Pursuit Hunting

Ragweed Buck

2011-09-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

Mornings like today's are few and far between. That's probably a good thing because I don't know if I could stand to be any more obsessed and addicted to deer hunting than I already am. A couple more days like today could really do me in.

The story behind this deer starts, to a certain degree, with something I learned a couple weeks ago at the Middle Tennessee QDMA Field Day. During a discussion of the importance of native plants for wildlife, Clint and Chris mentioned that ragweed is both high in protein and a favored food of deer. The significance of that didn't really hit me at the time, but luckily, I remembered it last week while I was scouting for spots to hunt during opening weekend of bow season.

I was checking an area that has had some good buck activity in the past when I noticed that a small overgrown field was full of ragweed. On the edge of the field, I found a freshly opened scrape about twenty yards away from a white oak that had dropped a few nuts (a rarity this year) and a red oak that had also dropped some of the biggest red oak acorns I've ever seen.

Neither tree was what I would consider to be a dominant tree. The nuts that were on the ground appeared to be due to squirrels, not an active acorn drop. It was clear from the churned up ground that deer were feeding there, but there just wasn't enough food on the ground for the sign to accumulate to the degree that normally gets me really excited.

Nevertheless, the combination of acorns, browse, thick cover, a fresh scrape, and lots of walk sign got my attention. It definitely had potential and I decided to hunt it when I had a favorable wind.

Last night, the weather channel was predicting 46 degrees and a SSW wind for the morning. I checked a topo map and sure enough, the wind was perfect for that spot. I thought about waiting a while to let the acorns start to drop a little heavier but I had a gut feeling and eventually I decided to give it a go.

I arrived at the spot about fifteen minutes before legal shooting light and picked out a tree to climb by flashlight. Here is the setup.

I had only been settled in for a couple minutes when I heard a "snap" out in the weed field. Something was definitely headed my way but it was too dark to see into the field. I eased up out of my seat, clipped on my release, and fought back that first shot of adrenaline that can develop into a full-blown case of sewing machine knees if you aren't careful.

As I scanned the edge of the field, straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of movement, a buck materialized in the scrape and started pawing the ground and chewing on the overhanging dogwood limbs. It was still about twenty minutes before sunrise and the light was just starting to come up. I could tell from the deer's shape that it was a good sized buck, but I couldn't make out any details of its rack.

Under other circumstances, I might have waited to get a better look before taking the shot, but with archery gear in the woods, you sometimes don't have the luxury of time. I decided to take the shot if I got a chance.

Luckily, the buck turned to the right and started to "do his business" as my mother used to say. That was the opportunity I needed. I put the twenty yard pin behind his right shoulder and concentrated on getting a smooth release and following through like I've done a thousand times in the back yard.

Swack!

The buck vanished back into the thick darkness of the weed field in an instant. I followed the sound of it crashing off and thought I heard it fall. Or had I? Two other deer had exploded out of the thick cover when the buck bolted, so I really couldn't be sure of what I had heard.

I replayed the scene over and over in my head as confidence and doubt battled it out. "The shot felt good." "The impact sounded good." "Did I shoot the right one of the three?" "I think I heard it fall." "What if I hit that little limb that I can see now?" "Was it as good a deer as I thought?"

I decided to give it about an hour before I took up the trail. The wait was agonizing so I distracted myself by taking the above photos and texting my son and some buddies.

Finally, the time came to get down. With a mixture of anticipation and dread, I approached the scrape where the buck had been standing when I shot. "Please let me find a bloody arrow where it ought to be."

"Yes!" There it was, covered in bright red blood and stuck in the ground about two feet away from the scrape and the buck's last "business." You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The deer had run back into the thick weeds, so I had to track him carefully. There were very few actual drops of blood on the ground (at least that I could see) but by moving very slowly, I could follow the tiny spatters of blood on the tall blades of grass and weed stems.

It took me about twenty minutes to cover the fifty-or-so yards to where the deer lay, but I eventually crested a small rise and spotted him down in the thick stuff.

Wow! What a rollercoaster of emotions in the course of a couple hours. Exilaration, confidence, doubt, hope, dread, joy, awe...

When I checked the deer's stomach contents, I expected to find lots of acorns. Instead, it contained nothing but ragweed and other browse. "Well I'll be," I thought, "you're never too old to learn something new. I guess those fellas from the NRCS and TWRA know what they're talking about."

As I drove my four wheeler the two miles or so back to my truck, I purposely took my time so that I could savor the moment. The sun was shining and glistening like diamonds off a clear stream beside the trail. The air was cool and smelled of fall. A plan had come together and a nice deer was riding shotgun behind me. I remember thinking, "Man, if you don't love this, you just don't love life."

Middle Tennessee QDMA Branch Field Day

2011-09-15T11:29:00.001-05:00

On September 13, the Middle Tennessee QDMA Branch held its kickoff event with a mini-field day at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort's Outdoor Demonstration Area. Chris Wolkonowski, Area Resource Biologist with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and Clint Borum, Private Lands Biologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency were on hand to discuss the planning and initial implementation of a conservation plan they developed for the 100 acre site.

Chris and Clint discussed how they developed the conservation plan in conjunction with the landowner, taking into consideration the landowner's objective for the property, which was to develop it into a showcase for wildlife habitat management practices. The plan will take three years to implement and involves removal of invasive species, establishment of early successional habitats, field borders, firebreaks, upland wildlife habitats, native warm season grasses,foodplots, and much more.

Attendees were treated to a wide ranging discussion of the steps that have been taken thus far, including herbicide applications to control invasive species like johnson and bermuda grasses and chinese privet, establishment of cover crops to control erosion and reduce browsing pressure, and the planting of numerous test foodplots in a wide variety of seed mixes.

NRCS Biologist Chris Wolkonowski points out one of the invasive species, bush honeysuckle, that is being eradicated from the site.

Of particular interest to the QDMA members on hand was a discussion of the key ingredients in a habitat management plan designed to hold and develop quality deer on a particular piece of property. Their number one recommendation... cover is king. Food is generally not a limiting factor in the southeast, but cover is.

They recommend creating cover by establishing early successional habitats through clearcutting of selected areas of the property. They also recommend taking steps to encourage the growth of native plant species which can be more nutritious and more drought resistant than cultivated species. Finally, after those steps have been taken, then the landowner should think about adding foodplots.

Their recommendation for foodplots... a mixture of red, white, and crimson clover which will provide three to six years of high quality, low maintenance food at a minimal cost.

TWRA Biologist Clint Borum discusses foodplot strategies in front of the foodplot demonstration area.

RESOURCES

Clint and Chris recommended several books for those who are interested in learning more about native plants, invasive plants, and foodplots.

Native Warm Season Grasses, by the UT Agricultural Extension Service. Available in print through your County/Regional UT Extension office which can be located here. Or, if you prefer, it can be downloaded free here. If you download it, you will need to download each chapter separately.

A Guide to Successful Wildlife Foodplots, by the UT Agricultural Extension Service. Available in print through your County/Regional UT Extension office which can be located here. It can be downloaded for free in its entirety here.

A Landowner's Guide to Native Warm-Season Grasses in the Mid-South, by the UT Agricultural Extension Service. Available in print through your County/Regional UT Extension office which can be located here. It can be downloaded for free in its entirety here.

Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses, by James H. Miller and Karl V. Miller. Available from Amazon.

Weeds of the Southeast, by Charles T. Bryson. Available from Amazon.

QDMA Field Day Announcement

2011-09-09T10:23:00.001-05:00

Anyone interested in improving white-tailed deer habitat is invited to attend the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Course being held by the Middle Tennessee Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association. The event will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13, at the Gaylord property on Pennington Bend Rd, across Briley Parkway from the Opryland Hotel.

Speakers from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will discuss topics of interest to deer hunters, land owners, and land managers including Managing Your Property for Wildlife, Creating Early Successional Habitats, and Food Plots vs. Native Habitats. In addition, the speakers will cover USDA/TWRA Programs for Wildlife, including the creation of free conservation plans and federal assistance programs for wildlife habitat improvement.

The meeting site will be outdoors and will include hands-on exhibit of a conservation plan being implemented on the property. Admission is free and the event is open to the public. Directions are available here or on the our facebook page at www.facebook.com/midtnqdma

Risky Business

2011-03-22T20:58:00.006-05:00

A doe suffering from Chronic Wasting Disease

Under existing Tennessee state law, it is illegal to transport live whitetail deer into the state and it is illegal to domesticate any whitetail deer, imported or native. That could all change if House Bill 1112 and its counterpart Senate Bill 1568 are voted into effect by the state legislature. The bill, titled “The Whitetail Deer Breeding and Farming Act” is aimed at legalizing the importation, farming, and commercial shooting of whitetail deer in the state of Tennessee.

If passed, the bill will require deer farmers to import all farmed deer from out-of-state sources and will allow those same deer to be shot in small enclosures by paying customers. Some use the term “canned hunt” to describe the harvest process, but I will not, because that activity has nothing to do with hunting. I prefer to call those operations canned shooting preserves.

The bill includes language intended to reduce the potential for introduction of disease, but in so doing, it creates a huge regulatory burden on the TWRA without providing adequate funding. If the bill passes, something will have to give. Either the TWRA will be financially incapable of providing the specified oversight, or it will be forced to divert resources from other activities.

Keep in mind, we the sportsmen of Tennessee, provided the funding years ago for the re-introduction of our present deer herd and today we fund the operation of the TWRA through our license fees and taxes on hunting and fishing gear. I, for one, don't want my contributions to be diverted away from the good work the agency does and certainly don't want to fund the policing of the activities of a few people who would willingly put our valuable wildlife resources at risk for their own personal gain.

As a Tennessean and as an avid hunter, my opposition to this legislation is twofold. First, I believe that legalizing the importation of whitetail deer opens the door to CWD, a very serious, very deadly disease that has the potential to wipe out our entire deer herd and our deer hunting heritage. Second, I believe that our hunting heritage is based on ethics and sportsmanship, not raising pen-raised animals to the shot by the highest bidder.

How the Bill is Being Presented (with my rebuttal)

Like many Tennessee hunters, I was unaware of the pending legislation until recently. Then, a couple weeks ago a member of TnDeer posted a link to this video of a presentation by a Texas deer farmer before the Tennessee House Agriculture Committee.

As I watched the testimony, my blood pressure began to rise as the presenter weaved numerous half-truths about the risks and benefits of deer farming and artfully dodged potentially contentious questions about canned shoots. But when the bill's sponsor, Rep. Frank Niceley, spoke after the formal presentation I really couldn't believe what I was hearing.

At 1:09:05 in the video, Rep Niceley addresses the audience and says, “I've been involved in the wild animal hauling business for the last ten or fifteen years and I have hauled deer to game preserves all over this country and you can't realize how much money is in this.” Wow! I guess that's what you call disclosure, but it leaves little doubt about his motive in sponsoring this bill, particularly since one of the stipulations is that any newly established farm has to import their stock from out of state.

At 1:09:38 Rep. Niceley says, “Tennessee was a pioneer in hunting preserves years ago, most people don't realize that.” Very true. Most people also don't realize that the current explosion of nuisance wild boar in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and on the Cumberland Plateau is a direct result of imported European Wild Boar escaping from those early hunting preserves.

The marauding pigs have cost us, the property owners and taxpayers of the state countless millions of dollars in property damage and eradication costs and it seems very unlikely that we will be able to control their numbers without significant additional spending. In fact on the Cumberland Plateau, year-round hunting seasons with unlimited daily bag limits have failed to stem the tide. The TWRA has now begun to pay for professionals to help with the eradication efforts.

Fast forward a week or so to this videotaped session of the House Conservation and Environment Subcommittee. In his opening remarks, Rep Niceley explains that this bill doesn't create deer farming. He says, “We've farmed deer in Tennessee longer than any living soul can remember. We farm every kind of deer in the world. We farm elk, moose, axis, sitka, fallow, you name it, muntjack, you name it. If it's a deer in the world, we can legally bring it in under strict health guidelines.” He goes on to say, “The only thing this bill does is add one kind of deer to all the other deer in the world that we can farm. It adds whitetail deer.” He then asks his opponents why, if we have been able to farm all those other types of deer, why can't they add just one, the whitetail.

Well, Rep. Niceley, that's an easy one. Because when deer farming was first allowed in the state, CWD had not been discovered. Furthermore, none of the species you mention have native herds roaming around outside the fences. Why does that make a difference? If a CWD-infected axis deer escapes, it is much less likely to transmit that disease to the native whitetail population than if the escaped deer is another whitetail.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

The transportation and confinement of whitetail deer can potentially lead to the transmission of a variety of nasty diseases into livestock and wildlife populations, but there is one disease that represents a clear and present danger to Tennessee's wild deer herd and to Tennessee's hunting tradition. That disease is called Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD for short.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a transmissible neurological disease of deer and elk that produces small lesions in brains of infected animals. It is characterized by loss of body condition, behavioral abnormalities and it always results in death. CWD is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), and is very similar to mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease in humans.

There is no known reliable test for the presence of CWD in live animals. The only accurate tests today require tissue samples from the brain and lymph nodes of suspected animals – which can only be collected from dead animals.

The two most significant factors affecting the spread of CWD are the transportation of diseased animals and the confinement of those animals in high-density habitats (particularly deer farms).

Proponents of the current bill would like to downplay the seriousness of the potential threat to our state, claiming that the bill includes safeguards to prevent the spread of disease. Those safeguards are dubious at best since there is no accurate testing for the presence of CWD in live deer and infected deer can live and pass along the disease for years without any visible symptoms. As mentioned above, those safeguards also depend on rigorous enforcement activities which are not adequately funded under the bill.

Other Enforcement Issues

Anyone who has ever kept livestock knows that eventually, just about every fence is going to fail. Whether it is from trees falling on it during windstorms, floodwaters washing it away or eroding the soil out from under it, animals digging under it, unintentional breach by leaving gates open, or vandalism aimed at removing animals from the property, eventually a fence is going to fail. And when it does fail, it isn't going to take a captive herd of whitetails long to escape. According to the Minneapolis StarTribune, over the past five years, almost 500 captive deer and elk have escaped from Minnesota farms, and 134 were never recaptured or killed.

All it takes is one CWD-infected deer escaping and mingling with native deer and a catastrophic epidemic can begin. Intentional release of non-trophy captive whitetails (primarily does) has also been documented when the cost of feeding and maintaining captive animals exceeds their value as breeding stock or meat.

Willful disregard of the safeguards is another issue that well-intentioned, yet weakly-enforced regulations will be powerless to combat. With trophy-class whitetail bucks fetching tens of thousands of dollars, the incentive to skirt the law for a quick dollar will prove irresistible to some. In this case a Minnesota smuggler reaped $300,000 in sales from a single customer in Texas (which has closed its borders to imported deer in order to reduce the risk of CWD). In another case, the Colorado DNR covertly established a game farm several years ago to investigate rumors of an active black market in cervids and discovered that the practice of smuggling non-certified animals into the state was rampant.

Wisconsin's CWD Experience

Rather than speculating about what could possibly happen if CWD is introduced into our native deer herd, let's look at Wisconsin to see an example of what is happening.

CWD was first discovered in Wisconsin in 2002. Now, less than a decade later,Wisconsin is at the epicenter of the CWD epidemic in the United States. The difficult situation the state now finds itself in is succinctly summarized in this opening paragraph of the State's fifteen-year plan for combating the spread of the disease.

After more than eight years of chronic wasting disease (CWD) management in Wisconsin, it is increasingly clear that controlling CWD in Wisconsin’s free-ranging white-tailed deer will be extremely challenging and will require a substantial commitment of human and financial resources over an extended period of time. Disease management in free-ranging wildlife populations generally is difficult, expensive, and controversial, particularly when significant wildlife population reduction is a part of the plan.

Pay particular attention to the words “significant wildlife population reduction.” What that means in plain English is that in one CWD-positive area of the state encompassing about 375 square miles (240,000 acres), the DNR has undertaken the task of eradicating every single wild deer. That's right, every single wild deer, over 25,000 of them!

Those of us who have spent years hunting whitetails know that endeavor is almost certainly going to be a futile effort. Not only that, but it is going to cost the state's taxpayers dearly, both in terms of direct expenses for testing, monitoring, and for paid sharpshooters, but also indirectly in the form of lost revenue on hunting licenses and taxes on hunting-related spending.

In addition to the deer testing and deer eradication expenses, now State of Wisconsin is appropriating money to pay $465,000 for the purchase and permanent quarantine of 80 acres of CWD-tainted land that was formerly a deer farm.
Estimates of the total direct and indirect economic impact of CWD on the state of Wisconsin vary, but $50 million to $100 million seems to be a very conservative number.

Ethical Issues

Make no mistake about it, the primary purpose of deer farming is to raise large-antlered bucks destined for canned shooting operations. That's where the money is. To produce those large racks, farmers feed their bucks a variety of supplements and inject them with growth hormones to stimulate antler growth.

Once the bucks grow to a shootable size, they are either sold to canned shooting operations or are turned out into the farmers' own shooting area where they can be harvested by anyone willing to write the appropriate-sized check. Some operators like World Class Whitetails of Ohio even allow you to go online to pick out “your deer”. When you arrive, it will be there waiting for you in a 200 acre enclosure with minimal cover. This article written several years ago describes a typical day there.

I don't pretend to speak for all Tennessee hunters, but the dozens that I communicate with on a regular basis overwhelmingly oppose such practices on ethical grounds. Whitetail deer are wild animals and should remain wild. We do not support the genetic and chemical manipulation of wildlife and we do not support the unsportsmanlike harvesting of deer in canned-shooting operations.

We like our heritage of fair-chase hunting and do not wish to see that ethic tarnished for the profit motives of a few. We do not want to be like Texas, where most trophy-class bucks are killed in fenced enclosures while feeding under a corn-feeder. We appreciate the beauty and elusiveness of a wild whitetail. We do not want to see our hunting heritage endangered by the risky importation of potentially diseased deer.

We do not want to see deer farming in Tennessee.

What to Do

Get involved!

Time is of the essence. The Conservation and Environment Subcommittee of the Tennessee House of Representatives will vote on the deer farming bill on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. If you oppose this risky and offensive legislation, please get in touch with the committee members. The Tennessee Wildlife Federation is taking a leading role in mobilizing concerned sportsmen. Their website includes links and easy instructions on reaching committee members. Please take the time to call or write.

Shed Hunting

2011-03-14T15:32:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago, a good friend asked if I would like to participate in his hunting club's annual shed hunt. I jumped at the opportunity to see and walk a one-of-a-kind piece of prime hunting land, lay my hands on a bunch of nice sheds, and make some new friends (the other members, most of whom I didn't know.)

So, I spent the past weekend walking about 2000 acres of some of the finest deer hunting land I've ever set foot on. The property, located in west Tennessee, contains a perfect blend of lush row crops and foodplots, mature hardwood timber, dense cedar thickets, gnarly kudzu-covered drainages, and a spectacular 8o acre lake. In short, perfect deer habitat that has been managed for big bucks.

