This happened many years ago, but I was hunting from the ground in hopes of taking a big buck I'd seen the previous day. This guy was figured out when I crawled into my blind long before dawn.I was downwind from the trail, and was taking it easy. An arrow was nocked, thre bow rested across my lap and then the sun started cracking the eastern horizon with a blaze of glory. Streaks of yellow, orange, purple and red light radiated out from the core of the fiery sunrise, and just then the buck stepped onto the trail.There was an immmediate sinking feeling in my guts when I found I'd made a big mistake. Instead of having the sun behind me, it was directly in my eyes, and there was but a tiny window through which to shoot.
The buck stepped into that brightly lit hole, stopped, and I eased back to full draw but couldn't see a thing. The blinding sunlight obliterated the deer, the narrow opening, and everything else. I tried to shift a bit but by now the buck had moved on down the trail and was out of sight.It's a problem every deer hunter has faced ... at least once. Since that day long ago, my hunting locations are chosen with greater care. Whenever possible, I prefer my morning spots to be downwind of the trail and with the sun at my back.Come late afternoon, the reverse is true. I like the setting sun at my back and still be downwind. It's sometimes difficult to find the right spot for the dawn or dusk hunts, in terms of wind direction, but it behooves us to try to find some key locations that will work where deer travel.
If you guess wrong on any of these four questions, it's best to have a lucky rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover in your pocket, because a hunter will need a large measure of luck to make this site work.If you are hunting from a ground or elevated coop, it may help to build an extension out from the shooting window to serve as some type of awning over the window with side curtains. This will cut down on sunlight glaring into the shooting window but it also cuts down on where the hunter can shoot. Straight-ahead shots are it.Building a wooden top and two sides out three feet from the shooting window, and painting it black, will reduce the glare and the amount of light entering the coop. Make certain the inside of the coop is painted black, and all other windows are covered with dark cloth to further reduce the light entering the coop.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Watch The Sun When Positioning Stands
This happened many years ago, but I was hunting from the ground in hopes of taking a big buck I'd seen the previous day. This guy was figured out when I crawled into my blind long before dawn.I was downwind from the trail, and was taking it easy. An arrow was nocked, thre bow rested across my lap and then the sun started cracking the eastern horizon with a blaze of glory. Streaks of yellow, orange, purple and red light radiated out from the core of the fiery sunrise, and just then the buck stepped onto the trail.There was an immmediate sinking feeling in my guts when I found I'd made a big mistake. Instead of having the sun behind me, it was directly in my eyes, and there was but a tiny window through which to shoot.
The buck stepped into that brightly lit hole, stopped, and I eased back to full draw but couldn't see a thing. The blinding sunlight obliterated the deer, the narrow opening, and everything else. I tried to shift a bit but by now the buck had moved on down the trail and was out of sight.It's a problem every deer hunter has faced ... at least once. Since that day long ago, my hunting locations are chosen with greater care. Whenever possible, I prefer my morning spots to be downwind of the trail and with the sun at my back.Come late afternoon, the reverse is true. I like the setting sun at my back and still be downwind. It's sometimes difficult to find the right spot for the dawn or dusk hunts, in terms of wind direction, but it behooves us to try to find some key locations that will work where deer travel.
If you guess wrong on any of these four questions, it's best to have a lucky rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover in your pocket, because a hunter will need a large measure of luck to make this site work.If you are hunting from a ground or elevated coop, it may help to build an extension out from the shooting window to serve as some type of awning over the window with side curtains. This will cut down on sunlight glaring into the shooting window but it also cuts down on where the hunter can shoot. Straight-ahead shots are it.Building a wooden top and two sides out three feet from the shooting window, and painting it black, will reduce the glare and the amount of light entering the coop. Make certain the inside of the coop is painted black, and all other windows are covered with dark cloth to further reduce the light entering the coop.
Bad mistakes make bucks difficult to shoot.
The buck stepped into that brightly lit hole, stopped, and I eased back to full draw but couldn't see a thing. The blinding sunlight obliterated the deer, the narrow opening, and everything else. I tried to shift a bit but by now the buck had moved on down the trail and was out of sight.It's a problem every deer hunter has faced ... at least once. Since that day long ago, my hunting locations are chosen with greater care. Whenever possible, I prefer my morning spots to be downwind of the trail and with the sun at my back.Come late afternoon, the reverse is true. I like the setting sun at my back and still be downwind. It's sometimes difficult to find the right spot for the dawn or dusk hunts, in terms of wind direction, but it behooves us to try to find some key locations that will work where deer travel.Choose stand locations with great care.
