Hunting New Deer Country

This big buck came close but not close enough for a shot
photo courtesy Dave Richey Outdoors ©2012

A first-time deer hunter in new terrain is at a major disadvantage if he doesn't have someone to help him locate a good spot to hunt. They don't know the country, and have little clue where deer travel.

Coming into new deer country is always somewhat exciting. Those of us who have been involved in bow hunting for many years, always study the lay of the land. We note the thick cover, obvious funnels, saddles or low spots between two high hills, and we start check out everything about the land.

We know that the normal morning travel cycle is from feeding areas to bedding zones, and in the evening, deer leave normal thick bedding cover and work their way toward farm fields, oak flats, food plots or big corn fields.

Looking around, and checking for deer sign and travel, is required

Given an hour of looking around, most hunters with several years experience will have found deer trails, and they've separate the well traveled routes from other seldom used trails.

They pay particular note of the wind direction, and how that wind would carry human scent to the deer. This may be of the utmost importance because once winded, a hunter is not likely to see anything more than the south end of a deer heading north.

But sizing up a hotspot involves considerably more investigation. Given time, we can locate the bedding and feeding areas, and from there draw on our knowledge of deer travel habits to find key spots to ambush the animal. It's easy to be a bit off on the first night, but careful study often can predict the most likely route for deer to take.

A buddy once hunted Tara, an island in the middle of the Mississippi River, in the great deer state of Mississippi, and he hadn't been there 15 minutes before he spotted the ideal tree within 100 yards of a thick palmetto swamp. He had a self-climbing stand, and the tree was straight with no low branches. Up he went, forearms leaning on the handles, and he quietly lifted his feet. Up and up he went to a height of about 20 feet.

Once he found the best spot, he used a self-climbing stand

He made very little noise, and since he was hunting during the rut, he felt the soft noise of climbing the tree might sound like two bucks banging their antlers together. He got into position, fastened his full-body harness to the tree, and sat down after pulling his bow up into the stand.

He nocked an arrow, pulled down his face mask, and sat without movement. The tree had little cover, but it offered a panoramic view of the bedding area and trails leading out of the palmettos toward an open green field.

Two hours later as the sun began dipping toward the western horizon he spotted a doe moving fast out of the palmettos. It crossed a tiny nearby creek with one splash, and then came the unmistakable sound of a tending buck grunt.

His bow was up and ready and his body was positioned so he could draw and shoot with the bow limb outside of his left leg. The first doe squirted out on a dead run, and then came another mature doe being tended by a big 10-point buck. If they followed the same trail as the first doe, the other doe and the buck would cross at a quartering-away angle at 15 yards.

His set-up was absolutely perfect, but as is true with many hunts, Mr. Murphy of Murphy's Law raised his ugly head. This law states that if anything can go wrong, it will.

Murph was in the saddle that night. The doe and big buck passed within an easy 15 yards of his stand, and they had to pass a big magnolia tree. When they did, and he was screened from their sight, he made a silent draw.

The only problem was the doe was on the side closest to the bow hunter. He was at full draw but the buck, oblivious to any danger, was perfectly screened by the doe. They marched quickly off in lock-step, and the episode passed without a clean shot.

Common sense is important when hunting an area the first time

He had never hunted that island before, had little clue of anything but the bedding area and where the food plot was located. He was downwind of the deer, and he had done everything according to the rules of common sense, but there is no predicting how deer will line up when they walk past a hunter.

Each new area requires study, and the same attention to detail should be noted if someone places you in a stand. Note possible travel routes, the wind, and if you play your cards properly, the buck will walk past and not be screened by a doe or heavy brush.

But, it's just the luck of the draw. That's why they call this hunting rather than killing.

Scout now for an October’buck

Start Preseason Scouting Soon

Anyone who greets the dawn in the field is getting a big jump on the day, and will most likely find game animals and birds moving about. Do it just right, and it can be a kick-off to your preseason deer scouting.

I visited one of my hunting spots two days ago, and it was fairly cool. It felt good to be a bit chilly, and I walked in to a high hill where I could watch for whitetails without being spotted or winded.

The sun was still blushing the eastern horizon when a doe with two fawns wandered by, stopping here and there to nibble on alfalfa. They walked along the edge of a nearby winter wheat field, and sniffed at some new green growth, apparently to see if it was ripe enough to eat.

Scouting means finding bedding areas, food, sanctuary and water.

Two bucks, both fuzzy-antlered with velvet, cut the corner of a fallow field, dipped down into a gully, came out the other end and disappeared into the woods. They were quickly followed by a spike-horn that had got sidetracked along the line, and was now playing catch-up with his buddies.

The sun was above the horizon when I spotted a veritable gold-mine of turkey gobblers. Six gobblers were moving like a combat platoon as they came across the top of the hill and crossed within 20 yards of me. I was sitting on the ground, knees up and Swarovski binoculars to my eyes. I had to lower the binoculars to better see the gobblers.

Look for deer crossing fields & through bottlenecks.

One bird had an honest 12-inch beard, and two had 10-inch beards, two had 7 1/2 to 8-inch beards, and the other was a jake. The sunlight glistened off their feathers, turning the colors from russet to gold to black and back again. They didn't know I was there, and they passed within 20 yards and headed down into an open field where they were out of sight of a nearby road.