The club members had the shed-hunting process down to a science. Ten of us spread out along a 300 yard line with about 30 yards between us. One person was designated the point person. Sometimes the point was in the middle of the line, at other times he was on the end. It depended on the terrain and the width of the area we needed to cover.

We all wore an orange cap or vest which allowed us to keep visible contact with each other. We each keyed off the person to either our left or right (toward the point man) in order to keep a straight line as we walked. The two people on the ends and one person in the middle all had two-way radios.

The point person would follow a terrain feature (usually a creek) and the rest of us would try to maintain our 30 yard spacing, stay abreast of the guy to the left or right, and look for sheds. It took a little while to get in the groove, but pretty soon it get easier.

When we needed to swing the line to make a bend or if one side got slowed down by difficult terrain (remember those kudzu washes) the wingman would tell the point man by radio to slow down until the line was straight again.

Collectively, we walked about a hundred and ten miles - double that if you count the ups and downs - and picked up well over a hundred sheds and buck skulls, enough to half-fill the bed of a 3/4 ton pickup. The find of the day was a matched set of thick chocolate-colored 8 point sheds found about 30 yards apart. It's hard to say what they would have scored without knowing the spread, but 150 would be conservative.

I had a terrific time and thoroughly enjoyed the cameraderie of a bunch of guys who enjoy having a good time together. The true discovery of the weekend occurred after dinner and about three rounds of margaritas, when one of the guys observed that "tequila makes the ticks fall off." We're thinking that's a pretty good bit of campfire wisdom and a heck of a country song.

On a bittersweet note, this was likely the last shed hunt for this group. The owner of the club has decided to sell the property. He lives in middle Tennessee and wants to focus on hunting closer to home so that he can spend more weekends with his family during the fall. It is being offered at a very reasonable price of $2750/acre, so it will likely sell quickly. Interested and qualified buyers can contact me at 615-479-8594 or at chris@cpanderson.com to learn more.

The Bust'em Boys - Reloaded

2011-02-21T14:28:00.001-06:00

The 2011 Alabama youth duck hunt witnessed some fine shooting by the Bust'em Boys. The weekend started a little slow with sub-freezing temperatures and calm air conspiring to freeze up the timber hole we had planned to hunt. Last year's timber hunt was unfortunately not going to be repeated.

Saturday morning, the boys hunted a blind on the edge of a flooded cornfield and killed a couple ducks. They returned to the same blind that afternoon but soon relocated to the middle of a partially flooded cornfield where they wallowed around in the mud and had a great hunt.

Sunday morning they hunted a small pond and had a barn-burner for the first 30 minutes of shooting time. As we stood there waiting for legal shooting time, dozens of ducks circled, most of them eventually landing and safely taking off again. Just as the clock hit 30 minutes before sunrise, a group of about 20 mallards worked in and it was game on...

Many thanks to Papa Bust'em for hosting another terrific youth hunt.

Feelin' Ducky

2011-02-09T08:04:00.002-06:00

What an incredible day! Four limits of mallards in just over an hour and an amazing 150 yard retrieve on the banded hen pictured above. My recollection of that day two weeks ago...

Warm temps
Blue Sky
Blazing sun
Not the kind of day
That get's you Feelin' Ducky

But a North wind's building
Tonight a winter storm blows in
Freezing temps mean
Hungry ducks ahead

First a single
Then a pair
Then a pair of pairs
Screamin' out of the blinding sun
Then plummet to the ground

Now the gates open
The sky's alive!
Ducks swarm like flies

Fathers and sons
Man and beast
Work as one
To meet the tide

Time stands still
In my mind
A blur of frenzied motion
Days like this
Are rare to find

Man, I'm Feelin' Ducky

Late-Season Dominant Trees

2011-01-27T16:17:00.001-06:00

If you need proof that dominant trees exist late into the year, take a look at this photo I took on January 13. We had received about 5 inches of snow which completely blanketed the ground except where it had been disturbed by animals.

The circle of dark exposed leaves in the center of the photo is where numerous deer had pawed back the snow to get to the acorns that had fallen months ago from one specific white oak tree. As I rode the property, I saw several other similar spots.

It was interesting that the feeding areas were all located directly underneath the canopy of a specific tree and generally didn't extend beyond that.

With binoculars, I could scout dozens of acres from one spot. The big brown circles stood out like, well... big brown circles. Unfortunatley our deer season had already closed, or else, it wouldn't have even been fair.

How I Became an AR-15 Convert

2011-01-04T11:23:00.005-06:00

Go to any hunting forum and suggest deer hunting with an AR-15 in .223/5.56 dress and you are sure to get howls of protest about how it is underpowered, won't penetrate, isn't a suitable weapon/caliber, blah, blah, blah...

Baloney!

With the end of deer season approaching, I've flipped the switch from trophy bucks to meat hunting. I want to make sure that I don't run out of my favorite sausage before next year. As a personal challenge, and to debunk all the crap that has been written about the inadequacy of the AR as a deer rifle, I decided to try to fill my 3 does/day limit from a single group of does using my son's Remington R-15 VTR. Although I've never deer hunted with a .223 before, it just didn't make sense to me that it wouldn't be just as effective as any other modern caliber, given a well-placed shot.

The R-15 VTR is a sweet shooting sporterized version of the venerable AR-15. It is chambered for the .223 Remington and sports a free-floating varmint/target barrel (see where the VTR designation comes from?) and a decent stock trigger. I've topped it off with a Nikon 3x9 scope.

So last Sunday morning I set out to fill the freezer, to fulfill a personal goal, and to test out the deer hunting abilities of the AR. At about 7:15, as luck would have it, three does showed up and began feeding on acorns on an adjacent ridge. They were about 110 - 120 yards away and totally unaware of my presence.

I waited until I had a clear broadside shot through the trees at the largest doe, settled the crosshairs behind her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Since I didn't have to worry about chambering another round and because the recoil of an AR is practically nil, I was able to maintain my cheek weld and scope picture and quickly swing over to the second doe. At the sound of the first shot, she had picked her head up and gave me a perfect broadside shot - which I quickly took.

The third doe had decided that things were getting a little dicey and took off. Again, because I didn't have to adjust my hold on the rifle, I was able to quickly swing over and track her as she ran off. When she passed through an opening in the trees, I pulled the trigger for the third time. Altogether, the whole sequence probably took less than ten seconds.

I was pretty sure that I had made good shots on the first two deer since they were stationary and I had a good rest, but I was afraid that I might not have led the running deer enough. It turned out that I was right. The first doe was shot through both lungs, the second, through the heart. Neither went more than about 30 yards.

The third deer was hit through the hams, but still only went about 150 yards before piling up in a creek.

Count me among the converted. I'm not ready to call it quits on my .270, but from now on, I'm pretty likely to reach for the AR when rifle season rolls around - particularly when I'm looking to put meat in the freezer.

Southwind Buck

2010-11-21T21:26:00.001-06:00

I love it when a plan comes together! This was the view from my treestand at about 7:25 this morning. I didn't have a real camera with me, so I took the photo through my binoculars with my Blackberry. It's kinda hard to make out, but that little patch of white 2/3 of the way up is a deer laying about 40 yards away.

Meetings and a nasty head cold have kept me out of the woods for a while (including yesterday's opening day of gun season), so for my first day of gun season I had to pick a spot without the benefit of any recent scouting.

The Weather Channel was predicting a south wind, so I broke out my topo map - and between sneezes - looked for terrain features that would be good candidates for setting up downwind of cruising bucks. One particular saddle that runs directly north-south caught my eye.

I've noticed a good amount of walk sign there over the past several weeks. I've also seen lots of does in the general area, but nothing in particular had screamed out "hunt here." I figured by setting up on the north end of the saddle I could cover it without stinking up the likely approach routes. In the absence of a better plan, it was worth a shot.

By flashlight, I picked out a nice straight white oak that seemed to offer a clear view across the saddle and hauled my sneezing, wheezing butt up the tree. At about 7:15 I noticed movement in a patch of thick stuff about 50 yards away. I could make out a decent set of antlers but didn't get much of a look. There was another opening about ten feet in front of the deer, so I settled my scope on it and waited.

In just a couple seconds, the buck stepped into the small opening and gave me a clear shot. The .270 ballistic tip hit behind the right shoulder and took out both lungs on the way through. The buck managed to go only about 20 yards before piling up right beside a logging road. Tracking and retrieving couldn't have been easier - which was a good thing, because I really wasn't looking forward to dragging him out of a hollow.

As I sat there in my stand trying to line up my phone's camera lens with my binoculars (not an easy task) a little basket-rack 8 point walked right by the downed buck and never even broke stride. Unfortunately, I couldn't get everything lined up in time to capture that.

What a morning! What a start to Thanksgiving week! Just last week, I promised my neighbor some sausage from my next deer. He'll be thrilled to have it in time for the holiday.

The Badfinger Bucks

2010-11-10T21:53:00.003-06:00

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I missed the actual opening morning of muzzle loader season. My son Hunter (that's him above) had an away football game on Friday night. Neither of us was looking forward to heading out on only a couple hours sleep, so we reluctantly bagged the Saturday morning hunt.

Mid-day Saturday, I headed out to do some scouting for our day-late opening day. I hadn't been at it for long before I walked up on a pretty nice eight pointer who crossed the logging road about 40 yards in front of me and never even noticed I was there. He had his nose to the ground and was moving along at a determined pace. "That's a good sign," I thought. Only one thing that gets a nice buck like that to let his guard down. The rut!

I made a mental note of where he had crossed and backed out. It was an area where two secondary ridges meet at a high point on the main ridge. I've noticed a smattering of buck sign there over the past couple weeks, but never could find anything like a dominant tree or a funnel that would give me a high probability shot with a bow. Now that we could reach out a little further with a muzzle loader and with an actual buck sighting, it was looking much better.

I checked some other spots that have had a good amount of deer sign for a couple weeks, but that I hadn't hunted for the same reason as the place where I had seen the buck earlier. I eventually got to a spot that I've had a gut feeling about for a while now. It was a saddle that I bow hunted early in the season. I had seen several does but no bucks that morning and just never went back.

As I approached the saddle I stopped and immediately noticed a tremendous amount of walk sign. The newly-fallen leaves were already crunched up and broken. Several trails were bare dirt despite the fresh layer of leaves. It was obvious that lots of deer were in the area.

As I explored further, I discovered a couple fresh scrapes and rubs. Then I noticed a cluster of red oaks in the middle of the saddle. I had just walked under them and found fresh droppings when I heard movement down in the nearby hollow. I looked toward the source of the noise and saw a really nice set of antlers sticking up over some thick brush. I threw up my muzzle loader and tried to find a clear shot but couldn't ever see anything that I was comfortable with. Eventually, the buck turned and walked downhill without offering a clear shot.

To say that I was excited was a huge understatement. A natural funnel with lots of walk sign, fresh buck sign, a cluster of dominant trees, and now a shooter buck sighted just 75 yards away. It just doesn't get better than that!

Hunter had a commitment that night so I picked out a tree on the downwind side of the saddle and settled in. A couple does and this little nine pointer that I shot with my cell phone came through. On the fourth photo, I accidentally pushed the voice-dialing button on my phone instead of the camera button. "PLEASE SAY THE COMMAND" the female voice demanded. That little buck nearly jumped out of his skin and I just cracked up.

At dark, I climbed down and marked my way out with bright-eyes so that I could find the same tree in the morning. Sunday morning Hunter and I returned to the same tree. He was the designated shooter and I was videographer. Wow! what a morning. It was truly a once in a lifetime hunt. The fact that I got to share it with my son and that I captured it on video made it that much more special.

The only low point of the day (other than watching a nice ten pointer walk away) came when Hunter accidentally filleted the side of his finger while field dressing his deer. Luckily I had my first aid kit with me and got the bleeding stopped, but it eventually took six stitches to close up. It was a good reminder that sharp knives and adrenaline can be a hazardous combination and that a properly stocked first aid kit is a hunting necessity.

I like to name my hunting spots. Since this one hadn't been named yet, it became Badfinger Saddle. The two bucks became, obviously, the Badfinger Bucks.

A long day of meetings on Monday kept me out of the woods, but Tuesday morning I was back in the same tree again. I was determined to get another crack at the ten pointer that had eluded us twice on Sunday. I saw far fewer deer than on Sunday, but a couple eight pointers that were a little smaller than Hunter's deer came through. Eventually the direct sun shining on enough layers of clothing to keep me warm at 32 degrees heated me up to the point that I was driven down the tree to shed some clothes and cool off.

I decided that I was going to have to change tactics to kill that deer so I set off scouting/still hunting. I had been at it for a couple hours when I heard deer running down in a deep hollow off to my left. I hadn't seen any white flags and the wind was blowing from them toward me so I knew they hadn't smelled me. I looked around and noticed that I was in another saddle. "They're going to come right through here," I thought. I quickly picked out a nearby tree and sat down on the ground next to it facing the hollow.

In about five minutes, my stomach began to grumble and my mind began to wander toward getting up to go for some lunch. Just then, a doe came barreling up the hill straight at me! When she was about twenty feet away, she finally saw me, slammed on the brakes, and took a hard left. Forty yards behind her was another deer that stopped as soon as she veered off. I threw my muzzle loader up and only had time to make out that it was a mature buck from the shape of its head. In an instant, he began to make that little lean that can only mean he's about to get gone quick. He was facing straight at me so I put the crosshairs on the center of his chest and squeezed.

The first good look I got at him was as he ran off. I could tell he had good width and I could tell that he had been hit, but he disappeared back down in the hollow in about two seconds so I was left wondering if he might have been the ten pointer from Sunday and whether the shot I had made would put him down quickly and with a good blood trail. I've shot two other bucks in the throat with a muzzle loader, including this one captured on video on opening day two years ago. Both of them dropped like a sack of potatoes, so I was a little worried that this one hadn't.

I decided to give him some time to bleed out if necessary, go get some lunch, and call some friends to help me do the tracking. David Watson was kind enough to drop what he was doing and give me a hand. Turns out I needn't have worried as he only went about 120 yards before piling up against a tree in the bottom of the hollow.

As I approached him I could tell immediately that it was the same ten pointer that Hunter and I had seen. He was a beautiful deer and a worthy opponent. This time, perseverance and a little luck had paid off for me.

The Crown Buck

2010-09-30T11:26:00.005-05:00

What do you do when you have three dominant trees to hunt in the same area? You have to pick one, of course. What happens when you pick wrong? Well... you might get some good video footage.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

About a month ago, I spotted a large-bodied buck with an impressive set of headgear leaving a hay field at dawn. It was a foggy morning and I was looking at him through binoculars from about 200 yards away. I couldn't make out the details of his rack, but from the general shape, it looked like he might be a pretty nice non-typical.

Last Sunday, my buddy Ted and I did some scouting along a ridge in the area of his likely travel route to and from that field. We found three dominant trees, all white oaks, that were spread out in a straight line 75 yards long and running perpendicular to the length of the ridge. One tree was on top of the ridge, another was about midway down the side, and the third was close to a creek that ran down the hollow next to the ridge. All three trees had good fresh feeding sign and the lowest tree, next to the creek, had a couple feeding rubs nearby.

To the east of the three trees is another ridge with very thick cover where I guessed deer would be bedded during the day.

On Monday of this week, I hunted the area and set up between the two lower trees. Soon after I climbed the tree, the wind shifted from the North to the West, which sent my scent right over to the bedding area. Almost on cue, a deer started blowing, and blowing, and blowing some more. It blew at me for twenty minutes straight before finally moving on.

About 30 minutes later six does came straight upwind toward me blowing occasionally. One of the does walked directly to the tree I was in, stopped about ten yards away, and looked up at me. They obviously knew I was there, but I guess the lure of fresh white oak acorns was more than they could stand.

So when I returned yesterday with Ted (who was videoing), my plan was to pick out a tree to climb that would provide the best chance of keeping my scent out of the bedding area and the feeding areas. I seriously considered climbing a hickory tree that was about 15 yards downwind of the uppermost dominant tree.

As we stood there checking the wind direction, it began to swirl so we decided to bag trying to set up for a downwind position and hunt the lower tree with the buck sign. BIG mistake!

At about 5:30, I noticed movement near the uppermost dominant tree and signaled to Ted that there was a deer up there. Well, to make a long story short, we watched a beautiful buck feed on the upper dominant tree for 25 minutes. He was about 50 yards away, so I wasn't going to risk a shot. Unfortunately, he never came closer, so all we could do was watch as he fed contentedly about 15 yards from the tree I almost climbed.

He was close enough that I couldn't move to reach for my binoculars so I really didn't know how big he was. Since Ted was watching him through the video camera he got a much better view. When it got dark and we started to climb down, I asked Ted, "am I going to cry when I look at the video?" All he could say was, "yup." Boy did he say a mouthful there!

The best I can tell, he is a mainframe 10 with two kickers on his left G2 and one kicker on his right G2, giving him 13 scorable points. I named him the Crown Buck because of the way the kickers curve out, which gives his rack the appearance of a crown.

Needless to say, I was disappointed for second-guessing my gut feeling, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Oh well, the season is young. Hopefully, I'll get a second chance.

Ryan Winchester, Bowhunter

2010-09-28T21:16:00.002-05:00

All photos courtesy Scott Winchester

Ryan Winchester is a stud.

The 12 year-old seventh grader from Powell, Tennessee has accomplished a feat that few adults can claim. He has now taken a deer with a bow. In fact, the photo above of him and his bow kill was the first one posted on TnDeer.com's popular kill picture thread for the 2010 season.

Ryan's path to bowhunting success has been carefully guided by his dad Scott. Scott is an avid deer hunter and diehard proponent of hunting dominant trees (which he calls "killing trees"). Ryan is learning to identify trees and read deer sign, so he and Scott spent lots of time scouting in the pre-season. It's no accident then that he was hunting a hot chestnut oak on the opening morning of the 2010 archery season.

It's also no accident that Ryan made a perfect shot when the time came. He worked hard shooting his left-handed bow three times a week in the months leading up to deer season. Due to the difficulty of finding a proper fitting left-handed youth bow, his dad had to modify one that started out with a draw length that was too long and a draw weight that was too heavy. If you look closely at the photo below, you will notice that the limb pockets have been modified to achieve the proper draw length and a 38 pound draw weight. Pretty ingenious!

The story of Ryan's hunt begins on the Wednesday prior to the opening of Tennessee's archery season when Ryan and Scott discovered a chestnut oak with lots of feeding sign underneath. The tree was on a very small plot of private land that most hunters would overlook, thinking it to be too small to possibly hold deer. Fortunately, they put their trust in the sign that they saw and they hung two lock-on stands on trees that were about twenty yards apart.

Although some hunters claim that deer will not eat chestnut oak acorns, Scott knew that in the early weeks of bow season, before other, more desireable species of acorn drop, deer will gobble them up.

Opening morning found Ryan, Scott, and Scott's dad waiting out the rain that had moved in overnight. Ryan and Scott arrived at their stands right at daylight, just as the rain was easing up. They had only been in the stand for about fifteen minutes when Ryan motioned to his dad that there were two deer approaching.

