Hopefully, this post will help anyone who is either early into or reevaluating their deer hunting. 5 questions, what, where, when, how and why. Order doesnt really matter and you dont have to be able to answer all 5 to kill deer. This is more about how we answer the questions and how that will influence the type and amount of success a hunter has. Growing up, my mentors taught me to hunt deer the exact same way @WHW hunts them by focusing on feed patterns. Where? feed, what? preferred mast at the time, when? learn the drop times for preferred mast and adjust through the fall, why? deer have to eat, how? climb the best tree in bow range downwind of the target tree. This approach works and works very well, especially in the big flat riverbottoms I grew up hunting.
I have wanted to learn to hunt the mountains though and finally this spring have been logging miles looking at ground, looking for sign and asking my questions. Before I started scouting though I spent some time talking with a few guys I know that area successful killing mature bucks in the mountains and grew up hunting in the mountains. Also listened to a number of podcast re: mountain hunting One of those guys is one of my closest friends but we didnt grow up hunting together. When we first began hunting together, in the bottoms, he would point out a tree and say "man you could kill one right here" I would look around scratching my head wondering what in the crap he was seeing that made him think that. He would make comments about not paying much attention to sign and esp. feed sign. We would talk about pinch points, funnels etc. I understood those things and saw the really defined ones but when I asked myself my questions the answers always were from the perspective of how I was taught. After a few mountain scouting trips, I was finding some stuff but not what I thought I should be. Someone here mentioned Caltopo, I think it was @woodsdog2 and so I pulled that up along with google earth and the other maps I was using. I got to thinking about the different features I had heard mentioned and zeroed in on trying to find those things on the maps and what do you know, there they are. But the light still wasnt on. That didnt happen until the next scouting trip. I picked a couple areas and dropped a bunch of pins on things based solely on map study with the intent to verify in person to see if deer were using the spots. As I moved from pin to pin every single spot had deer sign, trails, scrapes, rubs. The lights starting to flicker a little but not yet fully on. The 6th pin I checked, one I had in my mind that should be really good, was tore up with big scrapes. I was standing 40 yards from where I had walked the first trip into that area. That first trip I saw a small rub and a small scrape which was disappointing because I had thought it should be a great spot.
Standing there thinking about how close I had been to such great sign and the difference in 40 yards is when the light came on. When I initially map scouted and the first trip in I wasnt asking or answering my questions the right way. The reason the guys I knew that were successful in the mountains saw entirely different things in the woods was how they answered those 5 questions. Time to reevaluate, the questions are the same but how do I answer them? I thought about that for a few minutes and started with the new pins. I dropped those pins on defined features, the what. What hard terrain feature is going to make a deer put his feet right here? Why, because it influences travel whether that relates to feed, bedding or breeding. Where, this is the zoom out a bit aspect, where is he coming from, where is he going, from a landscape view as it relates to food, bed, breeding and is there a what that connects more than one of those? Is there more than one what that you can tie into the where? How? Though I havent put this into practice yet in the mountains on whitetails, I am relying on elk hunting experience and focusing on access and air movement with air movement being the combination of wind direction, terrain influence on wind and thermal movement. Which route to the what doesnt disturb the where's but keeps the advantage of air movement? If you primarily hunt with a gun or ML you will have more flexibility here. When will influence which what's to focus on. Is it early season or late season and a food to bed pattern or is it during the phases of the rut? Which what's play into those phases?
I will be a mountain whitetail novice this fall but this change in a approach also applies to the bottoms I hunt as well as the rolling hills I hunt. I know that because I have watched my buddy use that approach and stack up big deer. I sent him a text the day it clicked for me and said I finally see what you see and his reply was I want to talk about it. On the phone he wanted to know what changed and I explained the what I grew up asking as opposed to his what and how answering that question differently influences the rest of the questions. He said he had never thought of it that way or heard it explained that way.
For you guys that are consistently successful regardless of terrain, feel free to add to this or offer counter opinions. I always want to share things I think will be helpful but I am also here to learn.
I have wanted to learn to hunt the mountains though and finally this spring have been logging miles looking at ground, looking for sign and asking my questions. Before I started scouting though I spent some time talking with a few guys I know that area successful killing mature bucks in the mountains and grew up hunting in the mountains. Also listened to a number of podcast re: mountain hunting One of those guys is one of my closest friends but we didnt grow up hunting together. When we first began hunting together, in the bottoms, he would point out a tree and say "man you could kill one right here" I would look around scratching my head wondering what in the crap he was seeing that made him think that. He would make comments about not paying much attention to sign and esp. feed sign. We would talk about pinch points, funnels etc. I understood those things and saw the really defined ones but when I asked myself my questions the answers always were from the perspective of how I was taught. After a few mountain scouting trips, I was finding some stuff but not what I thought I should be. Someone here mentioned Caltopo, I think it was @woodsdog2 and so I pulled that up along with google earth and the other maps I was using. I got to thinking about the different features I had heard mentioned and zeroed in on trying to find those things on the maps and what do you know, there they are. But the light still wasnt on. That didnt happen until the next scouting trip. I picked a couple areas and dropped a bunch of pins on things based solely on map study with the intent to verify in person to see if deer were using the spots. As I moved from pin to pin every single spot had deer sign, trails, scrapes, rubs. The lights starting to flicker a little but not yet fully on. The 6th pin I checked, one I had in my mind that should be really good, was tore up with big scrapes. I was standing 40 yards from where I had walked the first trip into that area. That first trip I saw a small rub and a small scrape which was disappointing because I had thought it should be a great spot.
Standing there thinking about how close I had been to such great sign and the difference in 40 yards is when the light came on. When I initially map scouted and the first trip in I wasnt asking or answering my questions the right way. The reason the guys I knew that were successful in the mountains saw entirely different things in the woods was how they answered those 5 questions. Time to reevaluate, the questions are the same but how do I answer them? I thought about that for a few minutes and started with the new pins. I dropped those pins on defined features, the what. What hard terrain feature is going to make a deer put his feet right here? Why, because it influences travel whether that relates to feed, bedding or breeding. Where, this is the zoom out a bit aspect, where is he coming from, where is he going, from a landscape view as it relates to food, bed, breeding and is there a what that connects more than one of those? Is there more than one what that you can tie into the where? How? Though I havent put this into practice yet in the mountains on whitetails, I am relying on elk hunting experience and focusing on access and air movement with air movement being the combination of wind direction, terrain influence on wind and thermal movement. Which route to the what doesnt disturb the where's but keeps the advantage of air movement? If you primarily hunt with a gun or ML you will have more flexibility here. When will influence which what's to focus on. Is it early season or late season and a food to bed pattern or is it during the phases of the rut? Which what's play into those phases?
I will be a mountain whitetail novice this fall but this change in a approach also applies to the bottoms I hunt as well as the rolling hills I hunt. I know that because I have watched my buddy use that approach and stack up big deer. I sent him a text the day it clicked for me and said I finally see what you see and his reply was I want to talk about it. On the phone he wanted to know what changed and I explained the what I grew up asking as opposed to his what and how answering that question differently influences the rest of the questions. He said he had never thought of it that way or heard it explained that way.
For you guys that are consistently successful regardless of terrain, feel free to add to this or offer counter opinions. I always want to share things I think will be helpful but I am also here to learn.