Part 3 of my meditations on the simple truths of Doc Shepp.
We've talked about Access to Quality Whitetail Habitat (hunting where there are lots of deer) and Hunting Where the Pressure is Right (hunting where there aren't lots of hunters). The Good Doctor's next maxum is to Hunt in the Right Place.
What is "the right place?" Thousands of forum and social media posts focus on it. Aerial photos with squiggly lines accompanied by folks asking "Where should I hunt" abound. Everyone has a theory. Close to bedding. Hot feed trees. Micro plots. Primary scrape areas. Pinch points. Right behind the parking lot.
All of these can be right or wrong, depending on the very specific scenario. Whitetails are perhaps second only to humans as far as the diversity of habitats they can occupy on this continent. Farmland, big timber, floodplains, backyards...they're everywhere! Hunt an area long enough, and you'll figure it out even if you don't understand why. Move hunting grounds, and most likely your success will decrease as your theories fall apart because you're not in Kansas anymore. What you need is a basic understanding of the simple, universal truths that govern a deer's life. Once you have these you can quickly figure out new areas and drastically increase your success.
Hide. Eat. Procreate.
I've said it before. That's all deer are here to do. No mortgage, no taxes, no deadlines, no existential dread or self loathing to distract them. Their survival isn't due so much to intelligence or ability so much as it is sheer focus. It's like a toddler and a cookie jar. You can think circles around your kiddo. You're taller and stronger and faster. But he will get in that cookie jar because you have competing interests and he does not. While you're on the phone with your boss, he's thinking about the cookies. While you're trying to make dinner, he's thinking about the cookies. While you're planning a family getaway, he's thinking about the cookies. Deer survive because they're biologically incapable of becoming distracted from the Big 3. Hide. Eat. Procreate. They're always thinking about the cookies.
Once you ingrain this thought in your head, killing deer becomes easier. Especially if you found good whitetail habitat and have either located low pressure hunting land or at least low pressure pockets in high pressure areas. All you need to ask yourself is where are they hiding and what are they eating. Even during the rut, because while bucks have a sex drive, does really don't. They're still eating and hiding, and the bucks will follow the does.
So where do deer hide? Generally, as close to food as possible while avoiding unacceptable exposure to predators (mostly us). What do they eat? The best, most nutrient/calorie dense food they can get access to. Being a deer is hard. They're a big animal that hasn't figured out how to eat smaller animals. Therefore, they have to eat a lot of food. Generally 4lbs per day per 50lbs of live weight. They're gonna munch as much as they can, while moving as little as they can. If they get bumped out of bedding by a predator, that's unnecessary calories burned. If they have to walk up a hill, unnecessary calories. Swim a river, unnecessary calories. Deer CAN do amazing things. So can people. But most of us would rather be couch potatoes than Olympic gymnasts, and would prefer to watch tv as opposed to dissecting graduate theses on conceptual astrophysics. We call it laziness, they call it living to see tomorrow and pass on their genetic material. We are perhaps the only animal who WORRIES about when calories-in exceed calories-out. Deer want that caloric surplus so that they can turn it into antler growth and fawns.
Let's stick a pin in that idea and move to another. Deer are predominately nocturnal, especially in areas where hunters are allowed. The daytime movement we observe is the exception to the rule. Various studies have shown that outside of the rut, only 10% to 30% of deer activity occurs during daylight hours. So for every 10 deer you have in your woods. 1-3 are gonna be up and at'em while you're allowed to hunt. The others are doing the smart thing and hiding somewhere, chewing their cud and digesting the food they ate the night before, while observing you go to and from your stand.
This information means that there are really only a handful of setups that you need to worry about if you are a stand hunter. You can hunt:
Hide. Eat. Procreate.
Cover. Food. Choke points.
You basically have 4 setups that fall into 2 categories. 1 and 2 are destination areas. 3 and 4 are travel routes.
Which of the 4 setups you choose should most likely depend on which factor there is a shortage of. The less food there is, the better deer will concentrate around it and compete for it. The less cover there is, the more deer will hole up in it per acre. And the tougher the terrain, the more deer will flock to an easy route. The more environmental factors increase daylight movement, the better all the spots get, but bedding gets better as daylight activity decreases too. The catch with bedding is access. You need something that allows you to infiltrate their little hideout. Wind and rain being my two favorites.
Think of your favorite stand. What are you capitalizing on? A destination (food or security) or a travel route? If you can't answer that question, you may want to reconsider that spot. How many options do deer have? If you don't see deer there, is it because they aren't moving, or is it because they chose another alternative?
If you have any control over your habitat, you want deer to have as few options as possible. I had this fight with my dad and have finally won it. We used to plant 3 food plots on 120 acres, and had mineral licks off the plots and a corn feeder in an abandoned dirt pit. Deer had options, and it was tough for us to hone in on them. Now, we have one big food plot dead in the center, with a feeder tucked away in the corner and some mineral licks around the perimeter. Since the surrounding area is predominately pine forest with low quality browse, our little bit of acreage is quite appealing. There are 3 main routes into our property, and with 2 people hunting those 3 routes, our odds are quite good of having some action.
