Deer Herd Management

In order to keep a quality deer herd on your property you need to have at least some what of a management plan in place. This usually involves doe management, buck management and supplementing your deer. Doe management consist of having an idea of how many deer you have per acre, as well as how much browse you have for the deer to feed on. If you come to the conclusion that you have too many deer per acre it is time to start harvesting some does. The point of this is that if you have too many deer per acre for the amount of feed they have available the deer will be less healthy and be more prone to getting certain types of disease. Not only does this affect does but bucks as well and more importantly does that are pregnant because just like humans if the doe is in poor shape and unhealthy while pregnant the greater the chances of the newborn fawn will have poor genetics. Buck management has more to do with being able to age deer by just eyeballing them. If at all possible, you don't want to take any bucks under the age of 4, the age that a buck is deemed mature. Some great ways to identify a deer as mature is by looking to see if his belly and brisket (hangs down at the bottom of the neck in front of his front shoulders) has any sag to it and also the way he looks in the face, An older deer will have a roman nose and lots of the time will have some grey in his face. Usually a mature deer will have plenty of mass in his antlers and a bigger rack in general but that just depends on genetics so I prefer to go by the belly/brisket sag and the face. Also culling out deer with poor genetics, this is noticeable on bucks by the way their rack looks. However, sometimes a buck may seem to have poor genetics at an early age and then one year you'll get him on camera or see him and he'll be a good looking deer so as I said earlier it is key to wait until a buck is mature before attempting to harvest them. In order to grow big bucks it is key to supplement your deer in the off season while their racks are growing. I usually go with a mix that is very common which consist of trace mineral salt and dicalcium phosphate. I always do this in the spring and it is not a very time consuming practice. All you have to do is churn up some dirt, preferably clay, in about a 3 foot circle and about four or five inches deep and mix the ingredients in with the dirt. There is name brand mixes you can buy from the store but they tend to be kind of expensive and the mix I use seems to be working and I know it is cheaper. Hunting can be a very expensive hobby so I prefer to go the cheap route every once in a while when it seems reasonable to do so. 

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

With me being an avid hunter and owner of a good number of firearms the right for me to keep and bear arms is very important to me. I feel that people who are for gun control are somewhat mislead about how taking guns away from citizens would help with the problems we have in this country today. It is proven that when citizens carry concealed murder rates and violent crime drops dramatically, for both men and women but especially for women. Every year guns are used for self-defense from 800,000 to 2.5 million times. States that enacted right-to-carry laws between 1977 and 1999, the rate of multiple victim shootings declined by 67% with deaths and injuries dropping by 75% and 81%. Also two of eight school shootings were brought to a stop by citizens with guns before the police arrived at the scene.  On an international scale Switzerland requires young males to have firearms in their homes as part of the country’s militia. Finland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world and also has a very low violent crime rate. Most of the gun control talk is directed toward assault rifles, fully automatic and semi-automatic weapons. However, in order to obtain a fully automatic weapon there is an extensive process that is required. With this process being required for the last eighty years. There are about 250,000 of these fully auto weapons in people’s hands and in this eighty year period there has not been a single time that a legally owned machine gun was used to commit a crime. This is the control that I do agree with to make sure that guns don’t end up in the wrong hands. I’m sure we’ve all seen the bumper stickers that say “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. With that being said there are reasonable measures to take without banning guns all together. With these facts available for anyone to see I hope that some people can come to an understanding about this incredibly controversial topic that could have a great deal of impact on our country in the future.

