By Alex Comstock
Today is March 2nd and we’ve had multiple days in a row above thirty degrees here in northern Minnesota. Snow is starting to melt (finally) and I’ve got spring on my mind. Though optimistic, I’m sure the March snowstorm that seems to always strike will eventually show up. But for now, I’m going to let spring fever start taking over and with that, I want to cover some things that will be on my mind for the next few months as it pertains to whitetails. There are always things you can be doing to help your chances of success in the fall, and right now is no different.
Shed Hunting
You didn’t think I wasn’t going to cover shed hunting right? It’s easily my favorite thing to do in the spring when it comes to whitetails and right now is when I’m about to start hitting it really hard. Thus far, I’ve put roughly 4o miles on the boots in search of antlers, only coming up with a total of five sheds in the process. In the next month or so, I hope to at least double that amount and hopefully in turn, I’ll find exponentially more antlers.
To read more shed hunting tips, read this article here.
Shed hunting is a great activity to participate in during the spring for a plethora of reasons. Not only is finding antlers fun, but you can learn a lot about what bucks survived the previous season, where bucks are living and can have something to look forward to the following fall. And the best part about it is if you aren’t finding sheds, at the very least, it’s always fun to be outside and finding sheds can be just an added bonus.
Scouting
Another thing you should definitely be doing in the spring is scouting. I like to differ scouting from shed hunting because it can be very challenging to accomplish both of them well simultaneously. If you head out to try and shed hunt and scout at the same time, I usually find that you’re taking away from at least one of those. What I simply mean is that if you head out to shed hunt, focus on shed hunting. That way, you’re odds of finding antlers will go up. But if you’re heading out to scout, keep your focus on scouting. If you’re looking for some good spring scouting advice, check out a couple Q&A’s we’ve done in the past below. There’s a lot of great information to be learned in them form a couple of the best hunters I know.
Scouting should play a major role in the spring.
Spring “Maintenance”
There’s a lot of “maintenance” that you can accomplish in the spring, and what gets done can depend largely on your style of hunting, and what kind of property you hunt. For instance, if you own land and hunt food plots, etc. this can be a great time of year to frost seed food plots, hinge cut bedding areas, install water holes, install trail systems and other work along these lines. I’m not going to go in depth here because I don’t own land and have never had the opportunity to do whitetail work like this in the spring. But, with that said, if you do own land or are able to work like this on a lease, take a look at what your hunting property is missing, and improve it in anyway you can.
What my spring “maintenance” will look like will come in the form of a couple different things. First of all, this is the time of year I like to take down my trail cameras and do any maintenance on them that is needed. This year, it’ll be firmware updates, getting new batteries in them all, etc. I typically run trail cameras all through winter until most of the bucks have shed, and then I’ll pull them. Next, any treestands that I leave hanging throughout the year, which for me is just a few, I’ll check straps and what not to ensure they’re still safe. If you need to replace any straps, now is the time to do it. Lastly, if you have any spots that you know for certain you’ll be hunting next year, I like to cut my shooting lanes and access trails now. Even in areas where I know I’ll be hunting, but I’m not going to leave a stand up, I’ll take a day and hang stands, cut my lanes and then pull the stand the same day. That way, when I do a hang and hunt next fall, a lot of my work will already be done, and i shouldn’t have to worry as much about little things like that.
Locate New Hunting Properties
Spring is an opportune time to locate new hunting properties. I’m always on the search for new properties, and for me, it’s always by permission. Every year, I like to make a list of properties I’d like to get permission on and then in the spring, I’ll go to the landowners and ask permission. If I’m able to get permission, I like to get it during the spring, because I then can immediately put boots on the ground and start formulating a game plan on how I think I’m going to hunt it.
Spring is an opportune time to get permission on new ground.
A great example here is actually where I hunt down in Nebraska. I do all of my Nebraska hunting with my cousin Kaleb, mostly because that’s where he lives and he’s able to get out and scout, run cameras, etc. This year, he was able to get us permission on a few new pieces just last week, and as soon as he secured permission, he put boots on the ground on two of the properties that day. After he was able to speed scout it, when I head down there at the end of March, we have a start to as to where we want to hang a couple stands and that way going into summer we won’t be at ground zero. If you’re looking to pick up permission on any new properties, I’d strongly suggest trying to do in the spring, and scout it as soon as you can.
Turkey Hunting
The last thing I want to cover for a whitetail hunter’s spring guide is turkey hunting. Turkey hunting means many different things to many different hunters, but to me, it acts as a way to help hone my overall hunting skills. Though somewhat different and different skills needed to be able to kill turkeys, I’m ultimately thinking about whitetails in the fall, and hunting turkeys gives me a great excuse to help sharpen my hunting skills in general. I love turkey hunting and find it very fun, but I also truly believe the more you put yourself in a position where you’re hunting and you have to manage an increased heart rate and adrenaline to pull of a good shot on an animal, it will end up helping you down the road even for deer hunting.
Conclusion
As we escape winter (hallelujah!) and emerge into spring, take these things into account. It can be easy to put things off, and before you know it, we’ll be fading into summer and then all of a sudden it’ll be fall. Get out there in the next couple months and check some whitetail work off the to-do list. It’ll only help you in the long run!
