MikeHanback.com

Rack Fact: Look for Tall Tines

This buck was reportedly just shot in Clermont County, Ohio and grossed around 170". Great deer, way to go man! Focus on the tines on the right side, that is where this animal racks up score. Add up brow and G-2,3 and 4 and you get at least 32" right there. Everybody talks about width, but if it's score you want, width means little. A buck with an 18" inside spread scores 3 more inches than a 15" wide animal. Now imagine if the Ohio buck had tines only half as long; he'd be a good mature deer, but he'd score 16" less in that area of his rack alone. The beauty of a buck is in the eye of the hunter. If you don't give a flip about score, fine, shoot any buck that turns your crank this weekend. But if it's score you're after, look for tine lenght moving through the woods. Spot 3 tall tines on one side like the Ohio buck and get ready, you're looking at a big 10-pointer (assumes the other side of his rack matches up or isn't broken, and most of the time it works out). Shoot man!

"getting a clear mind before deer season"

Matt (aka Flatlander) had been missing in action awhile, here's why:

Mike: With all the busyness of working 2 jobs, getting food plots in this summer and having a baby I was no where near ready to sit 3 hours in a tree stand. I needed something to get me in a whole new frame of mind for the fall season ahead. Nothing does this better than a week in the Boundary Waters of Ontario and Minnesota. But no matter how much I tried to get my mind off deer hunting and keep it on fishing, I still watched the shore for deer crossings and places to hang a stand...even had this little doe (below) swim the lake past our boat one day. I am back and officially ready for the season now with a renewed outlook. Glad to be back and check the blog, missed it greatly. Thx, Matt

Matt is onto something. Sometimes we get so hyped for deer season, not to mention the stress of juggling life (kids, gas, cost of food, crumbling house values, Wall Street crooks, is your bank going under, what's left of your 401K, this never-to-end-it seems election...), that you need to step back and take a deep breath. This is the best time of year to spend a few days fishing, camping, hiking, playing golf, walking on a beach, jogging, whatever rejuvenates your mind and revs your motor. Come back relaxed and with a clear head, grab bow or gun and then go hunt like a wild man; you'll have more fun, hunt better and make fewer mistakes. The mental part of hunting is just as important as the physical, maybe more so don't you think?

 

How to Shoot a Giant Buck on 25 Acres

Mike: The 25 acres are almost all hardwoods with a stream along one edge. I will try to get down there on a monthly basis for trail-cam and scouting, but with gas and a new addition to the family, I probably won’t get to do as much as I would like. Thanks for your advice for hunting this new spot, Eli.

Eli, drive down this weekend and walk the entire 25. Look and think. Carry an aerial map, check the perimeters; look for funnels, edges, etc. where deer will come onto and off the land. Don’t worry if you spook deer, they will be back, so scout aggressively and look for stand spots.

Hardwoods, good. Check the treetops to see which have green acorns and other mast. When the nuts fall in bow season, deer will smash them, be in a stand close by. The timber provides screen cover, so some deer will stage there most days, again good.

Set out at least one cam on a trail to see if you can spot a monster.

The key to hunting 25 is not to push deer out when you go in. Plan easy, quiet routes that won’t take you busting through thick cover. Plan your in and out to skirt the deer.

BTW ALL BLOGGERS, GOOD ADVICE FOR ANY NEW PROPERTY OF ANY SIZE: Begin by hunting from the outside in and gradually move stands toward the innards of the land once you’ve watched some deer, seen where they come and go, when you've started to figure things out.

My favorite stand is off-wind of a super trail on a ridge (picture) that cuts through the entire property. Watch the main highway enough and you will see a giant.

Hunt in October, but don't over do it and burn out the 25. Nov. 1-14 is the best time to kill a monster. Also, you have an unbelievable opportunity when shotgun season opens. Climb into your best stand on the 25 and sit all day. When other guys swarm and shoot on lands all around, bucks will flee through your little spot, I guarantee it without seeing it.

One thing that could mess Eli up are trespassers. I advised him to ask the little old lady if he could post her land with new signs. Eli had the balls to ask and get permission. He is the one who ought to kill one of those massive IN 10-pointers there in a couple of months :)

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.