucks begin to expand their range and scrape like mad, increasingly in daylight. You might shoot a giant on or around Halloween. If you’ll go in Nov., the 6th to 12th (first-quarter moon this year) would be my top pick because big numbers of bucks will be active. If you hunt the full-moon week (Nov. 13-18) definitely sit all day and expect brief if intense midday buck activity.

I ran your question by friends Mark and Terry Drury, two of the best bowhunters in the Midwest who factor the rising and falling moon heavily into their routine. The bros said:

"Best moon we could have. If it’s cold weather, look out!  Could be the best early October we’ve seen in a while. The moon should be rising during normal feeding times the entire first two weeks, with Oct. 5 – 12 the best. Same holds true for November afternoons at the food source during the seeking phase of early Nov. Afternoons should rock, and then more of a morning to midday strategy about Nov. 12. Afternoons may be very tough during that period though. Deer movement should switch from PM to AM around Nov. 13 or 14.  If it’s cold, it could be the rut of all ruts!"

Anybody else put faith in the moon and have more to add? Or maybe you say to hell with moon phase and just hunt hard whenever you can get off work in Nov.? (Not a bad strategy either I might add).

BTW, good luck Joe, if you smoke old drop-tine send me a picture :)

Noise Camo for Big Bucks

A major railroad runs the perimeter of the Strommen ranch on the Milk River MT where I archery hunt every fall. Long trains barrel through on the hour or so, and Luke and I use that “noise camo” to our advantage (Luke coined the term, pretty cool). As a train approaches and roars by, we make a mad dash for our tree stands and climb up as far and fast as we can before the train leaves and the noise dissipates. No question, fewer deer hear us coming in and getting set up. You can also use airplane noise (esp. if you hunt in a major flyway) and steady road traffic like that. Gotta be sneaky to kill Mr. Big, man.

Some Thoughts on Deer Decoys

I have always found a decoy to be a pain. It is big, bulky and, most worrisome to me, incredibly noisy to cart through the woods, banging on limbs and raking brush. On top of that, I’m not sold on how one works. Set out a fake deer and real deer will see it, all right. Some of them will blow and haul ass the other way.

I have had curious bucks approach a decoy and come into easy gun range, so I know they can work. Trouble was, I was always hunting with a bow on those days. BTW, It is probably not smart to use a decoy in gun season for obvious reasons, although I can’t imagine a good, responsible hunter shooting a plastic deer out from under you. But stupid people do stupid things, and there stupid people in the world. If you set a decoy in gun season, do so at your own risk.

Story: One day out on the Milk River last November when the bucks were getting their rut on, Luke Strommen worried me to death to try a new-fangled decoy he and a buddy had just bought. “Look, it’s got a movable tail and everything,” Luke crowed, waging the appendage. (My buddy lives in rural NE Montana; it does not take much to get him excited :) “OK,” I relented, but I’m not carrying the damn thing.” Luke laughed and happily toted the incredibly loud, hollow-plastic deer into some timber. He stuck a pair of small, fake antlers on his head (deer’s, not Luke’s), hid in the grass 20 yards away and began rattling and grunting. I was the shooter, and so set up 30 yards upwind to his left.

Damned if a 140-class buck didn’t see the thing and come sneaking in! But alas, like all the bucks I’d tried to decoy before him, he hung up about 40 yards behind the fake, froze, stared, stamped his foot and, finally, busted out of there like his hide was afire. But I was closer than ever this time, having  drawn an arrow and let it down once. Funny, bummer, Luke was so hidden and into the calling that he never saw the buck or knew what was going on, so I ended up having all the fun, not him.

BTW, I have never had a rut-crazed buck run in and fight/demolish a decoy like some of the stories you hear. I don’t doubt that it happens on occasion, but not very much.

Having said all that, and still a decoy skeptic, I am going to try a new one that caught my eye, a lightweight, easy-to-pack doe (think inflatable). I think it would be kick-ass to kill a good buck over a decoy for a TV show on Versus, and I am going to try and make it happen this fall. More on that new decoy I'll use tomorrow. For now, anybody got a decoy story, good or bad?

Trail-Jumping Part 2: Big-Buck Scent Control

Great discussion on scent-control and deer trails. I read all your comments and offer more.

