Late Season Hunting

        We're at that point in time, once again, when the whitetail seasons are coming to a close in most of the northern states. Still don't have that buck? Don't worry, the late season can be one of the best times of the year to get it done.
   

          The most important aspect in late season hunting is food sources. All of those bucks that were rutting hard and chasing does throughout October and November are now trying to regain all of that lost energy before the hardest part of winter hits. Basically their whole daily routine will consist of bedding and feeding. Standing corn and bean fields act as deer magnets this time of year. If there is a standing bean field in your area in late December, you could make a safe bet that the deer will be in that field feeding before dark every night.

          However, hunting pressure throughout the season is going to determine how often and when the deer will be in this field. If your area has high hunter presence during gun season, chances are the deer will hit the food sources in the middle of the night, and you'll never catch them in the fields during shooting hours. If you are one of the lucky hunters that hunts a large area with minimal pressure, you will likely find deer using the standing bean and corn fields during daylight, and often times during the middle of the day.

Food plots work great in the late season

         If you fall into the high hunting pressure category, all hope is not lost. There are still ways for you to shoot that last minute buck. One sure-fire way to increase deer activity around your stand in the late season is by baiting. I know that some hunters see baiting as unethical and wrong, but you'd be surprised at how well it works when the deer are in need of food.

         In these high hunter presence areas, your best bet is to bait a ways back into a wooded area. The thicker the woods, the safer the deer will feel using that bait during daylight. Often times it is best to set up a well brushed-in ground blind within range of your bait "pile". This will help you to keep out of the elements on those cold, snowy days, and will allow you to hunt longer without feeling uncomfortable.

         Another proven way to successfully hunt a high pressure area in the late season in to hunt in between the bedding area and the food source. If the deer are using that food source just after dark, then you know that they are traveling from their bed in daylight to reach that food. These may be hard areas to hunt, as they are often times very thick. Most of your shots are going to be less than 30 yards in these thick areas, so find the most heavily used trails and set up somewhat close to them. An ideal spot would be where several major trails intersect.

        Just like during the rest of deer season, don't forget to play the wind and keep your clothing and body as scent-free as possible. I have found that deer are very weary during this time of year, especially when they are in the open during daylight. One whiff of human scent and they'll be out of there. Good luck hunting and hopefully you can bag that last minute late season buck!

Gopher Bow Kill

Here is a video I think you guys will like. It's a gopher I shot today with my bow in my friends yard. It was about a 30 yard shot, and you could say that my Hoyt did it's job!

 

Looking Back on the Michigan Morel Season

It's that time of year again. The morel mushroom season is coming to a close. Now is the time that we can look back on our season and analyze our success and compare it to years past.  Overall, I would say that 2012 was a mediocre year for morels, at least in my area. I didn't find anywhere close to as many mushrooms as I did last year, but I still found a few. I think the main problem this year was that we didn't get much rain in April while the mushrooms were growing. Every grey morel that I found seemed to be small and a bit dry and crumbly. I came across only one decent patch of yellows and it yielded only about a dozen large morels (as shown in the picture below).

5 inch tall yellow morel

I have heard similar findings from morel hunters in other states. The guys down in Kentucky said it was too dry down there as well. On a turkey hunting trip to Kentucky this year, I only found 3 yellow morels, and they were so dried up that they were inedible.  

In the meantime, all we can do is hope for a better season for the mushrooms next year. Let me know how your season went. I am curious to see if anyone had a better than average year for morels. 

Wild Turkey Shot Placement (Archery)

It is getting very close to turkey season in most states, so I thought I would help out the archery guys by showing you a few pictures of where to put your arrow in that big gobbler. Just aim where I put the yellow dots and you should be all set!

With mechanical and cut on contact fixed blade broadheads, take the body shots. With decapitating broadheads such as the Gobbler Guillotine and Magnus Bullheads, take the head/neck shots.

Wild Turkey Vitals

The Secret Weapons of Turkey Hunting (Part II)

By Kyle Swart - KS Outdoor Productions

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the effectiveness of a gobble call. If that alone isn't enough to get a bird on the ground for you, here is another "Secret Weapon" that will help you even more and increase your chances of killing a nice turkey this spring.

The second "Secret Weapon" is a full strut tom decoy. My favorites include the Primos Killer-B and the DSD Strutter Decoy. However, it doesn't matter which strutting decoy you choose, they all work the same way.