Hunting Bows

Hunting and harvesting a white tailed deer is no easy feat to do, no matter how you do it but when it comes to bow hunting it is about as hard as it gets. Bow season comes in on October 15th and runs through February 10th. As far as weapon of choice is concerned you have a couple of options, a compound bow, a re-curve bow and a crossbow. A hoyt compound bow is what I use and I would say it is the most common. It uses cables and pulley's to relieve some of the tension from the shooter when he draws the bow back. They even give the ability to choose how many pounds you want to have the bow set on, the poundage determines how fast the arrow will fly when released. Legally you have to be pulling back at least 35 pounds to hunt with it, this is mainly for youth bows because you need to be shooting with enough speed to make an ethical kill on a deer. Most adult bows give you a range from about 45 pounds to 80 pounds to choose from, I have my bow set at 65 pounds so that it is easy to pull back but still has plenty of speed with mine shooting at around 285 feet per second. A re-curve bow is a traditional style bow, like what you would see Indians shooting in the movies. There are no adjustments available for these bows on poundage, it mainly relies on how far back you pull the string. The further you pull it back the harder it will shoot. This is probably the least common of the styles available to hunt with. Lastly the cross bow which is becoming more and more popular. It basically looks like a compound bow that is turned sideways and is set up with a trigger system so it is pretty much like shooting a gun. They shoot much faster than other bows and is much easier to shoot but it is a great option for someone who wants to bow hunt but has shoulder or back issues and is not able to draw back a regular bow. These bows can reach up to speeds of around 400 feet per second.

Top 5 Types of Hunting and Fishing

I know my blog is only about deer hunting but that is just because it's the time of year for deer season. I like to do just about any type of hunting you can do around here and I also like to go fishing every chance I get over the summers. My top 5 would consist of the following; turkey hunting, deer hunting, bass fishing, duck hunting and predator hunting. 

1. Turkey Hunting 

Turkey season last from March 15th to April 30th and if I miss a day of it something is wrong. As much as I love all other types of hunting there's nothing that can compare to getting a big gobbler coming to you gobbling his head off. I called up and killed my first turkey when I was twelve and I've been hooked ever since.

2. Deer Hunting

If you've read any of my previous post you already know that deer hunting is a great passion of mine even though it does come in second to turkey hunting. There's a lot about deer hunting that is special to me that doesn't even have to do with killing a deer. Things like how my dad took me for the first time when I was eight months old and took me just about every chance he could when I was too young to go alone and taught me everything I needed to know for me to progress as a hunter. It's also a good time to just sit there in the woods relaxing and enjoy God's creation. 

3. Bass Fishing

This is another thing of the many things my dad taught me how to do as a child. It doesn't get much better than easing around a pond in a john boat trying to get a bit from a big bass. Actually this summer I caught the biggest one of my life out of the pond on our farm here in Andalusia, he weighed a little over 9 pounds.

4. Duck Hunting

I honestly don't really go duck hunting that much but that's because its season coincides with deer season and as you can see from this list I pick deer hunting before duck hunting most of the time. I don't have any ducks that come to any of the ponds on our farm but I have a couple of buddies that I go shoot with from time to time that have some beaver ponds on their land that wood ducks come to pretty regularly and it is pretty fun to throw on some waders and get out there and try to get a few from time to time.

5. Predator Hunting

Predator hunting is really important to me for a few very special reasons baby deer and baby turkeys. In this area coyotes and bobcats take a toll on the populations of both by taking them out when they are too little to fly or run. So anything I can do to help with my deer and turkey herd I do it.

In conclusion, I think it's safe to say that I keep myself pretty busy year round with some type of hunting or fishing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Tree stands

When it comes to tree stands for deer hunting you have a variety of styles to choose from but the style you pick depends greatly on whether or not you'll be using a fire arm or bow as well as where it is that you'll be hunting in that stand. The most common stands you'll find in hunting will be shooting houses, ground blinds, ladder stands, hang-on or lock-on stands and tree climbers. Each of these possess a quality that makes them better in certain situations. For shooting houses most people have them on large fields, food plots or any place that you can see a decent ways because it is mainly used for rifle hunting. Shooting houses give you a couple of things such as a steady rest to put your rifle on to make a good shot, the walls keep you out of the wind when its cold and they also help with scent dispersal if you have windows on it. Ground blinds are basically like a portable shooting house that is not usually elevated from the ground. I personally don't prefer ground blinds because you are at eye level with the deer and I usually like to get all the advantage I can by getting as elevated as I can to avoid being seen from any movement. Ladder stands are probably one of the oldest types of stands around and are one of the best in my opinion. It's a very simple design being that it is just a ladder with a set on top that straps to a tree but it can be very effective if used properly. You can do just about anything out of a ladder because most come with a shooting rail around the seat for you to rest your gun on, so you can use it for rifle hunting or bow hunting and you can also put it just about anywhere, whether it be on a food plot or down in the woods. Lock-on or hang-on stands, these are my absolute favorite because of the versatility. These are stands that only consist of a seat the is attached to about a 24 inch by 32 inch platform and you buy a set of ladder sticks up to 24 feet tall to go with it. These are mainly used for bow hunting. The only down side to these are the safety issues, you should wear a safety harness with these all the time because a 24 foot fall could not only hurt you badly, it could kill you. Lastly the climber, I used to hunt out of mine all the time until I started using lock-on's and actually rarely use it now. There are a lot people who hunt out of climbers all the time but I mainly use mine for trying out new spots to see if I want to put a permanent stand there because of how easy it is to move it from one spot to another. Just remember, anytime you are hunting of the ground in a ladder, lock-on or climber always wear a safety harness. Below I have a couple of links for some webpages that you can view these various types of stands and also the site for the safety harnesses.

