Choose quality optics and spend more glassing for game

My vision is only fair at best but when snow covers the tag alders, and a deer stands motionless back in this heavy cover, they are tough for me to see.

Quality optics means everything to a deer hunter. The difference between good and bad optics is like the difference between a good apple and a worm-filled one.

I’ve always believed in good optics, and also believe that a person gets what they are willing to pay for.

I have a pair of Swarovski binoculars, and I’d rather leave home without my bow release (I do bow hunt during the firearm season at times) than without my binoculars. I know that I can still shoot with my fingers and make a killing shot, but I don’t have the same confidence in my vision without quality glass around my neck.

Hunting skills are only as good as your quality optics.

A friend of mine returned to Michigan many years ago from a hunt in southern Alabama. He and his wife were hunting with some Louisiana Cajun shrimpers from the Mississippi River delta country, and they all carried big, heavy binoculars and scopes.”What’s up with the big binoculars,” he asked the Cajun hunters. He was quickly given a demonstation of the difference between his and theirs. That difference was simply amazing.

“Our binoculars and rifle scopes give us another 15 minutes of quality hunting time once your binoculars no longer work,” he said, once shooting time had ended. “Look yonder. Can you see that deer standing 10 yards inside the cover by that lightning-blasted pine stump?”

My buddy couldn’t see the animal and could just barely make out the fuzzy image of the stump. The Cajun offered his Swarovski binoculars, and he quickly spotted the buck. That short demonstration offered him more light-gathering qualities, greater magnification and a much greater ability to see deeper into the thick brush. Had it still been legal to shoot, it would have been and easy shot on that buck.

Alabama is wrapped up in deer, but once they get into thick cover along the edge of the green fields, they are virtually invisible without great optics.

My ability to see deer enables me to better plan on how to hunt them. In some cases, it means allowing the bucks to come to you; in other situations, it may allow the hunter to make tactical changes in how he hunts that particular animal.

It goes without saying that seeing deer before they see you is of paramount importance. Quality optics can help make that happen. For instance, a few years ago I saw some snow fall off a tag alder.

I wondered why that happened. I studied the area from my stand, and it took several minutes but then the beam of one antler came into focus. I kept studying the spot, and the buck was bedded down inside the alders where he thought he was invisible.

He wasn’t, and he came my way and offered an easy shot. I didn’t shoot because I was waiting for a bigger buck. He didn’t show up, and I proved to myself again why I shelled out a big chunk of money for those high-quality binoculars, rifle scopes and spotting scopes.

Quality binoculars are important. Without them, there is much you won’t be able to see. Binoculars aren’t only for deer hunting. I always carry a good pair of binocs when wild turkey hunting. If I catch a glimpse of a gobbler heading into the woods, my binoculars come up and I can keep and eye on the longbeard’s travel direction. It’s amazing just how easy it can be to pick a hole through the brush as the bird approaches the call.

Glassing for game is more of the same. My optics come in handy on elk and mule deer hunts, and I’ve separated a Boone and Crockett bull from grey-colored rocks in northern Quebec and elk from the alpine ridges of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and New Mexico.

Spot the animals, and your hunt can be made much easier. It’s possible to cover and help point the way to move to intercept a big bull without being winded in the prospect.

I do much of my spring turkey scouting from my car while driving back roads. Stop often, and glass open woodlots and pasture land. Often, about 10 a.m., gobblers head for their strut zones to impress the hens.

Find the birds, keep them in sight, and move carefully into position to call. Hunters will soon learn that quality optics can make hunting a little easier, and believe me, there are times when you’ll need all the help you can find to be successful.

Little Things can Change a Hunt

The result of good planning and the plan working out.

Many hunters think of bow hunting as a huge-antlered buck standing motionless at 20 yard with nothing but a few low-growing weeds and air between them and the deer.

This so-called calendar pose is what many short-term bow hunters expect to see while hunting. They’ve been conditioned over many years to expect such a shot, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

The same hunters seldom think of spotting a nice buck, his head held low, as it ghosts through a cedar swamp or tag alder tangle. The truth is that while an occasional shot is taken at a broadside, head-in-the-air buck, the reality is much different than what our imagination tells us is true.

The little things about bow hunting should tell us that a buck seldom offers an easy, open shot. Often, the animal is partially screened by brush or is standing in thick cover. Deer often stop when their vitals are screened by thick brush.