I saw a glimpse of some animal, and never could see it well, but it appeared to be a coyote heading for a place to lay up.

I didn't spend much over an hour sitting, and it become apparent the critters were done moving. I walked the edge of an alfalfa field where drying mud remained from an earlier rain, and checked it for tracks.

One big splay-hoofed deer track was visible, and it looked two-thirds larger than any other deer track seen. Buck or doe? Hooves splay out in mud, and that could account for some of the size, but it could have been a deer of either sex. I knew of a very large doe in that area last year, and had heard reports of a good buck as well.

I used to hunt with a man who claimed he could tell the difference between a buck and doe track, and under certain circumstances, I believe I can too. But, tracks in mud never seem to offer quite enough clues to its sex, and I need something more to go on than a widened track in soft mud.

Scouting is fun, instructional and can lead to a successful hunt.

Was today a scouting day? Absolutely. I could determine where the bucks entered the woodlot in the morning, and with a westerly breeze, even picked out a perfect tree. I'll have to watch in the morning more often, and then get serious about a stand once I know the bucks are using the same trail every morning.

I learned years ago, when hunting bucks in southern counties, that farmland deer will travel one of two or three trails in a given area. We sometimes had to flip a coin to determine which of two trails to choose from, and often the coin would lie to us.

Preseason scouting doesn't need to be a major investment in time nor does it have to be done every day, but hunters should spend time scouting three or four times a week whenever possible. Keep track of directional travel changes when the wind moves to a different quarter. Being downwind of deer is one of the first steps to a successful hunt.


Scouting is not only an important part of deer hunting, but it can be fun. My wife used to sit in a stand, watch the deer and videotape them during the summer. By early September, she would have the buck of her choice on tape, and she would later lay claim to it with a well-placed arrow.

She always shot the buck she videotaped, and that proves that preseason scouting, from the spring on, does work. The more effort one puts into it, the more successful one may be.

Food Plots Need A Good Soaking

A good food plot, with enough rain, can produce fine bucks.

I'm a bit too young to remember The Dust Bowl days of the early 1930s, but well remember talking to people who lived through that era when the ground was baked under a brutal sun, hardened, cracked and turned to chalk-like dust from an ongoing drought.

Crops were impossible to grow for a few years, and dust storms covered roads, seeped into houses, and some people with respiratory problems did not survive those years.

Things aren't that bad right now. It's not even close but people who have put in food plots or gardens or are trying to establish them are having a tough way to to go to make things sprout.

"Last year was a bad year for me with Purple-Top turnips," said a friend. "I planted after a nice rain, but then the rains ended and the turnips weren't any good. They came up small and rather woody looking on the inside. The deer didn't pay any attention to them."

I've had good and lousy food plots, and often the difference is the amount of rain.

Anyone who plants a food plot is subject to all of the very same problems as any farmer. Some years the weather turns against us. Many people are getting ready to put in their fall crops now, but the soil is hard, cracking, and lacks enough moisture although we did a light rain last night. A series of rains are still needed, and we usually get some rain in late August to jump-start our fall planting season."

One can only hope the weatherman cooperates. If not, some fields and crops will be useless.

Two fields of mine were ready to plant in early August, and we got a good rain right after planting. There was green growth within six days, and some good rain since. But this is what makes fall planting so tricky, and admittedly, this will be my fourth fall planting. Two produced a lush crop and one could barely grow weeds. Only time will tell how this year's fall planting will fare.

Many people like fall plantings or annual crops while others like some favorites when the soil conditions are conducive to growing a crop of brassica such as Dwarf Essex Rape and Purple-Top turnips. Poor soil conditions can be built into good organic soil by planting buckwheat, oats and rye, and discing it into the ground for two or three years in a row.

Good soil and rain are two key ingredients to a good food plot.

"This is called 'green manure,'" an elderly farmer told me. "Two or three seasons of a green manure crop will usually build enough organic residue into your soil to produce a good high-protein crop such as alfalfa, clover or rape.

He did caution me to keep records of what is being planted every year. Keeping records of planting dates, crops planted, and what kind of a yield it produces is very important. He says a lack of records means that sportsmen have no way of knowing what they did right or did wrong.

He said the ideal plan is to provide for a year 'round food source for animals and birds. Proper planning means soil tests before anything is planted. Some soil is so poor that nothing but weeds will grow until the soil mineral content is built up.

One should never consider a food plot as a replacement for baiting. One problem with food plots on large tracts of land is the land is heavily wooded in many cases, and it takes time to build a good soil content that is capable of growing high-protein crops. It just doesn't happen overnight.

Many food plots that are planted to legumes (beans and peas) are literally destroyed by deer eating the crop as it begins to grow. A small food plot will be quickly annihilated by hungry deer.

Try mixing crops that go together well. Talk with seed companies.

One suggestion for sportsman is to mix other things that will grow in the fall and come back early in the spring. A mix of winter wheat offers good green food and cover in the fall, and it comes back up as soon as the snow melts. Rape and Purple-Top turnips, with some alfalfa and clover in other nearby fields, will produce good fall and early spring food for hungry deer.

If you see a man with a white beard standing outside about this time of year, and gazing skyward, it probably means I'm either praying or scanning the skies for sign of rain clouds.

