HUNTING ARTICLES Go Mobile: Tactics That Keep You on the Move By Matt Adcock How many of you have a large stack of Georgia Outdoor News lying around your house? I will be the first to admit, saving the old issues for rainy days is something I love to do. But I was put in a situation about four years ago that no die-hard hunter ever wants to be put in. I was moving and my wife said we did not have enough room and my old GON's had to go. I'd been saving them since the early 1990's and had a collection that made many of my friends jealous. If anyone had a question about anything pertaining to hunting in the state of Georgia, I'd simply pull out a GON and get the answer. So before I gave up my prized possessions, I spent a full day rereading the articles and reading about all the deer killed in the state. One reoccurring story kept appearing. Most of the big bucks entered into the Truck-Buck Contest were killed either the first time a hunter sat in a stand or the second time he sat in the stand. And when hunting season finally got here, I decided to try a method of hunting that would allow me to hunt a stand one or two times to see if my success rates would increase. Boy did I get the shock of my life. This is what I discovered. ON THE MOVE: There is a method to hunting on the move. It is not just a random hodge-podge circumstance where you hope to get lucky and kill a good deer. All of my years of trial and error have led me down a path that has revealed the perfect hunting location. Unfortunately, this is the perfect location where I will not kill a mature deer. I am fortunate enough to deer hunt 60 or 70 days each year. If I am lucky, I might see three or four mature bucks each year in Georgia. That means I am unsuccessful at either seeing or killing a mature deer over 94% of the time. That is why I consider myself an expert on how not to kill a mature deer. So how did I increase my hunting success? I simply did not hunt in the same locations or situations where I haven't seen a mature deer. If you aren't seeing any mature deer while you are hunting, it might be time to move to another area. This even applies to everyone who uses infrared cameras. If you are not getting pictures of mature bucks during the day, you don't need to hunt near that camera or in that area. Move to another area. After a season or two of moving around your club or lease, you can eliminate all of the places where you will not see a mature buck. As an example, I have hunting access to over 2500 acres in central Georgia. Of all of those acres, I'll only end up hunting about 250 of them. I let the time of the year and fresh deer sign dictate where I'll be hunting. Just don't start walking all over your club looking for fresh deer sign. That is the worst thing you can do. Caution must be taken anytime you enter a deer's domain because once a buck knows he's being hunted, you might as well stay at home and watch college football games. The only way to get a weary buck out of their hiding place is a drive, but that is another article all together. WHERE TO FOCUS: I began my mobile hunting methods by focusing on water and food sources. A deer has to eat and drink, so I thought that was the logical place to start. I have had success hunting on food plots in the past, but my percentage of success increased when I started hunting the thickets around the food sources. Earlier, I mentioned the time of the year plays a role on where I hunt. I know the major food sources in my hunting area are peanuts, acorns, persimmons, honeysuckle, and crab apples. So when the time of the year is about right for the deer to utilize one of these food sources, I'll go into that area and look for fresh sign. As I slip in, I'll usually have a climber on my back or a lock on stand ready to put up. When I find the sign that I am looking for, I can hunt it that day. I don't have to put up a stand and come back and hunt it the next day. Once you enter an area, your scent is deposited on the ground. I don't care if you have shaved your head bald and your skin is made of Scent Lok, you are going to leave scent. Good hygiene and scent eliminating techniques help tremendously, but you are going to leave some scent, especially when walking in thickets. I usually will hunt an area with fresh sign for 2 days in a row. If I don't see a mature deer, I'll move closer to where I think the deer might be bedding. An important point to remember is to hunt as close to the bedding area as you can without spooking any deer. If you do not know how close you can get to a bedding area without spooking a deer, always err to the side of caution. Hunt from the outside in rather than getting too close and busting into a bedding area the first time you are hunting that location. Your goal is to keep deer feeling safe, not pressured. This sometimes means you must refrain from hunting your best location until the conditions are perfect. As an example, I have a club in Laurens County that has a natural funnel that we call the Honey Hole. I have found over the years that the first two or three times I hunt that location, I see 8 to 10 deer. After that, the deer get skittish and I am lucky if I see any. Several years ago, I decided not to hunt that spot until the second week in November. I still saw my usual 8 to 10 deer, but instead of seeing does and small bucks, I killed a nice eight pointer and saw two other mature bucks. Even though that was one of my best hunting locations, I did not to hunt it early in the season because the deer quickly learned what I was doing and avoided the area. But by waiting until closer to the rut, I was able to see multiple bucks in one location because more deer were traveling through the funnel and did not feel pressured. Do you have a place like that on your club or lease? You will not know unless you wait as I did. HAVING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT: I don't care where you choose to hunt, if you make a lot of noise and smell like a locker room, you will not see many deer. Your individual hunting techniques often play an important role in whether you are quiet while walking through the woods or putting up a tree stand. Some hunters are just quieter in the woods than other hunters are. But by having the proper equipment, you can often minimize your noise levels while hunting. One noise I've learned to avoid in the woods is any metal on metal contact. To avoid this metallic clank, I hunt with rubber-coated pins or rubber coated cables on my tree stands and lock-ons. Before the season starts, you should put your tree stand on your back and walk through your yard. If it makes any noise at all, the source of the noise needs to be examined and corrected. Jump a few times with your stand on your back. It should not make any noise. If your stand does make a noise, you my need to repack or nestle the stand with either foam or rubber to stop the noise. Over the years, I've used dozens of tree stands and lock-on stands. Every year I look for a new stand that might