I’m not naive enough to believe they deliberately do so.

One of the little things that hunters must learn, and practice faithfully, is an extraordinary amount of patience. Hunters who get strung out by a motionless buck that doesn’t move are usually unprepared for a shot when the deer does move.

Patience is something all of us must believe in. It’s always better to sit motionless, and if the buck doesn’t move before shooting time ends, chalk it up to another night when the deer outsmarted the hunter. Such things happen far more often than most of us care to think about.

Sitting motionless and silent is far preferable than trying a Hail Mary shot that may make it through the brush to the buck’s vitals, but for whatever reason, it rarely does. Taking a low-percentage shot only educates or wounds deer.

There have been countless times when I’ve spent 30 minutes to one hour waiting for a good buck to move that last 10 feet to offer an open shot. More often than not, they refuse to budge and shooting time ends with the animal still standing motionless in thick cover, still looking around.

Another little thing to remember is to stay in your stand until the buck moves off by himself. Start crawling down out of a tree, and you’ll have ruined that stand for the rest of the year. Just hang tight, remain silent, and let him move when the mood strikes him. Wait for someone to come looking for you, and let them spook the deer rather than you doing so.

Building your patience level doesn’t occur overnight. It takes time and a great deal of practice, and blowing some possible shot opportunities, before you acquire the necessary skills to wait out a slow-moving deer.

Don’t do something stupid if the buck is slowly making his way to you. Perhaps you are in his travel route, and if you sit patiently, the buck may move to you. If you haven’t been calling, and suddenly start calling to a nearby deer, the animal may turn away. It may or may not spook, but if the deer keeps coming to silence, don’t introduce something new into the equation because it could backfire.

Be very cautious about dropping things. I’ve seen bucks and does stop 50 yards away because they saw something they don’t like. I once watched a buck come a long ways only to stop just out of easy bow range.

Why the buck stopped was beyond me, but stop he did, and he kept looking on the ground along the edge of a tag alder run between us. I studied him through binoculars, and tried to see what he was looking at, and it remained a big mystery.

He left without coming the 20 yards necessary to provide me with a clean shot within my established shooting distance. He walked off and soon disappeared, and as shooting time emded, I eased from the stand and walked over to that spot.

It took a moment of looking around but I found what had spooked the deer. A hunter had moved through that area while hunting grouse and woodcock near the alders, and apparently had shot at a bird.

I found an empty 12 gauge shotshell, and it was laying somewhat in the open where the setting sun would glint off the brass. It wasn’t much, but from where the buck had stood, there was still a tiny glint of sunlight there. The buck knew something was different, and turned and took another route out of the area.

It’s some of these little things that can make or break a bow hunt. Always be aware of what is going on around you during a hunt because it can affect how deer react.

Lessons learned from the deer

Whitetails can keep a hunter honest. They also can make you a better hunter.

This doesn’t mean that my valued readers are dishonest nor does it mean they are bad hunters. It simply means that deer have the ability to make hunters think.

They also can make hunters pretty humble when sportsmen think they know everything about deer hunting. Hunters who feel superior often get humble pie to eat.

Learn from deer. Study their actions, and become a good hunter.

One thing I’ve learned over many years is to watch hunters. It doesn’t take long to determine who are the great sportsmen, and who are braggarts. I’ve hunted in many camps over the last 50+ years, and the loudest and most aggressive hunters are usually the ones who make the dumbest mistakes.

An old saying goes like this: it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. The best rule is to keep the mouth closed. listen and pay attention.

Picking people’s brains, and learning what they know, is fun and can provide valuable information. Savvy hunters never venture an opinion unless they know what they are talking about. That is especially true when talking about hunting whitetail deer.

Southern folk have some great sayings. They’ve been distilled from years of hard work and minding their manners. One saying that has a whole bunch of learning in it is “My momma didn’t raise no fools.”

Listen to older hunters, and cogitate on what they say.

Folks who gather around savvy hunters should keep that thought in mind. That means do less talking and much more listening.

Last year a man brought his son around for a hunt. The boy would come up to the house, make a dumb remark about deer hunting while several of us planned our evening hunts. We were tossing around ideas, and discussing where everyone would sit, and discussing the present wind condition.

The boy kept nattering on and on. He was taking up precious planning time by constantly interrupting.

