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It sounds easy doesn’t it, set up downwind of where the big boy will show up and let the air out of him. But more times than not it doesn’t end up being that easy. You may have to let a small buck pass before the big guy comes into range or those does may feed past your stand first. There are a lot things to consider when setting up to “Hunt The Wind” for a mature whitetail buck.

Hunting trails.
Hunting trails sounds like it would be a no brainer, set up on the downwind side of the trail. The problem is many times mature bucks will not use the same trails does and young bucks use. They will be on skinny, almost unseen trails running parallel to the main trails. So if you set up close to a main trail, you might end up upwind of the buck you are after and get busted. I try to find those little used trails with big hoof prints in them and set up close to where they go through heavy cover. That is where a big buck will feel most secure. Another good trail to hunt is one that cuts through a pinch point or goes around an obstacle like a steep ditch or pond. This will tend to push all the deer traffic past your stand. Plus it allows you to set up with the obstacle behind you, blocking any deer from getting downwind.

Hunting Food Plots
Just set up right where you have seen the big guy enter the field with the wind blowing across the field and he’s as good as yours right? Not necessarily! What if a group of does or his 75″ bachelor buddy get to the field before your buck? They will start blowing and stomping and you’ll never see the one your after.
I like to set my stand away from the area the deer enter the food plot with the wind blowing into the woods behind me and wait for them to feed in my direction. You can sort of guide them by what you plant in the plot. Plant their favorite food in front of your stand, not where they enter the plot. This also increases the odds of shooting at relaxed deer. When deer enter a food plot they are usually very nervous, but after they have been there for a while and no danger has been spotted, they tend to relax. Shooting at a relaxed buck increases your odds of him not jumping the string and your arrow striking where it was aimed.
It also helps if you can have a big ditch or nasty thicket behind you so no deer slip downwind making their way to the plot.

Hunting Bedding Areas
Again, usually not as easy as it sounds. If your waiting in the morning for the buck upwind of his bedding area, you’ll probably never see him. You can bet he’s gonna scent check his intended bed from downwind before he enters his bed. What you can try is setting up just to the side of the downwind direction, hoping the wind doesn’t shift slightly and give you away. But you also have to keep in mind as the ground warms, the thermals are going to start rising. So you need to take that into consideration before you set up in the dark with a good wind. If the thermals take your scent the wrong direction, the hunt is over. Setting up on the uphill side of his bed and the trail leading to it can help beat the morning thermals.
If you’re going to try and catch that bruiser coming out of his bed in the afternoon you have the exact opposite thing happening with the cooling thermals. As the air cools it will decend and pool up in low areas. So you need to stay below the bedding area and any trails the buck might travel on in the evening.

So if it sounds like playing the wind while trying to connect on a Big Whitetail Buck sounds almost impossible, your right. By the time they reach trophy size, they know how to detect danger and how to use the rest of the deer herd to detect it for them. You not only have to fool the buck your after, but all of the rest of the deer your not interested in shooting also. Plus in my hunting experiances, deer rarely play by the rules. They are constantly showing up where you least expect them and that is usually downwind of my stand. That is precisely why I take every precaution with my scent that I can. I wash all my clothes in scent eliminating detergent, store them in scent free containers, spray down before every hunt and try not to touch any foilage on the way in to my stand. You can never be totally scent free, but you can do a lot to reduce your human odor in the woods.

You can check out all of the scent eliminating products available here on bowhinting.com by clicking on the link below.

http://www.bowhunting.com/shopping/Departments/Scent-Eliminators.aspx#cs

As the Dog Days of summer begin to dwindle down to the early stages of fall, so my excitement and enthusiasm for the opening day of bow season rises.  As if it could rise any higher!  Opening day for some is just weeks away, but for most of us we still have to wait until October to ascend into our favorite early season tree.  Regardless, we will all be bowhunting for whitetails before we know it.
    The early season is one of my favorite times to bowhunt.  The anticipation and uncertainty of a new season, coupled with the beautiful transition into fall, make any trip to the woods in October a successful one.  In fact, chances are that in the first two weeks, often the first couple days of a new season, we are presented with the best opportunity of harvesting a mature buck.  This year is no different with my fall food plots planted and thriving.  Also, 2010 has proven to be a banner year for many of the hard and soft mast producing species on my property.  The white oaks have produced an excellent crop of acorns which is important to my hunting success, as 90% of the 260 acres I hunt is mature timber.  Soft mast species such as apple trees and autumn olive groves have also produced a bountiful yield which can be early season hot spots as well.

Success during the early season often boils down to finding a favored food source.  Be on the look out for soft mast species, such as autumn olives, as they can be little honey holes.