DSD Strutter Decoy

It is likely that you have seen a full strut decoy being used by turkey hunting professionals on TV shows. This is because they work! I have found success many times using a full strut decoy when all else failed.

These decoys trigger an aggressive and territorial instinct in tom turkeys. The toms will usually charge in to show the decoy who is boss and to assert their dominance. Because of this, non-dominant toms and jakes will often times stray away from your decoy.

The best way (in my opinion) is to set up the decoy in some sort of clearing such as a field edge, in a 2-track, or just in a small clearing in the woods. It is natural for turkeys to strut in clearings and open areas and this will also make it easier for a real turkey to see the decoy.

You should always have one or more hen decoys with your full strutter. From experience I know that it helps a lot. If a dominant tom turkey thinks that your decoy is stealing his harem of hens, he will be there as fast as he can to get his hens back. When he does that, it puts him right "in your lap" where you can get a shot at him.

Hopefully this series will help you bag your first or best turkey ever! Let me know if you would like a review or advice on any turkey hunting gear.

* NEVER USE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY BECAUSE OTHER HUNTERS MAY MISTAKE YOUR DECOY FOR A REAL TURKEY *

The Secret Weapons of Turkey Hunting (Part I)

By Kyle Swart

Proof of a gobble call's effectiveness

If you are like most spring turkey hunters, you use a box call, diaphragm call, slate/glass friction call, or something similar. You, as with I, have likely had less than desirable success rates in the past. Those are all great calls, and I put each of them to some good use every spring. However, last spring, I found a secret that dramatically increased my success rate when calling those smart ol' gobblers.

My newly found secret weapon is the gobble call. I have always carried a gobble call in my turkey vest but I was afraid to use it for fear that it would scare the birds away. Boy was I making a mistake by not using it.

Last spring, my dad and I started using the gobble call on almost every hunt we went on. We ended up calling in four separate gobblers on four separate successful hunts, and those are only the ones that we or someone we called for ended up shooting!

In one situation, the farmer that we have plow our food plots was on the tractor and we didn't have anything better to do, so we decided to go walk off about 100 yards into the woods and start calling. With the first calls (diaphragm call) we got a far-off gobble from the other side of the food plot that was currently being plowed. We continued to call for a half hour and the gobbles weren't getting any closer. My dad decided at that point to try the gobble call, after all, what did we have to lose?

Instantly after we used the call, that ol' tom fired off two gobbles and we knew it was game on. We then started back up with the diaphragm calls, and every time he gobbled, we would cut him off with a gobble of our own.

We could tell he was getting closer and fast! Not 5 minutes from the 1st time we gobbled at him, here he came sprinting through the woods straight toward us and at half strut, constantly gobbling the whole way! At that point we ceased all calling, and prepared for a shot. Within 20 seconds of us first sighting him, he was in shotgun range and my dad let him have it.

After the shot, my dad and I just looked at each other in awe. We couldn't believe it. That tom wanted nothing to do with us until we gobbled at him. He even walked around a food plot that was being worked on just to get to us! And with that, we used the gobble call many more times that season with very similar results each time. If you don't own a gobble call, I would definitely recommend that you invest in one.

Why Whitetail Food Plots Work Better Than Bait

by Scott Bestul ~ Field & Stream Magazine ~ Whitetail 365 Blog

It’s time to plow under the clover-plot-equals-corn-pile argument. Of the many fresh debates germinated by modern whitetail management, none has proved faster growing or hardier than food plots vs. bait, in which one side insists that planting plots to attract and kill deer is no different from luring them to a mound of carrots or sugar beets. This may sound perfectly sensible…until you soil-test the dirt from which the logic grows.

Food plots are very different from baiting—and better for the health of the deer herd as well as for hunting. And while it’s true that a small plot of lush clover in the middle of otherwise barren woods may be no different from a pile of corn in terms of fair-chase principles, food-plot planting and management provides a long list of tangible and intangible benefits. Here are the main ones.

#1 - Better health

Food in a pile forces deer into unnatural concentrations, upping the odds of disease transmission through nose-to-nose contact, a proven vector for bovine TB. Also, because most bait lies directly on the ground, baited deer are more likely to ingest each other’s urine and/or feces, a suspected cause of CWD.

Even a quarter-acre plot adequately spreads out feeding deer in most cases, and because deer typically eat the leaves, fruits, or seeds of food-plot plants, they ingest less dirt, diminishing the likelihood of urine or feces consumption. And since food plots are on the landscape 24/7, competitive feeding, and therefore crowding, naturally decreases.