A friend eventually spoke up rather bluntly and loudly, and said: “Boy, you better learn more about deer hunting before speaking your mind. You want to learn about hunting, sit down, shut up and listen. You’ll learn more than you will talking nonsense about a topic you know nothing about.”

The boy sat and listened for a minute, spoke up, and my friend looked hard at him, and the kid went running out the door. His daddy had money, and it’s almost certain that no one had every talked that way to the kid before.

I’ve been around whitetails all my life, and spent over 55 years hunting and studying the critters, but there are many others who know many things that I don’t know. I listen intently to them and learn.

One can read and learn, but actual hunting is the best teacher.

There are countless ways to learn things but in-the-field experience is the best when it comes to learning about whitetails. Hunting the animals, and studying them as you hunt and during the off-season, is the best way to accumulate knowledge. Reading about it, and absorbing that knowledge and putting it to good use, is another. What is most important is the hunter must learn to convert that knowledge into an action plan that works in the woods.

Experience will put a fine point on your acquired knowledge. Some of my early deer-hunting knowledge came from talking to old-time hunters and guides, and using some of that information on my hunts.

The more days spent afield will continue to add to a solid footing, and one day after learning a great deal about deer hunting, you’ll know you’ve come a long ways in your gathering of deer-hunting knowledge.

That will be the day when you can honestly look yourself in the morning mirror, and confess: “I don’t know as much about deer hunting as I thought I did.” And then you go out and learn some more.

Little things can affect a hunt’s success

Patience and avoiding those little things that may go wrong can lead to success.

Many hunters think of bow hunting as a huge-antlered buck standing motionless at 20 yard with nothing but a few low-growing weeds and air between them and the deer.

This so-called calendar pose is what many short-term bow hunters expect to see while hunting. They’ve been conditioned over many years to expect such a shot, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

The same hunters seldom think of spotting a nice buck, his head held low, as it ghosts through a cedar swamp or tag alder tangle. The truth is that while an occasional shot is taken at a broadside, head-in-the-air buck, the reality is much different than what our imagination delivers.

It’s often the little things than determine success or failure while bow hunting.

The little things about bow hunting reveal that more often than not a buck seldom offers easy, open shots. Often, the animal is partially screened by brush or is standing in thick cover. Deer often stop when their vitals are screened by thick brush.

One of the little things that hunters must learn, and practice faithfully, is patience. Hunters who get strung out by a motionless buck that doesn’t move are usually unprepared for a shot when the deer does.

Patience is something all of us must believe in. It’s always better to sit motionless, and if the buck doesn’t move before shooting time ends, chalk it up to another night when the deer outsmarted the hunter. Such things happen far more often than we care to think about.

Sitting motionless and silent is the best alternative to trying a Hail Mary shot that may make it through the brush to the buck’s vitals, but for whatever reason, it never does. Taking a low-percentage shot only educates or wounds the deer.

There have been countless times when I’ve spent 30 minutes to one hour waiting for a buck to move that last 10 feet to offer an open shot. More often than not, they refuse to budge and shooting time ends with the animal still standing motionless in thick cover.

Patience is a virtue when bow hunting for whitetail bucks.

Another little thing to remember is to stay in your stand until the buck moves off by himself. Start crawling down out of a tree, and you’ll have ruined that stand for the rest of the year. Just hang tight, remain silent, and let him move when the mood strikes him.

Building your patience seldom happens overnight. It takes time and a great deal of practice, and blowing many possible opportunities, before you acquire the necessary skills to wait out the deer.

Don’t do something stupid if the buck is slowly making his way to you. Perhaps you are in his travel route, and if you sit patiently, the buck will move to you. If you haven’t been calling, and suddenly start calling to a nearby deer, the animal may turn away. It may or may not spook, but if the deer keeps coming to silence, don’t introduce something new into the situation becauses things could backfire.

Be very cautious about dropping things. I’ve seen bucks and does stop 50 yards away because they have seen something they don’t like. I once watched a buck come a long ways only to stop just out of easy bow range.

Why the buck stopped was beyond me, but stop he did, and he kept looking on the ground along the edge of a tag alder run between him and me. I studied him through binoculars, and tried to see what he was looking at, and it remained a big mystery.

Pay attention to the little things in your hunting area.

He left without coming the final 20 yards necessary to provide me with a clean shot within my established shooting distance. He walked off and soon disappear, and as shooting time fell, I eased from the stand and walked over to that spot.