A bit of each may be needed late this summer and in the early fall. I know that my food plots are in better shape than most, but they can use a good drink, and the sooner the better.

Plant It Right And The Deer Will Come

Dave Richey (left) checks his clover plot.

More and more people are putting in food plots every year. Some people use them to attract deer so they can watch the animals from their house, and some people hunt over them. Either way, putting in a food plot is good for all wildlife in the area.

So what is a perfect food plot? Perfect means it grows well and provides extra nutrition.
This question was put to Bruce Grant of Rogers City. He’s become the expert at putting in large and small food plots in the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula, in the so-called Club Country.

Food plots can grow well in northern counties if properly planted.

"What is a good plan for a year 'round food source?" Grant asks, before answering his own question. "Some type of plan that will carry our wildlife, such as deer and wild turkeys, through all four seasons and still provide an excellent food source during hunting season.

"We need a plan and must keep good records. We need to know what does and doesn't work. Remember, it takes a whole growing season to learn what may have went wrong."
Grant breaks down his food plots in various ways. Alfalfa/clover is high in food value and important for fawn development and antler growth. It is good in the spring, and most valuable in January and February. He does not cut his crop after Aug. 1 because he wants all the growth possible before cold weather and snow sets in. His alfalfa/clover fields provide a food source while annual plantings are getting started.

He wants his ground pH to be at 6.5-7.0, and warns people not to buy seed in the spring. It often is last year's inventory and may be outdated. Chicory is a good crop but requires 18 months to produce. It doesn't grow real well the first year. He also warns sportsman that a primary diet of pure clover can cause deer to bloat. He suggests mixing clover with orchard grass.

In early May, Grant works the fields he wants to plant by June 1. This could be a small patch of rape and turnips. His major spring planting will be a soybean, forage peas and brassica mix. It grows fast and makes an excellent summer and early fall mix. It also keeps the deer off new alfalfa/clover or chicory plantings. Soybeans and forage peas have a protein rating of 38 percent, much higher than corn.

He said that in early May he works all the fields he plans to plant, and lets them sit for two or three weeks before reworking the fields to be planted. He spreads fertilizer and seeds the same day in hopes of getting ahead of the weeds. He uses herbicides, but only on new fields to be established.

Fall plantings should be planted sometime in August, and the earlier the better.

Fall plantings, he said, begin in early August when oats, wheat or rye mature. He will disc them, spread 200 pounds of fertilizer per acre and let them grow. This is a soil building crop.

This crop also will provide excellent fall grazing. Oats and wheat planted in the fall, and handled in this manner, offer a place for spring fawns and turkey poults to hide. It also is a great food source.

Aug. 1-30 is when he does his fall plantings. He works his fields two to three weeks prior to planting for weed control. His major fall crop will be a brassica mix.

Dwarf Essex rape and purple top turnip are the magic crops for many hunting camps. It they are planted by the first of August, by October 1, there will be a very good crop of rape and turnips. Deer normally will not eat this crop until the first heavy frost. After that first frost, the animals won't stay out of it.

Kay Richey poses with a nice 12-point.

Grant said deer first eat the turnip bulbs and tops. They also feed in a brassica field until the ground freezes so hard that they can no longer dig or they have completely destroyed the field, usually by early January.

"Fall is a great time to plant a mix of winter wheat and oats," he said. "The oats come up first and fast. The first hard frost freezes out the oats but the wheat will be the first green crop next April.

Plant a mix of annuals and perennials for attractive food plots.

"A good plan includes both annuals and perennials. When you consider the cost to maintain perennials, like mowing, fertilizing and weed control, I believe the cost between annuals and perennials is a toss-up."

He is a strong believer in diversification. He says it is best to rotate crops between areas, and change what is planted in each field from year to year.

"Go plant it," he said. "The deer and turkeys will come. Diversify, maintain and rotate. Just don't expect a perfect food plot the first year. It often takes two years to get growing well. Hope for some rain and warm weather."

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Take a spring deer scouting hike

This buck bedded in tall grass during hunting season. Find these spots now.

The weather for the past three days has left something to be desired. Normally, by now, it's quite easy to get around in the woods, but in my area of the northwest Lower Peninsula, we've had 18 inches of new snow in the past 72 hours.

So give the snow a few more days to melt, and then go for a walk in new deer areas. You may just find this fall's new whitetail deer habitat on federal or state-owned land.

A two-hour hike can be great fun. Especially when this little jaunt enables hunters to check on where deer are traveling.

Now is when to find hidden bedding areas, seldom used trails & other hotspots.

Actually, hunters can get some good winter exercise while scouting for old and new deer sign. The third fringe benefit of this early-spring hike is to look around near feeding areas or bedding areas for shed antlers.

To me, the walk gives me some exercise while allowing me to check out various nearny areas. There are always spots that are seldom or never hunted hard, and I like to use this opportunity to check out different locations before the snow is completely gone..

Deer are amazing animals because they can -- and will -- hide out in some of the strangest areas. Some of these spots are used year 'round, and very few sportsmen take the time and make the effort to go there to study the terrain for good deer sign.

This buck bedded in cedars and pines but traveled through this pinch-point.