      This fall I have 7 different food plots planted and all are in excellent condition heading into the hunting season.  I have two small hunting plots planted in Whitetail Institute’s Imperial Whitetail Clover.  These plots have been established for three years now.  Since their first planting in the spring of 2007, they’ve attracted and held many whitetails on my hunting property without having to be reseeded.  I do, however, frost seed them every late winter/early spring to increase the tonnage.  I also have an additional food plot, about one acre in size, planted in Whitetail Institute’s Extreme.  The soil in this particular plot is marginal at best, mostly composed of sand and clay, making it extremely difficult to grow my seed of choice, Whitetail Institute’s Imperial Whitetail Clover.  Whitetail Institute’s Extreme, however, has performed beautifully this spring and summer.  This chicory, clover, alfa-alfa, burnet blend established quickly in the spring and has grown tall, thick and lush all summer long, despite the poor soil conditions and record heat in Western Virginia.

Imperial Whitetail Clover has been my seed of choice when it comes to food plot planting since I began using it in 2007.  It’s simply the best!

    Temperatures this summer in Virginia’s Mountain Valleys were scorching.  Daytime highs averaged over 90 degrees since late May, during which the mercury rose above 100 degrees 5 times, including three days consecutively!  This type of weather is abnormal for Western Virginia.  Still, my Whitetail Institute food plots not only survived but continued to grow and are strong and healthy heading into the hunting season.

Apples are another early season food source enjoyed by deer.  If you have apple trees, or any other fruit trees for that matter, they certainly warrant a hunt during the early season.

    My fall food plot planting is what has me the most excited.  In two separate locations, totaling almost to two acres, I sowed in some winter oats as part of a “dual plot.”  Fortunately, just days after I sowed the oats, we received steady rainfall and the oats germinated and took off quickly!  I then immediately sowed more Whitetail Institute’s Imperial Whitetail Clover to grow alongside the oats.  This all took place over a week and half in mid August and both plants are growing quickly.  I cannot be thankful enough for the ample, steady rainfall we have received.  Ideally, the oats will serve as a hardy, nutritious, attractive food source throughout the hunting season.  When next spring rolls around, the clover will have an established root system and flourish.  The final two food plots, totaling about 1 ½ acres, are made of turnips and rape.  Both plants, like the oats, germinate quickly and are easy to establish.  Fortunately, these plots are coming along great as well!

A close up shot of the young oats.  This food plot, which is also seeded with clover, will provide a reliable food source for the deer all season long.

    The past two seasons have made for difficult hunting for me primarily because of a lack of food reliable, consistent food source.  This fall is shaping up to be much, much different.  While the principal purpose of the food plots is to attract and hold deer while providing first-rate nutrition, they have the potential to make for exciting hunting opportunities this fall.  The topographical layout of 5 of the 7 food plots allow me to hunt downwind of the food plots with undetectable entry and exit routes.  The early season relationship between whitetails and acorns is undeniable as well.

When it comes to early season whitetails, it’s hard to beat white oak acorns.  This particular tree is loaded with them!

    Bow season begins for the majority of us in just over a month and I’m eager to get in a tree with a bow.  However, I am equally excited about my new job opportunity.  From mid September through mid January I’ll be helping Todd and Justin out at the bowhunting.com office!  I’m excited about making the move to Northern Illinois.  Hopefully, I’ll make some new friends, enjoy a different culture, and help bring home some awesome footage of Todd and Justin throughout the season.  It’s going to be an exciting fall!

With September looming just around the corner my mind is really starting to wonder off to thoughts of treestands, falling leaves, and hard antlered whitetails!  The bowhunting season can’t come quick enough for this deer hunter, that’s for sure!

As part of the habitat management program on my Illinois hunting land I’ve been planting a lot of trees and other native plants.  The 3 acre native grass field I planted this spring is really starting to look great!  Despite the fact that its only the first year for this planting the  warm temperatures and consistant rain has given it a huge kick start. I’ve had to mow the field  twice to help control unwanted species and I also sprayed it once with a product called Banvel to control unwanted broadleaf plants. I can only imagine how this is going to increase the security cover on the property when it reaches maturity at 5 feet tall. I will most likely be complaining then I am not seeing any deer because they are all hiding in it!

Jim Carlson, thanks again for helping me out and doing such a great job planting!

I have attached some close-up photos for those of you who are interested in seeing the various types of grasses that I’ve planted and how they are coming along.

The head of some Indian Grass.

Sideoats Grama

Indian Grass stems

Little Blue Stem

It seems the area that I am hunting in Wisconsin does not have Earn-a-Buck regulations this year, which must mean that the DNR is happy with the overall population. I hope that some of the management practices that we have been doing such as letting the smaller bucks walk, taking does for meat & not shooting button bucks will hopefully make a difference in the long haul.  So far it seems to be showing some positive results.

Good looking buck from Wisconsin, I just might have to release an arrow on if he gets too close!

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Non-typical Buck – wow will this buck look cool if he makes it a few more years.