It took a moment of looking around but I found what had spooked the deer. A hunter had moved through that area while hunting grouse and woodcock near the alders, and apparently had shot at a bird.

I found an empty 12 gauge shotshell, and it was laying somewhat in the open where the setting sun would glint off the brass. It wasn’t much, but from where the buck had stood, there was still a tiny glint of sunlight there. The buck knew something was different, and turned and traveled another route.

It’s the little things that can make or break a bow hunt. Always be aware of what is going on around you during a hunt because if can affect how deer react.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Which is best: Guessing or knowing?

Pick the right spot and you may shoot a nice buck like the author.

It’s a common problem for deer hunters. They find themselves in unfamiliar territory, and are trying to puzzle out where the best place is to hunt.

Many hunters take a wild flying guess based on minimal input from gazing at trails, and pick a spot. Often, it may look good but in many cases it is a hurry-up and poor guess that won’t pay off.

Having said that, we can answer the question that serves as the title of this daily blog.

Guessing at good hunting spots is never a great idea.

Knowing where to hunt is always better than guessing. Knowing comes from a constant familiarity with the area being hunted. Let’s put it another way: We travel to Alabama in mid-January when the rut is in full swing, hoping for a good buck, and we hunt on private club land.

Someone acts as a paid or unpaid guide, drives us to a stand where deer are known to pass, and with some luck, we shoot a buck. If we don’t shoot a buck, it means that none were seen, none were of the size we wanted or a buck did show up but didn’t offer a chance for an accurate shot.

We hunt again in the evening, and are placed in a key location where we should see deer. No one can always make deer move, and no one can guarantee that a hunter can and will sit still.

If we should hunt this way, with others telling us where to hunt, it’s a wise move to pay close attention to the terrain in which we hunt. There are always some things that can offer subtle hints about each location. Try to figure them out as you move deeper into cover.

More deer are shot in thick cover than out in the open.

Deer often are found in fringe cover, that area between thick heavy cover and open land. Of course, a ground blind or tree stand may be located anywhere in-between, and it’s up to the hunter to learn why one particular spot is better than another.

One of my favorite spots is on a low hillside with thick heavy cover on three sides with open land on the west side. The prevailing westerly wind blows down through the open cover, and the stand is cross-wind.

The only way a deer can pick up a hunter’s scent here is if he climbs into or out of the stand. The stand should be high enough on this small hill to blow scent over the surrounding thick cover.

One thing hunters must do is look at terrain the way a deer look at it.

• Where is the food supply?
• Where are the key bedding areas?
• Which trails connect those two key locations?
• How can deer, especially larger bucks, travel back and forth without being on trails?

Other key factors include:

• How does the wind blow in each location, and does it swirl backwards when hitting a woodline?
• How can a hunter get into and out of the area without bumping into moving deer?
• Does the hunting area have two or three way to enter and exit to avoid traveling the same route time after time?

Choose a stand site that is easy to access without bumping deer.

• Which type of stand is best suited to that area?
• Which would work best: a ground blind, pit blind, tree stand or elevated coop?
• How high is high enough for elevated stands?

I’ve found that a tree stand elevation of 15 to 18 feet is usually high enough under most circumstances. I’ve got one stand that is close to 30 feet in the air, and it is a consistent producer but steep-angle shots are not a good bet when a hunter must make a decision in a hurry, and then take a quick well-aimed shot.

Many of my stands are at 14-15 feet. That places a standing bow hunter at roughly 20 feet in the air. A stand at 18 feet puts the same hunter at roughly 24 feet. Each stand has special requirements, and hunters must solve these problems long before the season opens. Match stand height to the best natural features of a tree. Don’t place stands directly on a trail but just far enough away that a deer moving toward you won’t be looking directly at you.

Hunters will have far better hunting success if they know why a hunting location is best. Guessing implies that one is trusting to luck or fate. With a guess, the hunter will have a 50-50 chance of guessing right. If you error, make certain you error on the side of common sense when choosing a stand site.

Of course, this also means a 50-50 chance of guessing wrong. There is nothing worse than a stand that requires hours of effort and time to prepare only to learn it is not in the right spot.

This year, don’t guess. Know where the hotspots are long before the season opens. Doing so beats guessing every time, and you can take that to the bank.