Real Quick...

Well...bad news but encouraging news for others hunting small wood lots like my father and I. One of those neighboring hunters to the north arrowed a 120ish inch buck last night. Bad news is another big buck down and not able to grow, but it isn't the huge one "Bow" so my dad still has a chance. 

I just wanted to share this with the readers as it may encourage those of you hunting small acreage spots that come this time of year there is no telling what might show up! This brute was not a regular!

Part two of management due before the end of the week! Make sure to keep checking back!

Part I: Harvest Decision and Minimum Establishment

                Now I’d like to take a moment to explain the 3-part series of "QDM" blogs I’m going to post. These are designed for the hunter wanting to better the deer herd on their property and up their odds of both seeing and harvesting deer year in and year out. I will discuss how to establish a minimum level for bucks, how to properly harvest does, stand positioning and how to manipulate the land in your favor. The information will be of use for any level of hunter, whether you’re a pure meat hunter who could care less about antlers or those of you looking to possibly get a set of antlers in your hands that you consider a good buck.

Part I: Harvest Decision and Establishing a Minimum

                You look in the paper or on the wall of your local deer check in spot and all you see are guys taking bigger bucks than you…shoot you haven’t even seen bucks that big in the stand ever! You go home dejected and simply frustrated…the next time you climb your stand an awesome thing happens a basket 6-pointer walks by and you make the perfect shot. While you celebrate and calm yourself down in your treestand you hear something…you look to where you heard the sound and meet a set of eyes connected to a huge 8-point buck. He takes off and you set there shocked at what just happened.

                Now, some may say this is highly unlikely…you haven’t hunted enough. The biggest buck I have taken was following a yearling 4-pointer by no more than 5-10 minutes. Big bucks aren’t big because they’re dumb, I’ve witnessed numerous times older bucks allowing the younger ones to lead the way. Let’s be honest for a moment, things will happen, every single hunter has taken a deer they now wish they wouldn’t have. Mine is a tiny 8-pointer I took one season when I couldn’t take going another season 0’fer. I have since regretted that decision and wondered if I’d have another nice set of antlers in my man cave just asking for someone to ask the story behind that bad boy if I would have let that 8 walk.

                Now some of you may be thinking you have only 5, 10, 20 acres of land to hunt, you don’t have the area or the resources to not shoot the first buck you see. Granted some places are more likely to have big bucks traveling them, however there are good solid bucks everywhere you go in most of the Continental United States; with the key being if you’re willing to wait for one?

                So the first step in becoming a quality hunter is two parts in my opinion. The first is the most crucial; take does when needed. You will know your deer herd better than I do, and know when your doe population is getting far too high. Now you may be saying, but Ty I only have 17 acres of ground with hunters surrounding it. Okay, fear not I’m in the exact same position see this map:

                I circled the places my father and I have permission to hunt, he owns only 11ish acres of it all. You’ll see we deal with quite a few other hunters and I didn’t even mention to the North and South there’s more on different properties. So as you can see I relate to those of you saying there is no way we can manage a herd’s doe population without a large chunk of ground. Not true, it just takes a little more work is all. You need to at the very least become acquaintances with these other hunters and if nothing else request they tell you when they harvest buck or doe (don’t worry about how big the buck is) and document this. You’ll begin to get a bigger picture of just how your local deer herd is affected each and every season. We learned that 9 does were harvested on the property to the Southwest…which led us to only harvesting 1 doe as they took over 70% of the does harvested within the properties pictured on that map. Without actually seeking out the other hunters and knowing their affect on the deer herd size, it would be quite easy for over harvesting to occur.

                The whole goal to harvesting does and tracking it is to try to obtain a buck to doe ratio of somewhere between 1:2 and 1:3. Meaning there’s 1 buck for every 2-3 does in your local deer population. It's estimated that the normal US herds are around 6:1...not ideal. This will increase the activity level of bucks during the rut as there isn’t as many does to go around, thus increasing the chances of harvesting more and better bucks over a span of years.

                The second part is the hard part for some hunters, picking the caliber of buck you’re going to consider a shooter. This is a personal choice you and/or your local hunters need to make. It’s great if you can get other hunters on board, but to be honest isn’t always going to be the case. We’re lucky enough to know that nearly every bow hunter during early bow season are not going to harvest any real young or small antlered bucks. However, come gun season we are less fortunate and realize every single year nearly half of our adolescent bucks will be harvested…we still however persevere with our set minimum my father and I established. We have a minimum of “Must have either 8 points or be as wide as their ears.” Now that minimum obviously is thrown out the window if come late season we get an injured buck coming onto our property or a buck we know is  3 or 4 and still under producing in the antler category. The key though is that we’ve established a minimum, and stuck to it. For some of you that might be a point minimum, say 4 points. Others may say only 120+ inch deer can be harvested; whichever it is set it and do it.

