Lunch Is for Wimps

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

Everyone knows dawn and dusk are the periods of greatest whitetail activity. It is also when we find the greatest number of hunters afield. Typically, we hunt in the morning, break for lunch, and then hunt again in the late afternoon.

What a lot of hunters don’t know is that a deer cannot go all day without feeding. While everyone else was eating lunch I stay in the stand. It’s proven to be a great strategy. 30% of the bucks I’ve killed were between 11:00AM and 1:00 PM.

If you want to dramatically improve your success ratio on big bucks, stay in the stand.

Lunch is for wimps.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

When Strategy Drowns a Hunt

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

I always enter the field with a game plan. I plan the hunt and hunt plan. But sometimes following a rigid game plan has cost me a buck.

My son and I have planned a two-man push on Thanksgiving morning. We passed five does on the way in to make the push. The rut was winding down and there had to be a buck on the does.

I decided to stick with the plan and to come back and hunt the doe group later in the day.

An hour later we heard a shot and another hunter had killed a big buck off the does.

The lesson was learned. Don’t be too rigid in your strategy that you overlook an opportunity right in front of you.

-Jim

Treestand Height

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

The optimum height for a treestand is 20 feet. This keeps our feet about 18 feet above ground-level, which is the distance necessary to prevent the thermals from drifting are scent down to the deer.

Unfortunately, not all terrain allows for stands of this height, but whenever possible 20 feet of elevation should be our goal.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Forcing the Issue

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Most hunters climb into the same stand day after day. They do this regardless of whether a buck has busted them are not. Whitetail bucks have a short memory, but they can certainly remember which tree they saw you in for the remainder of the hunting season.

You’d be better off moving your stand, even if it’s just 50 yards, than staying in the same stand and trying to force the issue.

Better yet, is to have a secondary buck and location to hunt.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

A Bit Lazy

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Most hunters are a bit lazy. They are content to sit and watch a primary food source, let’s say an alfalfa or soybean field, night after night and year after year. Even though a lot of big bucks are killed in crop fields, they don’t tend to produce consistent success.

The hunter would be far better off to place a stand 100 or 200 yards away from the food source and hunt in the transition zone.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

The One That Got Away

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

The thrill of killing a buck out of a tree pales in comparison to the thrill of following a track and taking a buck face-to-face, on his own terms. It is a joy that is unbelievable.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Tracking

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

The thrill of killing a buck out of a tree pales in comparison to the thrill of following a track and taking a buck face-to-face, on his own terms. It is a joy that is unbelievable.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/