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Corrigan's Corner By Michael C. Corrigan Stay cool while hunting hot-weather whitetail If you are going to hunt the early season bow opener this year, you must really want it. It is down right hot in most parts of the country when the archery season arrives and it is particularly miserable in the Southeast. Perhaps the hottest, wettest and most bug-infested place in the nation for an early season bowhunter to venture is a Florida swamp. Indeed the Sunshine State's subtropical swamps are so miserable that many simply wait until the first cool fronts approach before venturing a field. Being that I am a Florida bowhunter who has hunted these foreboding locations for over twenty years, I have learned to cope with temperatures that nearly blow the tops off thermometers. Yes, it's hot and, yes, the bugs are relentless, but this time of year is perhaps the most productive time to harvest whitetails in my state and in many other parts of the country. Highly preferred soft mast food sources are available for deer this time of year and in some locations, hard mast crops are also available. At no other time are deer less pressured and more predictable to pattern than during the early season. Combine this with the fact that you can take whitetails of either-sex in most states with archery equipment and it is not hard to see why diehard bowhunters venture from the comforts of their air-conditioned homes. Staying cool and dry, and controlling your scent is a tall order this time of year. However, there are some tricks I have developed that will help you to better control your scent and increase your comfort level on even the hottest of days. Walking, actual physical exertion is your worst enemy when hunting in hot temperatures. I recall one early season day sitting in my tree stand, after I had walked nearly half a mile to my stand location with a portable tree stand and bow in tow; I thought, "how nice it would be if I could simply magically materialize in my tree stand." If I didn't have to walk to get to my stand location, then I wouldn't be dripping with sweat from head to toe when I arrived. Indeed, reducing the distance you walk from the truck to your stand will dramatically reduce how much you sweat. Over the years I have recorded the locations of specific soft and hard mast food sources in my hand held GPS. Some are a bit far away but several locations are no more than one or two hundred yards from the truck. I still have to walk to get to these locations, but the distance is very short. Also, I am in no hurry when I walk to these locations. For many, their first instinct is to hurry up and get there before they get sweated up. Sprinting to your stand site is a sure fire way to get over heated. Keeping your heart rate low is paramount. I like to scout early season hunting grounds at least a week or two before the opener. I check out specific GPS recorded food source locations that were productive in past years. I trim low hanging branches off trees and clip small shrubs and other vegetation at ground level along the trail I plan to use to enter my chosen stand locations. I do this for several reasons. First of all, I am not walking far from the truck so it is not much work to do this. Trimming an easy access trail means I won't have to bend, contort and step around obstacles on the way to my stand; this will get you overheated in a hurry. Thirdly, if I do sweat, I won't be rubbing up against vegetation and leaving a stinky human scent trail all the way to my stand site. With some preplanning you should have several pegged food source locations that are a short distance from the truck and obstacle free access trails to reach them. To further reduce physical exertion and the sweat that comes with it, take with you only what is absolutely necessary. Ideally, if you can pre-hang a lock-on style tree stand, then you can dramatically reduce the weight you are carrying by twenty to thirty pounds or more. If theft is an issue and you must carry in a portable stand, then perhaps look into some of the lightweight models available that employ carbon construction technology, such as those produced by Ol'Man Tree Stands. Stand locations should be well thought out in advance. A shady spot is a must. Sitting in a direction that is facing the sun is a great way to burn up in a hurry. Even on extremely hot days, sitting motionless in the shade is tolerable. Also, be sure to take along a canteen of frozen water. Drinking cold fluids will help cool the body and keep you hydrated. How you dress on 90-degree plus days will greatly determine your comfort level. Because it is both hot and buggy where I hunt, I use Shannon - Bug Tamer camouflage clothing. The cool open-air construction and total bug protection afforded is second to none. I wear only boxer shorts under the Bug Tamer pants and I wear nothing under the long sleeve hooded jacket. The open-air construction of these garments allow the body's perspiration to quickly evaporate and the slightest