We've all done this: walk around, find a good-looking tree, and figure this is the hot spot. It well could be, but it's wise to remember the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and the wind may be from other angle. Or ... it could be just right.This is where studying ground or tree stand locations with a brain that instantly sifts out the following information is important: Which direction will the deer be traveling? Which direction is the wind blowing? Which direction will I be facing if this spot is used? Will the sun be in my eyes when the deer are moving or at my back? Only you can provide the necessary answers but the winter months are a good time to scout some locations.Pit blinds can offer some distinct advantages. The little hole in this pit blind at ground level is what hunters shoot through.
I have a pit blind that a friend uses. It has a tiny A-frame top that covers the pit, and the entrance door and shooting window are the same. Sitting in the pit puts you at the same level as the deer. See the photo to the right. Shots are taken at nearly ground level.The shooting window faces just slightly north of straight west. The sun can be a problem, but this hunter sits on a chair as far south in the pit blind as possible, and this takes him out of the sun's direct glare. He often shoots a good buck that chooses to stand slightly northwest of the shooting window. He can see the buck, the buck can't see him, and most shots are taken at 12 to 15 yards at an immobile animal.It's possible in many cases to situate a stand so the hunter isn't facing into the sun. However, know this: any hunter movement if the sun is directly behind them can result in a deer spotting the movement.If you must err, do so on the side of having the sun in the deer's eyes and be downwind of the animal. Do that, and keep your movements slow and deliberate, and the hunter will fool most of the deer.It's about all the advantage that a hunter could ask for.Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Is Knowing Better Than Guessling?
It's a common problem for deer hunters. They find themselves in some unfamiliar territory, and try to puzzle out where to hunt.Many hunters take a wild flying guess based on minimal input from gazing at trails, and pick a spot. Often, it may look good but in many cases it is a hurry-up poor guess that doesn't pay off. Granted, many of us just finished the season, and it's still a bit more tha 8 1/2 months before the 2010 deer season opens. Now is the best time to start thinking about upcoming hunts.Having said that, we can answer the question that serves as the title of this daily blog: Is Knowing better than guessing? Pf course.
Someone acts as a guide, drives us to a stand where deer are known to pass, and with some luck, we shoot a buck. If we don't shoot a buck, it means that none were seen, none were of the size we wanted or a buck did show up but didn't offer a chance for an accurate shot.
Other key factors include: How does the wind blow in each location, and does it swirl backwards when hitting a woodline? How can a hunter get into and out of the area without bumping into deer? Does the hunting area have two or three way to enter and exit to avoid traveling the same route time after time?
Learn the subtle differences that make good stands great.
Knowing where to hunt is always better than guessing. Knowing comes from a constant familiarity with the area being hunted. Let's put it another way: We travel to Alabama in mid-January when the rut is in full swing, and we hunt on private club land.Look close. The hunter is there!
We hunt again in the evening, and we are placed in key locations where we should see deer. No one can always make deer move, and no one can guarantee that a hunter can and will sit still. There are many things we know and we must learn those things about deer hunting that among the unknown.If we should hunt this way, with others telling us where to hunt, it's a wise move to pay attention to the terrain in which we hunt. There are always things that offer subtle clues about each location, and why deer should move through it.Who where deer live and where they eat and sleep.
Deer often will be found in fringe cover, that area between thick heavy cover and open land. Of course, a ground blind or tree stand may be located anywhere in-between, and it's up to the hunter to learn why one spot is better than another.One of my favorite spots is on a low hillside with thick heavy cover on three sides with open land on the west side. The prevailing westerly wind blows down through the open cover, and the stand is cross-wind. The only way a deer can pick up a hunter's scent is when he climbs into or out of the stand. The stand is high enough on this small hill to blow scent over the surrounding thick cover.One thing hunters must do is look at terrain the way a deer would look at it. Where is the food supply? Where are the key bedding areas? Which trails connect those two key locations? How can deer, especially the larger bucks, travel back and forth without being on trails?Other key factors include: How does the wind blow in each location, and does it swirl backwards when hitting a woodline? How can a hunter get into and out of the area without bumping into deer? Does the hunting area have two or three way to enter and exit to avoid traveling the same route time after time?
