A puzzle, much like deer hunting, takes time and keen attention to detail in order to put the pieces together and for everything to align. Have you ever tried to put together a puzzle in a day and succeeded? No, I’m not talking about one of those 50 piece specials that you pick up at the dollar mart. I talking about the 2,000 piece popcorn kernel marathon that takes an hour just to get two pieces to match up! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a successful whitetail pursuit for the do-it-yourself guys.

Make sure read Part 1 of this series, Taking Post Season Inventory With Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend: Part 1 as it will help paint a better picture as to what I’m doing at this time of year.

Putting The Pieces Together

When it comes to hunting mature deer, I’ll take any legal advantage I can get in an effort to put the pieces together towards killing a trophy buck. Big Tine is another tool in the arsenal and plays a valuable role in my post season scouting. In conjunction with trail cameras, Big Tine allows me to determine which deer made it through (or didn’t make it through) the season.

A small whitetail buck posing for a picture.

I’m not going to lie – I was hoping to showcase this article with all of the monster bucks I have on camera running around my hunting property but the truth is, my trail camera pictures are less than ideal. I put the cameras out for over three weeks and have a bunch of does, small bucks, and mule deer to show for it but no big boys showed themselves.

Does this mean that my hunting property is terrible? No. Does this mean that Big Tine doesn’t work? No. What I’m learning is that the properties I hunt do not hold the same amount of deer during the Winter months as they do during the Fall. I’m slowly putting the pieces together!

The pictures are telling me that there are indeed deer in the area but I’m certainly not getting mature buck pictures. My guess is that the majority of deer are wintering elsewhere due to the fact that the bedding areas and fields on the properties are now cow pastures. It is common practice for farmers to switch pastures for cows on a seasonal basis so that they can sustain them throughout the Winter months. Long story short; if cattle are present in both major bedding and feeding areas, deer numbers on the property will decline.

It’s Better To Know Than To Wonder

My trail camera pictures were not as I had hoped but at least now I know more about Winter movement and the reasons that may be affecting the lack of deer in the area. If it weren’t for putting out Big Tine and checking the cameras, I would have never known in the first place. Its better to know – knowledge is power.

One of the highlights of my weekend endeavor, in addition to checking trail cameras, was finding a matched set of antlers in close proximity to one of Big Tine sites. This little guy is an up-and-comer with great genetics for a 1 1/2 year buck! I believe I have pictures of this guy from last Fall so it will be cool to see what he turns into as a 2-year-old.

QuietKat is a great tool for shed hunting. I found this matched set within 100 yards of the Big Tine!

Learn more about how I use my QuietKat as an efficient shed hunting vehicle, HERE. I also found another nice 4 point side that had been laying a while (not fresh) and I also witnessed something that I have been wanting to see for a long time. I watched the bigger mule deer buck I have on camera shed one of his antlers as he was running away! After three hours of grid searching the spot where I saw him drop in knee-high grass, I was not able to locate his shed but it was still cool to see none the less.

Mule deer enjoy Big Tine too!

Never Stop Learning

I encourage you all to go out and run cameras over the top of Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend. It will not only help you discover what deer are using the properties you hunt but it will also add to your overall knowledge of deer movement and patterns. Whatever the outcome may be, it will make you a better deer hunter and will help you find the real reasons behind your results. It forces you to analyze and ask questions as to why deer are or aren’t there. And above all, it gets you outside doing what you love the most.

For more information about Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend and Attractants, please visit:

www.bigtine.com

– Adam Parr

During the Winter months I have traded in my bow for two different types of weapons better suited for the task at hand; Trail Camera’s and Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend. My goal for this part of the year is to find out which deer made it through the season while at the same time, give them a little extra nutrition when they need it the most.

I put out a variety of Big Tine supplements including; 30-06, Protein Plus, and Last Call.

Ordinary Bag Of Corn vs. Big Tine

People ask all the time why they should buy a bag of Big Tine for $18 when they can buy an ordinary bag of corn for $6. They essentially do the same thing, right? Wrong! Here is why the price is justified in my eyes and why I personally use Big Tine:

Cherry Aroma – One of the many advantages of Big Tine Deer Feed, in my opinion, is the cherry aroma flavor and the ability to attract deer. Deer get used to smelling corn, beans, milo and other types of food but when they smell something that is a bit out of the ordinary, it may be the difference in getting them to come check it out. This is what I believe brings them in so quickly because of how strong and irresistible it is to a deers nose.

Variety Of Food and Nutrients – For this particular outing, I employed the use of 30-06 in conjunction with Protein Plus. This adds more variety and nutrition to their diet during this time period when food is scarce and hard to come by. The mixture of corn, milo, sunflower seeds, and soybeans will keep them consistently in front of my camera for 3-5 days which should be enough to capture an inventory of deer that made it through the season.

