Deer hunting season is all but over, yet the fun may be just beginning. Don't put away your hunter orange jacket just yet. The timing couldn't be better for scouting next year's hunt and improving your odds of scoring on the most elusive of our big-game animals.
February is a peaceful time in the deer woods. The battle that hunters waged with whitetails since last October has finally ended. Bow hunters have packed up their tree stands for another year; the rifles that boomed in November are silent; and the smoke from December muzzleloaders has silently drifted away.
The absence of hunting pressure has a quieting effect on the whitetail deer population. When the hunters head home, deer are quick to resume their predictable daily patterns of movement.
Many successful deer hunters consider the post-season the most important time of year to be afield. Dale Voice of Bohning Archery has killed his buck every year for the past 18 seasons. Voice studies deer behavior throughout the year and feels that keeping tabs on deer movements after the hunting season has ended are especially important.
"Post-season scouting helps me determine how the buck population in my region fared against hunting pressure," says Voice. "If I can't locate some sign that indicates a few bucks are still working a favorite hunting area, I don't hesitate to begin scouting for another blind site. It's never too early to start patterning a buck's daily movements and favorite haunts."
Know Your Deer Land
February is the ideal times to scout and familiarize yourself with a favorite deer hunting area. Knowing the lay of the land and how deer travel are almost as important as being able to shoot straight. Leafless trees and a blanket of snow make it easy to spot tracks, trails, browse marks, antler rubs, and other deer sign.
"Walking well established game trails is the fastest way to determine where the deer in your hunting region feed, loaf, and bed down each day," adds Voice. "Post-season scouting is an excellent way to walk in a deer's footprints, both literally and figuratively. Along the path, the hunter will learn much about the quarry he seeks."
For instance, many post-season scouters are surprised to learn that the home range of whitetails is larger than they realize, explains Voice. "Deer often travel a considerable distance between feeding and bedding areas. In farmland areas where cover is limited to small woodlots it's not uncommon for deer to travel half a mile or more between daily feeding and bedding areas."
Similar daily migrations also occur in traditional northern deer haunts. When natural food supplies dwindle, deer are forced to travel more to locate food. So long as snow levels remain light to moderate, whitetail deer travel as needed to locate suitable browse.
While scouting, look closely for signpost antler rubs. Signpost trees are those that show evidence of two or more years of antler rubs. Bucks often return to a favorite antler rub year after year.
Study the rub carefully to determine how many times the tree has been scared up by the antlers of a maturing buck. A signpost rub that shows signs of being marked and healed two or three times is an excellent indication that a buck with adult-sized antlers lives in the area.
Locating shed antlers or actually spotting a buck in the woods is the best possible sign. In most areas of the Midwest bucks don't drop their antlers until late January or early February. In the northern snowbelt, bucks start dropping their antlers in December.
Locating Bedding Areas
Any successful hunter will confess that locating bedding areas is the key to whitetail hunting success. The most successful blind sites are those that intercept bucks moving to and from dense bedding cover.
Adult bucks spend the majority of their lives in or near dense cover. Like an early warning device, heavy cover provides a buffer zone that is nearly impossible for predators and hunters to penetrate without alerting the animal.
Research conducted on whitetail deer has proved that adult bucks spend less than 10 percent of their lives moving during daylight hours. The most likely place to catch a buck moving during legal shooting hours is in or near a bedding area.
Penetrating the thick and remote spots that deer select for bedding and loafing sites is far easier during the winter months. Freezing temperatures transform impenetrable lowlands into an easy walk for the serious deer hunter.
Cold weather allows hunters to stroll through bogs, cattail marshes, cedar swamps, and other low-lying areas that were difficult or impossible to investigate in the summer or fall.
"When scouting for whitetails, frozen ground and ice are a hunter's best friends," claims Voice. "Now's the time to poke your nose into the thickest cover available. Low-lying and swampy areas are seldom traveled by the average hunter and frequently used by trophy bucks."