Identify your stand preference and find the best spot for that stand.
Which type of stand is best suited to that area? Those needs can and will change from one area to another. Which would work best: a ground blind, pit blind, tree stand or elevated coop in this location? How high is high enough?I've found that a tree stand elevation of 15 to 18 feet is usually high enough under most circumstances. I've got one stand that is nearly 30 feet in the air, and it is a consistent producer but steep-angle shots are not a good bet when a hunter must make up his mind in a hurry, and make a quick shot. And that's all the stand produces. Deer don't linger, they move through here.Many of my stands are at 14-15 feet. That places a standing bow hunter at roughly 20 feet in the air. A stand at 18 feet puts hunter has roughly 24 feet up. Each stand has special requirements, and hunters must solve these problems long before the season opens.Hunters will have far better hunting success if they know why a hunting location is best for their hunting purposes. Guessing implies that one is trusting to luck. With a guess, the hunter will have a 50-50 chance of guessing right ...or wrongThis also means a hunt may or may not guess wrong. There is nothing worse than a stand that requires hours of effort and time to prepare only to learn it is not in the right spot. Sadly, we can't make a bad stand in a bad location being anything better than what it is.This coming fall, don't guess. Know where the hot spots are long before the season opens. Knowledge beats guessing every time.Monday, January 11, 2010
Try New Areas Next Season
Why do people climb mountains? The answer is easy. Because they are there.The same analogy applies to deer hunters. Why do people switch stands methodically. The answer is because they can and should.A lady bowhunter I know loves to sit in just one stand. She will hunt in it every day of the season if possible. She loves her stand, its location and she knows where the deer will come from to pass by.
What's more: she shoots good bucks from that stand every year. It works for her but this method of hunting is not for me. I need change in my life. I always want to know what lies ahead and around the next bend in the trail. Each day of deer hunting is a day of discovery for me, and that means moving around from one area to another.
This can be a good reason to stay put.
It's not my nature to hunt the same stand two days in a row unless I feel a big buck will show. I watch deer on a daily basis, and know where the bigger bucks travel.Some bucks get into lockstep with moving along the same trail but many big-antlered deer vary their travel routes and schedules. Young bucks can be patterned, and it's possible to predict with 95 percent accuracy what time the little buck will arrive. Nine times out of 10 they will show up within five minutes of when they are expected.Now, me, looking at the same scenery day after day takes its toll on my patience. It's much more fun, to my way of thinking, to sit in a different stand every day. It helps me avoid getting into a rut.Me, I like to move around and try new spots.
My preference is to mix up my hunting activities. One day a treestand will be picked, and the next day it may be a ground blind. The following day may be an elevated coop, and the next day I may choose a pit blind. This allows me to study different deer, cover the angles, try to pinpoint a big buck and his area, and it keeps me from getting bored.Each spot will feature bucks approaching from a new and different angle, and like anglers, it's like learning a new stretch of river. Sometimes the new spots will not pay off, but that can't be helped.It's impossible to know how good a hunting area can be if we don't hunt it. A great deal of thought goes into choosing locations for ground or tree stands, and that means someone must sit there and study deer patterns and travel routes under various wind directions.I want to know everything there is to know about a certain location. There have been times where I've put in a stand, hunted it for a day or two, and pull it out because something about it just doesn't feel right.Learn each new spot well and don't get patterned by deer.