Ryan maintained his composure for the ten minutes or so that it took the deer to make their way to the dominant tree they were set up on. Ryan knew that he would have to wait for the deer to get within 25 yards to ensure a clean kill with his light archery tackle. Because he was hunting a dominant tree, he knew exactly where the deer was headed and he knew that he was set up in a location to get that close shot. It was just a matter of time.

As the deer began to feed Ryan waited patiently to draw his bow when the deer's head passed behind a tree. He made a perfect shot and watched happily, but carefully, as the deer ran off. In a few minutes Ryan and Scott climbed down and Ryan walked directly to the spot he had mentally marked to find his arrow covered in bright red blood.

Ryan led the tracking job, finding the deer piled up a mere 50 yards away with a perfectly placed hole through both lungs. He then took care of the field dressing and dragging chores on his own.

Needless to say, grandfather, father, and son were all thrilled to death and very proud of what Ryan had accomplished. Although Ryan has killed larger deer, including this impressive buck taken during the 2007 firearm season, his first bow-killed deer will certainly rank among the most memorable of his life.

In this day of quick fixes and instant gratification, it's truly wonderful to see a young man accept the challenge of learning the skills of a woodsman and practicing his craft so that when the moment of opportunity presents itself he is ready. He can now proudly wear the title of bowhunter.

Kudos to Scott for passing along the skills and values that will serve Ryan well in the years to come. We should all be so lucky to have a mentor like Ryan does.

Oh, did I mention that Ryan Winchester is a stud? Way to go dude!

Tree ID - Saul Oak

2010-09-21T19:52:00.007-05:00

I'm going to go out on a limb on this tree ID article, because I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure I have this tree identified correctly. I first talked about it in this article about a recent scouting trip. I'm also going to go out on a limb and guess that only other tree nerds like me will give two hoots about any of this.

First off, I have never seen another tree like this one. I believe it is a Quercus Saulii or Saul Oak which is a hybrid of a Chestnut Oak and a White Oak. The leaves, acorns, and bark are consistent with the descriptions, dimensions, and illustrations given in this obscure scientific article which is the only information source I've been able to find. I'm posting this in hopes that through the magic of Google, someone with more expertise than I will find this and help me confirm my identification. Please leave a comment below if you have any knowledge that you would be willing to share.

This particular tree is the only one of it's kind that I could find in the immediate area. It is growing on an upland ridge in a stand of white oaks. There is a stand of chestnut oaks nearby. The tree is about 24 inches in diameter.

This is the same photo of an acorn and leaf that I posted earlier. The leaf is 10.5 cm long and about 5.5 cm wide at its widest point. The acorn is about 27 mm long and 20 mm in diameter. It may be a coincidence, but both of the acorns I picked up were attached to a second undeveloped acorn (visible just above the cap). They are intermediate in size between a white oak acorn and a chestnut oak acorn.

Here are what the leaves look like against the sky. When I first saw them through my binoculars, I thought that they looked like either very "shaggy" chestnut oak acorns, or very "regularly shaped" white oak acorns.

Here are a couple photos of the bark which clearly lacks the flaky appearance of a white oak - particularly at the point where the large limbs branch off. It is somewhat furrowed, but not as deeply as a chestnut oak.

I will be checking this tree when it begins to drop acorns to see if it develops into a dominant tree (for any biologists or foresters who might be reading this, I'm not referring to the classic definition of a dominant tree that you would be accustomed to). Assuming that my identification is correct, I think it would be really neat to kill a mature buck under such a unique tree.

Scouting Tip - Think Like a Deer

2010-09-20T21:39:00.002-05:00

With whitetail bow season underway in a few states and just around the corner here in Tennessee and other places, lots of deer hunters are hitting the woods to find that perfect hunting spot. I'm really thrilled that more and more of them are getting interested in finding and hunting dominant trees. In the past week I've gotten at least a dozen emails and messages on message boards either asking for help in finding dominant trees or talking about how the hunter had shots at deer every time they hunted a dominant tree.

One of the things I've heard many times in recent weeks is that there are acorns everywhere and the deer aren't focusing on any particular tree. There is a possibility that is correct, but I'd wager to say that there are dominant trees somewhere, the hunter just hasn't found them yet. Even when there are acorns everywhere, deer remain creatures of habit. As a result, they will follow short-term patterns that will take them through preferred feeding areas and past dominant trees on a regular basis.

With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time for a few advanced scouting tips. Before I jump into that, if you need to brush up on dominant tree basics, start with this article for an overview of Pursuit-style hunting, then this one for a definition of dominant trees, this one for an overview on identifying them, and finally this one for some basics on acorns and oak trees.

So here are a couple tips:

#1 Scout With a Plan

Don't just wander aimlessly looking under every tree you come across. Think like a deer. Where would I be at night? Where would I go during the day. How would terrain features, the prevailing wind, and cover (or the lack thereof) influence my travel routes between them.

Get out a topo map and aerial photo of your hunting area and study them with those questions in mind. Then develop a scouting plan that takes all those variables into account. Mark your best guesses for the deer's preferred travel routes on your topo map, or better yet, use some topo mapping software like this to create custom maps. I use one symbol to designate spots to be scouted and other symbols to record what I find.

#2 Look for Visual Clues About Deer Movement

As you are out working your plan, keep your eyes open for obvious things like slick trails, creek crossings, or places where deer are crossing under fences like this spot I found yesterday.

If you find fresh walk sign, there is a reason why deer are in the area at that particular time. Ask yourself, "why would a deer be here?" It may or may not be because they are feeding on a nearby dominant tree, but the odds that they are just went up. I found this fresh feeding sign literally twenty feet from the fence crossing.

Sometimes the walk sign you are looking for will be much more subtle than a slick trail. Unfortunately it's very hard to photograph, but often I've found dominant trees by noticing disturbed and broken leaves where numerous deer have walked through an area and followed the "trail" right to a dominant tree.

Also, in the early season, look for small rubs like these, which I call feeding rubs. They are often located either directly under or very near a dominant tree. I believe that bucks tend to make them soon after they have shed their velvet. They are not so much about communication like the larger rubs you will see later in the year, but rather, they seem to be more a case of boys being boys and just trying out the new hardware. For whatever reason, they tend to do it near feeding areas.

#3 Use Your Ears

Deer seem to prefer the freshest acorns available. As you are walking through the woods, stop frequently to listen for dropping nuts just like deer do. I've probably found more dominant trees just by following the sound than any other way.

I hope these little tips help you improve your scouting skills. Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Good luck this season!

Why I'll Never be a Bait Hunter

2010-09-13T15:47:00.005-05:00

I attended a panel discussion this weekend that featured a couple well known deer biologists from the middle Tennessee area, Bryan Kinkel, a private consultant, and Daryl Ratajczak, the Big Game Program Coordinator for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Bryan and Daryl fielded questions on a variety of topics and did a terrific job of addressing several hotly debated topics including bag limits, antler restrictions, and baiting.

On the subject of "why baiting is illegal in Tennessee," Daryl and Bryan agreed that there are a variety of biological reasons including disease transmission among deer and possible toxicity to wild turkeys. It was a non-biological reason that really resonated with me, however. One of them (I can't remember who) said that baiting lowers the skill level of hunters since they never have to get out and actually learn to scout.

I agree with that point, but I would also add that by not scouting, you miss out on the best part of hunting which is getting out and learning about the natural world by observing and participating in an activity as old as life itself.

I love scouting. In fact, I actually enjoy scouting as much as I enjoy sitting in my treestand (what most folks would call hunting). If you'll scroll up to the top of the page, you'll see my mantra that "hunting takes place before you climb into your stand, everything after that is just shooting."

Seems like every time I hit the woods, I learn something new. This past weekend was no exception.

In addition to locating several promising-looking spots for the opening of bow season in a couple short weeks, I made three discoveries that may or may not ultimately contribute to my success as a deer hunter but which added to my knowledge of and appreciation for the world that deer live in.

Discovery #1 - Deer Like to Eat in Bed

I found this deer bed near the first dominant tree I found this year. The bed was obviously fresh because the leaves were dry while the surrounding area was damp from an overnight shower.

As I looked more closely, I discovered a pile of wild plum pits that had apparently been separated out of the cud of the bed's recent inhabitant and spit out in a neat little pile. When I picked one up, it was still moist.

I never did find the source of those wild plums (which are not very common in my area), but you can bet your last dollar that I will be keeping my eye out for it in the future. I'd be plum crazy not to!

Discovery #2 - That's My Kind of Hybrid, Jack

After checking literally hundreds of white oaks with binoculars, looking for acorns, I looked up in what I originally thought was a white oak but saw leaves that look nothing like anything I've seen before and acorns that were absolutely huge. I searched around under the tree and found a couple of acorns that look like white oak acorns on steroids - luckily, one of them had a couple leaves attached.

On closer examination, I noticed that the bark lacked the characteristic flaky appearance of a white oak.

I've checked every tree reference I know of and can't find any species that matches the physical characteristics and the location of the tree (on a south-facing upland ridge). I did find several references on the web to hybrids of white oaks and chestnut oaks which I believe this to be. That hybrid is actually common enough to have a name, the Jack Oak or Saul Oak.

Based on the size of the acorns, their white oak lineage, and numerous old feeding rubs in the area, I have high hopes that this tree will be a hot spot when it starts dropping nuts in a couple weeks. How cool would it be to kill a nice buck under this unique tree? I will definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Update: I found this article from a scientific journal that describes and illustrates the characteristics of a chestnut oak/white oak hybrid, scientific name Quercus Saulii. The tree I found matches every leaf, acorn, and bark characteristic described in the article.

Which brings me to the weirdest discovery of the weekend...

Discovery #3 - The Stinking Phallus

So I'm riding along a logging road on my four wheeler, minding my own business, when I catch a whiff of something dead. A couple guys on TnDeer.com had been talking recently about finding isolated pockets of deer that had apparently died of EHD. With that in mind, I grabbed the brakes and came to a quick stop to check it out. The wind was swirling around so the odor came and went a couple times.

I dug out my handy bottle of milkweed floaters and launched one the next time I got a whiff of death. Getting a fix on the wind direction, I began backtracking upwind expecting at any minute to see a decomposing deer. Instead, I found this.

I swear I'm not making this up. This thing looked like, well I don't need to tell you what it looked like, but the end of it was covered with a vile greenish-brown goo that looked like poo and stunk to high heaven. The flies were climbing all over each other to get to the poo-goo. You can click on the photo to get a better look.

Turns out it is a type of fungus called (appropriately) phallus impudicus, commonly known as a stinkhorn and that foul-smelling goo is full of spores that are spread by the flies that land in it.

It never ceases to amaze me how nature adapts to ensure the survival of even the most vile-smelling fungus. I'm also baffled that anyone who calls himself or herself a hunter would miss out on the education that you can get by simply walking around in the deers' world and observing. The satistfaction that I would get from killing a deer over a pile of corn wouldn't hold a candle to the pleasure I get from all the little stuff I learn when I take to the woods.

Thanks Bryan and Daryl for making me think about that.

Hitting the Crackberry in the Great Outdoors

2010-08-10T19:40:00.008-05:00

Two things happened recently that came together in a very interesting way. First, I got access to several hundred acres of new hunting property that I'm not very familiar with. Second, I finally gave up the old flip phone and got myself a crackberry, er, Blackberry.

I was pretty sceptical about whether I would like the Blackberry at first. My standard speech to my kids has always been, "Harumph! Why would I want one of those fancy phones? All I want is something that rings when someone wants to talk to me and that makes your phone ring when I want to talk to you."

Well, once again, my old crumudgeonly ways have been proven outdated. As a matter of fact, I now consider the Blackberry to be one of the neatest pieces of hunting gear to come down the pike in a long time, thanks to the free Google Maps application that can be downloaded onto the phone.

With Google maps running on my Blackberry, I can access topo maps like the one above and aerial photos like the one below. The built-in GPS in the phone shows me exactly where I am on the map or photo. I can mark locations while I'm in the field with a star and when I get home, I can change the star to the push-pin type marker, add detailed notes, photos, even video to the location notes. I can access all of that information from my Blackberry at a later time if I need to refresh my memory about a particular spot.

On my home computer, I can also draw in property lines (blue) and trails (red and green)

I have spent two mornings on the new property learning my way around and clearing trails. I had a paper topo map, a compass, and my Garmin eTrex GPS with me, but never pulled them out. I was able to navigate quickly, easily, and accurately with nothing but my Blackberry.

In future articles, I'll go into more depth on how I use the Blackberry and Google maps. My prediction is that smartphones will make conventional GPS units obsolete in the near future, at least for users in areas with good cell coverage. For the time being, I'll still carry a GPS and a phone, but as my confidence grows I may just decide to leave the GPS in the truck.

Never thought I'd say it, but I'm now a Crackberry addict.

Broken Records

2010-04-19T14:04:00.006-05:00

Records are made to be broken. So says conventional wisdom, but in this day of rampant cheating, maybe its our record-keeping system that's broken. I say it's time to rethink how we keep score.

Home runs, 100-meter sprints, Boone and Crockett scores. Way back in the naive innocent days of my youth (when I was about forty) those hallowed records represented the pinnacles of human achievement. Their holders were rightfully accorded the admiration and respect due someone who had perservered through formidable odds and achieved a level of success that we mere-mortals can only dream about. Ahh, those were the days...

Today we're bombarded with news about cheaters in all walks of sport - and life in general. Our obsession with records has created a win-at-all-cost mentality that pervades any activity worthy of keeping score. It is sad to me that my children's first reaction to a new world record will always be suspicion rather than awe.

This past deer season, two truly awesome deer were killed. The deer picured above on the left was killed by Troy Reinke of Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Its gross green score was 190 5/8. Net was 185 even. According to the Boone and Crocket club, this is the largest eight pointer ever killed. The deer on the right was killed by Johnny Clay of Adams County, Ohio. It measures 214 gross and nets 197 2/8. It may be the largest typical buck killed during the 2009-2010 season.

Unfortunately, these two bucks have something in common besides awesome, world-class racks. They were both killed by poachers.

It seems that Troy (who is not pictured above - that's apparently a taxidermist) neglected to check in a couple deer that he killed prior to killing the whopper that locals had named Fred. Then there's the little matter of what he killed it with. He originally claimed that he killed it with a bow during archery season, but when forensic results showed that the deer had been killed with a firearm, he tried to claim that he didn't shoot it, but just found it dead. Yeah right! Well the judge didn't believe him either and sentenced him to 245 days in jail, ordered him to pay $1,500 in restitution, and revoked his hunting privledges for five years. You can read more about it here.

Johnny "Bigger is Always Better" Clay, who is pictured on the right above, is a true piece of work. He went to the trouble of making up an elaborate story about how he gut shot "his" deer with a bow on public land in Kentucky and looked for it for a week and a half before finding a completely bare skull and no other evidence, err... remains. You can see and hear him spin his tall tale here.

Unfortunately for Johnny, some guys in the neighboring state of Ohio had trailcam photos of "his" deer (watch the video to see why I use the quotes) over a hundred miles away from where the deer was supposedly killed. The case has not gone to court as of this writing, but reports are that Johnny has confessed to shooting the deer with a firearm in Ohio and transporting the head to Kentucky. Why go to all that trouble? Because his Ohio license had been revoked for a prior poaching conviction. You can read more about the story on this thread from the Kentucky Deer Hunting Forum.

Unfortunately these two guys are just the tip of a big, smelly, rotten dung-heap of cheaters who will stop at nothing to claim their spot in the record books. I'm thinking that maybe the real sport these days is not in killing a big deer, but in catching the guys who are doing it illegally.

In keeping with the tradition of naming hunting scoring systems after the pioneers of the sport, i.e., Boone and Crocket and Pope and Young, I propose a new scoring system for the guys in green who track down and convict scumbags like Troy and Johnny. I am hereby proposing the creation of a Leopold and Stoddard (L&S) scoring system, named in honor of two of the fathers of modern wildlife management.

Poachers would be scored and points awarded to arresting wildlife officers on the following basis:

Net B&C score of the poached animal(s) (rounded to the nearest inch, minimum score 100 per deer), plus
Number of days of jail time, plus
Monetary fine/10

Using that scoring system, Mr. Reinke would score

     185
+   245
+   150
--------
     580

Making him my current world record holder.

Mr. Clay can't be officially scored yet since his mandatory pre-trial drying-out period hasn't expired yet, but estimates coming out of Ohio place his potential fine in the magnitude of tens of thousands of dollars, so he could easily eclipse Mr. Reinke to become the new L&S World Record.

Congratulations to Mr. Clay and Mr. Reinke for making it into the record books. May you get all the noteriety you deserve.

Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching - even when the wrong thing is legal. - Aldo Leopold

Summit Viper Review

2010-04-13T20:56:00.004-05:00

If there is one piece of hunting gear that I just couldn't be without, it would have to be my Summit Viper climbing stand. Like a faithful friend, it goes everywhere I go during hunting season. Sure, there are times during gun season that I'll set off on foot for some still hunting, but the core of my strategy revolves around figuring out where the deer are feeding and then getting close enough to make a clean bow kill.

Stealth, mobility, and security are all vitally important characteristics of a stand that is going to go with me to the farthest corners of my hunting territory to get me up close and personal to my quarry. In the following video clips, I'll review the (mostly) high points of the Viper and pass along some helpful hints that I've figured out over the six or seven years that I've been using this great treestand.

If you are ready to start enjoying the Cadillac of climbers, you can pick one up at Cabelas or at Gander Mountain or for the best price try Amazon.

Harvesting Deer

2010-03-26T08:46:00.003-05:00

Harvest – verb (used with object) to gather (a crop or the like); reap.

In this politically correct, advertising-driven world that we live in, it has become standard practice for the mainstream hunting media to talk about what we hunters do in watered-down language designed not to offend the sensibilities of anyone who might possibly spend a dollar on a sponsor’s product. Witness the popular use of the word “harvest” to describe the successful conclusion of a hunt.

Let’s get this straight. Farmers farm. Farmers harvest. Hunters hunt. Hunters kill… sometimes (more on that in a second). If the word “kill” offends you, then you’re definitely reading the wrong blog. Bye.

Anyway… I ran across this article the other day and it has stayed on my mind. It was written a couple years ago by a lady who (I’m just guessing) is probably not a hunter. In the article, the author describes a day at World Class Whitetails of Ohio (WCWO) in Millersburg, Ohio. All in all, I thought she did a pretty good job of recounting what she saw in a non-sensationalized, balanced kind of way.

In fact, I have just one beef with her story. That gripe is in regard to her description of hunters killing huge bucks at WCWO. Sounds like I’m contradicting myself doesn’t it? Well, read on.

You see World Class Whitetails of Ohio provides its clients with abundant opportunities to shoot 150+ class deer. In fact, WCWO guarantees that the 100 or so guests they serve each season will all get a trophy-sized deer. Their guests have about 200 acres of prime southern Ohio land to roam around in.

Yup, 200 acres of high-fenced, big buck infused feedlot where the number of inches you hang on the wall is limited only by the thickness of your wallet. Why, you can even browse their website and choose “your” deer before you arrive. All you gotta do is show up, shoot him, and sign the credit card receipt. No fuss, no muss, and no disappointment. You’re guaranteed to head home with a real honest to goodness wall-hanger, sure to impress.