Let's face it: some deer have more ambition than some hunters. But deer, also are a lot like hunters: they choose the easy spots. It's the big bucks that sometimes settle into a pattern of laying up in places where humans never go.

It's up to you to find these locations. They often are in very heavy cover that can barely be penetrated in an upright position, but imagine how happy you will be if you find such an area this spring and follow a buck's tracks out of there. These areas can be an ace in the hole next fall.

Get out and look before all the snow disappears.

I've seen countless whitetails laying up in cattails around a swamp. Some head for the densest part of a cedar swamp, and other deer will hole up wherever they can get out of the coldest winter weather. Deer in this area favor thermal cover that offers good bedding habitat.

Creek bottoms are good spots to check, and I still have some food plots that will begin growing once it warms up. Deer lay up back in heavy cover, and it provides them with available food and cover throughout the winter months when deep snow piles up.

There is a narrow funnel in one of my hunting areas that has a deer trail running through it that looks like a cattle path. That spot has thick cover at both ends of the funnel, and I check it often during the winter to look for big tracks moving through the area. I know that many of the largest bucks in the area bed down at opposite ends of the funnel, and I have good stands at both ends of the cover.

There are some deep tangles in some low-lying areas. The cover  is thick and tangled, but even the largest bucks seem to ease their way through such spots without making a sound. If you or I were to move through it, we'd make a great deal of racket. The bucks, they ease through without making a sound.

Walking and looking, stopping and checking out tracks along major and minor trails, is perhaps the best cure I know for cabin fever. We all suffer this problem to some degree during the winter months. This offers a temporary cure for a winter-weary hunter.

Check those areas you really wouldn't want to walk through,

Pick a nice day, dress comfortably for the weather, and go for a stroll. Stop often, look around, and study the area for some "eye candy." This is one term used for a big buck, and I've walked up on such animals on many occasions.

One never knows what they may find during an early spring walk in the woods. If nothing else, it is great exercise and provides us with some fresh air.

It's something we can't find while sitting on the home sofa.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Take a spring deer scouting hike

This buck bedded in tall grass during hunting season. Find these spots now.

The weather for the past three days has left something to be desired. Normally, by now, it's quite easy to get around in the woods, but in my area of the northwest Lower Peninsula, we've had 18 inches of new snow in the past 72 hours.

So give the snow a few more days to melt, and then go for a walk in new deer areas. You may just find this fall's new whitetail deer habitat on federal or state-owned land.

A two-hour hike can be great fun. Especially when this little jaunt enables hunters to check on where deer are traveling.

Now is when to find hidden bedding areas, seldom used trails & other hotspots.

Actually, hunters can get some good winter exercise while scouting for old and new deer sign. The third fringe benefit of this early-spring hike is to look around near feeding areas or bedding areas for shed antlers.

To me, the walk gives me some exercise while allowing me to check out various nearny areas. There are always spots that are seldom or never hunted hard, and I like to use this opportunity to check out different locations before the snow is completely gone..

Deer are amazing animals because they can -- and will -- hide out in some of the strangest areas. Some of these spots are used year 'round, and very few sportsmen take the time and make the effort to go there to study the terrain for good deer sign.

This buck bedded in cedars and pines but traveled through this pinch-point.

Let's face it: some deer have more ambition than some hunters. But deer, also are a lot like hunters: they choose the easy spots. It's the big bucks that sometimes settle into a pattern of laying up in places where humans never go.

It's up to you to find these locations. They often are in very heavy cover that can barely be penetrated in an upright position, but imagine how happy you will be if you find such an area this spring and follow a buck's tracks out of there. These areas can be an ace in the hole next fall.

Get out and look before all the snow disappears.

I've seen countless whitetails laying up in cattails around a swamp. Some head for the densest part of a cedar swamp, and other deer will hole up wherever they can get out of the coldest winter weather. Deer in this area favor thermal cover that offers good bedding habitat.

Creek bottoms are good spots to check, and I still have some food plots that will begin growing once it warms up. Deer lay up back in heavy cover, and it provides them with available food and cover throughout the winter months when deep snow piles up.

There is a narrow funnel in one of my hunting areas that has a deer trail running through it that looks like a cattle path. That spot has thick cover at both ends of the funnel, and I check it often during the winter to look for big tracks moving through the area. I know that many of the largest bucks in the area bed down at opposite ends of the funnel, and I have good stands at both ends of the cover.

There are some deep tangles in some low-lying areas. The cover  is thick and tangled, but even the largest bucks seem to ease their way through such spots without making a sound. If you or I were to move through it, we'd make a great deal of racket. The bucks, they ease through without making a sound.

Walking and looking, stopping and checking out tracks along major and minor trails, is perhaps the best cure I know for cabin fever. We all suffer this problem to some degree during the winter months. This offers a temporary cure for a winter-weary hunter.

Check those areas you really wouldn't want to walk through,

Pick a nice day, dress comfortably for the weather, and go for a stroll. Stop often, look around, and study the area for some "eye candy." This is one term used for a big buck, and I've walked up on such animals on many occasions.

One never knows what they may find during an early spring walk in the woods. If nothing else, it is great exercise and provides us with some fresh air.

It's something we can't find while sitting on the home sofa.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

A touch of spring fever

George Richey unhooks an 8-pound Manistee Lake walleye.