Hunters, like many people, play their hunches. They have gut feelings, and I'll look at it a few times, put a stand up, and know within 30 minutes of crawling into the stand that it isn't right. If it doesn't pass muster the first night, it won't be there the next night.I don't believe in moving stands because it goes cold for a week or so. If it has a proven record, it stays in place for a season. I've seen stands be cold for most of a season, and then pick up toward the end.We've got a long way to go until next bow season, but these tips are meant to give hunters food for thought. If you are limited to 10 acres, there may only one or possibly two good spots to hunt. If so, switch back and forth. Twenty acres offers two or three spots, and 50 acres offers even more possible stand location choices.Just don't get locked into hunting one spot day after day. Sooner or later the deer will pattern you, and that is not good situation to be in. 011110_droblog_TryNewAreasNextSeason_((tag: bow, bucks, Dave Richey, deer, Michigan, move around, new, outdoors, pattern deer. travel routes))Sunday, January 10, 2010
Deer Hunters Should Keep Good Records
Reporters always carry a notebook and pen in the event of an interview. Don't they? I always had one, but my problem was finding the silly thing when I needed it. Most of the time a near-photographic memory allowed me to keep track of important facts, even oddly spelled last names.It helped to write notes thought. I'll pass along a good tip that many people have told me they do. For whatever reason, I no longer follow this sage advice. So, it you feel as if I'm lecturing as your parents probably did at one time or another, it's certainly up to you to follow my advice or forget it. It makes no difference to me but it will to you if you follow this tip religiously
The advice is really pretty simple. Carry a small notebook, and write down your daily observations while deer hunting. A buddy I know that river fishes for steelhead in the spring and fall, keeps a daily diary what he sees and what happens on the river.
Keep solid data on where and when deer are seen.
The reason for doing so is very simple. The trick is to do so on a daily basis, and sooner or later, you'll find many of the same situations repeating themselves.That means an observant person can put two and two together to make a logical connection to four. A diary can tell you what will probably happen if you do this or that when all conditions are the same, and keep doing it on every trip.Obviously, the date and time of day is important. This other material should be noted: wind direction, wind speed, where the hunt took place (both geographical and with detailed data about ground blind or treestand location). Hunters can add details about type of stand, the terrain around it, and where the deer traveled.Other information to enter in your diary.
Extra data should include if you are bow hunting or hunting with a firearm. List the number of deer seen, and break this down into the number of adult does, adult antlered bucks (number of points and approximate size), and how many fawns were seen. Add to this the distance these deer were from your hunting position.Add informative details about whether the hunt was along deer trails or near scrapes or a rub line. Add information about any grunting bucks heard (seen), if they approached your area or not, and note the time of day of such activity. If it is raining or snowing, cloudy or bright, add this data as well.Note the approximate height the treestand was above the ground, and what kind of a tree the stand hung from. Were the deer calm or spooky in your hunting area?If a shot is taken, explain the circumstances and the approximate distance to the animal. Give an overall view of the animal, what it was doing, etc., when a shot was taken.A friend of mine is pretty cryptic about what he writes down. It would read something like this.An example of the data needed.
"Farmer Jones' back 40 in the crooked oak near the creek on northeast side in Roscommon County. Sunny, 40 degrees, 10 Nov., with a five mph wind from southwest at 5 p.m. Saw two baldies (does), twin button-buck and doe fawns. They approached from NE to within 25 yards. Hunting trail, & deer passed by heading cross-wind on different runways after passing treestand. Up 15 feet in pine. 8-point came walking from west heading east. First saw it at 5:20 p.m., and deer walked within 15 yards, stopped to look at other deer and I shot. Deer ran 75 yards & died on creekbank edge. Hit low behind front shoulder."Now, imagine doing this every day you hunt or twice daily if you hunt morning and evening. Do this for several years, and if a hunter goes back and reads these diaries every year, sooner or later some patterns will form and hunters will find the same events and conditions happening again. It is then simple to recall what worked three years ago in Farmer Jones' pine tree, and it might work once again.I'm trained after more than 50 years to remember this stuff.
I just never write things like this down anymore. It just gets stored somewhere in a remote corner of my brain, and when all things are working well, I will recall similar circumstances in the same stand. It gives me a pretty good reference to what I might see again whenever similar situations apply.Of course, whitetails don't read these diaries. They react out of instinct, and rely on outside stimuli that frightens them. If this stimuli (smelling or hearing a hunter or seeing one move) occurs, the deer's reaction will be to run off. No stimuli, and the animals will probably act as they did on other similar occasions.Is this work? Of course, but it's difficult, consumers only a few minutes and it can help. It has become a part of patterning deer for me, and if it is done properly, every day and year after year, shooting a nice buck can be pretty easy. Make one mistake, though, and all bets are off. This can be an ace in the hole once the deer season is underway. 011010_droblog_deer HuntersShouldKeepGoodRecords_((tag: bow, Dave Richey, deer, firearm, keep records, Michigan, outdoors, place, time, write it down))Saturday, January 09, 2010
Don't Beat Yourself Up
The man had developed a serious problem. He no longer could draw his bow without severe arm, back and shoulder pain.