If you don't have control over your habitat, I have bad news. You may not have a really good location on your property. Really good combinations of food, cover, and choke points are rare. My local WMA is over 90,000 acres, and over a decade I have covered most of it that can be traversed by a biped. There are maybe 10 spots that can be relied upon to produce deer year after year. The food is too variable and plentiful (predominately oak woods for thousands of acres), the cover is too plentiful (understudy of palmettos), and the terrain is all flat with nothing but oxbow bends in the rivers to form choke points. Deer have options. You apply a little pressure, and they move. Couple that with low deer density and close proximity to a major city (more hunters), and the math just isn't in your favor. I've pulled deer off of it, but it requires Herculean effort.
In conditions like this, you have two options. Option one is being EXTREMELY mobile. @WHW in my mind wrote the book on dealing with this. Keep walking and chasing that food source. Don't settle for sign that is more than a day old or that doesn't indicate multiple deer because if you do you're hoping, not hunting. It's tough hunting, especially if you have limited time to devote to it.
Option two is less sexy, but perhaps more practical. Quit hunting that area. You're trying to light a fire with wet wood and one broken match. It's possible, but is it worth it if there's dry wood and gasoline nearby? Find an area with better habitat, fewer hunters, and terrain that is conducive to funneling deer movement. I have been blown away the past couple of years by the quality of the hunting in other areas around the state. For many hunters, the best use of play money is on gasoline for the truck, not saddles or heavy arrows or OnX subscriptions.
Basically, I suppose the idea behind choosing a stand location is simply to post up in an area where the deer aren't at right now, but HAVE to be in the next couple of hours if they want to continue the cycle of eating and hiding. This very simple idea holds true no matter where or when you are hunting deer. Options are not your friend when you are ambushing something. If you can learn to consider this each and every time you climb a tree, you will kill more deer. Strip away everything else, or at least take the time to understand how the minutia ties into the overarching principle.
We've talked about Access to Quality Whitetail Habitat (hunting where there are lots of deer) and Hunting Where the Pressure is Right (hunting where there aren't lots of hunters). The Good Doctor's next maxum is to Hunt in the Right Place.
What is "the right place?" Thousands of forum and social media posts focus on it. Aerial photos with squiggly lines accompanied by folks asking "Where should I hunt" abound. Everyone has a theory. Close to bedding. Hot feed trees. Micro plots. Primary scrape areas. Pinch points. Right behind the parking lot.
All of these can be right or wrong, depending on the very specific scenario. Whitetails are perhaps second only to humans as far as the diversity of habitats they can occupy on this continent. Farmland, big timber, floodplains, backyards...they're everywhere! Hunt an area long enough, and you'll figure it out even if you don't understand why. Move hunting grounds, and most likely your success will decrease as your theories fall apart because you're not in Kansas anymore. What you need is a basic understanding of the simple, universal truths that govern a deer's life. Once you have these you can quickly figure out new areas and drastically increase your success.
Hide. Eat. Procreate.
I've said it before. That's all deer are here to do. No mortgage, no taxes, no deadlines, no existential dread or self loathing to distract them. Their survival isn't due so much to intelligence or ability so much as it is sheer focus. It's like a toddler and a cookie jar. You can think circles around your kiddo. You're taller and stronger and faster. But he will get in that cookie jar because you have competing interests and he does not. While you're on the phone with your boss, he's thinking about the cookies. While you're trying to make dinner, he's thinking about the cookies. While you're planning a family getaway, he's thinking about the cookies. Deer survive because they're biologically incapable of becoming distracted from the Big 3. Hide. Eat. Procreate. They're always thinking about the cookies.
Once you ingrain this thought in your head, killing deer becomes easier. Especially if you found good whitetail habitat and have either located low pressure hunting land or at least low pressure pockets in high pressure areas. All you need to ask yourself is where are they hiding and what are they eating. Even during the rut, because while bucks have a sex drive, does really don't. They're still eating and hiding, and the bucks will follow the does.
So where do deer hide? Generally, as close to food as possible while avoiding unacceptable exposure to predators (mostly us). What do they eat? The best, most nutrient/calorie dense food they can get access to. Being a deer is hard. They're a big animal that hasn't figured out how to eat smaller animals. Therefore, they have to eat a lot of food. Generally 4lbs per day per 50lbs of live weight. They're gonna munch as much as they can, while moving as little as they can. If they get bumped out of bedding by a predator, that's unnecessary calories burned. If they have to walk up a hill, unnecessary calories. Swim a river, unnecessary calories. Deer CAN do amazing things. So can people. But most of us would rather be couch potatoes than Olympic gymnasts, and would prefer to watch tv as opposed to dissecting graduate theses on conceptual astrophysics. We call it laziness, they call it living to see tomorrow and pass on their genetic material. We are perhaps the only animal who WORRIES about when calories-in exceed calories-out. Deer want that caloric surplus so that they can turn it into antler growth and fawns.
