John's Journal...
Entry
106, Day 4
DAN PEREZ'S DEER-TAKING TACTICS
Perez Takes Another Funnelled Buck
EDITOR'S
NOTE: Dan Perez of Bowling Green, Missouri, has bowhunted deer for
the past 35 years and has taken 17 official Pope and Young bucks. He also
has several more racks not yet scored that will surely make the P&Y
record book. With outdoorsmen everywhere getting ready for fall and the
beginning of deer season, I talked with Perez about some of his unusual
deer-hunting tactics.
QUESTION: Tell me about another deer you've taken
using the funnelling method.
ANSWER: Well, I've taken a lot of deer by funnelling. I had to
close up four passages to take one buck. I knew he'd been bothering does
in the timber for a couple of hours. I heard him out there running and
chasing. He went through the fence where I wanted him to go, and my funnelling
method forced him to go over a little crest that dropped down in front
of me where I had a real easy shot. He headed toward another spot, but
I had blocked his passageway at the fence. So, he followed the fence line
down and then jumped it within 12 yards of me.
QUESTION: Did you pull the top strand down or
the middle strand up?
ANSWER: On that one, I didn't have to do anything. All I did was
close up the avenues of travel. But creating a hole in the middle of the
fence rather than over the top provides a deer with easy access.
QUESTION:
Do you tie up the fence close to a spot where you can take a buck with
a bow?
ANSWER: Yes, I want to narrow the ground a big buck can cover to
force him to come within bow range.
QUESTION: Do the deer always come through the
opening you've made rather than jump the fence?
ANSWER: Well, yes and no. Only if I close that one trail that takes
them to that spot.
QUESTION: And how do you do that?
ANSWER: I block the trail with a barrier of blown-down trees. I
don't try to create a new trail. If deer have a choice of two trails that
fork, and one of them is 60 yards from me and the other one is within
bow range in the timber, I'll close up the trail that is 60 yards away.
QUESTION:
Have you taken any deer using a different method?
ANSWER: Often, I'll hunt dogs in the morning, come back in and
go back out in the afternoon. Or, I'll go into the woods about 10:00 a.m.
and hunt until dark. I've harvested a lot of bucks using that method that
I may not have harvested if I had used another technique. If I get in
to my stand at 10:00 a.m. and stay there all day, I leave only one trail
of scent coming to my stand and only one trail of scent going out. I increase
my odds of harvesting a deer because I spend more hours on the fence.
Typically, a guy will go to his stand early in the morning in the dark
and leave a trail of scent through the timber to his stand. He'll head
out of the woods at about 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. and leave a trail of
scent back to his truck. Then when he comes back at 3:00 p.m., he leaves
a trail of scent from his truck back to his tree stand. He then comes
back out at dark and leaves another scent trail. The entire deer population
will figure out this routine pretty quickly. I know a lot of people don't
hunt this way, but I've had more success going to my stand in mid-morning
and spending the day. I admit that dark-morning hunts can be really good,
but they can be really bad if you intend to hunt the entire season like
that.
TOMORROW: PEREZ'S SNOW, WIND
AND RAIN METHODS FOR TAKING WHITE-TAILED DEER
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