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

Fixed Position Hunting: I define fixed position hunting as the hunter being immobile; the game comes to you while you wait from a stationary position in either a tree stand or ground blind.

Spot and Stalk: I view spot and stalk hunting as highly mobile; the hunter goes to the game after he locates through glassing techniques from a vantage point.

Still Hunting: This approach is a mix between fixed position hunting and spot and stalk. The hunter is not completely immobile but is slow moving. Usually, the animal is at close-distance before locating it because of heavy cover.

Glassing is a great way to locate whitetails for spot and stalk.

Tree stand hunting in river bottoms can be productive during the rut.

Cautiously moving through heavy cover and crop fields is exhilarating because the animal can appear out of nowhere and most shots are 20 yards or less. I’ll be the first to admit I am far from having everything figured out but I’m here to offer three strategies based upon my past experiences.

1. Use The 90 Degree Rule

You have probably heard people talk about quartering into the wind when advancing into heavy cover such as a crop field but I like to move straight into the wind and then flank right or left based on my surroundings. While hunting a corn field I am moving perpendicular through each row and looking right or left before stepping into the next row.

If you didn’t already know this, deer bed with the wind at their back. The 90-degree rule means that I will move directly into the wind until I come to an area where I think a deer is bedded and then turn 90 degrees (left or right) to move perpendicular with the wind direction. Moving in this direction still puts the wind in my favor while giving me an advantage from getting picked off visually from head on. This leads me to my next point.

2. Look For Pockets

Within most agricultural fields there are pockets or small openings where the crop does not establish itself, leaving an open area mixed with grass and weeds. These can be caused by a number of events but usually are created due to flooding, wash outs or can occur year after year in low areas where the farmer just does not plant the seed. Deer absolutely love these spots because there is ample cover while allowing increased visibility and hearing. If you have the privilege of knowing where these pockets are located ahead of time, plan your approach accordingly and make these part of your plan to target first. 9 times out of 10 a deer will be bedded on the edge of these pockets because it gives them a strategic advantage.

Locate pockets and position your approach from the side to go undetected.

Most likely the deer will be bedded on the opposite side of the pocket from your approach with their back tucked up against the standing crops and positioned towards the center for most visibility right to left. The illustration above is how I would approach these pocket areas with a North wind. The yellow dots symbolize my entrance, the green circle is a pocket and the white oval shape represents a bedded deer.

3. Get The Conditions Right

In this scenario of still hunting through thick cover and crop fields, you want the wind blowing hard; the windier the better. 20-30MPH winds are ideal because it masks all noise and greatly reduces your visual movement, allowing you to move quicker and cover more ground in a shorter amount of time. Higher wind speed also makes it more probable that a deer will bed in these open pockets due to the advantages I mentioned earlier which will also increase your odds and efficiency.

The above video is from while I was hunting a standing feed field in Western Kansas a few weeks back. This is a mule deer but is a good representation of how close you can get using the right strategies!

I wouldn’t go still hunting through a bean field or a knee deep grass prairie. I look for fields where the crop is taller than I am and is thick enough to conceal movement from 10-15 yards away.

Get Creative and Remember To Have Fun

Hunting standing crops can be an effective way to harvest the buck of a lifetime during the early season when deer movement is limited during daylight hours. This approach allows you to have one more tool in the bag because you can never have enough when it comes to pursuing elusive whitetails, particularly mature bucks. Try out these tactics for yourself and get creative this season because you never know what you might run in to! Just have fun and be open to making mistakes and keep learning each day.

What other tips and tricks do you have for hunting whitetails in standing crops? Share your stories and strategies in the comments section below!

-Adam

After a six-hour drive to my hunting lease in Kansas, I arrive at the farm around 11pm and quickly set up my tent in the gusting wind and darkness. I unpack my gear and settle in for a night of restless sleep as my mind races in anticipation of tomorrows hunt. Although I’m not planning on hunting in the morning, I plan to wake up at sunrise and drive the area to scout for deer movement.

My alarm goes off. I am tired from the work week and the long drive but I jump out of bed in excitement and anticipation of the morning scouting session. Its a cool 40 degrees, which is unseasonably cold for the morning low in mid-September so I am expecting decent activity. After three hours of driving, glassing and scouting from afar, tiredness sets in so I head back to camp.

It’s getting close to 10am so I decide to stop and check trail cameras in the immediate area surrounding the farm. Thinking to myself, “It might be too early in the day to check cameras and I should probably wait a couple hours” did cross my mind but the temptation was too much. After running a trail cam through the latter part of the Summer, I wasn’t getting any pictures of my target buck in this particular area of the farm so my intention was to pull this camera and move it to a different location.

As I close the distance to within 100 yards from my camera, I see a doe and fawn have picked me off. I don’t really think too much of it because there always seems to be a doe in the area no matter what time of day it is so I push on without stopping. As I get closer to the camera she starts to circle in front of me instead of running the opposite direction. At this point I stop and watch her run to another low area with thick cover, littered with willow brush and small trees. In an instant my heart sank as she alerted five does and three bucks from their beds not more than 100 yards from where I stood.

I am in utter disbelief! One of the bucks is the typical 12 point (pictured above), who is my number one target buck for the season on this particular farm and he is accompanied by the second biggest buck on the property which is a heavy 9 pointer (pictured above). None of the deer in the group spotted me or knew what was causing them to run but were alerted by the running doe that I had spooked minutes earlier. I watch them trot across the road as I shake my head and mumble a number of curse words for blowing these deer out of the immediate area.

