Another great tip from “Buckmasters” and an all important one for if you don’t do it right you could inadvertanly scare your deer away instead of bringing them in closer.

By: Rick Kratzke

Do you sit in your stand and wonder if (and when) you should use a grunt call? The truth is that there is no set rule about the right time to use a grunt call — but there are times when you should use one.

Some of the “no-brainer” times to use a grunt include:
• When you hear a buck grunting and want to pull him in.
• When you see a buck that you know is not going to come by your stand.
• When you need to stop a buck for a shot.
• When absolutely nothing is happening and you’re about to get out of your stand.

The above instances are all situations where it would be difficult to do any harm by using a grunt call. “Blind calling” — or just sitting in your stand and making buck grunts at random — can work, but it could also have negative effects, the least of which is putting deer on a higher level of alert.

Like many other things in hunting, a grunt call is a great tool that every hunter should have — but it can be over used.

Tip from:

Here is a another helpful tip from Buckmasters that I never really thought of before. It should come in helpful.

By: Rick Kratzke

Be Careful With Your Hoist Rope

A good hoist rope is a must for any treestand hunter, but if you’re not careful it can work against you. Keep your hoist rope as scent-free as possible by treating it like an important piece of your clothing. It wouldn’t hurt to wash it in scent-eliminating detergent once in a while, perhaps tucked into the pocket of a jacket or pants. It’s also a good idea to coil your hoist and secure it up in your stand with you rather than just letting it hang loose.

Deer will sometimes lock onto the motion of a dangling rope and follow it right up to you, and the rope will emit more scent dangling in the wind than it will coiled and secured up high. Some hunters will even douse their hoists in doe pee. Others attach rattling antlers and lower the antlers down to ground level and work them from up above so a deer doesn’t wonder why bucks are sparring up in a tree.

There are also several new hoist products out there that keep your rope from getting tangled — some are self-retracting and some are wind-up models. Whether you use your hoist rope for multiple tasks or not, it remains an important piece of equipment. You spend hundreds of dollars on your gun or bow, so invest a few dollars in a good hoist rope and check it regularly.

–Thanks to Craig Heator of Blue Springs, Mo., for this week’s Tip.

This is another tip from Buckmasters that I feel the need to pass on to you all. As I read it I thought of all the times I asked myself that same question. I personally will not take a shot if I have any doubt at all if I can not make it. Yes it is true that I have lost deer in the past, after all who hasn’t. It is unfortunate and inevitable but we as responsible hunters owe it to ourselves and the game we hunt.

By: Rick Kratzke

We’ve all heard horror stories of wounded deer, and bowhunters in particular are prone to be the subject of these sad tales. The real statistics show that wounded deer are far less common than stories indicate, but a common theme of many of these stories is that the shooter took an “iffy” shot — maybe the distance was a little too far or maybe the shooting window wasn’t clear.

It doesn’t matter. There’s one simple way to know if you should hold that shot and let the deer walk: If there is ANY doubt in your mind whatsoever, don’t shoot. It’s that simple.

We all can get caught up in the excitement, so listen to yourself and watch for these key thoughts: “I wonder if it’s too far?”; “I think I can get a shot through there”; “If I don’t shoot now I won’t get another chance”; etc. Unless you’re thinking, “This deer is mine,” let him walk. If you haven’t spooked him, he’ll be back and you’ll have a chance on another day.

This Tip is brought to you by:

Here is another great tip from Jackie Bushman at Buckmasters. I have also found this to be true and agree with Mr. Bushman 100% as i am sure most of you will.

By: Rick Kratzke

White-tailed deer move most during low light conditions. There are exceptions to this rule, but as a deer hunter, I try to be in my stand during the first two hours and the last two hours of the day.

Many factors contribute to deer activity, but I feel most confident about seeing deer early and late, particularly if I’m hunting deer going to or from a food source. If the food source is an open field, the deer will start leaving the field as daylight arrives. They might feed for a couple more hours in the cover as they trickle back to bedding areas, but they don’t feel safe in the wide open during daylight hours.