Apparel

When it comes to considering what to wear I would like to hope that most people know that you wear camouflage when you go hunting. So with that being a given you have to consider your climate, what brand and what pattern best suites you, your surroundings at your particular hunting land and the time of year. For instance, early season you will want to wear something light because if you go off in the woods with a bunch of bulky clothes on and start pouring sweat you will start stinking and I think I've covered how important a deer's nose is to you being a successful hunter. As important as that is it is just as important to stay warm in the winter because it doesn't get much colder than being twenty-five feet up a tree with a fifteen mile an hour wind blowing. But when it comes to picking a particular camo pattern my personal favorite is mossy oak bottomland, I honestly think its the best camo ever made but when it really comes down to it all of the realtree and mossy oak products are great and I own a lot of both of them. The coolest technology that has come out for hunting apparel in the last six or seven years is that apparel that is designed to hold and lock your scent inside of it. There are multiple companies that have came out with products like this and I have a suit by scent blocker that is in the realtree ap camo pattern, which is the image I posted below.

 http://www.robinsonoutdoors.com/shop/hunting-suits.html

http://www.mossyoak.com/

Preparing the Ground

When it comes time to plant food plots in the fall there are multiple things that you have to consider in order to attain maximum growth. The main contributors to this are the following: weather, making a good seed bed, depth of planting, how big your deer heard is and making sure you have the correct equipment. Weather, is the single most important part of the whole process. Unless you have an irrigation system for your food plots, which I know most people don't, if you don't get rain to moisten the soil you could do everything else right but it just would not work. So having said that you have to plan your plant times around the weather. Take for instance I've been looking at the weather for the last couple days and the forecast shows for rain coming next week all throughout the week so I have already gotten started with my prep so that I'll be ready to plant as soon as possible. Making a good seed bed is not as important as weather but it is still very important. When I said that I had already started prepping plots earlier this is what I was talking about. For me it starts with bush hogging then after I give all of it a couple of days for the cut grass to die out. After that I come back and burn it but to prevent the fire from getting out of the plot and into the woods I take the tractor and disc around the edge so that there is about a five foot wide buffer of dirt around the outside edge. As soon as it is done burning off its time to start discing the entire thing, I usually like to do this twice with the disc and then come back with the tiller for one more pass to make sure and good smooth and soft seed bed. Depth of planting is very key in the process as well. For the most part it has a lot to do with the size of the seed. Your smaller seeds will not really even need to be under ground with adequate rain but your larger ones for example winter peas and oats do. However, I know of a couple of exceptions to this rule of thumb, which are wheat and rye. They are larger seeds but if you broadcast (spread) them over fresh dirt and with adequate rainfall they will come up without being turned under the soil. The size of your deer herd directly affects planting because you have to plant it thick enough and just plant enough in general to keep the deer from eating it all down before it can grow to its mature potential. Lastly, having the correct equipment. For best results and for less work on you having tractor is key, along with this you will need some type of disc or harrow and a seed spreader.
http://www.pennington.com/lawn-garden/grass-seed

http://www.gamekeepersclub.com/content/default.aspx

  

