DAN PEREZ'S DEER-TAKING TACTICS

Hunting in Urban Areas and In Late December

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: Do you hunt any bucks that are close to houses?
ANSWER: I've used human dwellings to create funnels in several hunting situations.

QUESTION: How do you do that?
ANSWER: I do it on purpose. In one hunting situation, I set up my tree stand on some property next to a house. The person's yard was fenced in next to a big hill. The distance between that steep hill and the corner of that man's fence was less than 70 yards. The deer used that clearing like a funnel to come out into an alfalfa field in September.

QUESTION: How close were you to the house?
ANSWER: When I sat in that stand, I could see into the kitchen and could hear them talk.
QUESTION: Did the people in the house know you were out there?
ANSWER: They didn't have a clue. I shot a really nice heavy- antlered 10 pointer about 4:00 in the afternoon, less than 20 yards from the corner of their fence.

QUESTION: Could you see the deer come through the funnel?
ANSWER: I watched them come through the funnel from a distance. I couldn't tell exactly where they entered the field until I went into the timber and saw the trail. I went back there, nosed around and saw where all the trails merged between the corner of that fence and the field. So, that's where I set up to hunt them. But a natural funnel and a man-made barrier created that funnel.

QUESTION: Can you give me another method way to take deer?
ANSWER: A nice, big buck with two other bucks came out into a field to feed in late December. I knew that they bedded close to the edge of the woods because they remained around a small wooded lot without a lot of timber. The buck was close to the edge, which made slipping in there and hanging a stand difficult. I set up my tree stand at a vantage point so I could watch one evening. Just like the other times they came out of the timber, fled across the field and eventually went over a little crest about 150 yards from the timber's edge. But this time, when they moved out of the timber and went over that crest, I hauled that tree stand into the timber and hung it up while they were still out in the field. Then I got out of there as quietly as possible.

About 1-1/2-weeks later, I got another northwest wind, which was the only wind I could hunt with in there. I slipped back in and climbed up in that tree stand. I pulled my bow up to the stand, hung it up and got situated. Then I looked over a little knoll. Before, when I wasn't in a tree stand, I couldn't see over the little knoll. About 30 yards on the other side of the knoll I spotted three sets of antlers sticking out of the bush. These bucks were bedded right there within 40 yards of my stand.

You never hear of anyone running in with a tree stand when the deer are about to leave their bed. If I'd come in and hung a stand in the afternoon, I would have blown the deer out of there because I couldn't possibly have erected a stand without alerting them. I tagged that big buck that evening. The three bucks got out of their beds and fed down toward me, slowly nipping at the leaves and stretching. They came up to this little creek that feeds off a larger creek and they walked parallel to me. One of the bucks walked almost to the base of my tree. The other buck, which was a pretty nice 8 pointer, smelled around in the bushes. The buck I wanted to shoot, a really tall 8 pointer, had his face up rubbing it in the branches. I watched all three deer to make sure none of them were looking at me before I started to draw. I drew and shot him right there with his face up in the branches. He whirled around, stopped and looked at the arrow. He didn't have a clue what just had happened. He started to trot off, but then he just collapsed. The other bucks stood still trying to figure out what had just happened. That kill was very humane. Everything went just perfectly. That evening was so still you could hear a pin drop. That buck measured 144 inches, which is pretty good for an 8 pointer.

QUESTION: When did the deer come into the field?
ANSWER: They would make it out into the field about 30 minutes before dark.

QUESTION: So, if you had gone in any other time to try and hang that stand, you would have spooked them, right?
ANSWER: I would have been busted for sure.

QUESTION: How did you not spook them when you went to get into the stand?
ANSWER: Well, the stand was in from the timber line about 15 yards. I slipped in like I was stalking something. I climbed up that stand just as quietly as possible. The wind was right as far as scent was concerned, and I just had to get in there as quietly as I could.