#2 - Deer behavior

Multiple studies have shown that the continual visits a baiter makes to freshen his pile change deer behavior, making them more cautious, more nocturnal, and tougher for everyone to hunt. Once you plant a food plot, on the other hand, you are more or less done, and deer will visit it as they would any natural food source or ag crop.

#3 - Hunter relations

One of my biggest beefs against baiting is its effect on public-land hunting. Invariably, the baiter draws an immediate, imaginary boundary around his setup and claims squatter’s rights—ratcheting up tensions with other public-land hunters. By default, food plots, which are planted almost exclusively on private lands, don’t create this kind of conflict.

#4 - Habitat stewardship

A hunter may plant his first food plot with the sole purpose of luring a deer for the kill, but before long, something very cool happens to many a food plotter: He finds other ways to improve deer habitat. Of course, not every weekend farmer becomes a land steward, but this evolution is common.

What’s more, food plots benefit more than just whitetails. In a study completed in 2009, University of Georgia researcher Will Ricks inventoried populations of invertebrates, small mammals, and songbirds in and around clover plots located in Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, and Tennessee. Then he compared them with adjacent forested areas. In each location, the abundance and diversity of nongame wildlife species was greater in and around food plots.

Finally, believe it or not, there are still some places in this country where deer densities are low and food is a limiting factor. Here, perennial food plots—unlike bait—can help increase the area’s carrying capacity and improve deer hunting for not just the planter but eventually his neighbors, too.

Early Season Success

Kyle Swart

Date: September 15, 2011

           Finally it was here. What I and every other hunter in Michigan had been waiting 9 months for...deer season. It couldn't have come any sooner this year. I was eager to get out and not only get a deer on the ground, but it had been almost a year since I had been in a treestand.
           The early season is probably one of my favorite times of the year to hunt. The deer are still somewhat predictable and are still in their summer feeding patterns. From what I have learned through experience, deer seem to move more during daylight hours in the early season than they do in any other season, which makes it a good time to get out and hunt before they are pressured and turn seemingly nocturnal.
           It was the 16th of September. The second day of the early firearm doe season here in Michigan. I was bowhunting as usual (yes it is legal to use a bow during a firearm season in MI). I finally had a day off of work so I decided to hit the woods.
         I would be hunting over one of our new food plots, planted with rape and purple top turnips. We had lots of trailcam pictures of deer using this food plot in daylight, so I figured it would be a good stand to sit in.
         I got in the stand at about 5:30 pm. This gave me 2-3 hours to sit. Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by squirrels, and I had to try really hard to keep myself from sticking arrows in a few of them.
         It was about 6 o'clock when I had the first whitetail action. A doe fawn came through the woods and stood under my stand for about 5 to 10 minutes. (see picture below)

Doe fawn under my stand

   
  She eventually wandered back off into the woods and soon after she was gone, a spike horn came to within 20 yards of my stand and stood there for a while browsing on green leaves and other summer growth.  I watched him for a few minutes until I heard leaves crunching off to my right side. I looked over there and here came a 5 point. It was a nice young buck.
        The 5 point and spike united and browsed on leaves together. While  I was watching them, I failed to notice that a nice doe had entered the food plot.
        I took a quick glance to the plot and there she stood. Not 25 yards from me, about to leave the food plot into the brush. I quickly but quietly grabbed my bow and came to full draw on her. She caught some movement from my stand as I pulled the bow back, and she was focused on me.
       It was now or never, I settled my 20 yard pin just behind her shoulder and released to arrow. It was textbook perfect shot placement. The arrow passed through and I could see it stuck in the dirt. She ran off the plot, and with every step, and large spray of blood was released from both sides of her.
       She stumbled and fell before reaching the woods, but somehow gained footing again and made it another 10 yards before she expired. In total, she made it 30 yards from where she stood when I shot to where she lay.
        It was a very easy tracking job. As soon as I stepped off of the food plot on the blood trail, I could see her white belly. I called my dad and told him the news and he came out to the lease with a couple of friends to help get her all cleaned up and in the back of the truck.

Mature doe I was very glad to get a shot at

   
        I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season.
       