Positioning Trail Cameras

First off, there is a lot more to it than just strapping it to a tree and pouring some type of feed or attractant in front of it if you're trying to get it to take a picture of a mature buck that you are wanting to hunt and hopefully harvest at some point. You can't depend on your cameras to do all the scouting for you, you have to get out and do some walking and looking around so that you know where to position the cameras. First off you want to think about where your feeding sources and bedding areas are. Knowing this will narrow down your such for finding your deer herds natural travel habits. Once you have figured this out a key thing to look for is topographical changes, for example deer have a tendency to walk the bases of hills and ridges. Also you should look for changes in timber, like where it may go from open hardwoods or pines to a thicket, because deer will walk along side these edges of the thickets. Google Earth is a great way to find both of these without having to do any walking. Now that you have your search narrowed down because of these factors you will be able to scout without just making circles and leaving scent all over the place. When you are walking these edges of thickets and bases of ridges some great things to look for is obviously tracks but lots of the time in the woods there are any tracks because of all the leaves on the ground so now you have to pay careful attention to things such as rotten logs that have been stepped on repeatedly or when it is a heavily used trail it almost looks like a rut in a road where the leaves are considerably lower from being stepped on. Also, you can often find areas coming from thickets that are very obvious where deer come out of them, it basically looks like a hole in the bushes if it is used frequently. Lastly if there is an old fence running through an area you want to hunt you can find pieces of hair stuck in the fence from the deer crossing them and rubbing up against it. Once you have compiled enough of this information you are ready and prepared enough to go put out your cameras in areas that you can feel confident will produce a buck worth harvesting. Below is a picture of a deer that I got on camera this week and if I had not done the proper scouting last February I wouldn't have known to put my camera in this spot. 

More Preparations

Wednesday and Thursday of this week I started bush hogging all the food plots so that it will make it easier when it comes time to plant in a few weeks. Almost everyone does this as just a part of the planting process but with me being a bow hunter I need the deer to take the path or trail that I want them to take in order for them to be in range so I usually make two or three lanes into each plot around my stands for the deer to come into the plots out of. Deer are just like us when it comes to walking through briars and bushes, they will avoid them and walk on clean ground if possible which is why I know this helps me in getting them into the plot at a certain yardage so that I have a shot. This also helps play a role in them smelling me before I am able to shoot because I can position these walking lanes to where the particular winds that I will hunt the stand in will be favorable. In other words the most common wind for winter time down here is a north east wind, north west is claimed to be the best wind for hunting, so I will make these trails on the northern sides of my stands so that if they follow the script, which is never even close to a guarantee, my scent will be blowing the opposite direction of the deer. Often times its little things like this that make the difference in you being able to seal the deal on a bow kill or not.  Below I've added some trail camera pictures of a pretty good eight point that I've been getting pictures of for the last month or so along with a few pictures from bush hogging yesterday. As well as a link to a great article on stand placement. I've learned a lot from previous hunting experiences whether they were failures or successes but I have also read a ton of these articles just trying to learn anything new that may help me become a better hunter. http://www.fieldandstream.com/features/deer-camp/tree-stand-prep/

Almost a Month Away

With there only being a month and a half until bow season comes in it is really time to start getting down to business. This week I've kept on shooting my bow as much as possible and have also made a few stops to check trail cameras. For those of you who may not know you can bow hunt from the ground or in a ground blind but most bow hunting is done from an elevated position in a tree. This makes it necessary in my practice to shoot from these elevated positions. Most all of my stands are at least twenty-five feet up in the air so when I practice I shoot out of my bedroom window into the backyard at my parents house, with my room being upstairs it makes just about the same height difference and angle to get me in ready to make the shot when it counts. A crucial thing to remember this time of year is that even though you are a month and a half away from deer season coming in you have to be careful about where you are laying your scent down in your hunting areas because I can't stress enough how much too much human scent and activity can affect how much a mature buck will visit an area. So to help with this when I'm checking cameras I spray down with some scent killer spray as well as spray down the camera since I have had it in my truck and touched it. Another key thing that you should consider is checking cameras a lot less often because no matter how well you spray down some of your scent will be left there and the more often you're in there the worse it will be. The best way to look at it is that you want the deer to be as comfortable as possible in order for one to come out in the daytime for you to harvest and the less they see and smell humans the more comfortable they will be. I can promise you one thing and that is when it comes to a deers nose you should never underestimate it.