Can I just say that I’d take an oath of allegiance to PETA before I’d pass through the gates of that killing field where guests are called hunters? What an obscene perversion of the word hunter. They are no more hunters than the guy at the slaughterhouse that whomps slobbering cattle between the eyes with a pneumatic sledge hammer. To call them hunters is an insult of the highest order to anyone who has ever put in the time and effort to kill a wild whitetail.

No, they aren’t hunters, they’re simply shooters, harvesting genetically manipulated, hormonally enhanced, hand fed, pen-raised livestock. No more, no less. I’m not here to pass judgment on either sellers or buyers, but let’s just call ‘em what they are - farmers and shooters. Please don’t associate what I do with what takes place at WCWO.

So here’s a vow. I’ll never harvest a deer, and I’ll never join the Safari Club which (according to the WCWO website) has awarded two world records and one pending world record for deer harvested on the WCWO feedlot. I’ll nominate ‘em for a 4H award though…

What do you think?

Top 10 Reasons to Scout in the Off-season

2010-03-21T20:26:00.009-05:00

I saw a question posted the other day on TnDeer that got me thinking. And when I thought I was through thinking, I got to thinking some more because it was a really simple, but very good question, which was, “Why should I scout in the off-season when deer will be on a completely different pattern when next season rolls around?” You can click on the link to see the ensuing discussion.

I started writing down all the reasons I could think of and the list quickly grew pretty long. Being the obsessive/compulsive mess that I am, I started categorizing and grouping reasons until I came up with my very own (with all due respect to David Letterman), Pursuit Hunting Top 10 Reasons to Scout in the Off-season.

A point of clarification: I consider the time between the end of hunting season and the emergence of green vegetation in the spring to be the post-season. Anything between green-up and opening day is pre-season.

So now, without further adieu, (drum-roll please) I give you the first-ever Pursuit Hunting Top 10 List:

#10 Look for Sheds

OK, I have to admit that I really don’t do this much, unless I accidentally trip over one, but if you need a tangible reward for hitting the woods, this is a good place to start. If it gets you off the couch during those days when there’s nothing in season, then by all means do it. Just try to incorporate some of the more productive things that I’ll talk about as we get further down the list.

#9 Look for last year’s Rubs

Well, I don’t really do a lot of this either, or at least it isn’t my specific purpose. I do take note of ‘em whenever I see them, however, particularly if they are signpost rubs. Some folks like doing it though, so if you do, go for it. Whatever it takes. I’ll talk more about what I try to learn from old rubs shortly.

#8 Practice Using Map, Compass, and GPS

Alright, now that I’m warmed up, I’ll start talking about stuff that I really do.

The post-season is a great time to hone your navigational skills. GPS’s work better without leaves on the trees and you have much better visibility for sighting ahead with your compass and just getting a visual reference on terrain features to compare them to the squiggly brown lines on your topo map.

The lack of low-lying vegetation and briers makes it much easier to bushwhack cross-country following a compass heading too. The cooler temperatures and lack of biting critters of the flying, crawling, and slithering variety also make bushwhacking much more enjoyable.

Here are some ideas for incorporating navigational drills into your scouting.

Study a topo map of the area before you go and create waypoints on your map and GPS for terrain features like saddles, funnels, or converging ridges that you want to check out. Try getting there with just your map and compass. Do it by following a straight line compass heading and also by following terrain features like creeks and ridges. Check your GPS from time to time as you are travelling if you want and also when you think you have arrived.

Set a waypoint at the spot where you park your vehicle and practice using map and compass to plot a straight-line course back once you are through scouting. Use the GPS waypoint to set your initial bearing if you want or as a fallback if you get turned around. Make it a game to see how close you can get to your vehicle using just your map and compass.

The time you spend getting comfortable with your navigational system in the off season will pay huge dividends when it comes time to head back into the boonies during the season.

#7 Explore New Areas

This idea goes with #8 like peas and corn, Mamma always said…

Expand your hunting opportunities by getting familiar with a new piece of property. If you don’t have access to private land, don’t let that stop you. I’d be willing to bet that there are some great pieces of public hunting land within easy driving distance. Get more than a couple hundred yards off the nearest road or field and you’ll probably have the place pretty much to yourself.

An area that you’ve never visited before is a great place to practice the navigational skills we just talked about. Study a topo map ahead of time and pick out spots that you think should have pretty good deer activity, then go there and see how well you did.

Use your experience also to develop your record keeping system. Keep detailed notes of what you discover. A couple months from now when the season is drawing near, you’ll be glad you made note of that big ‘ol female persimmon tree, or that slick trail leading into a cedar thicket.

#6 Get More Familiar With Your Hunting Area

When the season rolls around, you want to be completely comfortable getting anywhere on the property in the dark. If there is anywhere you are hesitant to go because it is difficult to find, figure out a way to get there. Cut a trail, put up flagging tape, put up reflective tacks, study terrain features like creeks and ridges that you can follow in the dark, make mental notes of landmarks like odd-shaped trees or rocks. If you want to consistently be on deer, you are going to have to move around a lot. Don’t hamstring yourself with self-imposed un-huntable areas.

#5 Study the Terrain

Identify major terrain features like saddles, funnels, edges, and points and note how they affect deer travel patterns. In the post season, you should be able to easily see the contours of the land and the well-used travel routes.

It is also a good time of year to look for micro funnels like blowdowns or fence crossings that can impact travel patterns in a big way. A major storm can instantly create micro funnels by knocking down trees across trails or fences, so it is important to check for any major changes since last season.

#4 Head into the Thick Stuff

When it is late in the season and there is less available cover, deer will stick close to the thickest, gnarliest stuff they can find. Take the time to find it and get into it to figure out how deer are using it. How do they get in and out? Where do they bed? Are there any good ambush sites nearby?

The post-season is the perfect time to explore thick cover because it is easier to read the sign. Its easier to get around in, and if you bump a deer out of its sanctuary, it isn’t going to affect its behavior six to nine months from now.

#3 Look for Future Mast Sources

Although the post season is too early to identify specific trees that will develop acorns or fruit, it isn’t too early to start narrowing down the areas to scout again later in the pre-season. A good pair of binoculars will help you cover a lot of ground.

If you need to brush up on your tree identification skills, this is a good time to practice. There are lots of photos in the Tree ID articles on this site and you can pick up an inexpensive field guide to help. See my recommendations in any of the Tree ID articles.

Some species of trees like white oaks and red oaks are pretty widely dispersed, so concentrate on finding areas where there are several large trees in a relatively small area. All things being equal, deer will prefer to feed in areas with the highest concentration of available food. Look on the ground for old acorn caps under any promising-looking areas. If everything looks good, make note of the spot on your map so you can come back in a couple months and check for maturing mast.

Other species like persimmons tend to grow individually or in tight-knit clusters. Chestnut oaks commonly grow in almost pure stands. Know where they are likely to be (check the Tree ID articles for tips) and spend some time locating them now for future reference. Keep in mind that only female persimmons produce fruit, so check for old calyxes and seeds on the ground to determine the sex.

As the pre-season progresses, you will start to be able to use binoculars to look up into the canopy of mast-producing trees and figure out which ones will bear fruit or nuts. Remember, only a small fraction of trees actually produce mast in a given year, so use your off-season scouting trips to narrow down the number of places to scout once the season rolls around. Make note of any promising trees so that you can come back later to see if they have become a dominant tree. A little work now will pay big dividends later on when the pressure is on.

#2 Hone your Powers of Observation and Interpretation (Eyes and Whys)

Let’s face it, even when you know what you are looking for, deer sign can be hard to see. Rubs and scrapes are easy, but you actually have to train your eyes and your brain to notice small things like a couple of moist deer pellets, or a single track in soft dirt, or the browsed-off tips of a cedar limb, or maybe just some turned-over leaves. There is a ton of information for our brains to process as we walk through a deer’s world. The only way to get better at seeing it all is through practice.

As if finding deer sign wasn’t hard enough, interpretation can be even harder. Constantly asking yourself “why?” will go a long way toward helping you improve your scouting skills. Why was a deer feeding here? Why was a deer travelling here? Why did a deer take cover here? Why would it choose to bed on this side of the ridge rather than the other? Figuring out the role that external factors like wind direction, food availability, predation, and a hundred other things played in all those “why” questions is the key.

The answers to your “why” questions can help you spot patterns that you can extend to other areas and other situations. I firmly believe that the ability to recognize patterns of deer behavior and to adjust hunting strategy as a result is what sets the truly skilled hunter apart from the average hunter. The more time you spend in the deer’s world, the more skilled you are going to be at recognizing and interpreting the little details and patterns that can tell a big story.

And the #1 reason to scout in the post-season is:

#1 To Enjoy More Time in the Great Outdoors

In any survey of why we hunt, “spending time outdoors” always ranks near the top of the list. Don’t let the lack of an open season keep you indoors.

This is a great time of year to take a child, or a new hunter, or even your dog out to your favorite hunting spots and just enjoy being there. Absorb all the knowledge you can from the activities we’ve discussed and pass along some of what you’ve learned to the next generation. I feel like I learn something every time I’m in the woods.

During the season it is hard for me to relax when I’m in the woods. I feel pressure to scout that next big white oak, and the next one, and the next one, all the while staying alert for game. In the off season I can just relax and enjoy the sounds of the woods and the sun on my face and the wind in my hair (what’s left of it).

Take a snack and enjoy a bite to eat under your favorite oak tree. Sit on a log and talk. Take a nap. Enjoy a leisurely stroll. It’s all good…

Navigating with the eTrex H and TOPO! Custom Maps

2010-03-18T14:00:00.003-05:00

A short time ago, I posted this review of the Garmin eTrex H GPS and the TOPO! custom mapping software from National Geographic. In that review, I stated that for the combined price tag of about $200, you can meet or exceed the capabilities of mapping GPS units that cost two or three times as much.

It has since been pointed out to me that there are professional-level GPS/GIS tools used by surveyors, land managers, foresters, etc., that are far more sophisticated than what I demonstrated. I’m not familiar with those tools, but considering the expertise of those who pointed that out to me, I have to assume that is a fact. I’m sure they come with a hefty price tag, however. So I will qualify that statement now by saying that I was referring to popular GPS models commonly available to consumers through normal retail outlets. In other words, the kinds of GPS units that hunters would normally be considering for recreational use.

With that qualification out of the way, let’s dive in to how you can use these very cost-effective tools to determine your location in the field and then navigate to another location. It takes a little bit of prior preparation when you are creating your custom topo maps and a couple minutes of time once you are on the ground, but with a little practice you can pinpoint your location on the map with a very high degree of accuracy.

If you are a newcomer to using a map and compass, or if you just want a quick review, you might also want to check out these articles on compass basics, topo map basics, and navigating with a map and compass.

One final point that I brought up in regard to a photo in the book Mapping Trophy Bucks which I reviewed here... make sure you don't lay your map on anything that contains iron or steel as that can severely affect the magnetic needle on your compass, giving you a false reading. Also, it you are navigating in the dark, keep your flashlight a safe distance away from your compass, because it can affect the compass reading as well.

Chasin' Trail

2010-03-15T18:08:00.002-05:00

My buddy Ted and I took advantage of a nice day last week to make a quick run to southern Illinois for some post-season scouting around a large agricultural field that he leases. We knew the deer were hammering the field right now and had been for several months. A major ice storm in early 2009 had stripped off most of the larger tree limbs, completely wiping out last season's entire mast crop. Anticipating more of the same next season, we wanted to follow the major deer trails back into the woods looking for good ambush sites for next year.

As you can see from the photo above (click on it to get a closer view), we weren't disappointed by the amount of deer activity. The area in that photo shows just one of at least a dozen heavily used trails entering the field. We located a couple promising looking stand locations and shot some video showing how we did the scouting and how we marked the spots we found using the field navigation system that I talked about in the videos of this article where I reviewed the GPS and topo mapping system that I use.

We had to leave before dark, but we were able to stay around long enough to get some video of about forty deer literally piling into the field along the trails we had just scouted. Maybe we're on to something...

Mapping Trophy Bucks - Book Review

2010-03-14T14:19:00.003-05:00

I picked up Mapping Trophy Bucks by Brad Herndon on the recommendation of several guys who frequently post on the serious deer hunting forum at TnDeer. They recommended it in response to my review of the eTrex H GPS and the TOPO! state series of topographic mapping software which I posted here.

If, like the author who lives in southern Indiana, you are lucky enough to gun hunt for rutting whitetails in the farm belt of the Midwest where there is lots of cropland, lots of deer, and limited blocks of cover, then this is a good deer hunting tutorial. If you hunt (particularly with a bow) in other areas of the country where deer are much less likely to be concentrated into small blocks of cover, I think it offers some sound advice on recognizing and using terrain features, but I think it falls short in one very critical area which I’ll discuss below.

First, the good points:

This book is written at a very accessible level and contains useful information that will appeal to both novices and hunting veterans alike. The author liberally sprinkles in examples and anecdotes from his long hunting career which gives the book the feel of a campfire conversation more than a classroom lecture. It is chock-full of high-quality photographs taken by the author and his wife.

There are separate chapters with detailed descriptions, illustrations, and examples of funnels, saddles, benches, corners, points, converging hubs, breaklines, and fencerows. The reader will come away with a good understanding of what each terrain feature is, how it affects deer movement, and how to recognize it on a topographical map. The book also contains good advice on related topics like choosing stand locations based on wind direction, keeping detailed records, dressing appropriately, and hunting during mid-day.

Now my gripes:

I have to say up-front that bowhunting is my passion, so my impressions of this book are heavily influenced by my goal of getting within 30 yards of a relaxed deer in order to maximize my chances of making a clean, ethical shot.

In a nutshell, if a hunter were to follow the author’s advice, he would study a topo map of his hunting area, identify the key terrain features listed above, determine the optimum wind direction for each potential location, and then hunt whichever one(s) matched up well with the wind conditions on any given day. All of that is good, but it neglects the most important aspect of consistently getting within bow range of a deer and that is that you’ve gotta hunt where the deer are! The only way to know where the deer are is by reading the sign.

The author’s discussion of sign is limited to a few brief sentences on scrapes and rubs which he (correctly in my opinion) advocates paying limited attention to. There is no mention however of using tracks, feeding sign, or most importantly, droppings to determine whether deer are using a particular terrain feature at that specific time of the season. Yes, deer will typically travel through saddles or follow funnels, but only if there is a reason for them to do so at that specific time.

A deer’s activities are dominated by three things, food, cover, and reproduction. Without knowing how those factors are influencing the herd’s behavior at that instant and reading the sign to know how they are reacting, you are simply depending on luck to see and kill a deer. Will you occasionally get lucky? Sure, but those aren’t the kind of odds that will get me out of bed at 4:00, morning after morning.

Update: check out the sign in the video in my next post. Now that will get me up long before the alarm ever goes off!

Another gripe I have is the lack of information on how to use a map and compass to get around in the woods. The author discusses using a compass to determine wind direction but doesn’t mention using it to actually navigate. It’s one thing to say I’m going to hunt that saddle. Actually getting there can be another.

My final gripe has to do with one of the things I pointed out above as a positive, the photos. As a photographer for Realtree, the author has drawn heavily on his library of photographs taken for advertising and promotional purposes. Virtually all the photos are posed (sometimes in goofy situations) with the models wearing perfectly matching camo that has obviously never seen the first washing. Not terrible, but enough to get slightly annoying. Oh yeah, then there was the photo of a guy with his map and compass laid out on a steel treestand – not something I’d recommend if you want to get where you’re going.

Final Impressions:

Overall, this is a worthwhile book for the description of terrain features and how to recognize them on a topo map. It is an easy and pleasurable read that I enjoyed next to a roaring fire on a cold, rainy, March day. Just recognize that it is only a useful tool and don’t look for it to be the definitive guide to regularly killing mature whitetail deer – despite the title.

Garmin eTrex H and TOPO! Mapping Software

2010-03-10T08:18:00.007-06:00

This Straight Shootin' Gear Review is a two'fer special. In the following multi-part video review, I'll show you how you can exceed the capabilites of a high-end mapping GPS with the plain-Jane Garmin eTrex H GPS and the TOPO! State Series topographic mapping software from National Geographic... at a fraction of the cost.

I chose to review these two products together because in my method of using them, they are a tightly (though manually) integrated duo that I depend on for outdoor navigation and for recording important details of my scouting and hunting trips. Any decent GPS can help get you where you are going and back in the woods, but only by adding the capabilities of a custom topographic mapping tool will you be able to create historical views of important details like feeding areas, bedding areas, trails, rubs, and scrapes. You can even attach photos and custom notes that can be viewed with a simple click of the mouse.

As an added bonus, I'll also show you the terrific Adventure Paper that lets you create totally waterproof, nearly indestructible custom topo maps straight from your inkjet printer.

Remember, no GPS is a substitute for a topographic map, a compass, and the knowledge of how to use 'em. If you are a newcomer to using those two essential outdoorsman's tools, or if you just want to refresh your memory, take a look at this article about topographic map basics then this article on compass basics and this article where I show you how to use them together.

Happy trails!

Update: This article shows how I use the system out in the field.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

Garmin eTrex H Sources

The eTrex H is widely available including these online retailers:
Cabelas
Gander Mountain
Campmor
Amazon had the best pricing at the time of this review

National Geographic TOPO! Sources
Cabelas has a limited selection of states
Again Amazon had lowest prices plus the complete line of states

National Geographic Adventure Paper Sources

Campmor

Post-season Ducks

2010-02-26T15:17:00.007-06:00

My buddy Greg and I spent a couple hours in the flooded timber yesterday morning. The first hour or so I was videoing and got several minutes of close-up footage of wood ducks. Nothing terribly exciting, but they sure are pretty to watch. Does anyone know what the duck was doing at 2:15 when he puffed up the feathers on his head? Was that a mating display? Please leave a comment if you know. I'm just curious.

As soon as I picked up the still camera the woodies disappeared, but some mallards worked in and I got a few good photos of hens flying. The shot of the day was when a greenhead dropped in and seemed to freeze in mid-air with the sunlight just gleaming off his head like an emerald. What was I doing? Picking up decoys, of course. I'm here to tell you that getting good photos of ducks flying is five times harder than killin' 'em.

I'm sure Ann was perplexed as to why we had forgotten our guns (and the scooby snacks, of course), but she did an awesome job of sitting still while ducks landed almost on top of her.

Pursuit Hunting Hyperlink Haiku

2010-02-24T17:57:00.008-06:00

OK, this is going to take some explaining.

Yesterday I received this wonderful compliment from fellow hunting blogger Kari Murray who liked this article I had written in a minimalist, stream-of-consciousness style. Her comments about how the sparse prose and photos had captured the essence of the hunting experience got me thinking... always a dangerous thing.

In my blog, I've written pretty extensively about the process of hunting. I've written about the emotional highs and lows of hunting. I've written about the relationships that it fosters with friends, family, and the natural world.

