HOW DO YOU DEER HUNT? PART 2

[T.R. Michels]

Observing
Observing should be an important part of hunting and locating. Observing is watching the animals regularly to learn their daily habits, reactions and patterns. Observing should be done from a vantagepoint where much of the property can be seen without interfering with the animals, and from where the animals aren’t aware they are being watched. You can watch from stands and blinds overlooking agricultural fields, trails, runways, gullies, valleys, lakeshores, etc. Use as many vantagepoints as it takes to watch most of the property. Especially watch the areas that are hard to see, where the game travels. The more area you watch, the more you know about the movement of the game.

Observing takes time and effort, but not as much as you would think. After watching the property for a few weeks you should be able to predict where the animals move and at what time. The more time you spend observing before or during the hunting season, the better you will be able to predict where and when to find the animals under similar conditions later on.

Recording
Recording can be the most useful technique in hunting. Recording is: 1. making note in a journal the date, temperature, wind-chill, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, lunar conditions, time of day, light conditions, amount of foliage, available food sources, breeding phase, game numbers, sex, and direction of travel; 2. marking on an aerial photo, topographical map, or map of your own making, where the escape cover, food sources, home ranges and core areas, trails, rubs, and scrapes are; so you know where animals were in the past, and can predict when and where to find them on any given day.

Animals in different areas have preferred times and conditions in which they move to open food sources. In inclement weather they have preferred use areas depending on the current weather conditions and food availability. By a combination of scouting, observing and recording you can learn where to find the animals under any and all conditions, and at what time of the day. By recording deer sightings you begin to see daily movement times and routes, which help you pattern both the does and the bucks. Once you know where the buck's bedroom is, and have marked the rubs and scrapes on your map, you should be able to determine the buck's rub route and begin to pattern the buck. You should also know the daily travels of the does.

Patterning
Patterning is determining which trails the animals use in their daily travel on a regular basis, and at what time. You can pattern female groups, but more often males are patterned. Patterning is done by marking on a map the core area of the deer, the preferred food sources, and the trails they use regularly to and from these areas. If you find numerous rubs, mark them on a map, and know which trail the buck uses by observing him. Then, if you note the time the buck arrives you have an idea of where to setup for it during the hunting season.
The ideal way to pattern a whitetail buck is to know where it is bedded during the day, what time it usually leaves the core area, the route it usually takes, when it arrives at the first place you can hunt it, when it arrives at the first staging area, when it arrives at each doe use area, and where it makes rubs and scrapes. You should also know the route it takes on the way back to the core area. Once you have all this information you can choose several hunting sites along the rub route to be prepared for changing weather and travel times.

Knowing where the core area is, and what time the animal usually leaves and returns to it, is crucial to successfully pattern a buck. Whitetail bucks spend the most continuous amount of time in their core area; the most predictable place to find a buck is in the core area. Being near the core area in the evening when the buck leaves before sundown may be the only chance you get on a nocturnal buck. The time when the buck leaves the core area in the evening is often the most predictable time of its daily movement. If the buck finds an estrus doe, encounters danger, stops to feed, or just takes his time, he may be late along the rest of his route.

Bucks often return to their core area before daylight, but, if they find a doe at night or early in the morning they may be late going back to the core area. This happens most often during the peak of the rut when the buck is chasing does. But, the time when the buck returns to its core area during peak rut is totally unpredictable. The buck may stay with a doe for up to three days and not return its core area, bedding near the doe instead, or it may return to its core area at any hour of the day. The period when the buck is most predictable, using its rub route at regular times each day, is during the scraping phase, before breeding begins. Once scraping has begun does start coming into estrus, and buck movement is less predictable.
I begin scouting, familiarizing, observing recording and patterning as soon as I gain access to the property. The only time I don't do full-scale scouting is if I gain access to the property less than two weeks before I intend to hunt. By scouting too close to the hunting period, without previously familiarizing the animals, you alert them, and you may run them out of the area. If I can't scout I rely on observing and recording to pattern the animals.

Locating the animals needs to be an ongoing process, because as the season progresses the habits, routes and times the animals travel will change. If you don't watch them for the entire season you will not be able to predict their movements. After a few seasons of keeping a journal you will be confident of knowing where and when to find the animals, not only in your area, but in most areas, under most conditions.

If you have questions - ask here, or contact me direct at TRMichels@yahoo.com

God bless,

T.R.
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