Better late than never...

First I owe everyone, especially D an apology. With the holidays and some personal health issues it's been far too long since my last post or sharing of any kind. However, I think as we head into the off season we all need to remember what we do now will have a big the biggest impact on our upcoming hunting season, which is why I'm hoping to post twice a week as my minimum for as long as I can. One of the things that will be new to the site is Food Plot Fridays, a segment devoted to only food plots. We (my father and I) are about to completely change our approach to our food plots, and I'm going to take you along with us each and every week.

All of that aside let's get to the purpose of this post...which is to answer an email I recieved far too long ago to have made D (full name will not be disclosed) wait. D emailed me one day a map of his hunting property, to which D is the only bowhunter on but does share it with a few other gun hunters. D's problem echoes many which I hear. "I'm seeing bucks, but they're all yearlings and juveniles...where are all the big bucks." It's something too many of us can relate to. Some of us don't have the problem of seeing bucks, we do, they're just simply too young...and it seems we can keep passing on them and they don't stick around once they mature?!

So I was tasked with trying to bring B&C caliber bucks onto D's property....little exaggeration, but to be honest isn't that the goal, to bring trophy bucks (define it as you may) on to your hunting grounds? Before I go any further I love how D is approaching his habitat improvement, not relying solely on one person. Sure he's asking my opinion, but he's already joined Whitetail Ambush Secrets (formerly known as Sniperbowhunting.com) and will seek all the knowledge he can from them as well. That is what each of you and myself even have to do. Ask around to the people you feel will truly research your area as best they can, give solid advice and even point you towards other sources of knowledge. *Also trust yourself in the end as well, no matter how much I or anyone else recommends...we haven't stepped foot on your property and little tweaks here and there may most definitely be needed.

 Back to D, D's problem with his property doesn't seem to be it's just a terrible area or overhunted, it just simply isn't appealing to any kind of dominate buck. This is primarily due to one of the biggest keys all hunters need to address: bedding areas. As you may already know when rut comes around bucks are going to be where the does are, bottom line and that isn't up for debate! D admitted he doesn't really have any particular area the deer use as a primary bedding area...time to make one.

I actually went about my planning for D's property in a different direction than I ended up with, but both times the first thing that needs done if nothing else gets done is producing some bedding areas. After all if the deer aren't bedding close enough to those awesome food plots you put in or tree stands you hung it's going to be tough to see deer consistantly. I originally drew up something like this following picture for D:




click to enlarge


As you may have already guessed this idea was scrapped for one reason and one reason only, wind. While the location of the bedding area may have been perfect for the deer, it was terrible for the hunter to be able to get on the deer no matter the wind direction (any Westerly wind and this design begins working against the hunter given the stand spots). So I redesigned it and through a ton of stuff at D on the final drawing, which looked like this:

click to enlarge


Obviously this set up is quite a bit more involved, but can you begin to see how strategically placing every single entry trail, encouraged deer trail, food plots, hinge cuts and bedding areas one can truly create a template for increasing your odds? Now D has the option to get on nearly every single place (within reason) no matter what the wind is.

You may be in the same "dilemma" as D, in that you will always have to enter from the same direction. Key is minimizing you scent with proper scent tactics and not spending any time lingering on or around any trails you may have to cross in your entrance and exits. The biggest difference that I've learned recently is creating access trails, which you'll see I labeled in yellow. Yes the deer will use them as well some, but they allow hunters access to their locations without coming in contact with hardly any vegetation, A HUGE KEY TO KEEPING SCENT TO A MINIMUM.

I could continue to explain it all through words but I think I could explain it and lay it out better if I record me talking about the design and posting the video. THIS WILL BE RECORDED TONIGHT, and the plan will be to post it into this post tonight as well! Check back as the video will go deeper into how to go about doing all these things and truly changing a juvenile buck hang out into something appealing to the big boys!

Please e-mail me with any requests or questions regarding the site or your properties to tylanmiller@gmail.com and I'll respond as quickly as I can!