So, I wondered, could I enhance the impact of a few well-chosen words by harnessing the power of the internet? Voila... Haiku and Hyperlinks

As a writing exercise, I decided to try writing a Pursuit Hunting Hyperlink Haiku. My self-imposed rules... The piece had to fit the traditional Haiku five-seven-five structure. Each line had to contain a hyperlink to a related Pursuit Hunting blog article that elaborated on the word and the phrase and that helped to capture the essence of the hunt. And it had to include a related photo.

My first (and probably last) attempt:

beneath the white oak
acorns fall deer come to eat
that is where i hunt

OK, back to gear reviews.

Hodgman Wadewell Chest Waders

2010-02-24T13:44:00.002-06:00

Here is a Straight Shootin' Gear Review of the Hodgman Wadewell 2-ply chest waders. Under mild weather and light duty conditions, I found them to be an economical and effective wader. I would have serious reservations, however, about depending on them for a once-in-a-lifetime extreme cold weather hunt.

If you decide to pick up a pair of these waders, you might want to check out this video for a quick course on how to patch 'em up.

Here is a source:

Three Essential Knots for Outdoorsmen

2010-02-23T13:19:00.003-06:00

Here are three essential knots that every outdoorsman should master. By "master" I mean you should be able to tie them by feel in complete darkness. If you're ever caught without a flashlight in a pop-up thunderstorm and your gear starts blowing all over camp, you'll thank me when you can secure it quickly and securely.

The video demonstrates how to tie each of the three knots, so the photos that follow are primarily to show how the finished knot should look. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge it to a size where you can easily see the details.

I also show you a handy way to coil and store rope so that it will be neat and tangle-free when you need it.

TWO HALF HITCHES

This is probably the most useful knot there is... period. I use it for all sorts of things like:

HAULING A BOW UP INTO A TREESTAND

Notice that I've made a loop around the grip before tying the two half hitches

HAULING A RIFLE UP INTO A TREESTAND

Again, a loop around the stock just under the sling swivel stud keeps the rope from slipping off and keeps the muzzle pointed up so that it doesn't get jammed into the dirt, thus avoiding any possibility of a very dangerous barrel obstruction. Obviously, this should never be done with a loaded chamber!!!

HAULING A RIFLE AND PACK UP INTO A TREESTAND

Same method of tying a wrap and two half hitches, but pass the rope through the haul loop on your pack first.

BOWLINE

I've left this knot loose so that you can see how the rabbit goes around the tree and back down the hole. It should be tightened in actual use.

TRUCKERS HITCH

A very handy knot for tying down canoes, ATVs, Boone and Crocket deer, or maybe even your daughter's pink Barbie bike.

HERE'S THE ROPE COILING TECHNIQUE TOO

Mini Maglite Upgrade - UPDATE

2010-02-18T15:38:00.001-06:00

When I did my original review of the Nite Ize 1 watt LED and IQ Switch upgrades for the Mini Maglite, I had an issue with the operation of the IQ switch which I documented in the video. I called Nite Ize customer service to tell them about the "problem". I was treated very courteously and promptly received a replacement switch. I learned something in the process that I'll pass along to Nite Ize.

Sheath Repair

2010-02-18T14:46:00.001-06:00

Here's a quick video showing how I used the Speedy Stitcher to repair a multi-tool sheath. I used the stitching technique that I developed in this video where I was repairing a torn pair of coveralls. I also did an in-depth review of this handy tool a couple days ago.

LaCrosse Alpha Burly Sport Hunting Boots

2010-02-17T22:31:00.001-06:00

Nothing in my hunting closet sees more use than my hunting boots. Not my knives, by bow, my rifles, my camo clothing, nothing... Unlike most pieces of gear, my hunting boots get used year-round during the various hunting seasons and for any off-season scouting.

Add in the important roll a pair of boots plays in providing good foot support, traction, protection - and most important - comfort, and I believe you can make a strong case that there is no more important piece of hunting gear than a good pair of hunting boots.

My boots of choice... the LaCrosse Alpha Burly Sport Hunting Boots. Take a look at the following video review to see why.

They are available at the following online retailers:

Bargain Outfitters

Cabelas

Gander Mountain

Gear Repair with the Speedy Stitcher

2010-02-14T20:43:00.002-06:00

Here is a tutorial on how to use the terrific Speedy Stitcher sewing awl to repair some torn hunting coveralls.

I was inspired by this rare sighting of a Sasquatch cleverly attempting to disguise himself as a hunter. Luckily, I noticed his sasquatch fur poking out through a huge tear in the left knee of his coveralls and was able to escape with my life.

When I got home, I decided that my own coveralls could use a little work. From the looks of my sewing job, you can see that I'm clearly not a tailor, but the repair is super strong and only took a couple minutes to do. Here's how I did it:

If you missed my Straight Shootin' Gear Review of the speedy stitcher (which includes a detailed demonstration) you can see it here.

If you'd like to pick up a Speedy Stitcher, you can order it from Cabelas or through Amazon.

Shotgun Thumb

2010-02-14T16:35:00.003-06:00

If you spend much time with your hands cold and wet during hunting season, chances are good you've developed irritating cracks in your fingertips. During duck season, my right thumb never seems to heal up. The combination of exposure to the elements and shoving shells into my shotgun magazine keeps it pretty cracked up. Here is a tip that I picked up from my buddy Charles on how to treat that proverbial sore thumb.

Bust 'em Boys

2010-02-11T23:10:00.001-06:00

The Bust 'em Boys... Whack 'em, Smack 'em, Jack 'em, and Stack 'em makin' it rain mallards on the 2010 youth hunt. Final two-day body count: 30 mallards. Not bad for a bunch of 14 year olds.

Many thanks to Papa Bust 'em for hosting the event.

Buck 3 Stone Sharpening System

2010-02-10T10:28:00.005-06:00

There's just no substitute for a good sharp knife. Whether you are field dressing, skinning, and butchering game or just performing cutting tasks around the home or jobsite, a sharp blade will make your job much easier and much more enjoyable. There is a definite satisfaction to the feeling of a finely honed blade gliding effortlessly through whatever it is that needs cutting.

I'll probably offend some folks, but you couldn't give me a serrated blade. If I want to hack and tear, I'll use an axe or a saw. If I need to cut something, I want a razor-sharp edge - something that can only be achieved with a traditional non-serrated blade and proper sharpening. Call me old school. Call me elitist. Yup.

Most knives are only moderately sharp out of the box, and they quickly loose their factory edge after a couple uses. With the intense price competition that manufacturers face, they simply can't afford to put the necessary time and work into finely honing their blades to create a long-lasting, razor edge.

If you look at most new factory-produced blades, you will see that the edge is covered with thousands of very fine parallel scratches running perpendicular to the edge. These scratches are the result of the high-speed sharpening tools used in the factory. They essentially create a micro-serrated edge that feels sharp at first, but that quickly dulls as the tiny "teeth" are deformed through use. Here is a closeup photo of the factory edge on a brand-new SOG blade. You can clearly see the rough grinding marks.

In contrast, here is the edge on the Buck 119 that I hand hone in the following video. Notice that it is much smoother and that I've decreased the sharpening angle to give a sharper, more durable edge.

The good news is that with a little effort and the right tool, you can easily put a long lasting, shaving-sharp edge on your blades. Here is a review of the sharpening system that I currently use. I've used lots of different systems over the years and this is the best I've found so far. I've tried less expensive, similar-looking products in the past. The reason they are cheaper is because they use inferior sharpening surfaces that just don't do the job. Don't waste your money on one.

At the time this was written, none of the big three outfitters (Bass Pro, Cabelas, or Gander Mountain) carry this sharpener, but it is available at a good price through Amazon.

Wader Repair

2010-02-05T13:30:00.002-06:00

Here is a quick tip from our Outdoorsman's Toolbox on how to find and repair those tiny leaks in your waders that are too small to see, but large enough to make you plenty uncomfortable on a cold day.

Mini Maglite Upgrade by Nite Ize

2010-02-04T15:54:00.003-06:00

If you are looking to get a whole new level of performance out of those old Mini Maglites you have laying around, take a look at these two components that drop into your standard two AA Maglite. Although they are not without some quirks and issues - as you will see in the following video review - I think they are a useful upgrade nonetheless.

The upgrade consists of a 1 watt LED module and reflector (which must be replaced together) as well as a nifty intelligent tailcap switch which Nite Ize calls their IQ Switch. The combination gives your Mini Maglight more light output, longer burn-time on a set of batteries, a better quality beam, the ability to adjust light output, and a handy blinking light in the tailcap for locating your flashlight in the dark.

PART 1 OF 5

PART 2 OF 5

PART 3 OF 5

PART 4 OF 5

PART 5 OF 5

If you decide to upgrade your lights, I suggest purchasing the LED upgrade and IQ switch together to maximize the benefits and to save a couple dollars on the purchase price. You can get it from Eastern Mountain Sports here EMS Nite Ize LED Upgrade or from Campmor or from Amazon

Speedy Stitcher

2010-02-03T15:42:00.001-06:00

This is the first in our series of Straight Shootin' gear reviews, where we reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly about hunting products. Let's face it, the design, the quality, and the effectiveness of the gear you carry into the field can dramatically impact your success, your enjoyment, and even your safety.

With so much riding on selecting the right piece of gear for the job, our mission is to help you sort through the hype and PR and get to the reality of what works and what doesn't. We don't accept advertising or in any way have a monetary relationship with any manufacturer, so our opinions are guided by our years of hunting experience and our field testing results.

With that said, here is our video review of a neat little item that is not really hunting gear, per se, but a tool that can extend the life of lots of your favorite stuff and save you a bundle in the process. I've used it to repair slings, sheaths, waders, boots, jackets, and tons of other stuff. In the follwing videos, you'll see how straightforward and easy it is to use.

If you'd like to pick up a Speedy Stitcher, you can order it from Cabelas or through Amazon.

Hunting Buddies

2010-01-28T09:52:00.005-06:00

Here's to good hunting buddies

Here's to good hunting memories

4:30 a.m.

Rain

Cold

Wind

Hungry

Leaking waders
Broken finger

Malfunctioning gear

Five different setups...

Three limits

Four friends

Awesome!

Signpost Rubs

2010-01-22T19:55:00.003-06:00

I my previous post, I showed a closeup of this rub that was located at the entrance to a thicket that was being heavily used by deer at the time. This is a good example of a signpost rub.

Here are a couple others:

So what exactly is a signpost rub? A signpost rub is a large rub found on an aromatic tree like a pine or cedar that is used year-after-year by all the deer (bucks and does) in the area. It is usually in a high-traffic area and serves as a scent-based community communication station. It is believed that the phermones deposited on signpost rubs play an important role in communicating breeding signals during the rut, perhaps even stimulating estrus in does. I've heard reports of hunters observing does becoming extremely excited, bleating, and jumping around after sniffing a signpost rub, even going so far as to rub their genitals on it.

In a recent post on TnDeer, member foldemup posted links to these awesome trailcam videos of deer using a signpost rub. My thanks to foldemup for allowing me to link to them.

If you are observant, you will notice the dates at the start of the videos show that they were taken during the first week of January 2010. It is important to note that in Alabama, where the videos were taken, January is the peak of the rut - I may do an article on why that is later. Clearly the deer are more interested in sniffing the tree and rubbing their foreheads on it than they are in stripping bark off with their antlers.

So how does the presence of a signpost rub affect my hunting strategy? Well, that depends. Clearly if I had trailcam photos of a bruiser like the one in the first video clip, I'd be all over it. In the absence of photographic evidence, I would take into consideration the condition of the rub (does it look like it has been recently rubbed), the stage of the rut, and the absence or presence of fresh sign in the nearby area.

Just keep in mind that even though a signpost rub is on a large tree, it doesn't necessarily mean that a large-racked buck is in the area. As the videos above show, bucks of all sizes (and does too) will use a signpost rub.

Update: Got an email from foldemup with this link to photos of the ten pointer in the first video. Seems the big guy drew his last breath saturday morning. Hoping to get a full story to post including what role the signpost rub played in his strategy. Congrats foldemup.

2009 Season Wrap-up

2010-01-20T16:40:00.009-06:00

The Tennessee 2009 deer season is now in the books. Between holidays, family obligations, and time in the woods and duck blinds, I've been negligent in updating the site lately.

Since my last post, I managed to complete a deer trifecta by taking a buck with both muzzleloader and rifle to round out a season that I started with this Pope and Young buck.

The buck pictured above was shot at 130 yards with my .270. I had been scouting for a couple hours and had just called my buddy Ted to tell him that I wasn't seeing any tracks or other sign of deer in the woods. I decided to start checking for sign around anything green that I could find.

There was a small field nearby with some type of low-growing vegetation that was still green. As I approached the field, I saw a wide set of antlers bobbing along just above the top of some tall dead grass. I threw my rifle up to find the deer in the scope but still could only see antlers. He was on the other side of a small rise which obscured everything from view except the top of his head. He didn't appear to be in a hurry, but he was moving at a steady clip toward the nearby woods. I knew if he didn't show himself in a couple seconds, my chance of getting a shot would vanish.

As luck would have it, he rounded the end of the high spot that was hiding him when he was about thirty yards from the cover he was headed toward. I was able to make an offhand shot that dropped him in his tracks.

This deer was taken during muzzleloader season. I had spent the morning in my stand overlooking a cedar thicket that bordered a greenfield. This large rub was alongside a major trail leading into the thicket.

I didn't have anything to measure the tree or rubs at the time I took the picture, but by comparing dimensions on the photo to measurements I later took off my muzzleloader, I had determined that the tree was 11.25 inches in diameter and the parallel sets of gouges were 5.25 inches apart. I measured the distance between brow tines on all my mounts and none of them came close to being 5.25 inches wide. I figured it was either a really big buck making that rub with his brow tines, or else it was a very determined spiker making it with his main beams. I chose to believe the former.

While in my stand that morning, I had seen a very large buck follow three does into the thicket but couldn't get comfortable enough with my sight picture to take a shot (I was looking uphill, directly into the rising sun). At about 10:00 I climbed down, took my climbing stand off the tree, and packed up my gear to head out. Almost as an afterthought, I decided to walk up the steep hill and investigate the area where I had seen the deer disappear into the cedar thicket. I'm always interested to see why deer would be travelling a particular route.

I clambored up the steep hillside making all sorts of racket in the process. As I approaced the cedar thicket, I heard a deer blow down in the hollow below me and saw a buck cross the creek and pause on the other side, about a hundred yards away. He was looking around and clearly didn't know exactly where I was. I figured it was just a matter of seconds before he started putting some distance between us.

I threw my muzzleloader up, squeezed the trigger, and... nothing. I forget to knock the safety off. Dumb mistake, but luckily the deer still hadn't moved. I quickly thumbed the safety and squeezed off the shot.

From my vantage point high up the hillside, I could see the buck run along the opposite hillside and drop about a hundred yards away. Turns out he wasn't the bruiser I had seen earlier, but he was a nice buck nevertheless.

Watching the Wind

2009-11-16T15:06:00.011-06:00

Every seasoned deer hunter knows that outside of being in the right spot at the right time, nothing can influence your chances of success more than the wind. Knowing which way it is blowing is absolutely critical in predicting deer travel patterns, choosing an area to hunt and where to place a stand, and perhaps most important, deciding when to take a shot.

Today I'm going to talk about two of the best wind sensors available. Not only are they extremely sensitive, but if you know where to find it, one of them is completely free. Here it is:

In case you don't recognize it, that is a common milkweed seed and coma (the white fluffy part, otherwise known as a floater). In the fall, you can spot mature milkweed pods opening and releasing seeds in overgrown weedy areas. Here is what it looks like in the field:

The seeds grow in a pod that looks like this:

As the pods mature and dry out, they begin to split open:

Releasing hundreds of seeds:

In about ten minutes, I was recently able to collect enough pods that I spotted in an overgrown field alongside the road to fill a three gallon bucket with seeds and floaters (it has a lid to keep them from blowing out). As needed, I stuff about 50 or so floaters (after I've pulled the seeds off) into a pill bottle that I carry in my pocket. I try not to put so many floaters into the pill bottle that it crushes and deforms the fibers. That way, when I pull one out, it puffs up into a nice ball that floats along on the wind for a long time.

Milkweed works great for checking the wind when there are no deer close by, but particularly during bow season, I want to be able to monitor the wind when deer are within bow range. That way I can determine whether I am in danger of being busted and how long I have in order to take a shot. For that, I use a patented weapon-mounted wind sensor that I invented called Tiger Whiskers.

Tiger Whiskers are made from hundreds of micro-thin kevlar fibers attached to a wire twist. They can be attached to a bow stabilizer or rifle barrel to provide continuous, hands-free wind monitoring. I'm currently discussing distribution opportunities with a couple established hunting products manufacturers and hope to have them available in major retailers next fall. Stay tuned for more on that.

Oh, and by the way, when I did a Google search on milkweed, I discovered that it is the only plant that monarch butterflies can lay their eggs on. Apparently, the larvae eat the milkweed plant which contains something that makes the butterflies toxic to birds. So if you find some milkweed and would like to have an ongoing supply of wind checkers and butterflies, you may want to plant some of the seeds in your yard.

Golden Opportunities

2009-11-03T20:11:00.012-06:00

Funny how you just accept some things as hunting facts without questioning them. Like peeing in the woods, or not peeing in the woods as the case may be.

More times than I can count, I've painfully climbed down out of a tree - bladder stretched to the limit, struggled to get my climbing stand off the tree and packed up, then hightailed it for a quarter mile or so before finally relieving myself. Why endure the pain? To avoid spooking any deer that would smell my urine and instantly recognize it as human (or maybe just predator) in origin. At least that's what I thought. Turns out I've been needlessly torturing myself and possibly even missing out on some "golden" opportunities.

This past weekend was the Tennessee juvenile hunt, so my son Hunter and I were in the woods together looking for a big one to put on the wall.

High winds and torrential rain on Friday had done some serious rearranging of the fall colors. A thick layer of freshly-fallen leaves covered the ground, obscuring all deer sign. Luckily, I had done some scouting on Wednesday and had found a couple of dominant red oaks, each with several fresh scrapes nearby.

On Sunday morning, Hunter and I were hunting one of those dominant trees. About an hour after daylight, we decided to try some soft rattling. Almost immediately after putting the rattling horns down, we heard walking and saw movement to our left circling downwind. Our excitement was short lived, however, when we could make out that the movement was not a buck, but a coyote. It continued to circle downwind and eventually bolted when it hit our scent.

We waited about an hour for things to settle down then tried another rattling sequence. Amazingly, another coyote materialized from the opposite direction and it too circled downwind.

After seeing two coyotes, we figured our odds of seeing any deer that morning were pretty slim, so we decided to climb down and do some scouting. We started by checking the nearby scrapes. They were still covered with leaves and hadn't been freshened for a couple days. As we stood there, Hunter remarked that he really had to "go" bad.

Recalling some conversations on TnDeer.com where hunters recommended freshening scrapes or even starting mock scrapes with human urine, I told Hunter to go over to the nearest scrape and give it the ol' golden shower, which he did.

Long story short, we scouted hard for several hours, but with all the sign hidden by leaves, we didn't find anything that looked more promising than our morning location. We decided to return for the evening hunt.