Many have an obsession with greater arrow speed.
How fast is too fast and what is gained?
He is the son-in-law of a friend, and being young and strong and very competitive, he and some of his buddies decided to settle a macho bet. Testosterone was flowing, and they soon began by pulling 70 pounds.
Hey, no problem, they thought. The next step was to crank each bow to 75 pounds, and measure it on a scale. Everyone sucked the bow back to full draw, and then they raised the draw weight to 80 pounds.
This was possible for two guys, but the others dropped out of the contest. It took considerably more effort. This contest was finally going somewhere. They kicked the draw weight up to 85 pounds, and with a great deal of posturing, each one managed tp reach that plateau but it obviously was very difficult for both of them.
We've come this far, one said, let's take it to 90 pounds. There was a great deal of grunting and groaning as each bow came back to their individual anchor points at that draw weight. Both were red in the face, and agreed now to take the contest upwards, one pound at a time.
A bow hunter can win and lose at the heavier draw-weight game but not this hunter.
One man made it to full draw at 91 pounds. The other man did not. We had a winner and a loser, and both titles went to the same man.
The winner-loser felt something go as a muscle ripped in his shoulder while he took it up that one last pound, and his shoulder hurt all winter and was still sore in the spring. By now, he had cranked his bow down to his usual draw weight of 68 pounds.
But he couldn't pull that much weight now. He was then forced to travel in reverse, and tried it again at 65 pounds, and then 60 pounds, and finally settled in at 55 pounds. It still hurt to draw his bow at that poundage, but over the spring and summer he settled in at that draw weight for good.
It's been about 15 years since the two strong men competed to be the champion at pulling the most weight. He is content now because he doesn't have to crank down his bow for the December bow season, and he has found that 55 pounds is plenty heavy and fast enough to kill a buck while hunting in Michigan's swamps and woods.
Many have an obsession with greater arrow speed.
There seems to be an obsession with more and more arrow speed. Years ago, most bows couldn't shoot 150 feet per second (fps). Many thought an arrow speed of 200 fps was impossible. Ten years ago they felt an arrow speed of 300 fps would never be reached, but it has.
The reality of shooting a bow is that if an arrow travels at 180 fps, and hits a deer at a distance of 20 yards or less, the arrow will hit the animal before it can hear a sound and jump the string or duck under the arrow. So ... is there a need to shoot an arrow any faster?
Of course there is, under certain circumstances. Faster arrow speed means a flatter arrow trajectory. An increase in arrow speed of only 20 fps will allow a person, with the proper skills and considerable practice, to easily kill deer at 30 yards instead of 20. Hunters who travel west to hunt for antelope, elk or mule deer often need to shoot at longer distances, and that is where a faster arrow speed is required to flatten out the arrow flight.
There are still some men who are into heavy poundage on their bows, and who want to reach out and set new personal arrow-speed records. They modify their bows, add an overdraw, shorten their arrow length, and crank up the poundage. They use carbon inserts and carbon arrow, and shoot continuously.
How fast is too fast and what is gained?
Hunters broke the 300 fps barrier years ago, but as time goes on, I see fewer people maxing out the poundage of their bow. And, to be honest with you, I'm seeing far fewer people with shoulder injuries caused by taking their body to a point where it never intended to go.
I now advise people to shoot what feels comfortable to them. A test of strength and determination isn't required to be a successful deer hunter.
Most deer hunters are content to keep the poundage down to a comfortable level, and where drawing a bow is fun ... and is never painful.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Choose Quality Optics
My vision is fairly good in my right eye after nine surgeries on it and another nine on my left eye but when rain or snow slants down over the tag alders, and if a deer stands motionless back in this thick cover, they can be very tough for anyone to see.Or, if I'm brown trout fishing in late June or early July, a pair of quality binoculars can help me spot brown trout rolling on the surface of Lake Michigan several hundred yards away. One thing for sportsmen to remember is that optics aren't just for hunters; they work equally as well for boaters and fishermen, although under vastly different circumstances.Quality optics means everything to a boater, bear or deer hunter, caribou or elk hunter, or any type of boating fisherman. The difference between good and bad optics is like the difference between a good apple and one filled with worms. When shopping for binoculars, rifle scope or a spotting scope, buy the best glass you can afford. If you can, ramp it up just a bit more until the wife starts screaming at you. Spend money, and buy quality.