Big Buck Down

Kyle Swart

Date: November 13, 2010

         
           I got in the stand about 3 hours before dark. It started out just like every other evening hunt. Just a few does and fawns here and there throughout the first couple hours. I had a good feeling about that night. I wasn't sure why, but I just had a feeling that something might happen.
          About 45 minutes before dark the action started to pick up. I had a lone doe walk past my stand, I stood up extremely slowly and had my bow in hand expecting a buck to be following not too far behind her. The rut had really picked up by this time of the year so there was a good chance that I would see a buck with the doe. After she passed by with no buck on her trail, I put my bow back on the hanger and sat back down in my stand.
         It wasn't 20 minutes later and I heard some leaves crunching in the woods in front of me. Here came another doe, straight toward me. This time it was different. The doe seemed out of breath. She was panting. I knew this could mean one of two things, either she was being chased by some type of predator, or there was a buck chasing her.
         Once again, I stood up, bow in hand, and got ready in case a buck was following. She came all the way to my stand at a fast pace, and passed right by me. My attention was now focused on the area where she had just come from. Nothing happened. 5 minutes passed, and still nothing happened.
         Then, all of a sudden, I heard a single leaf crunch from the same direction she had come from. My heart immediately started racing. I then saw a deer's legs moving through the brush, coming straight towards me. I couldn't see how big the deer was yet, but "buck fever" was already starting to take over my body. Just then, he stepped out of the brush. What I saw on his head gave me a miniature heart attack. I started shaking really bad. I had never seen so much antler on a deer in my life.
         Once I had established that it was definitely a shooter, I concentrated on remaining motionless. I took my eyes off of the horns. If I focused on them, I would screw something up for sure. 50 yards... 40 yards... 30 yards... he just kept coming. It was textbook perfect. I drew my bow back, the buck was now at 25 yards. He was walking at a fast pace though. I wanted him to stop walking before I would risk a shot. The nervousness and "buck fever" had completely taken over my body at that time, and I couldn't even get a grunt sound to come out of my mouth. I had no voice. Nothing.
          I had to let my bow down without releasing an arrow. By the time I could gather my senses, the buck of my dreams had just walked right passed me. I screwed up, or so I thought.
          Right at that moment I remembered one thing I had that could help me piece this hunt back together...my grunt call. I quickly grabbed for it. Blew it a couple times, then waited. The buck was still in my sight, and I blew the call one more time. This one got his attention.
             He made a U-turn and started coming in my direction. To this day, I don't know why he would leave his doe to investigate the grunt, but boy am I glad he did. The giant made a half circle around me about 50-60 yards out. He then turned and walked straight to me again. When he got to about 30 yards, I came to full draw for the 2nd time. Once he got to about 20, I hit him with a mouth grunt and he stopped dead in his tracks. Quartering towards me. I knew I could make that shot. I had practiced it all summer. I put my pin on the base of his neck and released the arrow. It was a perfect hit. My G5 Tekan broadhead entered at the neck and went through to the heart and lungs area. I watched him run away, blood spraying out of the hole in his neck.
             I immediately hung my bow up and sat down. I was shaking uncontrollably. I tried to call my dad who was in another stand on the property, but my hands were shaking too violently and I couldn't type the right number into my phone. If it weren't for my Hunter Safety System vest, I would have fallen out of the tree at that point.
             I was finally able to use my phone so I called my dad, and said, "Dad, I think I just shot the biggest deer I have ever seen in my life!". His reply was, "Sit tight and stay in the stand, I'm getting down right now and will be there in a few minutes". With that I ended the call and tried to control my excitement. When my dad got to my tree, I climbed down and we waited about 25 minutes to start tracking.
            The blood trail was massive. Every tree that he ran past was covered in blood. After about 30 yards of following the blood, I saw antlers sticking up off the ground. I jumped up and my dad shoved me with excitement, nearly knocking me over, and I ran the remaining few yards to my buck.
             He was bigger than I thought. 11 points, one huge kicker on the right side G2. I could barely fit my hands around the bases of the antlers... they were massive. (when we had him scored, the bases measured in at over 6 inches around). The mass carried all the way down the main beams.
            We then drug him back to the truck, which was not an easy feat. We loaded him up in the back and headed for home. We were greeted by lots of friends and family who had already heard the good news. It turned out to be a pretty good night for me.
            The buck scored about 160" gross and net scored 151 3/8" NT. He ended up being the #1 youth archery non-typical whitetail taken in the state that year. We also had him aged at a forensics lab, and I was shocked when the results came back. Turns out he was 6.5 years old!

Check back for more hunts. I have a LOT more stories to tell. I should have more up by the end of the week.