You get the reverse of that movement in the afternoon when the deer start showing up around food sources. Depending on weather, you might have deer feeding in open fields at mid-afternoon, but they get more and more active as the sun drops and light gets dim.

About the only time I’ll sit in a stand from daylight until dark is during the rut. When there’s an active rut, you never know when something’s about to happen. Of course, sitting in a stand for 10 hours is pretty tough. You really should hunt the way you enjoy it. If that means stand hunting for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, that’s how you should do it. The key to enjoying deer hunting is to have a good time. Remember, you should have fun.

–Jackie Bushman

This is an important tip which does and can effect how your hunt will turn out. We all know how the weather effects the wildlife. It can determine when the move and when they don’t as well as when and where they might decide to look for food. There are so many variables that it is mind boggling, so in my opinion this tip from Jackie Bushman of Buckmasters is a valuable one for sure.

I’m a weather junkie, because knowing what the weather is going to do helps me predict how the deer will react. The first thing I do in the morning is turn on the Weather Channel and study the radar. Of course, the Buckmasters television crew hunts in all weather since we can’t stop filming just because Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate.

I’m convinced that deer have an innate ability to sense weather changes. If there’s a big cold front or a heavy rain coming, the deer will feed actively during the day because they know they might have to lay up for a couple of days. Conversely, if the weather is abnormally warm, deer become nocturnal.

One of the things I’ve noticed while hunting in cold weather is that a heavy snow will shut down deer activity for at least a full day. Make sure you’re in the woods the next day, though, because the deer will be moving then.

The same thing happens with heavy rain. Deer don’t seem to mind misty rain. In fact, they seem to like it. They don’t like heavy rain, but they become active as soon as the rain lets up, and time of day doesn’t seem to matter. If there’s a heavy rain at sunrise that lasts until 11 a.m., then the deer will feed at 11 a.m.

Most hunters know that wind makes whitetails nervous, because heavy gusts make it harder for deer to pinpoint the source of smells. Everything is waving in the wind, and that makes it difficult for them to see danger, too. Wind noise also makes it hard for deer to hear. I like to hunt in a steady 10 to 15 mph wind, because I can use the wind direction, and that steady breeze doesn’t seem to spook the deer. I can also get away with a little more movement in my stand on a windy day.

–Jackie Bushman

Here is another good tip from Jackie Bushman of Buckmasters and one that will come in handy for all.

Sighting In

It is absolutely necessary to sight in your deer rifle before you go hunting. You owe it to the deer to make certain your rifle shoots where you point it. Even if you just bought a rifle and the store bore-sighted the gun with a collimator, you still need to shoot it and fine-tune the point of impact. Bore-sighting can be precise and can make a rifle shoot close enough to hit a paper target at 25 yards, but it’s not meant to be a substitute for sighting in the rifle on a range.

Twenty-five yards is where you should start shooting when you take a new rifle to the range. You can get a friend to sight in your rifle for you, but I do not recommend doing so. You need to know how to make adjustments to your sights, no matter if you shoot a scope or open sights.

If your sights get knocked off while you’re hunting, you’ll have to resight the rifle yourself, and you need to know how it works. Besides, the more you shoot your rifle at targets, the more likely you are to make an accurate shot on a deer.

Take your rifle to a range where you have a solid bench to shoot from. Use sand bags to create a solid rifle rest.

Most popular deer rifles that shoot slightly low at 25 yards will be about 2 inches high at 100 yards. Hunters who take shots out to 200 or 300 yards usually sight in a little high at 100 yards. If you never take a shot beyond 100 yards, sight in to be dead on at that distance.

Any time you put a rifle on an airplane, you should shoot it at a target before you hunt. For that matter, you should fire at a target every now and then throughout the hunting season.

Once sighted in, most hunting rifles are very reliable, but even the most accurate rifle can be “off” if it’s knocked around enough.

–Jackie Bushman

Speaking of my previous post I wanted you to see this good tip from Jackie Bushman of Buckmasters. It explains why I want to try different brands of ammunition in my new shotgun.

Ammunition

You should shoot a variety of ammunition from your rifle or shotgun to see which works best in your particular gun. Just because a particular brand and grain size works for your buddy doesn’t mean it will work well in your gun.

