Whitetail season isn’t far away. Consider these tips and put more arrows through big bucks.
by Jace Bauserman
The time of year many hunters wait for isn’t far away. Though the summer’s dog days are in full swing, there is work that needs done. The more you do now, the better off you’ll be when season arrives. Not to say you won’t have to make in-season adjustments; you very well may. However, if you heed the to-come tips your whitetail success will increase.
Go Light & Stealthy For Big Bucks
It happens all the time. You lose your whitetail lease to somebody with a fatter wallet, the landowner’s grandkids come of age, and so on. We’ve all been there. Don’t fret. Just change your tactics.
Jump on your computer or smartphone and start searching for public land areas. This great nation is loaded with National Forest, BLM, Walk-In Access, Game Production lands and the like. Will you have competition? Possibly. Will you be able to go in prep stands and cut shooting lanes? Doubtful. Most public land areas restrict the cutting of natural vegetation. Those that don’t often limit the time a stand can be in a tree. Again, don’t fret.
Swap your 1,500-cubic-inch pack out for a larger tote in the 2,000- to 3,000-cubic-inch range. I like ALPS’s Hybrid X and Elite Frame + 3800. You will need extra space for your gear and additional straps to secure your stand and climbing sticks to the outside of your pack. You’ll also want a lightweight and adjustable stand in the 8- to 14-pound range and one-piece climbing sticks. Lone Wolf, Millennium, and Muddy make some great stands and sticks. When you find that perfect tree, it will usually be small, crooked, and not stand-friendly. A stand with diminutive dimensions paired with seat and platform adjustability is paramount.
In the days before your hunt, practice loading and unloading your pack. Develop a system for attaching your stand and sticks. I love small bungee cords for this. In addition, you will want to develop a spot inside the pack for all your other necessary gear. Organization is a staple to public land whitetail success. Another great tip that will make you all the stealthier is to take gorilla tape and cover all of the metal contact points on your stand and sticks. This will eliminate banging and clanging during transport.
Lastly, do a few quick hangs in your backyard or the perimeter of your hunting grounds. Yes, I know you can hang a set, but developing a system for getting up a tree quickly, quietly, and safely is a must, and it will boost your whitetail success.
Embrace the Challenge of Whitetail Hunting
Don’t Be Lazy!
I hit the deer high and forward. No excuses. I screwed up. I should have been in a ground blind, but I wasn’t. Why? Poor offseason scouting.
My little slice of Colorado whitetail heaven is, in fact, little—60 huntable acres. I should know it like the back of my hand. At the time, I didn’t. My job requires me to travel a lot, so I used to hunt the same stands each fall. In short, I was lazy with the property. Not anymore!
I returned home a few Novembers ago after scoring on bucks in Illinois and Nebraska. The rut was rocking, but not in the typical locales. I observed excellent movement but from a distance. I knew the area the deer were utilizing. Kind of.
There were no suitable trees for a stand, but I knew a move was necessary. There was a perfect spot for a ground blind, but it would require lots of trimming, cutting, and noise — lots of noise. Could I have pulled it off? Possibly, but the location was right on the fringe of a known doe bedding area. I opted to slip on my Ghillie suit and sit on the ground. It could have worked, but it didn’t. The buck busted me drawing, and when I shot, his belly all but hit the ground. That wouldn’t have happened had I focused on my offseason scouting and had a ground blind in place. That ground blind would have ensured my whitetail success.
In the coming months, walk your entire property with a purpose. While walking it, have an aerial image of your property pulled up HuntStand or onX, and build a map of your property as you walk it. Mark likely stand locations, food sources, bedding areas, travel corridors, etc. Your hands-on recon and your digital scouting efforts will tell you exactly where you need to be next fall, which will boost your whitetail success. Take the time now to go in and do the work. Prep trees for stands, and if you’re going to be spending time in a ground blind, clear shooting lanes and pre-cut (check state regs if you’re hunting public ground) branches and debris you will use to disguise your ground hide. Had I not gotten complacent — done the necessary work — that buck would be dead.
If you find a fantastic location with no suitable stand trees, I highly recommend putting in a box-style blind like those from Redneck or Muddy. Yes, they are a bit pricy, but they are worth their weight in gold, and will increase your whitetail success. You can leave them out all year, and the deer get used to them. You can hunt them in virtually any wind if you take proper scent precautions.
Prep Your Pack
I don’t know about you, but my pack is a train wreck come season’s end. Sandwich bags and Snickers wrappers are in every pocket, and my calls are strewn about in various compartments along with the rest of my needed in-the-tree gear.
Last season, I vowed to have my pack reorganized before taking to the trees on an early-September bowhunt. I didn’t, and it cost me a buck. I eked open an already-too-full of who-know-what side compartment and slid my rangefinder inside. An hour into my evening sit, a gorgeous public-land 8-point appeared. When I reached for my rangefinder, the cord snagged not one but two grunt tubes and sent them falling. One landed square on my aluminum platform, and the other tumbled to the ground below. The buck blew and was gone. Lesson learned.
Don’t be me. You have the time. Use it wisely. Develop a system in which every piece of gear has a specific place in your pack. Pack organization is critical to whitetail success. Take the time to experiment by placing different pieces of gear in different compartments until you feel like you have a foolproof system. Next, jump in a tree and play with your newly organized pack. See if what you hoped would work will, and take the time to find the pack’s ideal attachment point in the tree. Unless you plan on hanging them, I highly recommend removing any nylon cords from your calls. Cords tend to snag on zippers, other pack items, etc.