Lessons Learned

You may remember from one of my earlier posts that I had laid out an exact strategy to hunt this deer throughout the early season. Read the full post: My Exact Strategy For Western Kansas Early Archery Season

The spot where I bumped them from was less than 400 yards from where my tree stand is located, overlooking the waterhole where I have numerous pictures of my target buck. The wind was perfect that evening for him to move during daylight but all bets were off because I had ruined the hunt before it even began. I sat the stand anyways hoping that they bedded up in the milo field to the North but all I saw were does and fawns.

Hindsight 20/20 I should have waited to check that camera until at least noon but I’m not sure if that would have made a difference. I think regardless of the time of day the same scenario would have occurred but I will never know for sure.

One of the main takeaways from this excursion was the realization that I didn’t need trail cameras anymore because they had already done their job. Because of my pre-season scouting, I knew there was a shooter in the area and I knew he was coming to the water tank on a regular basis. I positioned my tree stand accordingly so that he could not wind me on his approach, I put in the necessary work but all was lost because of my excitement and trying to nail down his exact bedding location. For what??

I follow a number of hunting shows where they are constantly running cameras to locate the exact travel pattern and bedding area of a hit list buck. Although this information is extremely benficial, it can also be high-risk, resulting in bumping deer and jeopardizing a hunting area. In this particular scenario, I was caught up in the mentality that I HAD to keep running cameras in order to kill this buck. That would be like me as a salesman getting a person to say “Yes, I’ll buy your product!” and then continue to explain features and benefits for another 10 minutes even though they have already committed to the sale. Ludicrous, right?? How much is too much? Sometimes less is more.

All things aside, it was a wonderful opening weekend and it felt great to get back into the stand with my bow in hand. As hunters, we are constantly putting together the pieces of the puzzle and trying to wrap our heads around these elusive animals in hopes of filling the freezer. After all, this is an entirely new property so I have to expect certain things like this to happen because of my lack of local knowledge. I came away with lessons learned and memories made, and in the end that’s all that really matters. I love deer hunting!

-Adam

Unfortunately I was not able to hunt on the opening day of Kansas archery season but I am able to hunt this weekend. Kansas archery season opened up on Monday, September 14th and I have been chomping at the bit to get into one of my tree stands for Saturday evening! Fortunately, I have been able to spend three weekends on the property scouting, checking trail cameras and hanging tree stands which is not an easy task when you live 5 hours away. Am I 100% prepared?? … No, but I do have a pretty good handle on the situation and have confidence that it will be an exciting season.

Strategy fo September 14 – October 15

My early season strategy while the weather is hot will be focused around water and how the deer access that water. See the below illustration for an overview map of what this scenario looks like on the piece of property I’m hunting.

My tree stands locations on the map are circled in white and are positioned approximately 50 yards from the water tank represented by a green star. One stand is located Northwest of the tank and the other being pretty much directly East and as you can see from the aerial view, these are the closest trees to the water. The red trails are what I believe to be general deer access routes to this water and the white trails are my entry / exit routes to the stands. I will sit in the NW stand for Southernly wind directions and the East stand will be used for Northernly wind directions. Another great reason why a SW is an ideal wind for me is because the farmers house is directly South so I know deer won’t be coming from directly behind me unless they are pretty close.

Looking at the weather report for Saturday, September 19th,  the wind direction is saying South East for the area I hunt, which is pretty much ideal for the NW stand. Although this is an ideal wind for not getting busted by deer, I don’t believe that this is an ideal wind for mature buck movement. The reason being is that its not an ideal wind direction for him to move and feel safe if he’s traveling from the direction I have indicated on the map above. Check out this article and video from Wired To Hunt in regards to playing the wind in your favor as well as yours. An ideal wind for both myself and the deer would be a South West wind because at that direction its in his favor as well as mine.

I haven’t been able to check my cameras in a few weeks but the last time I pulled the card on my trail camera situated over the water tank, the main frame 12 point came out during daylight with a SouthWest wind. We shall see if my theory proves true this coming weekend. Below are a few pictures of the buck I’m after. The dates on my camera are wrong; they should be 09/02/15 instead of 10/02/15. Either way, you get the point why I’m hunting this deer!

Things I’m Not Doing During Early Season

1. Wind Direction – The wind will always be my number one priority and I will not hunt these stands with the incorrect wind no matter what.
2. Morning Hunts – Morning hunts are too risky because you can’t see whats in the fields and the deer especially can see a long ways off because of the lack of cover and open ground.
3. Over Hunting Stands – This one won’t be too hard to do since I am pretty much limited to hunting weekends but I will not hunt the same locations or stands too often.
4. More Hunting, Less Scouting – During early season a lot of my focus will still be put towards glassing and scouting the 7,000 acres of land I have access to. Less sometimes means more.
5. Spot and Stalk – Unless the scenario is absolutely perfect, I will hold off on my spot and stalking until we get to the end of October. The last thing I want to do is blow deer out of the area prior to the rut. Although, I do have a decoy coming in the mail from Heads Up Decoy for spot and stalk hunting! More to come on that in a future article.

Don’t Get Too Aggressive Early On

Its a long season so I want to make sure that early season is focused around minimal pressure and hunting smart. I have a plan in place to hunt the water source while its hot with the right wind in my favor and hopefully I’ll cross paths with that 12 point over the next few weekends. If I am able to locate a different buck or a better scenario, I have my Lone Wolf tree stand and Muddy sticks if I wish to hang another stand as a quick attack. I’ll let you know how I do for my opening hunt in Kanas for the 2015 season. Stay tuned!

-Adam