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John's Journal... Entry 171, Day 3

ROAD MAP TO WHITETAIL RENDEZVOUSES

Road Maps 6-8

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bagging a deer can be relatively easy. All you have to do is have a deer in your sights, know that your scope is accurate, make a steady squeeze on the trigger and permit your bullet to do the rest. But finding a white-tailed deer often can be difficult, although it is the most-plentiful game animal in North America. Here's some routes to follow that will direct you to a whitetail rendezvous this winter.

ROAD MAP #6: Realize that deer will overcome many obstacles to feed on their favorite foods.

Empty white oat and water oak acorn shells directed my friend Allen O'Dell to a hardwood bottom in a southern river swamp last season. O'Dell knew the deer were feeding on the acorns in this particular bottom, because he had done pre-season scouting and found a great number of tracks, droppings, cracked acorns and uneaten acorns. However before O'Dell could hunt the deer, the rains came. His primary hunting area was flooded, with the flats where the deer ordinarily fed now under 3 to 8 feet of water. Most of the ridges were very narrow and contained little food. But O'Dell decided that the ridges were the only possible places deer could be. As he started to wade a slough, he saw some movement in the water out of the corner of his eye. At first, he thought the movement might be ducks. He stood motionless. Then he observed a doe standing chest-deep in the slough 20 yards from the bank, feeding on floating acorns.

"Apparently as the water came into the bottom the acorns floated up and formed a ring for about 20 yards out around the edge of the flooded area," O'Dell remembers. "The deer stuck her nose into the water, picked up the floating acorns, let the water run out of her mouth and begin to feed." For the next two weeks, O'Dell hunted the slough. "I would see as many as 20 to 30 deer in a drove moving through the slough, eating the acorns out in the water. When they had depleted the acorn supply, I watched and found that the deer still came to the slough. But instead of eating there they would cross the water and go to other feeding areas." Normally hunters do not expect to find deer in water by choice. However you may find a buck there when the preferred food is in the water.

ROAD MAP # 7: Find the trails the whitetails are traveling to their main food source. From scouting, Allen O'Dell found the deer's primary food source -- the acorns on the water. Then he observed their principal paths through the water to additional food after their main supply of food was exhausted. "There were three places where the deer crossed the bottom. And after some investigation, I found these three crossings were underwater ridges. The deer could cross on these ridges and only be in 3 or 4 feet of water, while on either side of the ridge there might be 5 to 8 feet of water. In two weeks of hunting, I bagged three bucks and saw between 150 t0 200 animals."

Hunting primary food sources is a good highway to travel to a deer. However, the trail the deer utilizes to go to the food source often is the best place for a sportsman to take his stand. But sometimes there will be more than one trail leading to a particular food source. So most hunters will try and guess which trail will be the most productive. Barbed-wire fences in the area may give you the information you need to steer yourself in the right direction. "One of the best methods I have found to determine whether or not deer are using a trail is to check the area where the trail goes under a fence, "Dr. Ross Shelton of the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service explains. "Most of the time there will be deer hair in the barbs of the fence, if the deer are using this trail. Remove the hair each day. Then check daily to see if new hair is stuck to the wire." A well-worn trail will have many deer tracks on it. Look for a large amount of fresh deer droppings on the path to help decide if the trail is being frequented. The freshness of the droppings can be determined by the touch test. Pick up a dropping between thumb and index finger and squeeze gently. A fresh dropping of a couple of days or so will be soft and pliable, whereas an older dropping will be harder and drier to the touch.

ROAD MAP # 8 : Funnel the animals to the spot where you are set up if deer are suing several trails to get to their feeding areas.

"Usually when there are three or four possible trails the deer can use to get to his food source -- I go into the area I want to hunt three or four days prior to the day I plan to hunt," Dr. Shelton explains. "I build natural barriers utilizing limbs and branches across the other trails. Then the deer will have to funnel onto the trail I want to hunt. This tactic is especially useful for the bow hunter who has to bring the deer in close for a shot." Generally a whitetail will not attempt to leap these barriers, although a deer can clear an 8-foot hurdle from a standing position when it is frightened.

TOMORROW: ROAD MAPS 9 AND 10

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about ROAD MAP TO WHITETAIL RENDEZVOUSES ...

Day 1 - Finding Your Deer
Day 2 - Road Maps 3-5
Day 3 - Road Maps 6-8
Day 4 - Road Maps 9 and 10
Day 5 - Road Maps 11 and 12


John's Journal