A breeze, as soft as an angel's kiss, drifted through the warm air. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees, but it felt like summer.

The ground is still a bit too soggy to sit outside under a tree and luxuriate in the perceived warm of a gentle sun. The sun rays beat down, and instead of sitting, I sprawled out on my deck railing to stare up into the sky.

Today was the my first taste of spring fever, and with it came thoughts of life, death and renewal. The end of a tedious winter, and hopefully the beginning of a new growing season.

Relaxing and thinking grand spring outdoor thoughts.

It felt nice about 2 p.m. to lay back for nearly an hour and do nothing. Sure, I could have been writing my blog or whatever, but I was doing what I most wanted to do -- nothing, but be outside in the sunshine.

Laying back and thinking. Remembering the past, and looking forward to the future. Mixing some good and not-so-good thoughts. Thinking of other days when I would sit on the bank of a steelhead stream in drowsy warmth, and spend an hour watching two steelhead spawn.

I didn't feel like a voyeur; instead, it was as if I were watching the rebirth and renewal of steelhead at that one point in time when fish eggs were fertilized and covered with gravel. In time, those eggs will hatch, and of the multitude of fertilized eggs from one hen steelhead, only a few fish will live long enough to return to recreate their kind.

I was momentarily touched by thoughts of twin brother George, and how he and I enjoyed this special time and place on the Platte River, sharing a wild spectacle of spawning fish, and knowing full well we could be fishing for and catching those fish. However, we also knew that watching the spawning act was more important to the future of this fishery than us catching those fish.

Remembering 63 years of outoor life with twin brother George Richey.

George is always in my thoughts, and even though it is closing in on eight years since his death, I think of him daily. I wish we could have shared today, but I know that we shared many other days when fishing was far less important than us being on the stream.

I heard the brief put-put-put of an early but ardent male ruffed grouse practicing his love song on a drumming log. In the distance came the throaty gobble of a turkey, and a few whiny sounds of a hen turkey complaining about something.

I thought about getting the second-season hunt in this heavily hunted Area K, wondered about the apathetic folks who own land but can't draw an early-season tag. I wonder why more people don't complain to the DNR and ask why private-land tags are available in the U.P. and the southern Lower Peninsula, but not here.

There were fleeting thoughts of trolling for spring brown trout off the piers at Manistee and Frankfort, and the chance -- albeit slight -- of catching a 25-pound brown. Only had one that size hooked, many years ago, and it was lost at the boat. Caught thousands of browns to 18 pounds, but never personally cracked the 20-pound barrier.

There were somewhat pleasant thoughts of upcoming work that must be done to lime and fertilize our food plots this spring, and try to get rid of the grasses and weeds that invariably grow with the clover. That is coming up in the next month or so, and it is a busy back-breaking time.

This year will mean cleaning out some overhead limbs on some food plots to allow more sun to hit the clover. Our crops were new last year, and while they produced, it seemed the weeds came and choked out the other crops. Planting food plots means a major investment in sweat equity, but my neighbor and I believe in helping nature thrive.

Some thoughts about spring fishing and hunting.

Now, if only we could make Mother Nature rain enough so we didn't have to water our plantings. We, along with other farmers, either get too much or too little rain.

My tranquil hour on the deck railing delivered several thoughts on the upcoming turkey season, the upcoming trout and walleye opener in about about six weeks, and then it's fixing up ground blinds and tree stands once again. One or two tree stands may have to be moved.

A sportsman really has little time to kick back and relax, but an early spring day like today is a wonderful time to take a well-deserved break, and think about what we have and how we can make it better.

Thanks for sharing some of my spring fever dreams with me.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Look for some new deer areas

Hunters who want good deer land will probably wind up paying plenty for it.

Deer hunters are creatures of habit. Many staunchly resist any form of change.

Many will sit on the same tree stand, along the same runway, as they did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. It's difficult for many sportsmen to break their old habits or traditions, and some deer hunters never try. It becomes a tradition to again hunt where a buck was killed sometime in the far distant past.

They often wonder: If it was good 20 years ago, it should still be a good spot now. Right?

That’s not always true. In fact, it is seldom true with whitetail deer.

Maybe yes and maybe no. That tradition of returning, year after year, to the same stand has probably saved the life of more bucks than poor shooting or a lack of preseason scouting.

Sadly, clinging to a traditional spot, even when it no longer is hot, is a lesson in frustration and futility. It also leads to fiery claims by skunked hunters that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment reports of abundant whitetails are inflated.

Well, they no longer are. It's true that Michigan's deer herd is down in numbers, and that should be a good enough reason to start using the old noodle for something other than a place to store a camo cap. Changing stand locations is probably long overdue.

Perhaps this season is the time to cast aside the traditional old haunts, and think about trying a new area. Too many people never realize that food and habitat conditions can and do change over time for a number of reason, and if the landowner doesn't do something to make the land produce more food and offer more cover, the deer will move on. It's as simple as that.

Deer are animals of farmland and woodland. Granted, some deer live in deep forest and many live on farms, and that's a fact of life in this state.

If you agree that a new hunting location should be tried, where should hunters start in their search for a new spot to try their luck or skill?

Finding good deer areas isn’t as easy now as it was 20 years ago.