At about sunset, a six pointer came to the dominant tree and fed on acorns for a couple minutes. As he wandered off, he walked over to the scrape that Hunter had freshened that morning. Immediately, he began pawing back the leaves. Then he stood on his hind legs and sniffed, then chewed on, the overhanging limb. Next he stuck his nose to the ground and appeared to actually taste the dirt. Finally, he gave it a little golden shower of his own and walked off.

As he moved on, he stopped at another scrape that we hadn't freshened. He gave it a quick sniff then kept walking. It was obvious that not only was that deer not alarmed by the smell of human urine, but he was actually curious about it.

I haven't figured out how I will put that newfound knowledge to use as far as hunting strategy, but I'll definitely be making some scrapes whenever the "urge" hits from now on.

On the ride home, Hunter was very excited about our day together. We talked about the coyotes. We talked about scouting. We talked about the how the six pointer had looked right at us several times and how comical he looked as he bobbed his head up and down and side-to-side trying to figure out what we were. We talked about deer behavior, deer communication, deer senses, and how they live in a scent-oriented world that we can't even comprehend. It was great to engage him in a thoughtful 45 minute conversation about a subject we both love.

Anyone who has raised a thirteen year old boy lately understands how difficult it is to compete for time with friends, girls, school activities, sports, Ipods, text messaging, facebook, and a hundred other things. A couple times during that ride, I instinctively reached for my phone to return calls but stopped myself short, thinking, "I'm not going to jeopardize this golden opportunity to have an uninterrupted meaningful conversation with my son. The calls can wait."

I understand that there are some who object to hunting for various and sundry reasons. All I can say is that I will always remember that day and the bond of sharing a special outdoor experience and a wonderful conversation with my son. And no animals were harmed in the making of those memories! Yes, killing is sometimes the end result, but hunting is really about the process.

Chestnut Oak Buck

2009-09-29T15:44:00.007-05:00

Sometimes you just have to venture outside your comfort zone. I almost didn't and it almost cost me this nice buck.

If you've read any of my prior posts, you know I'm a died-in-the-wool dominant tree hunter (click on the link if you aren't familiar with that term.) Trail hunting just isn't something that I normally have patience for, but that's what it took in this case.

My hunting partner Ted and I spent opening weekend hunting chestnut oaks and videod numerous small bucks and does every time we were in the stand. On Sunday night, we were hunting a cluster of chestnut oaks with a very well travelled deer trail running through the center. As the light was fading, I heard a squirrel barking in a nearby hollow and thought it was likely that a deer was on the move. About five minutes later, I heard what sounded like a deer crunching acorns and turned to get a fleeting glimpse of a large bodied buck easing quietly through the woods about 70 yards away in the direction that the nearby deer trail headed.

I couldn't see any of the details of his rack, but based on his body size and shape, I knew he was a mature buck. I had time to try a few grunts to entice him over, but darkness came without getting another glimpse of him.

On Monday afternoon, I decided to return to figure out why he was where he was. Starting from the tree we had climbed on Sunday, I guesstimated where he had been and made my way over there. It turned out to be where the deer trail that ran through our previous hunting spot intersected a grown up logging road.

There was nothing in the immediate area that looked like it would hold deer. No acorns. No persimmons. Obviously it was a travel route, but to where?

I figured that he must have been headed to one of the other numerous chestnut oaks in the area, so with my climbing stand on my back, I set off on a half-mile loop to check for fresh sign. As I ruled out one tree after another, I was growing frustrated and almost decided to head back to the truck rather than "waste" an afternoon hunting a low probability spot.

Fortunately, I had talked with Ted by phone earlier and he had encouraged me to hunt a trail if necessary since there was so much food on the ground nearby. What the heck. An afternoon in the woods beats an afternoon driving home. I decided to give it a shot.

Boy am I glad I did.

At about 6:00 I heard a faint noise and eased up out of my seat. Within a minute or two I spotted movement on the logging road. Seeing long white antler tines instantly sent a jolt af adrenaline surging to my heart. The buck stopped about forty yards away and rubbed his face against, then chewed on, something that I couldn't quite make out. As he stood there for what seemed like an hour (but in reality was probably more like a couple minutes) I forced myself to concentrate on staying calm by repeating my little archery pre-shot mental checklist.

I actually had succeeded in calming the roar in my chest somewhat by the time he continued his slow saunter toward me. As he stepped behind a small tree I drew my bow, then waited for him to hit the scent from a Tinks #4-soaked scent wick. I had positioned the scent so that he would smell it about ten yards before he smelled me. I checked the Tiger Whiskers wind sensor on my stabilizer to make sure that the wind hadn't shifted. Luckily it hadn't.

Just like it had been scripted, he hit the scent stream, stopped, and lifted his nose. I made a good smooth release and kept my sight pin on his vitals until I heard the thud-whack of a clean pass-through shot.

He ran about forty yards, stopped, wobbled, and fell. Yes!

He was a tall-racked eight pointer with one additional abnormal point. He green scored 145 4/8 gross and 137 net. Almost three inches of the deductions were due to the abnormal point located next to his left brow tine.

I don't think that I'll go back to hunting trails often, but I'm sure glad that I gave it a shot in this case.

Tree ID - Willow Oak

2009-09-21T08:00:00.005-05:00

Last week, I received an email from a hunter asking for recommendations on oak species to look for in a West Tennessee bottomland. Among my recommendations was the willow oak. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures to point him to at the time since I don't know of any in my home area of middle Tennessee. Last weekend, however, I made a trip to a wetlands area in Northern Alabama that was covered up with willow oaks and another wetland oak species, the water oak. I was able to photograph both trees and will do a separate post on the water oak.

The willow oak is a member of the red oak family. It is a prolific acorn producer capable of generating large mast crops every year (like all red oaks, the nuts take two years to mature). It grows primarily in deep, moist lowland soils near streams and other water sources.

LEAVES
The long, spear-tip shaped leaves of the willow oak are easily recognized, although at first glance, they don't look like the traditional oak leaf shape that you are probably accustomed to if you've spent your life hunting upland ridges like I have.

BARK
The willow oak can grow to be a very large tree if conditions are favorable. The trunk of the tree pictured above was about 2 feet in diameter and not close to being the largest one in the area. The bark is dark grey with shallow fissures. It is not paricularly recognizable, in contrast to the leaves which can be spotted from quite a distance away.

ACORNS
Willow oak acorns are very small, just slightly larger than a pea. They are very round with shallow, flat caps.

FIELD REFERENCES

If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.

Hot and Nasty

2009-09-15T20:40:00.007-05:00

It's just under two weeks to go before the opening of Tennessee's archery season and things look to be shaping up for a good year of dominant tree hunting. Here's a rundown on the primary mast producing trees in my hunting area. If you need a refresher on how to identify them, just click on the links.

Red Oaks - Excellent
Chestnut Oaks - Good
Chinkapin Oaks - Excellent
White Oaks - Fair(some trees look good, most don't)
Persimmons - Fair (Trees that get lots of sunlight have fruit, others don't)

But if I could hunt tomorrow (which I can't doggone it), my choice would be two Black Oak trees that I named in honor of a seventies hit song by the southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas. Check out the sign and see if you don't agree that this spot is "Hot and Nasty"!

ACORNS AND FRESH DROPPINGS EVERYWHERE

AT LEAST A DOZEN RUBS

EVEN THREE SCRAPES

In case you missed the seventies - or just can't remember 'em - here's a little trip on the way-back machine... By the way, if you like early (pre Hagar) Van Halen, you can thank Black Oaks' singer Jim Dandy. David Lee Roth ripped off, er..., learned his moves from this guy.

Tree ID - Black Oak

2009-09-15T18:39:00.011-05:00

Black Oaks are members of the Red Oak family and can be difficult to distinguish from related oak species. They are medium to large-sized trees that typically grow on north or east-facing upland ridges. They prefer sandy to clayey soils and are often found growing with red oaks, white oaks, and hickorys. Their range extends from Southeastern Maine, west to Iowa, and as far south as the Florida panhandle.

BARK
Black oak bark is dark grey with relatively uniform ridges. It is rather nondescript without any striking characteristics like the scaly bark of a white oak or the shiny vertical stripes of a northern red oak (which has similar leaves).

A distinguishing characteristic of black oak bark is the orange color of the inner bark

LEAVES
Black oak leaves are 3 - 6 inches long, with 7 - 9 sharp-pointed lobes. They are shiny green above and yellow-green with brownish hairs below.

ACORNS
Like all members of the red oak family, black oak acorns take two years to mature. They can be recognized by the caps which cover approximately one half of the nut and which end in loosly overlapping scales that have a brushlike texture. When fully mature, both caps and nuts are light brown.

FIELD REFERENCES

Sportsmen for Courageous Kids

2009-08-27T08:49:00.007-05:00

The 2009 hunting season is drawing near. You've probably begun the annual ritual of dragging out all your hunting gear, or if you're like me, trying to remember where you put it all at the end of last season. It's amazing how much gear it takes to pursue our outdoor passion.

As you are taking inventory of what you have and what you need, I'd like to ask that you keep the needs of a very special group of folks in mind. The Center for Courageous Kids http://www.courageouskids.org/ is a camp in Scottsville, Kentucky for children with severe life-threatening illnesses. Their mision is to uplift children who have life-threatening illnesses by creating experiences year-round that are memorable, exciting, fun, build self-esteem, are physically safe, and medically sound. Every year, they serve thousands of children who are unable to participate in the childhood activities that most of us take for granted. One of their goals is simply to help each child feel "normal" for a week.

Their facilities are absolutely first class and include an on-site medical center complete with a helipad for emergency medivacs, a bowling alley, an indoor pool, a beautiful equestrian center, an archery range, and a fabulous fishing lake. Take a look at their website and you'll be blown away.

Now here's the most amazing thing about what they do... The children they serve and their families never pay a cent! Their entire operating budget of over $3 million per year is funded by donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals like you and me.

So how can we sportsmen help make a difference, and what does that have to do with that pile of hunting gear in the middle of your floor? The Center for Courageous Kids is looking for donations of outdoor gear including archery equipment, fishing tackle, flashlights, bug spray and other items that can be used in their programs. Here's a wish list of things they need. You can click on it to get a larger view.

So as you are thinking about upgrading your flashlight to the latest gazillion candlepower wonder, or pondering what to do with those boxes of fishing tackle that you'll never use, please consider making a donation. No contribution is too small. They are always looking for volunteers to help with the various activities, so if you are an archer, or a fisherman, or just someone who enjoys seeing a grin on the face of a child who may not have a whole lot to smile about in their life, please consider donating some of your time as well.

I will be at Murfreesboro Outdoors on September 19th from 9:00 - 3:00 talking about deer scouting and collecting donations for the Center for Courageous Kids. If you don't have any extra gear laying around, you can come in and buy something there to donate. I'll also be giving away a free Tiger Whiskers Wind Sensor to anyone who makes a cash donation of $5.00 or more.

I hope to see you there.

A Dreary Day For Ducks and Bucks

2008-12-01T20:21:00.006-06:00

Sunday, the thirtieth of November was one of those cold, drizzly days that keeps sane people inside with a warm fire and a good book. Thank goodness for insanity of the hunting variety, especially when it runs in the family...

My son Hunter and I started the day in Northern Alabama, duck hunting with our good friends Greg and Tucker Voges. Hunter was taking advantage of liberal doses of mud and water to break in a new shotgun he had gotten for his 13th birthday a couple days before. A steady drizzle and a moderate wind kept the ducks flying until about 10:00 when we called it a day with twelve ducks to our credit.

Tucker's momma had laid down the law that Sunday afternoon was homework time so we drove him back to Nashville after a quick breakfast. We took about an hour to stop by the house, throw our wet hunting clothes in the dryer, and eat a bite of lunch before heading out to the woods with full bellies and warm clothes.

As we climbed a white oak tree on the edge of a small field, the wind picked up to about ten miles per hour and the rain began to fall again. It was pretty miserable, but we forgot all about discomfort when three does and a button buck materialized in the field. We were treated to the most amusing show of deer behavior I have seen. The lead doe was obviously in heat and the little buck was so stirred up he just couldn't stand it. Every time he would get a whiff of phermones, he would jump straight up in the air, run around in circles, spar with the nearest tuft of grass, and generally act like a rambunctious puppy. It was all we could do not to laugh out loud at his misguided testosterone surges.

After about five minutes of watching the little buck's antics we noticed the does focusing their attention on the trail where they had entered the field. In a couple minutes a nine pointer stepped out into the open. Hunter made a good shot on him so we got down immediately to take advantage of the few remaining minutes of light. The rain made blood tracking impossible, so we had to hope we could spot him in the woods. After about five minutes of looking, Hunter found the buck in a small hollow about fifty yards off the field.

It was Hunter's first "mounter" so he was ecstatic that he was going to finally get a buck of his own on the wall. He called his mother and said, "put on some lard and onions, I'm going to gut you a buck," a quote from our favorite deer hunting (sort of) movie, Escanaba in da Moonlight.

All in all, not a bad day!

Duck Pond Buck

2008-11-18T20:35:00.008-06:00

If the setting of the photo above looks suspiciously like a duck pond, that would be because it is one. And if that good lookin' fella with the deer on the edge of the duck pond bears a stiking resemblance to yours truly, that would be an observation best not shared with him, lest he break out in hives or convulsions at the thought.

As dawn broke last Sunday morning, my son Hunter and I were lying prone on the edge of a flooded cornfield. We were hunting with our good friends Greg and Tucker Voges during the Alabama youth deer hunt.

With the temperature in the low 30's and 10 mph winds, we were treated to an almost constant show of ducks working overhead. Minutes earlier, as we walked through the pre-dawn darkness, the sound of thousands of ducks getting up out of the corn was truly awesome. It was already a special day.

The day before, Greg had pointed out a slick trail leaving out of the corner of the dike into the adjacent woods. I surmised that the deer would be leaving an unflooded cornfield that lay about a hundred yards away and crossing the dyke to get to their bedding area in the woods via that trail. Given the close proximity of the cornfield, using a climbing stand without spooking the deer seemed out of the question, so we decided to hunt on the ground.

In the flashlight-less darkness, we managed to find a section of dike where we could lie down along the dry side and peer over the top, foxhole style.

About thirty minutes after first light the spiker pictured above eased out of the cornfield and across the dike. Hunter's first shot through the ribs sent the buck scrambling for the nearby woods where he slowed to a walk, allowing a follow-up neck shot that dropped him in his tracks. Hunter reminded me of the mistake I had made a week earlier and said he wasn't going to repeat it by not taking a second shot. I'm glad that lesson stuck. Now if we could just work on the picking up the room lesson...

Joella's Missouri Monster

2008-11-17T21:31:00.008-06:00

A couple days ago, I received the following email and the attached photos from my friend Joella Bates DeWitt, one of the most acomplished hunters I know. I had the pleasure of spending several days bowhunting and quail hunting with Joella at a writers camp a couple years ago when I took this buck. While we were in camp, she shared her amazing photo album of hunting adventures and her video footage of becoming the first woman to take a cape buffalo with a bow. It was pretty darn impressive. Joella is a great ambassador for bowhunting and is very active in recruiting other women to the sport. Congratulations Joella and thanks for sharing your story and photos.

Hello Friends,

On Nov. 8, 2009, I took my second amazing buck of 2009 (Editor's note: see the photo of her first buck below). This time I spotted him bringing up the rear in a rut chase. A 1 ½ year old 5 pointer was hot on the tail of a doe that must have outweighed him by at least 50 pounds. The pair advanced to the terrace that circled the just-cut corn field that our stands overlooked. Dan began filming the chase. I continued to watch also until the flash of big white antlers caught my attention. He was coming. Hot on the trail of the pair, he followed the same route to the terrace. Being the mature buck that he was, he stopped to paw a couple of hits on his scrape before coming within bow range.

On the previous Monday, I had rattled in a 190’s buck that came in so fast and so close that I could not get turned or draw on him. Not to repeat the missed opportunity, I drew when he was 60 yards out and headed my way and held.

We had several challenges that we had to overcome in order for me to take the shot. He had to come in range. The doe and little buck had gone into the woodlot just to our east. When my husband, Dan DeWitt, bleated, the buck stopped to look for the doe.

The gusting winds exceeded 30 miles per hour making the 20 degree F wind chill brutal. My Raven Wear kept me warm and as comfortable as you can be in those conditions, so I had no trouble drawing the 75 pound BowTech Guardian. The problem came with trying to remain balanced on the small Gorilla lock-on platform 22 feet high in a leaning pin oak. The buck came in behind the tree forcing me to attempt to get a shot through the thick branches. The platform was too small for me to comfortably balance on with the rock’in and roll’in occurring as a result of the wind gusts. Thank goodness for the safety harness that my neighbor, Robert Frady, had made for me with a six-foot barge-rope attachment to the tree allowing me the maneuverability to get turned to safely attempt the shot. The hold-up was there were two tree limbs that touched my bow when I tried to aim. I didn’t dare shoot until I could shoot without hitting a limb.

Finally, Dan bleated the buck to a clear spot, just 15 yards from the stand. While he stood directly downwind, I released the power of the Aerodynamic Solutions ATOM broadhead. I watched the arrow impact and stop. Knowing that the shot had hit both lungs and suspecting I had taken his heart, I watched the buck explode for 20 yards, then slow after another 40 yards. After a brief moon-walk and break-dance, the buck tumbled into a grassy grave.

I stayed in the tree, but switched places with my husband. He became the hunter and I the camera-girl. Finally, he told me that I could climb down and go see my buck. I started climbing down, but got interrupted when I spotted a buck on the field. I hung on to the ladder and filmed until we ran out of light. The buck came within 12 yards of us in the woodlot, but he was not sporting appropriate headgear to become a movie star.

I will tell you the rest of the story later.

Joella

A Close Scrape on a Gloomy Day

2008-11-12T19:03:00.005-06:00

With the leaves falling heavily and the last of the white oak acorns already on the ground, finding a dominant tree wasn't an option last weekend. Even if the deer were feeding on a particular tree (which I don't believe they were since acorns weren't dropping) any sign they left behind would have been quickly covered by freshly fallen leaves. It was time to change tactics.

After the success that Ted and I had rattling the prior weekend, I decided to try rattling again. As I mentioned in the post describing that hunt, it was the first time that rattling had worked for me. Now I was like an addict. I had to have another fix.

I spent most of Saturday scouting for fresh buck sign and late in the day struck paydirt when I found a hollow that had several large rubs and fresh scrapes about every 100 yards or so. My son had a basketball game that night, so I picked out a tree to climb the next morning, marked a brite-eye trail in from the nearest logging road and headed out.

The next morning was overcast and cold, with a 10 mph west wind. I spent the first couple hours in the stand seeing just one spike. With the wind blowing steadily and the leaves on the ground still damp from Friday's hard rain, I decided that conditions were right for moving silently along the scrape line. I decided to ease up the hollow, rattling every time I had moved far enough along for the sound to cover a new area.

