Tactics
Have you ever read an article or watched a Television show where somebody claimed that the only way to shoot big bucks is to do "x"? That if you don't use this product, or don't apply that strategy, you won't be successful hunting big bucks? I'm not trying to knock anyone, or anything of that nature, but what frustrates me is some of the people that say things like this, are people that others look up to and will listen to.
Excitement is surging throughout your body. You are about to embark on a journey. A long, long walk that might take up the better part of the day. As you head into the timber, you've got one thing on your mind...sheds. You don't know what the walk might entail, odds are you'll end up full of briers and stickers, scratched and tattered, and you may not even locate a single antler. But guess what? It's worth it, because you are that much closer to finding your next shed.
Throughout the late winter and spring months, deer hunters across the country hit the woods in search of shed antlers. It can be an addicting facet that plays into a deer hunters yearly regime. Antlers are a fascinating part of a whitetail buck, and there is an abundance of information you can learn from time spent shed hunting.
As I sit here and write this article, wondering why I didn't find any sheds this weekend, I started thinking about possible mistakes I made, and mistakes I know I've made many times in my life. I don't think I'm alone in having the train of thought that shed hunting at times can be glorious, but at other times can seem hopeless. Why is it that you can seem to go shed hunting countless times, yet have nothing, or little to show for it? Here are five mistakes that I think can hinder many folks, myself included.
This year, I've enjoyed my best shed season thus far. In fact, I haven't gone shed hunting a day this year and not found a shed yet. By no means am I trying to brag, this isn't an article to talk about how good of a shed hunter I am, because I am light years away from what you would consider an expert. But, I do think there are a couple key reasons I've been finding more bone this year, and I thought I would lay them out for you, and maybe help you find a couple more antlers as well.
Buck fever. We've all heard about it, for one reason or another. Though some people like to dispute the notion. "It's not real, it's simply a mind game." But, what if that mind game was an incorporation of buck fever itself? Let's face it, many people are superb archery shots, but always seem to find a way to screw up during the moment of truth with a big mature buck. That same person could shoot a hundred does, and not miss a single one. What can explain this? I think you can guess..."buck fever."
Trail cameras can help a deer hunter in more ways than one. It seems to me that during the physical season, trail cameras are more helpful to locating certain bucks, they give you information on where deer are at a given moment, and many times hunters are playing catch up, hunting based off of trail camera pictures from a week or so prior. If you want to get ahead of the game, right now is the best time of the year to study and dissect not only this past seasons photos, but years priors as well.
This season, my buddy Joey Hayes had the rare chance to document exactly how far a buck traveled from his fall range to his winter feeding area. Why was it so rare you ask? Well the buck traveled over ten miles. In case you didn't get that, 10 miles! When he told me about this, it absolutely blew my mind. I've heard of bucks going a mile, maybe even two, three, four, or even five miles. Five seems to be the most I've ever heard of. But 10? That makes me think differently about how much we truly know about whitetails.
In many areas around the country, bucks are just starting to shed their antlers. If you are planning on putting on some miles this spring in search of some bone, there are a couple things you can ask yourself before hand. These are three things I usually struggle with, so I'm going to guess a few others do as well.
Rarely does anything ever happen in a whitetails day that is random. Have you ever thought about that? There is a reason behind every movement. This is even more true when talking about a mature whitetail buck. Everything they do in a day is highly calculated. Every step is taken with caution, and every bed used is done so with precision. Even when some things might seem random during the craziness of the rut, there is still a reason behind what they do. After every hunt, analyze what you saw, and ask why that happened. If you can do this, and put more pieces of the puzzle together, and act on it, you might just be putting yourself in a better position in the future.