I've always believed in good optics, and also believe that you get what you are willing to pay for. I have a pair of Swarovski binoculars, and I'd rather leave home without my bow release or my favorite fishing hat than without my binoculars. In fact, I usually have a pair in each car.
My ability to see deer enables me to better plan on how to hunt them and when to take a shot. In some cases, it means allowing the bucks to come to you; in other situations, it may allow the hunter to make tactical changes in how he hunts that animal.Binoculars and a spotting scope make scouting big September bucks from our roads far more effective.It goes without saying that seeing bear, deer, elk and other critters before they see you is of paramount importance. Quality optics can help make that happen. For instance, early in the 2009 bow season I saw some leaves rustling in the tag alders.I wondered why that was happening because there was no wind. I studied the area from a window in my house, and it took several minutes but then a doe came into sharp focus. I kept studying the arimal, and her fawn stepped out, all nice and pretty with some white spots dotting its sides, indicating it was a late-born fawn.Another time, some years ago, I was trolling Lake Michigan for brown trout without any success. Soon some herring gulls began diving into the water a quarter-mile ahead of the boat.I grabbed my binocularsm and studied the water around the gulls, and soon spotted the rolling, feeding fish 100 yards away.The lines were set as I trolled around the edge of the boiling cauldron of feeding fish. My boat was well past the fish when the first brown trout hit, and it jumped. I reeled in the other line while my fish took more line. I bent to the task of fighting that brown trout, and soon landed it.My knot was checked, and I turned the boat around, let out my lines again. Five minutes later I just skirted the edge of the school of browns that were feeding on alewives, and had another jarring strike. That fish weighed 14 pounds, and I quickly caught another brown trout before the school of fish broke up and headed for deep water.That was a great case of being prepared for any eventuality. It pays to buy good optics, and it also pays to learn how to use them. They often play an important role in my fishing and hunting activities, and they can help you too.
Quality binoculars aren't cheap, but most things of quarity are not.
I know I can still shoot a bow with my fingers and make a killing shot, but I don't have the same confidence in my vision without quality glass. It can literally mean the difference between my shooting or not shooting, or in picking a hole through heavy cover.I own a number of different binoculars, and all are made by leaders in the field. I own Bausch & Lomb, Bushnell, Nikon, Simmons, Swarovski and several others of somewhat lesser quality. I've got all the binoculars I need, and you can buy quality binoculars for $300. Yoou can by top-of-the-line binoculars for more than $1,000. If you can spend that much money on binoculars, go for it and buy the best there is. You won't be making a mistake.Take for instance the last day of my 2009 turkey season. The sky was dark and overcast, the woods were dark, and two gobblers came to me after shooting time began. Both were in full strut, both were fanned out and gobbling, but I didn't know if they were longbeards.The problem was it was still too dark in the woods for my shotgun scope to allow me to see a beard on either bird at 25 yards. The law says we can shoot only a bearded bird. Even though both birds were gobbling and strutting, I couldn't see a beard so I didn't shoot. My binoculars cut through the early-morning murk and reveealed them to be two-inch jakes. I passed.Travel, talking to other hunters, and studying their gear can often help you choose quality binoculars.
A friend of mine returned to Michigan many years ago from a hunt in southern Alabama. He and his wife were hunting with some Louisiana Cajun shrimpers from the Mississippi River delta area, and they all carried big, heavy binoculars and rifle scopes with large objective lenses."What's up with the big binoculars," my buddy asked one Cajun hunter. He was quickly given a demonstation of the difference between his optics and theirs."Our binoculars give us 15 minutes more quality hunting time once your binoculars no longer work," he said, once shooting time had ended. "Look yonder. Can you see that deer standing 10 yards inside the cover by that lightning-blasted pine stump?"My friend couldn't see the animal. The Cajun offered his Swarovski binoculars, and my friend quickly spotted the buck. That short demonstration offered him more light-gathering qualities, greater magnification and a much better ability to see deeper into the brush.Quality optics can help hunters find a shooting hole in thick cover.
Alabama is wrapped up with deer, but once they get into thick cover along the edge of the green fields or a palmetto thicket, they are invisible without great optics.Before the turkey season opens, I travel the roads and watch birds fly up to roost. My Bushnell spotting scope with a window mount enables me to find which trees are being used by gobblers.
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