I climbed down the tree as quietly as I could, left my climbing stand on the tree and eased about 100 yards up the hollow. The first spot I rattled was at the confluence of two small creeks. I sat down under a small maple tree with lots of yellow and orange leaves at ground level to disguise my orange vest and hat. As soon as I finished a short rattling sequence, a six pointer trotted off the ridge to my right, crossed the trail about thirty yards in front of me and headed up the ridge separating the two creeks. "That was cool," I thought. "Things are looking good."

After the buck passed out of sight, I continued up the hollow repeating the rattling process every 200 - 300 yards. I passed lots of scrapes and rubs as I worked my way about three quarters of a mile up the hollow, but didn't see any more deer.

At about 11:30 I decided to turn around and head back to the truck for some lunch. A short way back down the trail where I had seen a pretty good sized rub on the way up, I noticed a very fresh pile of deer droppings in the trail. I was pretty sure I would have seen them the first time through the area, so I decided to try rattling there again.

I backed up against a large beech tree and tickled the horns together lightly for about twenty seconds then picked up my muzzleloader. Almost instantly, I heard the sound of a deer moving quickly toward me about fifty yards away. I threw the muzzleloader up to my shoulder and scanned over the top of the scope for movement. Within seconds I spotted a large buck headed directly toward me and dropped my eye down to scope level, quickly getting a fix on him. He was moving too quickly to make much of an assessment of his headgear, but I could tell he was wide and had good mass. That was all I needed to see! He was definitely a shooter.

At about thirty five yards, he paused to thrash some small bushes with his antlers. He was not happy that some competitors had invaded his turf and he was about to do something about it. All of a sudden he stopped whipping the brush around and looked directly at me. He was facing me with his head down low. I knew I only had a split second left to get a shot off before he bolted. I had a clear shot over the top of his head at his spine, so I settled the cross hairs at the base of his neck, between his shoulder blades, and squeezed the trigger.

Boom! Crash, crash, crash! Through the smoke, I watched him roll down the hill and pile up against a tree, motionless with all four feet straight up in the air. "Yes!"

For about two minutes I stood there, looking at the fallen buck and processing what had just happened in the course of about twenty seconds. I tried to make out the details of his rack, but couldn't because his antlers had plowed under the leaves. I had just started to contemplate the logistics of getting him out of that hollow single-handed when a leg suddenly moved. Then another.

In an instant, the deer rolled over, got his back legs under him, and drove himself down the hill like an otter sliding on his chest and dragging his front legs. He crashed into the creek bed and spun around violently as his back legs searched for traction on the flat wet rock. After a couple 360s he stopped and lay there looking around.

As this was happening the realization that I was standing there with nothing more than a club to halt his progress quickly set in. I frantically dug into my belt pouch and found a reload tube. I managed to quickly and quietly get two powder pellets and the bullet seated without the buck noticing me, but as I pulled the ramrod out of the barrel, it hit the side of the bore with a soft clink.

Well, that clink was all it took to send the buck into a frenzy. As he began scrambling to get away, I focused my attention on getting my multi-tool out of its sheath, pulling the fired primer off the nipple and replacing it with a fresh one. I was moving fast, but I wasn't too worried about him getting out of the creek bed without the use of his front legs.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally had a fully loaded weapon and was ready to apply the coup de grace. There was only one problem. The buck was now a hundred yards away on all fours and moving at mach speed up the steep ridge on the other side of the creek.

I can only describe the feeling I had as a mixture of agony, disgust, and nausea, all rolled into one. If I hadn't been a grown man I'm sure I would have cried. "This can't be happening," I thought. "I sat there for two minutes gawking at him without reloading. What a dumb-@#*!"

There was blood where the deer had laid against the tree, but I couldn't find the first trace where he had run off. After searching for three hours I reluctantly admitted defeat.

I can only guess what might have happened, but my theory is that the .44 caliber pistol bullet I was using must have hit the spine at a shallow enough angle that it ricocheted off without penetrating the bone. The impact of it must have been enough to temporarily knock the deer out and incapacitate his front legs.

Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson that day. From now on, the gawking and antler sizing will have to wait until I've reloaded.

Rattle and Roll 'em

2008-11-03T20:30:00.006-06:00

What a hunt! Opening day of the 2008 Muzzleloader season, Ted and I were hunting a ridgeline that had several active scrapes in the middle of a group of white oaks that were still dropping nuts. Here is a picture of one of the scrapes:

When I scouted the area the day before, I couldn't find a dominant tree, but I could tell from the walk sign (and the scrapes, of course) that deer were in the area. I have to admit that without a dominant tree, I was less than optimistic about our chances (I gave it a three on a scale of one to ten), but it was the best looking spot I could find in a couple hours of quick scouting.

I've got to give credit where credit is due and Ted's got a big ol' IOU from me. He suggested that we try rattling. I've never had ANY luck rattling, and had pretty much written off the idea, but he convinced me to try again. Boy am I glad we did.

According to Ted, the secret is to start with a 140-class set of rattling horns - just kidding, but they're impressive aren't they. The rattling sequence in the video is the real deal. It wasn't re-created after the shot. I used a doe can call a couple times during short breaks in Ted's rattling. According to Ted, the real secret is in grinding the antlers together gently to simulate sparring, not crashing them together violently like some kind of prize fight. As you can see from the video, it worked like a charm.

The deer ended up being just two and a half years old and weighing 125 pounds field dressed. I haven't measured him yet, but will update the post when I do. (Update - he grossed 128 and netted 122 5/8) He has the most antler mass of any two and a half year old deer that I've seen. He certainly caused a stir at the checking station where my buddy Doug Markham with the TWRA was on hand to check him in and take the photo above. For the record, I'm not a fan of "buck in the truck" photos, but there was this good lookin' fella hanging around who offered to pose with the deer, so I'm making an exception. Actually, Doug said he'd write me a ticket for some unspecified violation if I didn't use his photo.

Speaking of Doug, Ted and I will be on his radio show on Saturday the 15th of November to talk about deer hunting, dominant trees, and probably ex-mothers in law too. Tune in to 99.7 WTN in Nashville from 5:00 a.m. to 7 a.m. to listen in.

Was it Deer or Turkey?

2008-10-31T19:04:00.007-05:00

This afternoon while I was scouting for tomorrow's opening of muzzle loader season, I came across this area of freshly churned up leaves. If you hunt in an area with lots of turkeys, it can often be difficult to distinguish between deer sign and turkey sign if you don't know what to look for. Here are a couple tips to help you avoid hanging your deer stand over a bunch of turkey scratchings.

The first thing to look for is whether the leaves are broken up into small pieces like this (click on the photo for a closer view:

If the leaves are broken up, chances are that the sign was produced as deer walked around feeding on acorns or other mast. Their weight and their small hard hooves break up the leaves pretty quickly.

Turkey, on the other hand, tend to flip the leaves over without breaking them as they search for insects underneath. Here is an example:

Notice that the leaves are pretty much intact.

Of course, the best indicator of what was there is to look for what they left behind. If you are not familiar with what deer droppings look like, there are pictures here and here to get you started.

Here is an example of what turkey droppings look like. I've heard them described as looking something like popcorn.

Unfortunately, the spot I found in the picture above turned out to be turkey sign. I made a mental note for next spring and kept on scouting.

Kaleb's Buck

2008-10-29T22:19:00.003-05:00

Kaleb Short connected with his first bow-killed buck while hunting over a white oak that was a dominant tree. Guide and videographer Ted Craddock (Rambuck) captured the action on video. It's really refreshing to witness the genuine excitement and humility on Kaleb's face and in his voice after his encounter with a very nice buck. Congratulations Kaleb!

Stand Placement

2008-10-22T21:39:00.007-05:00

Rambuck took this video during a recent two and a half day hunting trip with clients. He estimates that the hunters he videod had shots at over 25 deer, including the nice buck at the end of the video (more on that deer later).

The video illustrates several points.

First and foremost, hunting a dominant tree dramatically ups your odds of getting within shooting range of a deer. The dominant trees on this trip were all white oaks that were actively dropping acorns. In three mornings and two afternoons, the hunters had shots at deer every time they were in the stand.

The second point that it makes is how close you can get to deer if you know where they are feeding. As a matter of fact, you can easily get too close. Notice how often the deer in the video are directly below the hunter. Despite Rambuck's advice to move about 20 yards away from the dominant tree, the hunters elected to climb trees that were only 5 - 10 yards away. Getting too close creates several problems:

A straight-down shot is more difficult to execute due to the awkward angle
A straight-down angle makes it much more difficult to get a double lung pass through or a heart shot
Deer coming to the dominant tree are much more likely to spot you as they approach
Deer are more likely to smell where you have walked around and laid your gear on the ground as you prepared to climb
Deer that you don't intend to shoot but that are feeding directly beneath you are likely to detect hunter movement and spook (Murphy's law says that this will happen as the shooter buck you've been waiting for approaches. The buck in the final few seconds of video approached while several does were directly under the hunter and videographer, handcuffing them long enough for the buck to get out of range)

Once you've put in the time to locate a dominant tree, make sure to spend a few minutes considering your stand placement options before picking out a tree to climb. Here are a couple suggestions. Sometimes you will be able to find a stand location that meets all the following criteria, sometimes you can only satisfy a couple. Usually you will have to make some tradeoffs.

Remember that deer will often favor one side of a dominant tree. If you notice that the freshest sign is concentrated on one particular side of the tree, choose a stand location that is favorable for a shot to that specific area.
Try to find a tree that is about 20 yards from the heaviest feeding area, not the trunk of the tree. Some large trees have limbs that spread out 10 - 15 yards from the trunk. If you are located 20 yards away from the dominant tree's trunk, you could end up with a 5 yard shot or a 35 yard shot if the deer are feeding on the near or far side of the tree respectively.
Choose a tree that is downwind of the feeding area and the likely approach route
Choose a tree that is on the opposite side of the feeding area from the likely approach route so that the deer don't have to pass directly under you on the way to feed.
Choose a tree that is uphill of the feeding area to give yourself a little extra elevation
Remember the western movies where the gunfighter tries to position himself so that the sun is to his back? Gunfighter's delight works as well on deer as it does on bad hombres. If you can find a tree to the east for morning hunts or to the west for afternoon hunts it can work to your advantage. Deer don't like to look into the sun

One final note. When you are hunting a dominant tree, be prepared to shoot at any time. If you are bow hunting, that means standing up as soon as you hear deer approaching and all the while there are are deer nearby. You don't want to have to ease up out of your seat for a shot at the buck you've been waiting for when there are several wary does just a few yards away. Oh, and don't forget to be still. This post has some video footage of the heartbreaking consequences of breaking that rule.

Navigation - Getting From Here to There

2008-10-14T20:46:00.009-05:00

This is the third article in our navigation series for deer hunters. We've been talking about using topo maps and compasses to help us get off the beaten path to scout new areas. Now we'll show you how to put the two tools together in a real-world scouting situation.

Let's say we parked our vehicle at point B, walked northwest up the logging road, then turned right and headed out the ridge to point A. We've been following our progress on the map as we walked using the technique we talked about in the compass article, so we are certain of our position. Now we want to take the most direct route back to our vehicle.

The first step is to place our topo map on a flat surface and orient it with our compass.

Now, without moving the map, we are going to lay our compass on the map with one edge of the baseplate lying on the imaginary line from our present position to our destination, making sure that the destination end of the baseplate is the one that has the index mark where we read the compass direction. Now we will rotate the bezel to line up the arrow with the north end of the compass needle. When we're done, our map and compass should look like this:

Now, getting back to our vehicle is a simple matter of walking a straight line. With a sighting compass like we prefer, there are two ways to do that. Either by holding the compass at waist level and following the line down the center of the mirror.

Or if we want to be more accurate, we will hold the comapss at eye level with the mirror angled back so that we can see the reflection of the needle while using the notch at the top of the lid like a gun sight.

Either way, we will pick out a tree that lies on the line indicated by the compass, walk to the tree, then repeat on another tree until we arrive at our vehicle. By the way, the compass in the photos is about 30 years old and has lost part of the silvering at the bottom of the mirror. That's why you can't see a reflection of the far side of the bezel.

Before you head deep into the back country, practice these skills in a familiar area until you are comfortable with them. Once you've mastered them, you'll never hesitate to venture wherever your feet take you.

Navigation - Compass Basics

2008-10-13T19:48:00.014-05:00

If you've mastered the mapreading basics we talked about in the first navigation article and you've located a good topo map of your hunting area, then you need one more thing before you head off the beaten path on a scouting expedition- a good compass. I'm not talking about the cheap little things you hang on your jacket zipper or slip on your watch band. I'm talking about a real outdoorsman's compass. There are three important things to look for in a compass, a rotating bezel that allows you to set the compass for any direction of travel, a baseplate for aligning with map features, and a liquid filled capsule that helps steady the needle. The basic Silva compass pictured above retails for about $20. AS you can see from the photo below, I prefer to use a compass with sighting capability like the Silva Ranger.

Of all the things that a compass is useful for, like locating likely locations for a dominant tree the most basic - and most important - is keeping your topo map oriented with the world, just like a car GPS rotates the road map around as you make turns so that the map is aligned with the road you're driving on.

Here's how you do it. Set your compass bezel to 360 degrees (straight north) and align one of the long sides of the base plate with any north-south feature on the map. I normally use an edge of the printed area or a fold that I've made carefully so that it is aligned north and south. Make sure that the north mark on the bezel points toward north on the map. Now rotate the map and compass together until the north needle lines up with the little arrow underneath it. Once that is done, your map is oriented to the world around you.

If you are scouting in unfamiliar territory, keep your map and compass in your hand as shown above. Stop frequently, orient the map, look around at the land features and compare them to the map. Start doing this at a known location like an intersection or some other obvious feature on the map. As you travel, keep up with your location on the map using the stop, orient, look around approach. Make a mental note of your location. If you don't trust your memory, put your thumb on your location and keep it there until the next time you stop and re-evaluate your location.

It may sound like a lot of work to do this, but trust me, it beats walking for twenty minutes then trying to remember how many ridges you've crossed. This brings up the most basic rule of navigating in the woods. The best way to avoid getting lost is to stay found. In other words, if I know where I am on the map, I can always find my way to wherever I want to go. We'll talk about how to do that next time.

Acorns vs. Persimmons

2008-10-12T19:45:00.005-05:00

On a deer hunting message board, I read a post the other day from a hunter who was upset that the deer in his area were all staying on a neighboring piece of property because it has white oaks and his property doesn't. His plan was to hunt some persimmons on his property. My experience this weekend suggests that he might be in for a long wait.

On Saturday morning, I returned to the spot I tried to hunt last Sunday but couldn't due to the wind direction. The location featured a large white oak and two persimmon trees. See last week's article for a description and photos.

The only way I can describe the volume of acorns falling was to say that it sounded like little acorn avalanches every couple minutes. One falling acorn would start the process by knocking a couple more nuts loose, which multiplied the effect by knocking even more loose. You could literally hear the avalanche picking up steam, until by the time it hit the ground it was literally hundereds of acorns strong. The does started showing up at first light and several groups fed heavily throughout the morning.

This group of three does (one is partially hidden at the bottom of the frame) was oblivious to the sound of my camera shutter until I took the closeup of the lead doe at the top of the page. She was about 10 yards away at the time. That was the last I saw of that girl. I guess you could say she was a little camera shy...

Anyway, no bucks showed up, so eventually I climbed down and walked over to the persimmon trees to look around. I was surprised to see that the ground was littered with ripe persimmons, but the deer weren't paying them the least bit of attention, despite the fact that they were only twenty five yards away. Several does had even walked right past them on their way over to the white oak.

Obviously this is not a scientific study, but it sure seems to be pretty compelling evidence that deer prefer white oak acorns over persimmons. I'm going to predict that soon after the white oaks stop dropping nuts (even if there are still nuts on the ground) the deer will pick up interest in the persimmons. For whatever reason, deer don't seem to care as much for acorns that have been on the ground for a while.

In the next article, I'll continue the navigation series I began a couple days ago.

Navigation - Topo Map Basics

2008-10-09T17:20:00.012-05:00

If you are going to get serious about scouting, sooner or later, you are going to have to venture into unfamiliar territory. That might mean exploring public land, or a new piece of property that you've gained access to, or maybe just getting out of eyesight of those landmarks like roads or fields that you've been hunting around. Whatever the case, you need to be able to navigate with a topographic (topo) map of the area.

For deer hunters, anything other than a 7.5 minute quad with a scale of 1:24,000 is pretty worthless - it won't show enough detail to translate into what you are seeing on the ground. You can get paper 7.5 minute quads directly from the USGS or from a variety of other places. If you are computer literate - I assume you are since you are looking at this online - you can purchase mapping software or find free sources on the internet. I use the Topo! State Series Software from National Geographic. It isn't cheap (about $95 for Tennessee and Kentucky) but you get some really neat tools and the ability to print out custom maps on your own inkjet printer. I recommend their adventure paper for printing. Again, it isn't cheap, but it makes the maps waterproof and virtually indestructible.

OK, on to the basics of topo maps. Topo maps are a way to represent the three dimensional hills and valleys of the real world on a flat two dimensional map. The brown lines, called contour lines, connect points of equal elevation. On the examples I've shown here, each line represents a twenty foot change in elevation. One way to visualize a contour line is to imagine flooding the landscape simulated in the bottom 3-D view with twenty feet of water and drawing a line around the shoreline, then adding another twenty feet of water, and drawing another line, repeating until everything is flooded. The last line you would draw would be at the top of the highest hill, like point "C".

Point "B" is in a valley, or hollow. Notice that the contour lines make a sharp V shape. A rule of thumb to remember is that the V's always point toward the head or top of the hollow and the open end of the V points toward the mouth of the hollow.

Compare the shape of a hollow to the typical shape of the contours for a ridge. Point "D" is at the north end of a ridge. Notice that the contour lines are rounded or U-shaped at the end of the ridge.

Another feature that deer hunters are interested in identifying on a map is a saddle, which is a low spot where two hills or ridges come together. Often deer will travel through a saddle to cross from one side of a ridge to the other. Point "A" is in a saddle which can be identified by the two sets of U-shaped countours whose rounded ends point toward each other.

One final point. You can determine how steep a hill is by looking at how closely the contours are spaced. Point "E" is on a gentle slope. Notice that the contours are spaced much further apart than at point "F" which is a very steep hill.

In the next navigation article, we will show how to use a topo map in conjunction with a compass. I may even get on my soapbox and talk about how a GPS is no substitute for a map and compass and knowing how to use 'em.

Dominant Trees and a Southerly Breeze

2008-10-05T20:14:00.011-05:00

Here's a can't miss recipe for deer:

Take one white oak, loaded to the gills and dropping nuts. Click on the photo for a better look at the amazing number of acorns on this tree.
Add two persimmons dropping ripe fruit just 25 yards away.

Put them in a natural funnel with deer droppings everywhere and you have a combination that's as close to a sure thing as you're going to get in deer hunting.

In case you've forgotten, however, there are no sure things in deer hunting.

Everything seemed perfect as I climbed the one suitable tree to hunt this spot. A couple hours earlier when I found it, the deer I ran out as I approached were literally circling around me to get back to it. I figured the deer would be feeding all afternoon so I decided to get in my stand early. At 2:00 I was going through my mental checklist: safety harness on - check, camo makeup on - check, binoculars, rangefinder, and camera ready - check, wind sensor attached to bow - uh oh!