Much of what we believe about big bucks is abstract. We think a 10-pointer will do this or that, but we never really know….until we see an old buck react a certain way to something we did, and then our abstract theory becomes more real and solid. And that is why I started jumping trails.

In IL a few years ago I saw a 10-pointer, rack 170 if it was an inch, coming on a trail, slow-paced with head down, just the way you want them to walk into killing range. He was 100 yards when I clipped on the release and it struck me—I am going to kill a Boone-gross buck with my bow. Then at once he stopped, turned and melted off into the brush—at the exact point where I had crossed the trail an hour earlier en route to my stand. I saw that monster react to my lingering scent, and that is why I don’t cross trails anymore, or at the very least try to jump the ones I do have to cross.

Interesting note: That buck did not stop, freak, blow, etc. He just caught a whiff of me and turned and skulked off, and that is how the big boys react, calm and cool but getting the hell out of Dodge. It is the young bucks that go berserk and blow up.

A lot of guys commented that if you wear a scent-suit and scent-eliminating boots/covers you won’t have a problem crossing trails. Those items help and I wear them most days, and I always spray heavily with a scent-killer. Still, when you see a monster smell you, you don’t soon forget it. And so I jump, and I think you should too. What could it hurt?

BTW, this photo is the next frame to the one I posted yesterday. See how far on the other side of the trail I'll land? I'm pretty damn proud, that is some big air! Ian commented that "a back flip would have been awesome, lol." I got a kick out of that :)

2 Big-Buck Tactics to Remember

Here are a couple of things you have never thought about; they will help you smack a buck this fall.

Don’t walk on a trail. Rather, parallel it as far as you can on the downwind side. If and when you have to cross, back up for momentum, run, jump far/high and land on the other side to minimize scent/contact with the trail. (You old guys might want to stretch a bit beforehand so you don’t pop a hammy.) Luke Strommen, who snapped this picture of me doing it one day in MT, said, “Damn, you can still get some big air for an old guy.” Smart you know what :)

Don’t touch rubs and scrapes like you see guys doing on TV and in pictures. Rather, stop 30 yards or so downwind of sign and glass it and the surrounding terrain/cover. Not only do you minimize your scent and disturbance in the area, you get a bigger and clearer picture of how deer come and go to the sign. That gives you a better idea of where to set your tree stand to kill Mr. Big.

Rat Year: Hunt Smarter, Harder For a Big Buck

I have no earthly idea why I was reading AOL Horoscopes, but I was and ran across this: February 7 not only ushers in the Chinese New Year…but the commencement of a fresh 12-year cycle. Therefore, the Year of the Rat is associated with fresh starts, new opportunities and hard work.

Of course I had to put that in buck-hunting terms:

Fresh starts/new opportunities: Legendary KY hunter Harold Knight told me one time, “Man, you can be the best hunter in the country, but you’ll never kill a big buck if you hunt in an area that has no big bucks.” I thought that was silly and irrelevant at the time, but the man is right.

Say for the last 5 or 10 years you’ve hunted a spot with too many people…too much gunfire…or just a place with a poor herd/too many does. Well, heed the Rat, get off your butt and find new ground to hunt on this fall. It won’t be easy and you might have to pay a lease fee, but do it. Otherwise, you’ll keep killing does and 4s and 6s. There is nothing wrong with that if you’re after meat, but if it is a big rack you seek change it up.

Hard work: Hunters (including me) are lazier than we used to be 10 years ago. We are older, busier, have more technology to help us scout and hunt better, etc. Plus, face it, we sit on our asses, eat and drink too much and watch too much TV.

We don’t walk/scout new areas or move our stands as much as we should. I shot some of the best bucks of my life when I was in my 20s and early 30s by strapping a stand on my back and hiking a mile or more into a rough-ass spot that nobody else wanted to hunt. When I killed a 200-pounder, I sadistically enjoyed the sweaty, muscle-burning drag out, found it invigorating and satisfying--worth it after having just shot the life out of a grand animal.

Simple. If you and I would work out more and scout/hunt a little smarter and harder, we would as a collective group kill more big bucks this Rat fall and for the next 11 years.

Oh yeah, this was in the astrology post too: No matter what year you were born, you will make progress with new ventures. Drop tine maybe?