                Now sticking to it at times will be hard. There will be times when you haven’t seen anything, not even a doe, for weeks and a little 5 pointer walks up and begs to be shot. If it falls below your minimum will you have the resolve to not shoot it? Allow me to offer some encouragement to keeping that deer alive. Think about the bucks you see during a hunting season, how often do you see the exact same buck? Usually not too terribly much, maybe every other time to the field if we’re lucky right? An example of this is that of all the bucks I’ve shot, none of them did I see twice in the same season. That means I saw them once and harvested them that same time. If that’s the case then you passing up that 5, could be the difference between him living that year and dying; he just may slip all other hunters for the rest of the season if you let him walk. Yes, you may never know or he may get harvested by another hunter; but you letting him walk put one more buck back into the buck pool other hunters have to shoot from (meaning one more that will live).

                This is just the first part to establishing a level of QDM on your hunting property. The next will be Food & Water: Which Do I Need More Of?

Got one...but good lesson learned...2011 Buck (pic)

Well I did it, i got my one Indiana buck for the 2011 whitetail season. It isn't gonna break any state records but it will make Pope & Young and that my friends is plenty of a trophy in my opinion! I'll first share the pictures then on to the story and the reason I shouldn't have found this buck.

Now for the story...well the wind was out of the West and that makes my Ol' Faithful treestand worthless. I thought about not hunting our property at all and go to a neighbor's we'd gain permission on but I had a feeling that maybe I should go hunt the other side of our property near some red oaks and our main food plot (still small at 1/2 an acre). This treestand was perfect for western wind, I'd just never had much luck at all here with a bow seeing as how the deer movements normally are 50 yards away and I just don't shoot that far with my bow (even though the bow is capable). Well morning hunt was a good one, I had a nice 8-pointer feed on acorns in front of me for at least 25 minutes and then filter on back to bedding area.

Well I kicked myself for not squeezing the trigger on the 8 as I packed up at the end of the morning hunt. After a warm brunch and quick nap I was back up the same tree stand around 2:45 and ready for the long sit till I'd be out of legal light at 7:34. Nothing was moving except the trees, the wind at times got up to 35mph gusts I found out later and believe me I felt every gust.

It wasn't until 6:00 that stuff started happening. Squirrels started coming out, as did a flock of 20 turkeys who came right under my stand. The wind had died and things were finally moving. Not only did the turkeys move but now the Northern Indiana Militia of Squirrels was making an appearance. With about 8 squirrels all around me a doe came in at 6:30pm. Even though it isn't the rut I knew instantly to stand (I normally am standing but wasn't) when I could, get bow in hand and be ready in case a buck would filter in as well. around 6:50 the doe was still feeding on acorns when I saw it. The buck had stepped out of the bedding area in the exact same spot the doe had and was heading my way. I instantly knew this buck would use one of my arrows if presented the chance, I stopped studying the rack all together and focused on not moving and waiting.

The buck filtered around a mere 20 yards in front of me, for what seemed like an eternity, before I finally decided I couldn't wait any longer. I squeezed my arrow into a volleyball sized hole and immediately knew it found it's mark. The buck ran off with tail tucked, a great sign, and would eventually be heard crashing (or so I thought).


Here's where the story turns to the ugly. We searched for over 2 hours for that buck...and the blood went cold. At this point we were assuming it was a high shot, hence the slow blood trail. We decided we had to wait till the next morning...talk about a restless night!

Next morning I wake up, shower, dress and head outside to hop into the truck...only to be greeted by rain! The absolute worst experience of my hunting career just took a turn for the worse. What was going to be a track the blood trail in daylight, would now be nothing more then searching for a needle in a haystack. We started looking for it in the briar patch where I thought I heard it crash, but sadly after a full hour of crawling, army crawling and forcing my way through briars it turned up nothing. So we continued on East, the direction he was heading at last blood, and kept making circles and zig-zags throughout the woods. At one point my father decides he's gonna go back to last blood and restart fresh...I decide to search the area he just came from and maybe go towards the road more. In order to shorten the story I finally did find my buck but not until I'd given up hope of ever finding him. He was a mere 3 feet from a watery marsh that sits over 400 yards away from the stand I shot it in....

So now I can say I've been there when guys call me saying they couldn't find a deer...it's a gut wrenching, sleep depriving, hunger stealing type of feeling only true hunters can relate too. My advice though would be to stick with it. If you know you hit the deer good, don't push the thing that same night and the next day...what ever you do don't give up. That deer deserves you to keep looking...nothing worse than a dead deer to go unfound. That creature called the Whitetail deer is in my opinion one of the most awesome creatures God ever created and all of us need to respect that creation. Keep lookin'...you just might stumble upon your deer and be like me...a kid again hopping up and down yippin and hollerin so loud people from miles around could hear!

Good luck this season everyone!