There was a gentle breeze blowing out of the south and straight down the ridge where I could hear deer milling around. Within five minutes a doe circled downwind, got a nose full of my scent, and sounded the warning alarm as she turned inside-out getting out of there. A couple minutes later another Shheeewww... crash, crash, crash directly downwind of me.

I looked around desperately for another tree to climb that would get my scent out of the deer's approach route. Nothing. Reluctantly, I repacked my gear, climbed down, and headed for the house. I'll return when the wind is out of the West.

Oh well, at least I got to see my RedSox play in game three of the ALDS when I got home. Go Sox!

What a Difference a Week Makes

2008-10-04T21:35:00.006-05:00

With a heavy week of travel, work, and family commitments last week, I wasn't able to do any scouting so I returned to the spot where I had hunted on opening weekend. As I walked through the darkness on my way in, I was excited to hear chestnut oak acorns dropping by the bucketfull in every direction. This is going to be good I thought...

That's what I get for thinking. By 9:00 I had seen one flash of white tail when a deer got downwind of me, but that was it. I had a hunch that things had changed dramatically. I got down and checked every chestnut oak in the area. There were thousands of acorns on the ground and there were plenty of old dry deer droppings, but after about an hour of hard scouting I hadn't found a single pile of fresh deer droppings. That could only mean one thing - white oaks!

We've seen the pattern year after year, the deer will feed hard on the chestnut oaks until the white oaks start dropping nuts. Once there are white oak acorns on the ground, everything else is just chopped liver to the deer.

Because the area I was in had such heavy buck sign during the chestnut oak "glory days", I decided to see if there were any white oaks close by that may be holding the bucks in the area. Another disappointing hour of scouting yielded a couple of luke-warm possibilities, but no dominant trees. I hated to abandon my honey-hole, but it was getting late in the day and I was going to have to try another tactic.

I remembered a large white oak on the edge of a large open area that had a bumper crop of nuts. It was a long haul on the 4 wheeler to get there, but it was worth a try.

As I rode up close to the tree, I jumped a couple does and found enough piles of fresh deer droppings to convince me that it was a dominant tree. I climbed a nearby tree and within 15 minutes of settling in had does (but no bucks) under me for the rest of the afternoon. I had decided not to shoot does on this property this year to let it recover from the heavy EHD die-off last year, so I settled for some photos instead. The doe at the top of the page posed for a couple shots then moved off to feed under the large white oak pictured above.

Tomorrow morning I'll try again and hope for something with horns

2008 Opening Weekend - Part 2

2008-10-02T21:56:00.006-05:00

In part 1 of my opening day story, I described the chestnut oak ridge where we were hunting. We located a dominant tree on the tip of the ridge that looked perfect. The nuts were falling by the bucketfull, the ground was churned up, there were fresh droppings everywhere. The best part was that there were at least a half dozen rubs and a couple scrapes in about a 30 yard circle around the dominant tree.

We picked out a tree and Rambuck climbed up first with the video camera. At about 4:45, this deer came into view headed toward our little ambush. Unfortunately, he decided to stop and chew his cud for a while before he got there. I was standing with my bow ready to draw but got antsy after about six minutes of watching him and decided to take a peek through my binoculars, which turned out to be a big mistake... Needless to say that ruined our day. I call this video clip the I've Been Busted Blues.

It may be hard to see, but at about 1:00 on the video, the buck is chewing his cud and breathing very hard as if he had been running. He hadn't been breathing hard just seconds earlier. Does anyone know whether the heavy breathing is part of the normal digestive process?

On another note, Rambuck called from Illinois to say that he videoed a hunter on a hot dominant tree this morning. They had about twenty deer come in to feed. We'll get the video up when he gets back to town.

Quick Tip - Go North Young Man

2008-09-30T21:49:00.010-05:00

Rambuck was in southern Illinois today on a scouting trip and called with a report that the white oaks are starting to drop. He was able to locate a couple dominant trees, but said that he wasted a lot of time checking unproductive areas. It wasn't until he recalled an observation that we have made many times that he began to find acorns on the ground.

If you are having trouble locating acorn-producing trees (assuming you know how to identify them - if you don't, click on the Tree ID articles to the right) try concentrating your search on the north-facing slopes of hills. The ground will contain more moisture because it is not exposed to the harsh sun like the south-facing and west-facing slopes. East-facing slopes are somewhere between north-facing and west-facing slopes in moisture content. Take a look at where the shadows fall in this aerial photograph.

More moisture often equates to more nuts. This is obviously not a hard and fast rule, but it seems to hold true more often than not. If I'm scouting an unfamiliar area, I always start with the north slopes, especially if the ground vegetation seems dry and burned up on the southern slopes. See the Size Matters article for a discussion of other factors that influence mast production.

Hope that helps. Leave us a comment and let us know.

2008 Opening Weekend - Part 1

2008-09-29T19:54:00.005-05:00

This past weekend marked the opening of the 2008 Archery season in Tennessee. We were blessed with perfect bow hunting weather - about 60 degrees in the morning, warming to the low to mid 80s in the afternoon. Ted was the designated videographer and I got to hunt (sweet huh?). We were hunting a piece of property that I was only slightly familiar with and which Ted had never seen before.

We got some good video of... well, you'll have to wait for part two to see it. Not because I'm trying to be dramatic, but because I had to leave town on a business trip and wasn't able to download the video before I left.

So until I can get the video loaded, I'll talk about our scouting experience and the dominant trees we found. This weekend, it was all about the chestnut oaks. The white oaks are going to have good mast production this fall, but the acorns aren't ripe yet and are still holding tight on the trees. The red oaks are a casualty of the late freeze in the spring of 2007 and won't be producing much of anything at all this year. If that doesn't make sense to you check out this article and it will.

Most of the persimmons we found were still green but we found one cluster of female trees with ripe fruit on the ground. The deer weren't feeding on them yet, however. We will keep checking on them, because it is only a matter of time before the deer find 'em. Check out the photo of the huge persimmon tree at the top of the page. We were pretty excited to find it, but unfortunately it turned out to be a male.

The chestnut oaks, on the other hand, were raining nuts, and the deer were all over them. On the property we were hunting, chestnut oaks are fairly rare, so it took some looking to find them. We ended up doing a lot of cruising on the four wheelers and glassing with binoculars looking for the distinctive bark.

We found two spots with dominant trees, including one ridge that was absolutely torn up with feeding sign (broken up leaves and fresh deer droppings), scrapes, and rubs. It was one of the most impressive collections of deer sign that either of us has seen. Here are a couple photos that will give you an idea, but don't really do it justice.

This photo shows the variety of sign - feeding sign, rubs, and a scrape that is hard to make out because it is in the sunlit spot in the center of the photo. You can click on the photo for an enlarged view

This is a closeup showing the broken up leaves and very fresh droppings (notice the wet surface) that indicate that deer had been feeding in this spot within the past twelve hours or so. This photo was taken in the morning, so the droppings were likely left the evening before or during the night, otherwise the surface would have dried out in the afternoon heat.

So how did we do? Check back for Part 2 to find out.

Welcome to Pursuit Hunting

2008-09-24T20:38:00.006-05:00

This Blog is dedicated to whitetail deer hunters everywhere who are interested in honing their hunting skills and in so doing, gaining a greater appreciation for the great outdoors and the ultimate North American game animal. We created it to share some of the knowledge that we've picked up over the years and to allow others to make their own contributions through comments that can be added after each article.

The topics we cover reflect our hunting phiolosophy, which is that hunting takes place before you ever climb up in your treestand - everything that happens after that is just shooting. You won't find information about how to use the latest gadget to lure a deer within shooting range. There are hundreds of sources for that if you are interested.

We believe the challenge of whitetail deer hunting is in understanding deer behavior, learning about their world, and taking the hunt to them. The thrill is when you have put in some serious scouting time, put all the pieces of the puzzle together, set up in a location with lots of fresh sign, and the deer shows up. We've had lots of successful hunts without drawing a bow or pulling a trigger.

Click on one of the Scouting 101 articles to the right to get started.

EHD Hits Middle Tennessee Hard

2007-09-23T19:34:00.002-05:00

With temperatures in the mid 90s for the opening weekend of the Tennessee bow season, I decided that it was just too hot to hunt. I must be getting old... That didn't keep me out of the woods, however. After spending a couple hours on Saturday morning talking about pursuit-style hunting with Rambuck and Doug Markham on the Outdoors with Doug Markham radio show, I decided to put in some serious scouting time on a terrific piece of hunting land in the middle Tennessee area. OK, maybe I'm not that old.

First, the good news. I found many red oaks with good quantities of acorns, and several fruit-bearing persimmons. None of the mast was ripe yet, so none were dominant trees. I've noted the location of the trees on my topo map and will keep an eye on them as the season progresses. There are certainly some future dominant trees in the bunch.

I did find exactly two chinkapin oak acorns - the first and only acorns from the white oak family that I've found so far this year. I just happened to glance up and see them. I also found the first four rubs of the season.

Now the bad news. Middle and West Tennessee deer are experiencing a severe outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease or EHD. EHD is caused by a virus that is transmitted to deer by small biting insects called midges or no-seeums. Deer infected with EHD develop sores and severe swelling in their mouths, making eating and drinking difficult. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, EHD is a common disease among deer but poses no risk to humans. It does, however, typically kill about a third of the deer that contract it. The TWRA has produced a very good informational podcast about the disease. Click here to view it.

Sadly, I found two terrific bucks that fell victim to the disease. The first was a tall-racked eight pointer that would probably score in the 120's.

The second was a very nice ten pointer that definitely would have made Pope and Young.

Both deer were found within 30 yards of water. I've been told that the severe drought this summer has aggravated the EHD outbreak by concentrating deer around water sources where the midges hatch. Even though both deer had obviously been dead for quite a while, neither had been seriously scavenged, which makes me believe that there must be lots of other opportunities for the buzzards and coyotes to fill their bellies. We could be in for a tough year...

Late 2007 Update: Reports from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency were that over half the deer population in certain parts of middle Tennessee were lost to EHD. The photo above shows the cracked hooves of a buck that I killed during muzzle loader season. He was limping noticeably as he approached, so I assumed he had been injured. I wasn't until I field dressed him that I discovered he was uninjured except for the cracked hooves. I discovered later that this is typical of deer that survive an EHD infection.

Tree ID - Persimmon

2007-09-17T21:02:00.027-05:00

OK, we're going to shift gears and talk about a non-oak species. Persimmons are as close as a deer gets to candy. They usually don't grow in large enough quantities to qualify as a significant foodsource for deer, but if you find a large enough tree - or better yet, a cluster of large trees - you can be in for some fine hunting if the fruit is ripe and the deer have found them. I have to admit, when the persimmons are ripe, you're likely to find me feeding under a tree. Just make sure they are good and mushy, or you are in for some serious puckering.

Unlike most trees, persimmons are either male or female and only the females produce fruit. If you are exploring new hunting ground early in the year, before you can see developing fruit up in the tree with your binoculars, you can determine the sex of the tree by checking closely around the bottom of the tree, directly under the bushiest limbs. You are looking for dried up calyxes (or caps) and seeds like these:

When you are looking, brush back the top layer of leaves because the fruit usually falls from the tree before the leaves do, so the evidence you are looking for tends to get covered up. If you are scouting in the mid to late summer, here's what you are looking for (with binoculars).

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Persimmons are found in the entire southeastern region of the U.S., as far West as Eastern Texas and Oklahoma and as far north as central Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Persimmons grow in a variety of habitats, but they are often found in densely

vegetated moist lowlands, on the sides or ridges, along the edges of fields, and in fencerows. They tend to grow in clusters with trees of the same sex.

BARK

Persimmons are easily identified by their bark. They are usually the darkest tree in the woods. When you are looking for them, scan ahead with binoculars, looking for dark, almost black trunks. When you see a dark trunk, look for the distinctive blocky-looking bark that is furrowed into a unique pattern of square chunks. Persimmons growing in the woods generally don't have branches near the ground. Trees growing in areas where they have more exposure to light will grow lower branches.

LEAVES

Persimmon leaves are oval-shaped, dark shiny green above and light green below. They are pretty non-descript and aren't all that helpful in identifying the species, except when glassing the edges of fields, where their dark green color combined with the tall slender shape of the tree can be recognized from a distance.

FRUIT
Persimmons are green to light orange before they ripen, becoming dark orange when ripe. Usually, the first frost will cause the fruit to quickly ripen and fall soon after, although some trees will produce ripe fruit much earlier in the year.

FIELD REFERENCES

Tree ID - Shingle Oak

2007-09-17T20:15:00.002-05:00

Despite years of studying oak trees, this species was a complete mystery to me until this fall. I guess because it doesn't "look" like an oak tree I've overlooked it. Rambuck and I were out scouting in Tennessee and collecting tree pictures when he looked up in a tree with his binoculars and said, "look at all the acorns in that tree." I looked up with my binoculars and declared matter-of-factly, "that's not an oak tree, look at the leaves." This is what we saw:

Well, I was flat out wrong! It is an oak tree called a shingle oak. Interestingly enough, I was in Kentucky a couple weeks later and found several more, all bearing acorns. It's amazing what you see when you know what you are looking for.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Shingle oaks grow from about Middle Tennessee up to the southern tip of the Great Lakes in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania. They are found in moist soils near water, often growing with post oaks and black oaks.

BARK

The bark is smooth in small trees but becomes rough and deeply furrowed in larger trees. You'll have to forgive the poison ivy on this specimen. It was the only one I had available to photograph.

LEAVES

Identification of this tree based on the leaves is pretty easy. They are 3" - 6" long and shaped like a spear tip. They are shiny green on top with a yellow mid-vein.

ACORNS

The nuts that are pictured here are still immature. The acorn shell will grow out further from the cap in a fully-developed specimen, but you can get the sense of how small they are.

FIELD REFERENCES

Next post: the Persimmon.

Tree ID - Chinkapin Oak

2007-09-17T16:44:00.004-05:00

Chinkapin oaks are members of the white oak family. Their acorns are highly sought after by deer, perhaps second in preference only to white oak.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Chinkapin oaks are found in most of the Eastern United States, typically growing in well-drained rocky upland areas associated with limestone outcroppings, hence their common name Rock Oak.

BARK

The bark is light gray and similar in texture to white oak bark at the base of the tree. Unlike the white oak, whose bark becomes scaly toward the top of the tree, the chinkapin's bark stays uniformly "flaky" from bottom to top.

LEAVES

Leaves are football shaped, similar to a chestnut oak, but smaller. The ridges around the edge of the leaf end in small pointed teeth.

ACORNS

Chinkapin oak acorns are similar to white oak acorns but are usually smaller. The caps are warty looking and the nuts are typically yellow, brown, or black when mature. The immature acorns pictured above will grow longer and more pointed toward the tip as they mature.

FIELD REFERENCES

Next post: the Shingle Oak

Tree ID - Blackjack Oak

2007-09-17T16:11:00.002-05:00

Blackjack oaks are members of the red oak family. During 2007 preseason scouting, I've found numerous trees with good acorn production.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Blackjack oaks are found in central Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri and east to the Atlantic Ocean. They grow in upland areas with dry sandy soil, often among other oaks and pines.

BARK

Dark, rough, deeply furrowed into squarish blocks.

LEAVES

Narrow at base, broadening toward the tip.

ACORNS

5/8 to 3/4 inches long with brown loosely overlapping scales.

FIELD REFERENCES

Next post: the Chinkapin Oak.

Tree ID - Pin Oak

2007-09-17T15:00:00.004-05:00

If you've read through earlier posts, you already know that pin oak acorns are a deer favorite. Pin oaks are members of the red oak family, which means that their acorns mature in the second year after flower pollination. In 2007, that means that pin oaks and their related red oak cousins will make up the majority of the acorn crop since the nuts we are seeing this year were mature enough to survive our late frost.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Pin oaks are found primarily in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, and parts of North Carolina. They grow primarily in moist, poorly drained soils in lowland areas.

BARK

Pin oak bark is medium gray and relatively smooth. Although the leaves resemble red oak leaves, the bark is distinguishable because it lacks the striped pattern of the northern red oak.

LEAVES

Leaves are smallish, compared to other trees in the red oak family, generally 3" - 5" long. They have deep sinuses or notches that reach almost to the vein running down the center of the leaf. They also have tufts of hairs on the under sides at the vein junctions (where the arrow is pointing).

ACORNS

Acorns are small (about 1/2" in diameter) and nearly round with a shallow cap that encloses just the top portion of the acorn.

FIELD REFERENCES

Next post: the Blackjack Oak.

Tree ID - Chestnut Oak

2007-09-16T20:40:00.010-05:00

The chestnut oak is a member of the white oak family. As mentioned in an earlier post, chestnut oak acorns are not particularly favored by deer due to their high tannin content which makes the acorns quite bitter. Despite their bitterness, deer will feed heavily on the chestnut oak during the early season, before more palletable species begin to mature. In middle Tennessee, there is usually about a one to two week window at the beginning of bow season (which starts the last Saturday in September) when chestnut oaks are the hot ticket. After that, the white oaks normally start to drop nuts and the deer move on to better tasting fare.

September 2008 Update: The chestnut oaks in middle Tennessee have a good mast crop this year. As a matter of fact, I will be hunting a cluster of chestnut oaks on opening morning this weekend. Despite there being white oak acorns on the ground everywhere, the deer are feeding hard on the chestnut oaks and ignoring the white oaks. My theory is that the white oak acorns were knocked down by several recent storms before they matured. They are not dropping nuts like they will in a couple weeks. The chestnut oaks, on the other hand, are actively dropping mature nuts which, for whatever reason, are more appealing to the deer. I noticed that the chestnut oak acorns are very firm. The white oak's that are on the ground are kind of rubbery. Maybe that affects the taste or the nutritional value.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Chestnut oaks grow primarily on south and west-facing ridges with dry, sandy-to-rocky, shallow soils. They have limited competition from other tree species that can't tolerate the poor soils, so they usually grow in relatively pure stands with very little ground vegetation in the area.

BARK/SHAPE
The bark of the chestnut oak is easily distinguished by its light gray color and very deep ridges which can be seen with binoculars from hundreds of yards away. Often, trees will have multiple trunks.

LEAVES

The leaves of the chestnut oak are football-shaped with rounded teeth along the edges.

ACORNS

Acorns are long with deep bowl-shaped cups that usually do not remain attached to the nuts once they fall to the ground. They typically are the first oak species to ripen in the area of middle Tennessee where I hunt. When ripe, the acorns are yellow and brown as seen above. They are similar in shape to their cousins the white oak, but they are much larger. Chestnut oaks are members of the white oak family, so their acorns mature in a single growing year. Although they are capable of producing a new crop of acorns each year, chestnut oaks usually produce a heavy crop every 4 -5 years. They generally produce fewer acorns than other oaks of a given size, most likely due to the poor nutrient content of the soils in which they grow.

FIELD REFERENCES

Next post: the pin oak.