Long Lasting Minerals – Every time you put a bag of Big Tine on the ground, you are essentially creating a mineral site that deer will continue to use over and over again. I have watched deer come back to these sites, pawing at the dirt long after the corn and other supplements are gone. The minerals are not only great for overall deer health but in addition to that, the minerals soak into the ground and will remain in the dirt for quite some time.

Long story short, here is a recap of why the price of Big Tine is justified in my eyes: The cherry aroma flavor is irresistible and that is what draws them in very quickly. The variety of feed is what keeps deer around for an extended period of time. Essential minerals soak into the dirt, creating a mineral site that will aid in antler growth and development long after the feed is gone.

Big Tine Is My Weapon Of Choice

I am anxiously awaiting to get back to Kansas to check my trail cameras and see what made it through the hunting season. Being that I live 6 hours away from these properties, I don’t have the luxury to glass crop fields on a regular basis so I have to rely on other means for scouting.

My Bow and arrow is the go-to weapon during the Fall; Big Tine is my weapon of choice during the Winter. Both items play an essential role in my success and year-long pursuit of whitetail deer, but now that Winter has arrived and scouting begins, Big Tine is as important as my bow was during the actual hunting season.

Placing trail cameras over Big Tine deer feed is a great way to take a postseason inventory of your deer herd and target bucks for next Fall.

If you have not yet tried Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend, get to your nearest retailer right away and give it a try for yourself. You will not be disappointed with the immediate results as well as the long-term benefits of healthier, bigger deer on your properties. Check out Part 2 of this series where I show my trail camera pictures and a few of the sheds I found: Taking Post-Season Inventory With Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend: Part 2

For more information about Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend and Attractants, please visit:

www.bigtine.com

– Adam Parr

Given that I didn’t have the luxury of scouting every weekend, I needed an extra edge in conjunction with running trail cameras. At this point in time, I had no information related to deer densities and if there were even deer that I would be interested in pursuing on the recently acquired properties. Long story short, I was looking to take a quick inventory on any big bucks roaming the farms I had access to hunt. To help me do this I implemented the use of Big Tine Fortified Deer Blend!

A Needle In A Haystack

Now before you jump to conclusions about the 7,000 acres of hunting land, let me paint you a better picture by stating that the acreage is not continuous and only about 1,000 acres is what I would deem “hunt-able”. Out of that 1,000 acres, there are less than 10 acres of trees, the landscape is comprised mainly of open grass, small draws and has a total of two crop fields. Do you get the picture? If not, I posted a snapshot below for your viewing pleasure.

With all due respect, I’m not hunting Iowa, people! This is Western Kansas, where the only trees you will find are located in and around dried up river bottoms or in the immediate areas surrounding homesteads. The wide open prairie makes the deer extremely tough to pattern so just hanging cameras in a “hopeful” location wasn’t going to yield the best results. Big Tine was the answer to my early season scouting success!

Yielding Results

Upon my first use and within hours of putting out Big Tine’s Cherry Rush Last Call, I had a mature buck in front of the camera during daylight. Below are a few trail camera pictures showing me putting out the mixture and shortly after, catching a mature buck coming out of the bedding area from behind to investigate. Although he is not a giant, he is still mature and I was blown away at how quickly Big Tine was able to bring him in front of the camera. See my trail cam pictures below where it shows the dates and times only hours apart on the first day I put out Big Tine.

One of the more successful camera locations was where I put out the Big Tine 30-06 formula; a perfect blend of minerals, corn, sunflower seeds, and cherry aroma to spark their curiosity! Within 2 days I had pictures of 5 different bucks ranging in size from 150” – 170”. Right then and there I had confirmed two things; Big Tine really does work and I had hit the deer hunting property lottery! See below for a sampling of trail cam pictures of the giants I was able to capture on camera. To view the full card pull, check out the Transition Wild Facebook Page.

All Season – All Purpose

My original use of Big Tine Deer Feed was used as a tool to help with my early season scouting efforts but I will also utilize Big Tine for my Spring / Summer mineral sites. Because of the desolate environment that Western Kanas deer are subject to, they do not receive maximum nutrition through their everyday diet. With the help of Whitetail Institute’s Imperial 30-06 Mineral/Vitamin Supplement, Big Tine is the perfect supplement for enhanced antler growth and an overall healthier deer herd.

Although I can’t credit Big Tine entirely for a successful deer season, it did play a big part in my scouting efforts which was the first step towards completing my end goal of killing a mature whitetail in 2015. After many failed attempts and close encounters, the cards were finally dealt in my favor and I was able to arrow my biggest whitetail to date on November 20th. To read more about that memorable hunt, click HERE.

Don’t just take my word for it. Stop by your local retailer today and pick up a few bags of Big Tine and start experimenting on your own property. They have a wide range of products in addition to deer feed including; food plot seed, cover scents and mineral blocks. Regardless of what you use, I think you will be very pleased with the results!

To find out more information about Big Tine, please visit their website at: www.bigtine.com.

-Adam