Let's stick a pin in that idea and move to another. Deer are predominately nocturnal, especially in areas where hunters are allowed. The daytime movement we observe is the exception to the rule. Various studies have shown that outside of the rut, only 10% to 30% of deer activity occurs during daylight hours. So for every 10 deer you have in your woods. 1-3 are gonna be up and at'em while you're allowed to hunt. The others are doing the smart thing and hiding somewhere, chewing their cud and digesting the food they ate the night before, while observing you go to and from your stand.
This information means that there are really only a handful of setups that you need to worry about if you are a stand hunter. You can hunt:
- In the bedding. Best odds of daylight movement throughout the day. Deer will get up to stretch their legs and mosey around periodically. Also perhaps the riskiest hunt in terms of being busted, because the odds of there already being deer there when you arrive are high. Also, deer have the annoying habit of bedding in areas you can't quietly get to.
- On the food. Depending on proximity of security cover, higher or lower odds. Hot oak tree in dense woods? Good odds of daylight movement. Agricultural field by the road? Low odds of daylight movement.
- Between the bedding and the food. Decent odds of dusk/dawn movement. They will increase the better the food, the better the bedding, and the fewer options deer have to travel between the two.
- Between two bedding areas. This can be absolute magic during the rut, and is a solid location anytime conditions are favorable to inducing daylight activity. Bucks will bounce from bedding area to bedding area cruising for does who are trying to mind their own business, and when roused by a buck a doe will generally try to make her way to another secure location. And when they breed, they will generally do this in bedding. As with 3, your odds go up the fewer options deer have to travel between the two locations.
Hide. Eat. Procreate.
Cover. Food. Choke points.
You basically have 4 setups that fall into 2 categories. 1 and 2 are destination areas. 3 and 4 are travel routes.
Which of the 4 setups you choose should most likely depend on which factor there is a shortage of. The less food there is, the better deer will concentrate around it and compete for it. The less cover there is, the more deer will hole up in it per acre. And the tougher the terrain, the more deer will flock to an easy route. The more environmental factors increase daylight movement, the better all the spots get, but bedding gets better as daylight activity decreases too. The catch with bedding is access. You need something that allows you to infiltrate their little hideout. Wind and rain being my two favorites.
Think of your favorite stand. What are you capitalizing on? A destination (food or security) or a travel route? If you can't answer that question, you may want to reconsider that spot. How many options do deer have? If you don't see deer there, is it because they aren't moving, or is it because they chose another alternative?
If you have any control over your habitat, you want deer to have as few options as possible. I had this fight with my dad and have finally won it. We used to plant 3 food plots on 120 acres, and had mineral licks off the plots and a corn feeder in an abandoned dirt pit. Deer had options, and it was tough for us to hone in on them. Now, we have one big food plot dead in the center, with a feeder tucked away in the corner and some mineral licks around the perimeter. Since the surrounding area is predominately pine forest with low quality browse, our little bit of acreage is quite appealing. There are 3 main routes into our property, and with 2 people hunting those 3 routes, our odds are quite good of having some action.
If you don't have control over your habitat, I have bad news. You may not have a really good location on your property. Really good combinations of food, cover, and choke points are rare. My local WMA is over 90,000 acres, and over a decade I have covered most of it that can be traversed by a biped. There are maybe 10 spots that can be relied upon to produce deer year after year. The food is too variable and plentiful (predominately oak woods for thousands of acres), the cover is too plentiful (understudy of palmettos), and the terrain is all flat with nothing but oxbow bends in the rivers to form choke points. Deer have options. You apply a little pressure, and they move. Couple that with low deer density and close proximity to a major city (more hunters), and the math just isn't in your favor. I've pulled deer off of it, but it requires Herculean effort.
In conditions like this, you have two options. Option one is being EXTREMELY mobile. @WHW in my mind wrote the book on dealing with this. Keep walking and chasing that food source. Don't settle for sign that is more than a day old or that doesn't indicate multiple deer because if you do you're hoping, not hunting. It's tough hunting, especially if you have limited time to devote to it.
Option two is less sexy, but perhaps more practical. Quit hunting that area. You're trying to light a fire with wet wood and one broken match. It's possible, but is it worth it if there's dry wood and gasoline nearby? Find an area with better habitat, fewer hunters, and terrain that is conducive to funneling deer movement. I have been blown away the past couple of years by the quality of the hunting in other areas around the state. For many hunters, the best use of play money is on gasoline for the truck, not saddles or heavy arrows or OnX subscriptions.
Basically, I suppose the idea behind choosing a stand location is simply to post up in an area where the deer aren't at right now, but HAVE to be in the next couple of hours if they want to continue the cycle of eating and hiding. This very simple idea holds true no matter where or when you are hunting deer. Options are not your friend when you are ambushing something. If you can learn to consider this each and every time you climb a tree, you will kill more deer. Strip away everything else, or at least take the time to understand how the minutia ties into the overarching principle.