Back home in Illinois I haven’t had a sighting of Flyer the buck that I am after.  Hopefully he shows up once the velvet starts peeling off and the bucks begin roamin a little more.  In the meantime, I have a few other nice bucks that have showed up my trail cameras.

I want to give a bit congrats to Justin Hillman who looked like he has a great time in Africa. From the looks of these photos he had one heck of a bowhunting adventure.

Two more days until Justin and I are off to Wyoming for an Antelope hunt with our friends at Table Mountain Outfitters.  Wish us luck, we’re pretty excited!

The first morning of my 2010 archery season was anything but what I had intended.  The archery antelope season had been open for almost a week before I was able to escape to the public land and sage flats of Northeastern Wyoming.  I woke early to complete a few minor tasks prior to the hunt, the first of which was to screw-in three brand new N.A.P BloodRunner Broadheads.  After looking through the one tote and the one bag that I had taken on the weekend trip, it was apparent that my broadheads were at home.  Rather than get too fired up about it, I went back to sleep for two hours knowing the local sporting goods store opened at 8am.  Arriving at the store, I found the broadhead selection very limited and opted for a four-pack of N.A.P Spitfire mechanicals.

This guy needs another year, but he has potential!

My shooter buck standards were fairly low, knowing that my September schedule is already packed with other hunts.  The first day provided several shooter bucks but between the cows, bordering property owners and an errant arrow… I went home with an empty truck bed.  Thankfully, the next morning would prove to have a different outcome.

A bachelor group of Wyoming Pronghorns in difficult stalking terrain

I drove nine miles South of town to a section of state land where I had seen a nice buck the previous day.  I drove to the back of the property only to find that buck on private land in an adjacent pasture.  On the way out I spotted a decent looking buck bedded with two does, they were bedded just off of a sage flat where it falls down to a dry creek bed.  Unfortunately, the only way I had to stalk the buck was from upwind.  I decided to test my luck and began the sneak.  When I got to about 50 yards from the edge of the sage flat, I knelt down, knocked an arrow and tried to fine tune my plan.  I knew that I was within 60 yards of the goats and that my scent had to be dangerously close to giving me away so I pressed on…  Seconds later I saw horns and ears jump up and run parallel to me and hoping they would stop to see what smelled, I immediately came to full draw on my knees.  The buck did just that and with no time for my Leupold RX-1000 to tell me how far he was, I made a quick judgment.  I placed my bottom pin slightly below the top of his back, my arrow made a quick flight before I heard the “thump” and watched my fletchings disappear.  The buck spun around in a circle several times before coming to rest only five yards from where he was shot.  I raised both hands and my Allegiance to the sky and said, “Thank you.”  The Spitfire did an excellent job on the quartering away animal.

Wyoming Pronghorn

My 2010 Wyoming Pronghorn scores out at 72 2/8” which will well reach the minimum SCI and Pope & Young minimums after drying time.  This goat won’t be entered, but the memory of an exciting, public land, spot and stalk hunt will tell the story much better than the paper pages of any record book.

Since I upgraded my camera from last year I needed to also upgrade my camera arm. I chose the 3rd Arm Adventure Series Camera Arm. It is highly adjustable and gives me a full 36″ range away from the tree. More than enough to reach around and film a buck that comes in from the cameras offside. But it’s still compact enough to allow me to carry all of my gear in myself. The whole unit only weighs in at about 8 pounds and will support up to a 7 pound camera.

The arm attaches to the tree with a very secure 1” ratchet strap. The aluminum bracket bites sharply into the tree and is super adjustable both up and down and also side to side. This lets you level out the camera arm in case the tree isn’t perfectly straight.

Loosen the levers to level out the arm.

The arm itself attaches to the bracket with a sturdy ½” pin, held in place by a spring clip. The pivot points are all insulated with Teflon washers. The first arm section is curved to allow the arm to reach further around the tree or in front of you as you sit in the stand. The movement of the arm is very fluid and smooth. No shaky or choppy video when moving the camera into position with this set up. The tension on the pivot points can be easily adjusted so the camera stays in position for the shot.

A full 36″ of travel away from the tree.

Teflon pivot points will not squeek.

I also opted for the kit which included the Manfrotto 701 HDV Camera Head. This is a big jump in quality as far as heads go for me. I was used to the cheap head on my old tripod. Man is this thing smooth and rock steady once you have it adjusted to your camera weight. Panning or tilting the camera smoothly is a breeze with this set up.

I went with the kit to include the Manfrotto 701 head.

I have had my arm in a tree twice so far trying to get some good velvet footage. But so far only does and fawns have showed up. But I am very impressed with the 3rd Arm/Manfrotto set up. It is lightweight, rock solid, easy to set up and super smooth to operate. Now all I need is a little cooperation from the deer. I am hoping to supply some awesome footage to this seasons Bowhunting.com DVD.

My new set up.

Check out all of the equipment available at http://the3rdarm.com/

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