Hunters can start with the DNRE. They keep track of deer trends, and know which counties have the highest deer numbers and which ones produce the largest deer. The county extension agent often deals with farmers and other landowners, and they also can help find a spot.

Determine if you want to hunt the Upper or Lower Peninsula, but if you've read hunting reports elsewhere about deer hunting prospects, the U.P. is not the place to go. The area with the most deer is south of an east-west line from Bay City to Grand Rapids.

Start asking questions. Learn which counties produce big bucks and lots of deer, and learn why deer numbers are high in such areas. Determine the availability of state or federal lands nearby, but both state and federal land is quite sparse and overhunted in the southern Lower Peninsula. It's not as heavily hunted in Region II because deer numbers are way down from four years ago.

Spend time scouting two or three different areas. Determine which ones offer the best combination of land, cover, deer foods, bedding cover and access. Walk around the land, and check for well-used deer trails leading from bedding to feeding areas and back.

Look for buck rubs and deer scrapes in late October. Check barbed wire fences for bits of hair that indicate deer passing through the area.

Talk with nearby landowners to determine their idea of hunting pressure. Often, in agricultural areas, the major hunting pressure is from the landowner and his or her family and close friends.

Leasing land can be done, but depending on habitat & deer, the cost can be high.

Consider the possibility of leasing hunting rights. Fees vary depending on length of the lease, property size, whether it is ideal or marginal deer habitat, and what it offers the hunter.

No one owes today's sportsman anything in terms of hunting private property. I manage my 20 acres to produce deer and hopefully one big buck will move through my land on occasion.

Crop lands are rotated and some timber is cut. Doing so helps maintain good hunting, but it's a never-ending learning process to keep up with where whitetails travel after crop rotation and timbering takes place.

I spend many hours every day, 365 days a year, scouting my land. Deer habits change, food supplies change, and hunting pressure can make deer seek quieter areas. A hunter doesn't know these things unless they spend time in the field on a regular basis.

Public lands feature too many hunters in narrowly confined areas, and the hunting pressure is too high. Food supplies are far better on private land than state or federal lands. Private property holds deer, and, in many areas, it supports more whitetails than public land. For this reason it's easy to understand why more people lease hunting land even though the price of leasing acreage is rising.

Whether a hunter leases private land, hunts on public land, or manages to wangle an invitation from a landowner, scouting is a never-ending problem. Hunters who don't scout old land or new land run a major risk of not being successful.

Knowing what lies over the next ridge and why deer travel one trail and not another is why some sportsmen bag whitetail bucks year after year, and why some hunters never tie their tag to the rack of a good buck.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Look for some new deer areas

Hunters who want good deer land will probably wind up paying plenty for it.

Deer hunters are creatures of habit. Many staunchly resist any form of change.

Many will sit on the same tree stand, along the same runway, as they did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. It's difficult for many sportsmen to break their old habits or traditions, and some deer hunters never try. It becomes a tradition to again hunt where a buck was killed sometime in the far distant past.

They often wonder: If it was good 20 years ago, it should still be a good spot now. Right?

That’s not always true. In fact, it is seldom true with whitetail deer.

Maybe yes and maybe no. That tradition of returning, year after year, to the same stand has probably saved the life of more bucks than poor shooting or a lack of preseason scouting.

Sadly, clinging to a traditional spot, even when it no longer is hot, is a lesson in frustration and futility. It also leads to fiery claims by skunked hunters that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment reports of abundant whitetails are inflated.

Well, they no longer are. It's true that Michigan's deer herd is down in numbers, and that should be a good enough reason to start using the old noodle for something other than a place to store a camo cap. Changing stand locations is probably long overdue.

Perhaps this season is the time to cast aside the traditional old haunts, and think about trying a new area. Too many people never realize that food and habitat conditions can and do change over time for a number of reason, and if the landowner doesn't do something to make the land produce more food and offer more cover, the deer will move on. It's as simple as that.

Deer are animals of farmland and woodland. Granted, some deer live in deep forest and many live on farms, and that's a fact of life in this state.

If you agree that a new hunting location should be tried, where should hunters start in their search for a new spot to try their luck or skill?

Finding good deer areas isn’t as easy now as it was 20 years ago.

Hunters can start with the DNRE. They keep track of deer trends, and know which counties have the highest deer numbers and which ones produce the largest deer. The county extension agent often deals with farmers and other landowners, and they also can help find a spot.

Determine if you want to hunt the Upper or Lower Peninsula, but if you've read hunting reports elsewhere about deer hunting prospects, the U.P. is not the place to go. The area with the most deer is south of an east-west line from Bay City to Grand Rapids.

Start asking questions. Learn which counties produce big bucks and lots of deer, and learn why deer numbers are high in such areas. Determine the availability of state or federal lands nearby, but both state and federal land is quite sparse and overhunted in the southern Lower Peninsula. It's not as heavily hunted in Region II because deer numbers are way down from four years ago.

Spend time scouting two or three different areas. Determine which ones offer the best combination of land, cover, deer foods, bedding cover and access. Walk around the land, and check for well-used deer trails leading from bedding to feeding areas and back.

Look for buck rubs and deer scrapes in late October. Check barbed wire fences for bits of hair that indicate deer passing through the area.

Talk with nearby landowners to determine their idea of hunting pressure. Often, in agricultural areas, the major hunting pressure is from the landowner and his or her family and close friends.