be better than the one I'm using. It is hard to find a climber that has everything I might want, but I found one last year. It is made by Lone Wolf and is called the Alpha Sit-and-Climb. It costs a little more than its competition but it is well worth every penny. I will briefly list the factors why I think it is the best climber I have found. The Lone Wolf packs better and quieter than any climber I've ever used. When walking through the woods, the stand is only 4 inches thick and doesn't go up above your shoulders. That makes it very easy to turn and duck without getting the stand tangled up in vines or limbs. My slightly modified version tips the scales at just over 18 pounds. That is a must for a lightweight like me. These factors help me get into the woods without making any unusual noises, but there are two other factors that make the Lone Wolf such a good stand. Instead of having a metal bar to secure the stand to the tree, the Lone Wolf uses a steel belted, rubber coated, traction belt with a unique cam-lok system. This is the quietest tree stand securing system I have used. Equally important to the stand's quiet features is the cast aluminum platform. An example of why cast aluminum is such a good platform to hunt with occurred the very first time I hunted in the Lone Wolf. I reached into my fanny pack to pull out a bottle of Bow Hunter's Secret Formula and my Gerber multi-tool fell out hitting the stand. Instead of the loud ring and echo of the metal tubes of most climbing stands, all I heard was a dull thud. The cast aluminum isn't as loud when you accidentally drop something on it. Having a climbing tree stand that is quiet is important to successful mobile hunting strategies, but it is just one piece of the puzzle. Often times when I am hunting, there will not be any suitable trees for climbing with a climbing stand. This is when a quiet lock-on stand must me utilized. Different circumstances require different tactics, so I often will use either screw in tree steps or portable ladders to get my stand into position. In Wisconsin last year, I used my Non-Typical lock-on with Rapid Rail ladders to kill the biggest deer I have ever killed on public access land. Even though I was very lucky, this was a perfect example of how mobile hunting tactics can be used successfully. It was a cold and windy November morning when I began my three quarter mile walk into unknown territory. I had drawn a crude map from an aerial photo but really had no idea where I would end up hunting. As I walked past a long section of planted pines, I thought that deer might want some protection from the wind and bed down in the thick pines. At the end of the pines, I found at least five large trails leading from a bottom into the pine thicket, all with in bow range of a single tree. The tree was crooked and required some trimming, but I found myself nestled comfortably in less than 10 minutes. I had a good vantage point from my position and watched several does make their way back to their beds. When I saw a white rack emerge from the grassy bottom, my heart went into overdrive. When the large buck stopped at 12 yards and looked away, I drew my PSE Firestorm. One small twig was covering the buck's vitals and I didn't want to take a chance at my arrow deflecting so I waited. The buck continued his fast walk and I followed him with my sight pin, still at full draw. When the buck stopped broadside at 15 yards, I knew it was now or never. I put the pin on the buck's vitals and checked my No-Peep sighting device. I wasn't anchored properly so I re-anchored on the string. Once again, something was wrong so I held the string away from my face to see what the problem was. As I followed the buck at full draw, a branch from the tree had hit the upper limb of my bow. If I had taken a shot like this, it might have knocked me out of the tree stand. My only option was to sit back down. The buck was now on the move again and I quickly sat back down. I don't know if any of you have ever been at full draw and tried to sit down, but I don't recommend trying it. The force of me sitting down caused my bow to come un-drawn. I fought to stop it, but I just didn't have enough strength. The arrow made a noise and the buck stopped and looked right at me. I got lucky that morning. The buck was looking directly into the sun and with my Leaf-O-Flage with Sneaky Leaves attached, all he saw was a clump of leaves. He started for the pines and I once again drew my Firestorm. The big-bodied buck was only one step from the pines when I grunted to stop him. A 15 yard broadside shot had quickly deteriorated to a 32 yard sharply quartering shot. My Rocket Sidewinder turned a poor hit into a good blood trail and I found the biggest buck of my life only 75 yards away. If I had been carrying a climbing stand that morning, I would have never sat in that tree or that area. That is why knowing your terrain is important to mobile hunting tactics. If there is any doubt on whether there are any good trees to climb, use a quiet lock on stand. Lock ons might be a little more work, but stand location is everything to a bow hunter. ON SOLID GROUND: Sometimes while hunting, you find fresh deer sign but there just are not any trees to put a stand. This is when hunting becomes hunting for us bow hunters. I'll break out my turkey hunting attire, my Scent-Lok hood, and my scent eliminator spray and sit in a ground blind or the closest cover I can find. My turkey hunting outfit consists of a Leaf-O-Flage suit with multiple Sneaky Leaves on the sides of the arms. I use the old Tim Knight trick of putting leaves on my hat so that my head looks like a bush. If I have to put plastic ivy vines on the limbs of my bow to break up my outline, I'll do it. I know from turkey hunting, if I can fool a turkey's eyes, a deer should be a piece of cake. The problem with the deer will be his nose. Here is where a good scent elimination system is put to the test. If you don't hunt down wind of where you expect him to be, you will be wasting your time. Ground hunting for mature bucks is some of the most thrilling hunting you will ever do. The reason it works is that so few people do it any more, you can catch the bucks by surprise. Whether you are hunting in a climbing stand, a lock-on, or hunting on the ground, moving to different stand locations on a daily basis will keep the bucks in your area from patterning your movements. Once you determine where the mature bucks in your area are not located, that will help you to narrow your focus on where to hunt. If you are cautious and do every step possible to keep from spooking the deer in your area, you can have more success with a mobile hunting strategy. But if you want the ultimate prize and are sneaky enough like I am, you can start a completely new collection of old GON's without your wife finding them. That is the real test of a true hunter! Originally published in Georgia Outdoor News, September 2003. | |
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