Once you have found a bullet design and brand that suits your style of hunting, make sure you sight in with the same brand, bullet design and bullet weight that you will be using when hunting. Changing any of those three variables can cause a shift in where your gun shoots.

Several companies now make premium ammunition, and it’s worth the added cost. In fact, premium ammo is the next best thing to hand-loading your own ammunition, which I don’t have the time or inclination to do.

It is particularly important for hunters who travel long distances to make sure they have at least two boxes of ammo with them. You never know when your rifle might take a lick that knocks it out of sync, and it might take several shots to get the rifle back to form. If you’re out hunting in the boonies, the local hardware store might not carry your brand of ammunition.

Some hunters prefer a fast, light bullet and others like a heavy bullet that moves a little slower. They will all take deer. For hunting mature bucks — deer heavier than 200 pounds — I’d recommend a minimum of 130-grain bullets. As long as you stick with a well-designed bullet and concentrate on making a good first shot, you won’t have many problems.

–Jackie Bushman

This is something that I have been wanting to do more of and that is getting to know animal tracks and what is around in my area. This is a very good tip from Buckmasters and one that also could be of interest to our youth. I know that when I go for walks with my wife and son that my son is always asking what kind of track that is.

On the Right Track

As simple as it sounds, every deer hunter should study whitetail tracks. In fact, it’s good to learn to identify all the tracks you see in the woods, from turkeys to bears. It makes the time you spend in the woods more interesting.

It happens all too often — we want to hunt a particular area so badly that we falsely believe we can overcome the weaknesses of the possible setups and shrug off the little voice that tells us we’re going to get “busted” if we hunt there.

You can’t always tell a buck track from a doe track, but there are clues. If the track has a lot of depth to it and it’s not spread out like the deer’s been running, there’s a good chance it’s a pretty big buck.

Bucks tend to drag their feet more than does, and they particularly do so during the rut. Bucks tend to run with a peculiar gait during the rut. Their hooves are usually more rounded at the tips from this dragging, and from the weight of their heavy front shoulders and rack.

When you hunt deer in fresh snow, tracks are easier to read. Bucks tend to drag their feet more than does, and they particularly do so during the rut. If you’ve watched a buck chasing a doe, you know they run with a peculiar gait that you don’t see at other times.

This can be rather tricky but, if done right it could pay off. I have tried it in the past with out any lucky but I have also talked to a couple of guys that have said it worked. So it is up to you to decide if it will or will not produce a harvest. This is another helpful tip from the Buckmasters website.

Most hunters like to hunt near fresh buck sign, and what could be better than a hot scrape? Unfortunately, hunting a scrape can be a real hit-or-miss proposition. After all, it’s a good possibility that the buck is checking/refreshing its scrapes at night. Rather than spending day after unproductive day on stand or (and more likely) spending one or two days and then giving up and moving somewhere else, get into the buck’s head.

Help the buck make that daylight mistake by juicing up the scrape and staying with it. Sprinkle in some buck urine and some hot doe pee as well. Make him think he’s really missing something throughout the day. Watch the scrape carefully to make sure the buck is still refreshing it. If he’s not, then it’s time to move.

 

 

 

Recoil, this is something that has always been in the back of my mind especially as we get older. I for one sometimes will feel the recoil for quite awhile afterwards and it does catch up with you so here are some tips from Federal Premium Ammunition that was posted at Buckmasters that are very helpful and informative.

The amount of recoil you feel on your shoulder depends on three basic factors: the weight of the bullet, the velocity of the round and the weight of your gun. Choose a load that fits the weather you’ll be hunting in (thickness of clothing) and maximizes your chances of making an effective kill. Big magnum cartridges aren’t for everyone.

Make sure you test a few loads before taking to the field. Starting at the range will give you an idea of your tolerance for recoil. If you’re flinching and not putting shots on target consistently, it’s time to downsize, add a recoil pad or wear a thick jacket. Federal offers Fusion Lite for effectiveness on game to 200 yards without shoulder punishment.

– From Federal Premium Ammunition