Leasing land can be done, but depending on habitat & deer, the cost can be high.

Consider the possibility of leasing hunting rights. Fees vary depending on length of the lease, property size, whether it is ideal or marginal deer habitat, and what it offers the hunter.

No one owes today's sportsman anything in terms of hunting private property. I manage my 20 acres to produce deer and hopefully one big buck will move through my land on occasion.

Crop lands are rotated and some timber is cut. Doing so helps maintain good hunting, but it's a never-ending learning process to keep up with where whitetails travel after crop rotation and timbering takes place.

I spend many hours every day, 365 days a year, scouting my land. Deer habits change, food supplies change, and hunting pressure can make deer seek quieter areas. A hunter doesn't know these things unless they spend time in the field on a regular basis.

Public lands feature too many hunters in narrowly confined areas, and the hunting pressure is too high. Food supplies are far better on private land than state or federal lands. Private property holds deer, and, in many areas, it supports more whitetails than public land. For this reason it's easy to understand why more people lease hunting land even though the price of leasing acreage is rising.

Whether a hunter leases private land, hunts on public land, or manages to wangle an invitation from a landowner, scouting is a never-ending problem. Hunters who don't scout old land or new land run a major risk of not being successful.

Knowing what lies over the next ridge and why deer travel one trail and not another is why some sportsmen bag whitetail bucks year after year, and why some hunters never tie their tag to the rack of a good buck.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

All puzzle pieces must mesh properly

Don’t shoot just yet! Wait for a quartering-away shot.

After hunting whitetail deer for more than 50 years, this time in the field has given me many thoughts about hunting these critters. Those experiences can be confidence builders.

Whenever I encounter a specific wind or weather situation, my mind slips back through the years to when a similar situation occurred. The next step is to analyze that experience, and if it worked once, we try it again.

Fortunately, we tend to remember those times when things work and forget those times when they didn't. Usually that allows us to make the proper decision based on important  previous experiences.

Wise decision are needed when choosing where to hunt.

I always have, and probably always will, play hunches. A person's gut instincts are normally correct, and over many years of studying deer and why they do the things they do, it gives me an insight on choosing the proper stands to hunt on a particular day.

Deer move around a good bit, and sometimes move more than many hunters believe. This is especially true now, during the rut. Deer also move from one food source to another. We all grow tired of eating corn, sugar beets or whatever.

There are few oaks on my land but there are many food sources. Over the years I've planted Imperial Whitetail Clover, countless other types of clover, alfalfa, brassica, purple-top turnips and many other truck crops. Some of these food sources are planted near ground blinds and tree stands.

Corn and soy beans are wonderful truck crops, and everything I plant is left for the deer, turkeys and other birds and animals. That means that I know when deer switch from one food source to another. Turnips often produce well once we've gone through one or two hard frosts, and they become more sugary.

Know all natural and planted food sources, and how deer travel to them.

Choosing which stand to sit in is a matter of knowing where the deer happen to be traveling, and which food source is present in that area. Obviously, wind direction plays one of the most important roles in choosing a hunting stand.

I haven't counted the number of stands on my land, but there is probably at leas would guess there is probably at least a dozen although some are seldom used anymore. Certain stands remain good year after year while other locations go flat, and I'm inclined to think that hunting pressure is the main reason why deer change their travel patterns.

Each year I look at my stands, whether they are tree stands, elevated coops,, pit blinds, tent blinds or whatever, and determine their relattionship to the closest food sources. I seldom place stands extremely close to food plots but prefer them to be near trails that lead from one food plot to another or from my land to a neighbor’s food plot.

Know why some deer stands suddenly go dead.

Study and learn why deer come to one area, and why that location suddently goes dead. In most cases, it is hunted too often and deer may spot the hunting moving to or from the stand. Once a deer patterns a hunter, they seldom return to that spot except long after dark

Food plots, bedding areas and travel trails are an important part of the whitetail equation. Each part of the puzzle must fall into place. If it doesn’t, whitetail wind up going somewhere else and your hunting spots dry up.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Rain & cooler weather can make deer move

It could be felt in the air. The air felt cold and heavy with moisture this morning while retrieving the local newspaper, and I muttered to myself that it was soon going to rain.

Birds and animals feel a falling barometric pressure better than most humans, but those who have suffered broken bones, nerve damage, and assorted and sundry little problem as we slip and slide through life will usually be able to predict such weather changes.

I awoke today, and it felt as if Ringling Brother or Barnum & Bailey's circus elephants had used my spine as s place to practice their soft-shoe routine as I tried to sleep. I broke my back 40 years ago, had surgery to fuse two vertebrae together and repair a severely damaged sciatic nerve in my left leg.

Three months after surgery, and during my recovery period, I fell and broke the vertebrae above the first two breaks. The surgery, and the second break, set me up for four decades of back and leg pain.

An autumn storm with a falling barometer and rain in the air always seems to settle in my low back. It throbs and my left leg hurts. Neuropathy om both feet now makes long walks painful.

Watching the local weather has becomes more of an issue with me. I rarely watch the Weather Channel because its forecasts cover too broad of an area. A few minutes outside will often tell me more about what I need to know.