breeze can pass through the clothing and keep your skin feeling cool. I like to wear pant bottoms and boots and nothing else when I walk to my stand. This means no shirt. By not wearing a shirt on the way to your stand, you allow your skin to breathe and any perspiration produced can quickly evaporate. I carry or lash my Bug Tamer jacket to my portable stand in tow and put it on after I climb my tree. Bugs are generally not an issue on the way in because I am constantly in motion from the moment I leave the truck to the time I settle in to my stand site. My wife has scolded me about this technique for a number of years. She often says, "you are going to get poison ivy if you don't wear a shirt when you walk through the woods." This is not an issue though. Remember, you trimmed an entrance trail to your stand and therefore you should not touch a single branch of vegetation on your way in. I also wear non-insulated knee-high rubber boots. Knee-high rubber boots are a bit warm but again, I am not walking very far in them and they are vital for controlling human odor. After I reach my stand and get settled in for the hunt, I remove my boots and hang them on the back of my stand. That's right; I hunt in my socks with my boots off. You will be much more comfortable if you remove your boots on hot days. Your feet will be cool but what about your scent? The traditional thought is that wearing rubber boots helps to control your scent both on the way to your stand and while you are in your stand. I carry a tiny spray bottle of scent elimination spray with me. When I take off my boots, I douse my feet with the spray, which soon evaporates. This past year, I started using Arctic Shield's new pure silver fiber containing X-Scent brand socks. Now I don't have to spray down my feet with an odor eliminator spray. The boxer shorts that I wear under my Bug Tamer pants also carry the X-Scent brand name. The pure silver technology used in X Scent clothing works harmoniously with the salty moisture on your skin. In fact the more you sweat the better the technology works to destroy odor- causing bacteria. X Scent socks and boxer shorts also help to keep my feet and groin area cool since the silver contained in them conducts heat away from the surface of my skin. Now all I have to do is apply a small amount of scent free bug spray to my feet to keep the bugs from biting through the socks. Try this trick and you will never again wear your boots in your tree stand on those extremely hot days. Although you will stay cooler by wearing a Shannon - Bug Tamer garment, the open-air construction does little to control your human scent. In fact, I admit the garment likely allows more scent to escape from the body than any other garment. I would wear a full X Scent suit if blood-sucking mosquitoes were not an issue. For me, my comfort and protection from bugs reins over odor-control. However, if you hunt in an area that is hot but lacks biting flies, then a full body X Scent suit should be your first choice. Activated Carbon Suits Some scent control fanatics will bite the bullet and wear an activated carbon based garment in the early season. However, I advise you to forget this idea. These garments will make you sweat worse than anything, especially in hot weather conditions. You will be miserably wet and the activated carbon contained in these garments is rendered useless when exposed to moisture from perspiration anyway. Activated carbon adsorbs many different compounds and one of them is water. Both liquid and gaseous forms of water are adsorbed by activated carbon. The moment you don an activated carbon garment, the activated carbon not only starts adsorbing stinky gasses, it also starts adsorbing water vapor (gas) that is constantly being released through your skin. To demonstrate this, take a plastic bag and wrap it tightly around your hand and walk around with it for about ten minutes. Water vapor released from your skin on your hand has nowhere to go and soon you will have a hand that is soaking wet. It is astonishing how much moisture escapes through the skin even when you are not engaged in physical exercise. If you out-right sweat liquid water (perspiration) and the garment with activated carbon contained within becomes wet, then the adsorption effectiveness of the activated carbon is rendered utterly useless. Surface tension and capillary action principles will cause the entire activated carbon particle to become totally encapsulated by liquid water droplets, which creates a liquid barrier to stinky gasses. Unless stinky gasses can come in contact with activated carbon particles, adsorption will not occur. It is as simple as that. By the way, this is a scientific fact. Regardless what the marketing ploy of activated carbon based garments indicate, activated carbon will not effectively adsorb stinky gasses when it is wet. In fact, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activated carbon related document titled "Adsorption Design Guide, Design Guide No. DG1110-1-2", states that, "Relative humidity above 50 percent may result in adsorbed and condensed water vapor blocking the pores of the particles and interfering with the diffusion of the contaminants to the adsorption pores". So if you wear this specialty clothing in the field where relative humidity conditions are above 50%, or if you sweat, then watch out. Additionally, no matter what the relative humidity conditions are on the day of your hunt, if you don this special clothing and start walking to your stand, this mild physical exertion will cause your body to release a copious amount of water vapor resulting in, or exceeding a relative humidity condition of 50% between your skin and the garment. By the time you reach your stand it is likely the activated carbon contained in the garment will be saturated with water vapor and thus rendered useless. Here is what I do to increase my comfort level and further control my scent on extremely hot days: The night before my hunt, I take a dark green or brown colored hand towel, the kind you use in a kitchen or a bathroom and I soak it in a bowl of water with a tablespoon of Arm & Hammer baking soda mixed in. I gently ring out the wet hand towel - not completely - and then fold it up into a little square. Next, I place the damp baking soda containing towel into a zip-lock bag and place it in my freezer. When it is time to go hunting, I remove it from the freezer and place it in my fanny pack. This is the last thing I do before I leave the house. By the time I reach my stand location my frozen hand towel is partially thawed. After I climb my tree and before I don my Bug Tamer jacket, I drop my Bug Tamer trousers and even my boxer shorts to my ankles, and thoroughly wipe down my entire body from head to toe with my cold, frosty wet hand towel. Don't try this trick at work! Also, check the hunting regulations in your area to ensure this technique is legal. Seriously, as "fanatical" as this may sound, don't knock it until you try it. Instantly, your skin surface is cooled and you will feel shower fresh. Any odors generated on the surface of your skin are either wiped away or they are controlled by the wet baking soda that is applied. Baking soda, also known as Sodium Bicarbonate, neutralizes odors chemically. Most unpleasant odors come from compounds that are either strong acids or strong bases, both of which are affected by baking soda. Baking soda deodorizes by bringing both acidic and alkaline odor molecules into a neutral pH, odor-free state. After I wipe down with my cold, wet hand towel, I seal it back into my zip-lock bag and stow it in my fanny pack. Once I pull up my Bug Tamer trousers and don my Bug Tamer jacket, I settle into my shady spot and the hunt begins. Within minutes after wiping down and dressing, the cool moisture on my skin evaporates and I am left feeling dry and comfortable. On extremely hot days I may take two frozen hand towels with me. Halfway through my hunt I will take a two-minute break and use the second towel to freshen up and further control odor. These towels weigh almost nothing and will greatly enhance your comfort level. Employ these keep cool scent control tricks this season. With a little planning, you can stay dry, comfortable and relatively scent free during those early season bow hunts. Good Hunting.
Know what whitetail prefer to eat Study natural food sources in your region for better success I don't think you can truly classify yourself as a whitetail hunting "Maniac" until you've gone so far as to fertilize naturally occurring whitetail food sources. It is one thing to develop and maintain food plots or automatic feeders, but fertilize natural vegetation? Some would say, "that's nuts". Nuts? It's ironic that those other more subordinate hunters would use that word. Trees that produce nuts are one of the many things I look for when I'm engaged in my off-season scouting trips. I scout for nut-bearing trees in the off-season because these trees produce a food source that is relished by whitetail deer in the fall and winter months where I live. You don't hear much about Florida in many of the popular hunting publications. Generally, the state does not produce an abundance of monster-sized bucks with headgear that dreams are made of. Much of the reason for this is due to current public land management philosophies, and to a lesser extent, the soil types here are rather poor in quality. Historically, Quality Deer Management (QDM) philosophies have not been popular here. If you can look past some of the bad, you'll find several good things about hunting this part of the country. "Opportunity" is a word that probably best describes this area. Florida has one of the country's longest deer hunting season and most liberal bag limits. You would think this would equal low deer populations; surprisingly this is not the case. During archery season a hunter can take two deer of either sex per day on private land and on many public wildlife management areas. If you are a meat hunter, this is great news for you. Agriculture is not prominent in North Florida, so keying in on a funnel that leads to a corn or soybean field is out the window. The extreme Southeast exhibits a semi-tropical climate and although the soils here may be poor, the growing season is very long. Vegetation here is lush and bountiful. Deer practically live in one big salad bar. A few years ago, this knowledge came to me from the writings of a deer hunting professor of sorts, Dr. Ray McIntyre. Dr. Ray McIntyre, president of Warren and Sweat Tree Stands, has hunted the Southeast for over 30 years and is the forefather of the strategy of hunting preferred food sources. A few years back, Dr. Mac authored a book that details the strategy of hunting preferred food sources. The book is titled "110% Success Bowhunting Whitetails". Dr. Mac wrote the book after receiving pressure from his colleagues who were intrigued with the consistency of his bowhunting success. The book is quaint and not at all designed to generate revenue for his company. The fact that the book cannot be found in wide circulation is testament to this. The book is sold through the company's web site and because only a very limited number of copies are printed each year, prospective buyers must be placed on a waiting list until the next round of printing is completed. In his book, Dr. Mac lists the species of trees that produce hard mast and those that produce soft mast as well. He describes specific species of trees that produce mast and why they are preferred by whitetails over other types of food. His writings are to the point and leave little open to interpretation. Dr. Mac's writings are the foundation of my deer hunting success as well as many of my colleagues that I collaborate with. Think to yourself for just a moment. How many different species of acorn producing oak trees can you readily identify? Hunters often talk about red oaks, white oaks and black oaks as though they are three different species. In the Southeast there are about four or five species of white oaks that occur there and even a couple of subspecies that are rarely ever mentioned in deer hunting's mainstream. Many deer hunters can recognize the fruit of the persimmon tree when ripened fruit is on the ground. can you identify a persimmon tree in the absence of fruit? How about a crab apple tree or a honey locust tree? If you are like I once was, and can only identify a small number of individual species of mast-producing trees, then you must obtain a copy of Dr. Mac's book. The book meticulously outlines several species of acorn producing oak trees, their degree of preference as a whitetail food source, and why they are preferred. Once you have mastered your botanical taxonomy skills and can identify, at the very least, several species of white oaks and red oaks, then you will be way ahead of the average deer hunter in your region. The next step is to scout. Unfortunately, this does take time. There is no substitute, no alternative to locating preferred food sources. You must scout and you must do it as often as your life style or wife, or husband, will allow. The good news is, if you primarily hunt one specific area, the bulk of your scouting can be done in the first year or two. You must conduct your scouting missions with the aid of a hand held GPS. This is a must and I cannot stress this enough. If you are like me, you will not be able to remember specific preferred food source locations of any great numbers without recording their locations either on paper or in a sophisticated device like a GPS. The use of a GPS has increased my hunting success in recent years. The average hunter has only a small handful of hunting locations in memory from past years. Once you have recorded as many as three or four dozen preferred food source locations in your favorite hunting area, you will be that much closer to having consistent success. Obtaining a "bank" of many preferred food source locations may seem a bit daunting, but I assure you, it is quite achievable once and only once you have learned to identify naturally occurring preferred food sources; the larger the bank the better. Once your tree identifying skills are honed, you will simply stroll through your woods in the off-season and record the locations of preferred food source bearing trees. Certain mast producing trees do not produce every year. There are off years for certain species of trees, where at times complete failure in fruit production occurs. Case in point; here in North Florida and in parts of the Southeast, we have a tree commonly called the Southern Live Oak, also known as Quercus virginiana in botanical terms. This is the tree that graces the Mossy Oak Camouflage company's logo. It can reach rather large and burly proportions. It is technically categorized as a red oak, but it behaves much like a white oak in that it often produces an annual crop. The acorn produced by this tree contains a low tannic acid content and is quite sweet to the taste, like its white oak cousins. When these trees produce, one merely needs to find a tree with good deer sign under it and hang a stand to be successful. These trees tend to grow in lowland heads or along wetland ridge-lines. Typically, you will not often find stands of these trees that consist of several acres unlike laurel oaks and water oaks. I have about twenty or thirty individuals or groups of trees located in my area and recorded in my GPS. That may seem like allot of GPS locations, but surprisingly I can scout all of them in almost one full day. Although I have some locations that are deep in the largest block of woods, most are in short walking distance from the truck. Deer will be where the preferred food is, especially early in the archery season when hunting pressure is low. I have a few trees that are so close to major dirt roads in my public management area where I hunt; all day long I can hear other hunters drive right by me and often the deer will feed and pay them no attention. Deer are so keyed in on the food source, the vehicular noise does not seem to bother them. Live oaks generally produce in late September and October when the archery season opens. About a week or two before the season, I will scout all of these trees and have a solid five or six of them identified that are producing well and possess an abundance of deer sign under them, in the form of droppings and cracked acorn hulls. Deer will skillfully crack this acorn, spit out the hulls and then swallow the nutritious meet. The ground around a tree or stand of trees that is being visited regularly by deer will exhibit droppings of various ages and a plethora of cracked and discarded acorn hulls. I'll hunt these feeding locations with the best wind direction for my entry and stand location and success often comes knocking. In the 2002-2003 season, the live oaks in the management area I hunt, experienced a complete failure in their mast production. Because I maintain a simple graph for each preferred food source that occurs in this area, I can look back over past years and predict to within a week or two when specific species of mast-producing trees will drop their fruit. Last year when the live oaks failed to produce, I was forced to look at other preferred food sources that I had banked and recorded in my GPS. Fortunately, the white oaks, Quercus alba to be exact, started dropping acorns about four weeks earlier than they had in previous years. Because the management area that I hunt contains very few stands of this white oak species, coupled with the fact that the live oaks were not producing, these white oaks were a virtual gold mine for consistent success. Once you have familiarized yourself with the preferred food sources in your hunting local, you should record the specific weeks of each month when each food source produces. As I mentioned before, I maintain a simple bar graph for each preferred food source for each month of the season. The graph breaks each month down to weeks. By maintaining a simple graph from year to year, you will be able to accurately predict within a few weeks when each preferred food source comes in and goes out; when preferred food sources over lap and how often production failures occur. This wonderful obsession we call deer hunting will become more of a predictable science to you rather than one big guessing game. Keep notes of every year. I assure you, specific "honey hole" preferred food source locations will start to become apparent. These locations will yield almost consistent success year after year and you will likely want to guard their locations with your life. Find a preferred food source that produces well in close proximity to these thick bedding areas and you are on to something. Whitetails will visit a preferred food source much more frequently when it is in close proximity to a bed area. Swamp Chestnut Oaks or Quercus michauxii, in botanical terms, is another white oak species that occurs here in North Florida. This tree is the southern variety of the Chestnut Oak or Quercus prinus, which occurs in the northeastern states. The swamp chestnut oak is also commonly named the "basket oak." Basket weavers prize the wood from these oaks. These trees produce an acorn the size of a golf ball and have the highest sugar content of any of the oak species in this region. Deer in the Southeast positively relish them. I occasionally hunt a small stand of swamp chestnut oaks in the middle of a thick bed area along a small creek bottom. On the perfect wind direction I enter my honey hole via the creek. I literally walk the ankle deep water in silence and leave no scent in the process. The tree that I hang my tree stand in is five feet from the creek bank. Five of the swamp chestnut oak trees are within twenty yards from my stand position. Because this white oak stand is literally in the middle of a major bedroom, the deer visit the food source all hours of the day, bucks included. Sure, the two-week period of the rut may cause you to change tactics a bit, but remember this: bucks are where the does are during the rut and the does are going to always be on the preferred food sources, all season. To quote an excerpt from Dr. Mac's book, "Deer do many things, but there are three things they must do each and every day. They must sleep, eat, and walk. Everything else is extra and is done only in 'spare time' so to speak. We care only passively where they sleep, so we can set our stands where they don't smell us when they walk to food. But we care vitally where and what they eat. For it is here, in the restaurant, they are the most vulnerable to hunting. It is here, and only here, where you can achieve 110 percent success." This further intensifies the desire for deer to feed at these locations. I fertilize several preferred food source trees of each species, each spring. I do this so when each food source comes in and goes out, I have a fertilized food source to hunt over. You can get inexpensive bags of fertilizer from you local home and garden store. Invariably, they will sell torn bags of fertilizer for next to nothing. I often get my fertilizer for free. How could fertilizer be free, you ask? Well, I obtain all the free fertilizer I need from my local landfill or garbage dump as some refer to it as. Many municipal and/or county landfills have a "Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off" facility. This facility will receive hazardous household chemicals such as unused pesticides, bleach, paint, pool chemicals and that's right, fertilizer. Often homeowners will purchase fertilizer and mistakenly leave the bags outdoors. Because it rains quite often here in Florida, the bags and their contents get a bit wet. Because the fertilizer is damp, it tends to clump and the homeowner's lawn spreader gets clogged and performs poorly. Many an aggravated homeowner recalls the last time they put wet fertilizer in their lawn spreader and decide instead to dispose of it at the landfill's hazardous waste drop-off facility, rather than disposing of it in the regular trash. After all, many people are environmentally conscious these days and the landfill does not charge residence for dropping off hazardous materials. Because the fertilizer is still a useable product even though it may be damp, the landfill will give it away on a first come first serve basis. Old Bill who runs the landfill in my area knows me by name. Good hunting.
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Feature Articles Whitetail Research By T.R. Michels I have learned a lot about game animal research over the last few years: 1. Researchers are learning about game animals so fast that the only way to keep you up to date is to do it in a regular newsletter. The problem with magazines is that by the time the article gets printed the information is probably a year old, and the writers who get hold of research seldom do research themselves or have access to other sources to verify the research they are writing on. The article often leads you to believe that the research project and researcher's findings and conclusions are gospel, and they aren't. 2. Not all game animals react alike. Animals of the same species react differently in different areas and different habitats. 3. Animals of different sexes react to environmental conditions and predatory pressure, especially hunting, differently. Males of most prey species, because they look different from females, are more susceptible to being chased, killed and eaten, therefore they are more wary. The older the animal, especially males, the warier they are and the more they react differently than other animals in the same area. Case in point: I have two articles by two different writers, both who I know and like. The first article refers to a study by Norb Geissman and Brian Root in the Deer Ridge Wildlife Management Area in Lewis County, Missouri to determine if white-tailed deer actually head for unpressured areas and refuges to avoid hunters during the hunting season. Based on this study the article states that does increased their daily movement during the hunting season by 25 percent, presumably because of the hunting pressure. The does moved about 2 miles a day during the pre-rut and 2 1/2 miles per day during the rut/hunting season. It also states that all of the does, whether hunted or not, stayed within their home range and none of then wandered into unfamiliar ranges, even when hunted, and there was a refuge nearby. The article goes on to state that the bucks decreased their movement by 20 percent during the hunting season. This was while the rut was on and when bucks could normally be expected to travel more in search of does. The bucks moved about 5 miles a day in the pre-rut and 4 miles a day during the rut/hunting season. The article says that the bucks with home ranges partially in the refuge shifted almost all their activity to the refuge, again presumably because of hunting pressure. (But it said the does traveled more and didn't leave their ranges.) The researchers found that there were differences in the size of the home ranges of bucks and does (something most of us who hunt already know). The average home range of a buck was 1,576 acres, about three times the size of the doe ranges which averaged 502 acres. A closing statement of Brian Root, who was a student at the time of the study says, "Don't worry about deer moving into areas closed to hunting. Most deer will stay right where they've been all along." (This is exactly the kind of statement I am referring to. And what about those bucks that shifted to the refuge?) The second article refers to a study by Kurt VerCauteren on the Desoto National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska to determine the size of their home range. In this study the deer ranges averaged 400 acres, although they varied greatly in size. The article goes on to states that most transient deer tended to be yearlings that traveled 12-15 miles off their former home range. Some subadult does traveled 40-50 miles. It then states that old deer become almost invisible because they live in prime ranges where they don't have to move much to find what the need. (Sounds right to me.) Next the article says that, "VerCauteren verified what most hunters know, that whitetails respond to hunting pressure." (Hey, the other guy said they would stay right where they were.) The Desoto Refuge is near the Missouri River, which separates Nebraska and Iowa. VerCauteren noted that when the hunting season opened in Nebraska some deer swam to Iowa; and when the Iowa season opened some deer swam to Nebraska. (In other words they left the area to avoid hunting pressure.) Once the hunting pressure let up most of the deer returned within two weeks. Those that stayed at home changed their habits too. Eight deer moved to a strip of posted land 60x100 yards and remained there until the season closed. (In other words they headed for a refuge.) The article then refers to Dr. Harry Jacobson who calculated that in the hardwood forests of Mississippi the average annual range of does was 1,820 acres, bucks 3,773 acres, with the largest at 5,500 acres. In the same article Dr. James Kroll is reported to have said that bucks in Alberta may occupy a 3,000 acre core area and travel circuits of 20-25 miles during the rut. (Hey, the other guy said bucks travel less during the rut, about 4 miles.) The article goes on to say that a study by Thomas Baumeister found that in Idaho's Clearwater River drainage, whitetail deer (including bucks) had small summer ranges of 190 acres in the drainage's upper range. But, in October and November the deer migrated an average of 24 miles to their winter ranges. (He is not saying the deer moved in response to hunting pressure. Presumably the movement was in response to less forage, cold weather or deep snow. But it did happen during the hunting season.) Some of the deer stopped along the way while others traveled straight through. I guess this proves my point. 1. The results of one study in one area don't necessarily hold true for any other area. 2. Not all deer in the same area react the same. Males, especially older ones, are more wary than all other deer and will do almost anything to avoid Predatory Behavior, especially hunting. These studies show that deer, especially older bucks (what most of us are looking for), will seek unhunted areas or refuges to avoid hunting pressure. If you've seen a big buck in the area but can't find him during the season he might have moved out or he may have become nocturnal. You have to try to figure out where he is or where he went, even though you know he is probably traveling at night. First you need to find the buck's bedding area. If he is coming out only at night you can either stalk him in the bedding area during the day (if you are good enough) or you can try to find his travel route as he leaves to feed or look for does. Then you can setup along the route to ambush him when he moves. You can also wait for the does to come into estrus and hope to see him acting stupid during the rut. For this to work you should know where the doe bedding, feeding and travel areas are. This is where the bucks will be looking for does once the rut is in full swing. You may have to hunt all day near these areas because there is no telling what a buck will do, or where he will be during the rut. But it is the one time of the year when the buck may throw caution to the wind and show himself. If there is no sign of the buck in his traditional area, look for areas where he won't be disturbed. You probably won't see a lot of sign. Often the only evidence will be his tracks and beds, although you may find rubs and droppings. Don't expect to find scrapes near a bedding site. Most scrapes occur in doe use areas, not near buck bedding sites and core areas. If you can't find the buck, but you do have the luxury of tracking in the snow, you should be able to find where the buck went by scouting after the hunting season. Then you will know where to find him next year, if he made it through the winter. These studies show us two other things. Deer have different size home ranges, which are generally governed by the type of habitat and the forage availability in the area. Mixed habitats of hardwood forests and agricultural land provide the best deer habitat. In these areas deer populations may exceed 40 deer per square mile. Because the forage is good, does have small ranges, and the bucks don't have to travel very far to find them during the rut. Consequently the bucks have small home ranges. In marginal habitats with little mixture such as river bottoms in prairies; agricultural areas; virgin or old growth hardwood forests; and northern forests of evergreens, birch and aspens; does need larger home ranges to find enough forage. Consequently the bucks must travel greater distances to individual doe home ranges during the rut, and the bucks have very large home ranges. The studies also show us that bucks respond differently than does during the rut, especially when the hunting season is open. The first article states that the does increased their movement during the hunting season. But this can be misleading. Recent studies by Dr. Larry Marchinton in Georgia show that does become more active during the days just prior to coming into estrus, but they confined their movements to certain portions of their range. The theory is that the does increase their daily movement but limit their travel range, making it easier for the bucks to find them. If the does in Missouri acted like the does in Marchinton's study they may have been moving more during the hunting season, not because of hunting pressure, but because the were approaching estrus and making themselves available to the bucks. The problem with radio telemetry studies is that while they can tell you where the deer are at all times they cannot tell you what the deer are doing. By doing my own research, following and watching the deer in my area for the last five years, I know where they were and what they were doing. And by looking at the studies of as many other researchers as I can and checking it with my own research I have a better Understanding of the game in a wide range of areas. I guess the moral of the story is don't believe everything you hear" and if you really want to Understand the game in your area do what I do, become a Maximum Effort Hunter and spend more time and effort reading, listening and watching the game. The Dispersal Phase As a result of my last 10 years of research I've learned that I can't rely on when and where I saw bucks during the different phases of the rut, to hunt them later in phases of the rut. I often hear hunters say that (during the hunting season) they can't find the big bucks they saw while they were scouting from late August to mid-October. That's because the bucks probably weren't in the same area. Once the bucks (that you may have seen in bachelor groups in late summer/early fall) shed their velvet, they start to become more aggressive, and they eventually won't put up with each other. Many of them move to new core areas, where they don't come in contact with other bucks. Some of them also move out of their summer/home range, to go to their fall home range, which may be as little as a half mile away, to as far as several miles away. This breakup (dispersal), and fall home range shift, usually occurs with two to three weeks of when the older bucks shed their velvet. In the upper Midwest it occurs sometime between the first week of September and the middle of October. When this happens, you have to go look for the bucks. Since the bucks usually start making new rubs and scrapes in the area they use in the fall, the best way to locate them is to look for fresh rubs and scrapes, in areas where they may not have occurred before. When you find fresh rubs and scrapes, you can setup where you can watch the area, to see which bucks are there. Once you find the buck you want you can back track its rub route to locate its core area, where you can setup to take the buck. Information on how to do this is included in my Deer Addict's Manual, Volume 2: Hunting Techniques and my new Scrape Hunter's Manual available in the Trinity Mountain Outdoors catalog. Another way to locate bucks you couldn't find during the hunting season is to glass feeding areas, and scout for field sign, after the rut or the hunting season is over. If you have rain or sow in you area, get out the door when it lets up, and back track the buck trails until you find their core areas and bedding sites. Then you can set up to take the buck (if the season is on), if not you will know where to find the buck next year. Information on how to do this is also in the Deer Addict's Manual Volume 2. I have several hunting tips for you opening day hunters in my new Deer Addict's Manual, Volume 7; Hunting Tactics, $9.95. Why not order a copy and gear up for next year? If you have any questions feel free to write, call or e-mail me.
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T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors E-mail: trmichels@yahoo.com Website: www.TRMichels.com |
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