John's Journal...

Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams

Day 4: You Have to Build Bodies and Train the Athletes or the Deer for the Most-Productive Programs

Editor’s Note: “Stay with the process, get better every day, do everything right each day, and the outcome will take care of itself,” is a gospel Coach Nick Saban, head football coach at the University of Alabama, preaches to his football team daily. Each year, his teams produce the opportunity for being champions. The result of Saban’s gospel has been three national championships and three SEC championships. This type of philosophy also will produce older-age-class deer year after year for PSE bowhunters.

Click for Larger ViewClick for Larger ViewMajor ingredients in producing a championship football team or older age class deer for you to hunt on your property include building body weights and training the athletes or deer to perform the way you want them to perform at the time that’s most important. Through the spring and summer, and as the crops in your green fields grow and develop, you want to make sure you have plenty of delicious tasting minerals for the deer to ingest during green-up, the summer months and the early fall. Many of the different combinations of minerals available also have vitamins included in their blends. As we know, vitamins and minerals not only help build strong big bodies, they also help to protect the athletes and the deer from disease. As you begin to study and evaluate what type of minerals you'll put out for your deer, spend time researching all the offerings of vitamins and minerals being produced for deer consumption. Also, look at the palatability studies that have been performed on different brands of minerals to make sure the minerals that you choose to put out near your green field plantings are minerals and vitamins that are palatable, digestible and useful specifically for deer.

Like the old saying goes, “Everything that wiggles isn’t Jell-O,” and not all the deer mineral products that are on the market contain the right types and amounts of vitamins and minerals that can be ingested by deer and actually will aid in the growth and the development of deer and have the disease-resistant characteristics that deer need. I often think of deer vitamins and minerals like they're turnip greens. Turnip greens are good for children to eat, but in some preparations, the flavor of turnip greens causes children not to eat them. For this reason, some southern cooks put a little bit of sugar in the turnip greens to sweeten them for the young people they want to eat these greens.

One of the relatively new innovations in attracting and holding deer is deer lure. Many believe deer lure is like ice cream for deer - they’ve gotta have it, and they can’t get enough of it. So, if you put deer lure with your vitamin and mineral stations, reason dictates that the deer will take in more vitamins and minerals than they will without the vitamins and minerals being covered or soaked with deer lure. This is one additional expense that most hunters don’t add to their vitamin and mineral stations that can help keep and hold the mature bucks you’ve lured onto your property at the end of deer season. Remember that because vitamins and minerals can help produce bigger bucks with heavier body weights and larger antlers, then the more vitamins and minerals the deer take in, the healthier they should be. They should be more disease-resistant, they should have bigger body weights, and they should have larger antlers.

Click for Larger ViewClick for Larger ViewYou don’t have to run your feeders all year. Once green-up begins, and the green field plantings start producing food for deer, you can stop your feeding program and allow your deer to switch over and begin to feed on your green field plantings and the vitamins and minerals you’ve put out.

To learn more about deer hunting, you can get John E. Phillips’ Kindle eBooks, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties,” (John’s latest book), “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows,” “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property,” “How to Take Monster Bucks,” and “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro,” or to prepare venison, get “Deer & Fixings.” Click here on each, or go to "www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Tomorrow: Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams

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About the Author

John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors. Click here for more information and a list of all the books available from John E. Phillips.

Check the Performance of Your Deer Herd’s Training and Nutritional Program Before the Deer Season Starts


Check back each day this week for more about Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams"

Day 1: Start Scouting the Day after Deer Season Closes
Day 2: How to Legally Steal Your Neighbor’s Buck Deer
Day 3: Stick with the System and Don’t Focus On the Results to Produce Mature Buck Deer Where You Hunt
Day 4: You Have to Build Bodies and Train the Athletes or the Deer for the Most-Productive Programs
Day 5: Hunt and Harvest Mature Buck Deer Every Year with the Same System That Produces Championship Football Teams

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Entry 803, Day 4