If birds are perched on the power lines, it forecasts a low pressure center that will often spin the wind and may bring rain. For me, that is not a good enough excuse to not go hunting.

Of primary importance is a steady or reasonably steady wind direction. Swirling winds make hunting difficult unless you are in an elevated or ground-level coop with closed windows.

For me, a soft rain like we experienced a week ago is perfect for deer hunting providing the wind doesn't get squirrelly. Of course, we had two or three periods today when it looked like rain but it never materialized.  We may bet some needed rainfall tonight. Anyone sitting outside in it, even with good rainwear, might get wet but that's part of hunting.

There is something about a low-pressure center that puts some deer on the prod, especially if the present weather is being chased by something much more severe. I look for those days each fall when a storm is predicted late in the afternoon, and I try to get out two hours earlier than normal so I'll be on hand when the animals move ahead of the upcoming storm.

If the weather appears it often will settle in with high winds and buckets of rain about noon, unless the weatherman calls for clearing skies in the late afternoon or early evening as the storm pushes through. I may set out the morning hunt or crawl into an elevated coop to look for those few deer that always seems to move in nasty weather.

Predicting deer movements during rainy weather is fraught with problems. Often the storm starts and ends at an inconvenient time, and sometimes the animals move well after a storm blows through and sometimes they do not. A key factor to look for is a temperature drop.

I've sat out in rain storms, and hunted in rainy weather, for over 50 years. What has all those years taught me?

The only thing I can swear to is that hunting in the rain can be productive on some days and unproductive on others. It also has taught me that an achy-breaky back is my signal to find a spot, crawl into it and set out and hope for the best.

Sitting out doesn't give my sore back any relief, but on some occasions, a nice buck at the beginning of a dramatic temperature change will walk within bow range and for 10 or 15 minutes as I watch the animal, it takes my mind off my aches and pains.

I let the buck walk most of the time, and in some small way that makes me feel better. It means I've fooled the animal, could have made a killing shot, and chose not to. That's what makes me feel really good.
It could be felt in the air. The air felt cold and heavy with moisture this morning while retrieving the local newspaper, and I muttered to myself that it was soon going to rain.

Birds and animals feel a falling barometric pressure better than most humans, but those who have suffered broken bones, nerve damage, and assorted and sundry little problem as we slip and slide through life will usually be able to predict such weather changes.

I awoke today, and it felt as if Ringling Brother or Barnum & Bailey's circus elephants had used my spine as s place to practice their soft-shoe routine as I tried to sleep. I broke my back 40 years ago, had surgery to fuse two vertebrae together and repair a severely damaged sciatic nerve in my left leg.

Old bone injuries help in forecasting weather changes.

Three months after surgery, and during my recovery period, I fell and broke the vertebrae above the first two breaks. The surgery, and the second break, set me up for four decades of back and leg pain.

An autumn storm with a falling barometer and rain in the air always seems to settle in my low back. It throbs and my left leg hurts. Neuropathy om both feet now makes long walks painful.

Watching the local weather has becomes more of an issue with me. I rarely watch the Weather Channel because its forecasts cover too broad of an area. A few minutes outside will often tell me more about what I need to know.

If birds are perched on the power lines, it forecasts a low pressure center that will often spin the wind and may bring rain. For me, that is not a good enough excuse to not go hunting.

Of primary importance is a steady or reasonably steady wind direction. Swirling winds make hunting difficult unless you are in an elevated or ground-level coop with closed windows.

For me, a soft rain like we experienced a week or 10 days ago is perfect for deer hunting providing the wind doesn't get squirrelly. Of course, we had two or three periods today when it looked like rain but it never materialized.  We may bet some needed rainfall tonight. Anyone sitting outside in it, even with good rainwear, might get wet but that's part of hunting.

We won’t melt in rain but pick sites along trails leading to food or bedding cover.

There is something about a low-pressure center that puts some deer on the prod, especially if the present weather is being chased by something much more severe. I look for those days each fall when a storm is predicted late in the afternoon, and I try to get out two hours earlier than normal so I'll be on hand when the animals move ahead of the upcoming storm.

If the weather appears it often will settle in with high winds and buckets of rain about noon, unless the weatherman calls for clearing skies in the late afternoon or early evening as the storm pushes through. I may set out the morning hunt or crawl into an elevated coop to look for those few deer that always seems to move in nasty weather.

Predicting deer movements during rainy weather is fraught with problems. Often the storm starts and ends at an inconvenient time, and sometimes the animals move well after a storm blows through and sometimes they do not. A key factor to look for is a temperature drop.

I've sat out in rain storms, and hunted in rainy weather, for over 50 years. What has all those years taught me?

It’s hard to shoot deer while sitting out a rainstorm indoors.

The only thing I can swear to is that hunting in the rain can be productive on some days and unproductive on others. It also has taught me that an achy-breaky back is my signal to find a spot, crawl into it and set out and hope for the best.

Sitting out doesn't give my sore back any relief, but on some occasions, a nice buck at the beginning of a dramatic temperature change will walk within bow range and for 10 or 15 minutes as I watch the animal, it takes my mind off my aches and pains.

I let the buck walk most of the time, and in some small way that makes me feel better. It means I've fooled the animal, could have made a killing shot, and chose not to. That's what makes me feel really good.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors