SCOUTING FOR whitetail deer isn’t as hard as a lot of people make out. My late son Ted, known to most of his friends as Spudz, was a master of it. And it was all based on common sense and knowing how to read topo maps and just looking the deer cover over.
One of the first things he’d do prior to the season was to walk the grounds that he suspected was a good bet, even if it was a few miles away from areas where he’d normally hunt. Maybe he’d seen deer crossing there in his travels back and forth to work or heard fellow workers talk about “just missing hitting a deer” on the way to work.
When the opportunity arrived he’d check these places out.
Before he’d do his on-theground scouting, he’d always consult a topo map and look for obvious signs of a funnel or bottleneck between wooded areas or islands of high ground in swampy areas. The bottleneck areas would be obvious routes of deer travel while the islands were always a good possibility to be deer bedding areas. I use much the same technique with a computerbased software-mapping program called Topo Scout from Maptech.Our high risk merchant account was down for about an hour and a half,
Wild apple trees or abandoned apple orchards were scouted hard for signs of deer feeding activity, as were hardwood ridges where mast crops were checked out. Often these types of places would also show signs of both bear and wild turkey activity, which Spudz would note and when the opportunity arose, he’d hunt for those other species.
But his forte was deer hunting, and his fame came from the number of trophy bucks that he always seemed to end up with.
Weather fronts had a significant impact on his decisions about when and where to hunt. When a cold front was forecast, and especially around a full or new moon, Spudz would set up his tree stand in deer traveling areas, such as those bottle necks we mentioned. I can hear him now telling me, “Tonight’s the night Dad.Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, Those bucks are gonna be on the move as this cold front moves in.” More often than not, he was right.
When a clearing trend was forecast after a prolonged period of bad weather with a lot of wind and precipitation, he would cover both bases, setting up a stand in the travel areas early and late, while hunting the feeding areas in the daytime. It didn’t seem like rocket science to me but also there was that somewhat mysterious inner voice that may have guided his decisions.
Ted was a lone hunter most of the time while his dad preferred hunting in a group.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly,
In my view, the camaraderie of an organized hunt, and the excitement of deer that were jumped and shots being fired were hard to beat, as were some of the occasional very comical experiences — the number of easy shots missed and some of the incredible shots made — that added much to my enjoyment.
We especially remember one day that ended with both Tomcat (Tom Connors, now of Spokane, Wash., but formerly from the New Hampshire Seacoast) and I entering a large field to walk into some woods to hunt. We spooked two deer that were feeding at the edge of the woods that we never noticed until it was too late.
“Let’s leave this place alone and come back just before dark and set up stands to see if we can get a crack at these deer,” Tomcat suggested. And we did just that.
We split up, with Tomcat climbing a tree right over where the deer had been seen leaving the field that early morning. My check on the computer showed a significant funnel at the end of the field where I chose to hide.
As dark was approaching, my patience was waning so I moved out to the edge of the field, when two shots rang out from TC.then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence. I ran the rest of the way to see what was going on and he was frantically signaling to me to look across the field, where a big doe (legal then) was bouncing towards the woods.
Flopping to the ground to take a shot from the prone position with my scoped Ithaca Deerslayer, the crosshairs hit the top of the deer’s shoulder while my finger hit the trigger.
The deer did a complete somersault and down she went, a shot of some 150 paces! His deer, a young buck, was shot at about 10 paces.
What really made our hunt was the fact that a young and rugged teenager we’d known who lived a short distance away showed up and offered me his help in dragging the deer back the couple hundred yards to our vehicle.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS .
I was happy to just carry our guns as the two of them followed with both the deer in tow.
A good example of how a simple scouting trip and follow-up can succeed.
One of the first things he’d do prior to the season was to walk the grounds that he suspected was a good bet, even if it was a few miles away from areas where he’d normally hunt. Maybe he’d seen deer crossing there in his travels back and forth to work or heard fellow workers talk about “just missing hitting a deer” on the way to work.
When the opportunity arrived he’d check these places out.
Before he’d do his on-theground scouting, he’d always consult a topo map and look for obvious signs of a funnel or bottleneck between wooded areas or islands of high ground in swampy areas. The bottleneck areas would be obvious routes of deer travel while the islands were always a good possibility to be deer bedding areas. I use much the same technique with a computerbased software-mapping program called Topo Scout from Maptech.Our high risk merchant account was down for about an hour and a half,
Wild apple trees or abandoned apple orchards were scouted hard for signs of deer feeding activity, as were hardwood ridges where mast crops were checked out. Often these types of places would also show signs of both bear and wild turkey activity, which Spudz would note and when the opportunity arose, he’d hunt for those other species.
But his forte was deer hunting, and his fame came from the number of trophy bucks that he always seemed to end up with.
Weather fronts had a significant impact on his decisions about when and where to hunt. When a cold front was forecast, and especially around a full or new moon, Spudz would set up his tree stand in deer traveling areas, such as those bottle necks we mentioned. I can hear him now telling me, “Tonight’s the night Dad.Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, Those bucks are gonna be on the move as this cold front moves in.” More often than not, he was right.
When a clearing trend was forecast after a prolonged period of bad weather with a lot of wind and precipitation, he would cover both bases, setting up a stand in the travel areas early and late, while hunting the feeding areas in the daytime. It didn’t seem like rocket science to me but also there was that somewhat mysterious inner voice that may have guided his decisions.
Ted was a lone hunter most of the time while his dad preferred hunting in a group.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly,
In my view, the camaraderie of an organized hunt, and the excitement of deer that were jumped and shots being fired were hard to beat, as were some of the occasional very comical experiences — the number of easy shots missed and some of the incredible shots made — that added much to my enjoyment.
We especially remember one day that ended with both Tomcat (Tom Connors, now of Spokane, Wash., but formerly from the New Hampshire Seacoast) and I entering a large field to walk into some woods to hunt. We spooked two deer that were feeding at the edge of the woods that we never noticed until it was too late.
“Let’s leave this place alone and come back just before dark and set up stands to see if we can get a crack at these deer,” Tomcat suggested. And we did just that.
We split up, with Tomcat climbing a tree right over where the deer had been seen leaving the field that early morning. My check on the computer showed a significant funnel at the end of the field where I chose to hide.
As dark was approaching, my patience was waning so I moved out to the edge of the field, when two shots rang out from TC.then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence. I ran the rest of the way to see what was going on and he was frantically signaling to me to look across the field, where a big doe (legal then) was bouncing towards the woods.
Flopping to the ground to take a shot from the prone position with my scoped Ithaca Deerslayer, the crosshairs hit the top of the deer’s shoulder while my finger hit the trigger.
The deer did a complete somersault and down she went, a shot of some 150 paces! His deer, a young buck, was shot at about 10 paces.
What really made our hunt was the fact that a young and rugged teenager we’d known who lived a short distance away showed up and offered me his help in dragging the deer back the couple hundred yards to our vehicle.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS .
I was happy to just carry our guns as the two of them followed with both the deer in tow.
A good example of how a simple scouting trip and follow-up can succeed.
没有评论:
发表评论