Once whitetail bedding areas are located, take a few minutes to determine the most common routes by which deer access thick cover. "Brushy fingers, draws, and saddles that lead to heavy cover are logical routes deer travel when moving from upland feeding areas to lower bedding cover," explains Voice. "These travel routes are excellent ambush sites and should be noted for future blind locations."
Making rough maps that show primary habitat types and deer travel routes can help the hunter better understand why deer move through certain areas. Like a fisherman who uses a sonar picture to visualize how fish are relating to structure, maps allow the hunter to better understand how and why deer travel through his region.
"Chartering an airplane and flying over a favorite or new hunting area is the fastest way to visualize the lay of the land," claims Voice. "From the air, ridges, saddles, fields, swamps, and other key habitat types are easily spotted. Flying a hunting area in winter is also the surest way of spotting deer. The Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service routinely use airplanes to count deer."
Aerial photographs when available are the next best thing to flying. Many state, federal, and commercial forest lands are recorded on aerial photographs for harvest management purposes. Contact your natural resources department forestry manager or U.S. Forest Service office in your hunting area for information on the availability of aerial photographs.
Finding New Hunting Areas
Small-game hunting is a great way get some exercise and to reflect on past hunting seasons. It's also the perfect time to keep your eyes peeled for deer sign and potential blind sites.
Rabbit hunting is one of the best ways to locate new hunting grounds. Cottontail rabbits and varying hares share a lot in common with whitetail deer. All three animals prefer to spend their daylight hours in dense cover with plenty of understory brush and grass.
Prime bunny hunting real estate is certain to attract whitetail deer. The thicker the cover, the more likely it will serve as a deer bedding site and hold whitetails during the hunting season.
The post-season is also the ideal time to move existing blinds, build new ones, and improve or repair old stands. It's amazing how the more you learn about a piece of land, the more you second guess previous blind locations.
"I'm constantly changing blind locations to take better advantage of deer movement," says Voice. "If a blind is consistently producing, it's best to leave well enough alone. Don't be afraid to experiment with marginal blind locations. Sometimes moving a blind a few yards can make all the difference."
Winter weather makes the drudgery of building and hauling blinds less noticeable and a little snow makes it a simple task to skid lumber and other materials into remote areas. Building blinds in the winter also allows deer plenty of time to get used to the new structure.
Hunting For Deer Yards
Mid-winter is the only practical time to scout for deer yards. Knowing where deer go when heavy snows fall is a major advantage for muzzleloading hunters, and those who hunt the far north where snow is often deep during the regular season.
During severe weather, deer respond by seeking out cover that is dense enough to provide protection from the elements. Winter yarding areas are typically located in cedar swamps that offer an ideal food source and protection from biting winds and deep snows. Other heavy forest covers like spruce and hemlock are also used as deer yarding cover.
Locating yarding areas allows hunters to predict where deer will head in the event of heavy snows.
Hunters who know where deer yard up on private lands can also help the animals survive tough winters. Cutting down a couple trees in the yarding area puts additional browse within reach of hungry deer. The best species of winter deer browse is white cedar, red maple, and dogwood, but aspen is more common in most areas and a frequent winter deer food.
Knocking down a tree or two also helps to open up the forest canopy. Sunlight striking the forest floor produces a flurry of young saplings that also provide ideal winter browse in a year or two.
A pair of snowshoes is essential for scouting areas plagued by deep snow. Walking any distance on snowshoes is hard work. Dress in lose-fitting clothes that allow free movement.
I outfit myself with long johns, a pair of medium-weight bib pants, a flannel shirt, and a wool or fleece shirt jac. I'll also stuff a down vest and nylon windbreaker into my fanny pack in case the weather turns bitter.
If too many clothes are worn, you will be quickly soaked in sweat and miserable all day. Layering and matching the clothes to the temperature level is critical to staying dry and comfortable.
Copyright (c) Mark Romanack. All rights reserved.
Home | Library | Hunting | Big Game Hunting