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Reflections on my first bow season

TheBlindCat

TheBlindCat

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2022
Messages
306
So fall of 2020 I decided it was time to learn to shoot a bow, maybe get good enough to hunt eventually. I’ve rifle hunted on public land for 20 years, but it’s an area where my family has an 80 of private surrounded by the public land I’ve hunted. Many of the stands have been put in nearly the same places for 50 years, though some are abandoned and new ones out up as the forest changes or gets logged. Long and short is I’ve never had to learn to scout or really how to deer hunt. Just sit quietly enough in a stand with a rifle and plug one from 100 yards or less. But I live hours from there on the border of two states (northern Wisconsin and Minnesota) with access to massive amounts of forested timber.

Compounds don’t interest me so I bought a cheap Southwest Archery recurve at 40 lbs and started practicing, set up a target in my garage and could shoot out to 30 yards from my driveway. Practiced until it got too cold then picked it up in the spring. Did decent at 3D archery, bought an old Herters 65lb longbow that I carried all season of 2021. I practiced a ton and felt ok shooting to 20 yards.

Hated the idea of a climber or hang on, found the saddle hunting stuff and blew a ton of money trying different equipment, quivers, climbing methods, and backpacks. Bought a Tethrd saddle. Tried Wild Edge steps and didn’t like them. Settled on 4 mini beast sticks, EWO wire aiders, packed in an Eberlestock x2 pack. Worked great, I’m one sticking this year but I’ll keep the setup for a spare.

Had a buck only tag for Wisconsin thinking I’d get something by November than save my Minnesota buck tag for rifle season.

I never even saw a buck.

I must have hunted 30 mornings between September and January. I almost exclusively hunted mornings because I wanted all day to find a deer if I shot it and my wife would get worried when I was out past dark and she couldn’t reach me without cell service. Saw does on maybe half those sits, could have shot maybe 10-15 times at less than 10 yards. But no bucks.

One problem was scouting. I went out maybe 10 times the summer before, walking various areas to get a feel. Problem is I didn’t know what to look for, terrible at finding rubs, feeding areas, etc. I watched folks like The Hunting Public on how to find bedding areas, found maybe a few. I bought a few trail cams but didn’t use them effectively, not leaving them up very long and not using them during season.

Another problem was I didn’t adjust during season, since I didn’t hunt afternoons it was hard to walk in and find active sign and set up there. I didn’t use trail cams. And I kept going back to the areas I saw does hoping the bucks would show up, but they didn’t.

For this year, I’m doing it different. I’m already hanging cameras to find where the deer are, not just hunting what look like heavily used deer trails. I’m going to hunt mornings and then scout the afternoon and find sign. And I’m one sticking so I can carry a lightweight setup while scouting so I can just climb whatever tree looks good.

Last year didn’t have a shot at all, but I learned so much. I’m almost glad I didn’t get lucky early season, I wouldn’t have spent as much time in the woods learning. I can only hope this year will work out a little more successful.
 
I hunt some public, but also our home farm about 100 acres in Ohio… I run a lot of cameras, I know almost exactly how the deer on that farm use the corridors. I have hundreds of pictures of the good bucks. I’ve been hunting for 20+ years and I still didn’t see a target buck on hoof last season. It ain’t easy! Stick with it and enjoy!
 
It appears that your process is quite introspective which will mean a very short learning curve overall. Pick a couple or five places and start to inventory what is on the properties and learn those locations Thouroughly then hunt them when conditions are optimal. If you can identify great bed to feed or, feed to bed locations and you can access them without disturbing things too much you have some great early to pre-rut setups. If you are having difficulty finding bedding and/or feeding locations due to large monotonous forestland try to find terrain features that funnel movement and set up there for rut sits. I know that’s a very simple overview but it is a decent template to apply to each location you plan to hunt.
 
Sounds like you have learned a lot so far. Here is my suggestion. Get a topo map of the area that shows both terrain and foliage. Learn what features like saddles, ridges, and points etc. look like on a topo map. Find these and mark them on a map. Put boots on the ground in these locations pre-season. Look for trails and look for creek crossings.

Learn what the foliage in your area looks like on aerial maps like Google Earth, for instance. You want to be able to identify mast trees (oaks, etc.) that may drop acorns in the fall from evergreen trees like pines and cedars. Mark the oaks, especially any isolated ones near big patches of evergreens. The deer will likely bed in the evergreens and come to the oaks to feed if they produce acorns this year. Knowing what these trees look like from aerial maps will also let you identify where differing types of trees occur and allow you to spot transition areas. Deer love transition areas. I have always heard deer are creatures of the edge. They like the edges. Edges of clearcuts, swamps, fields, thickets, big woods, etc.

If you are going to stick to the morning hunt strategy I would suggest going out midday a few days or a week prior to the season opening and scout for oaks that are dropping acorns and have deer sign under them. Sign will be acorns, acorn caps, disturbed leaves, and deer poop. When you find fresh sign like this, decide on a tree to set up in, mark it with a reflective tack, and ease out of there. Wear clean rubber boots for these scouts. You don't want to leave much scent behind. As soon as you can, go in and hunt this spot in the morning. I would suggest staying on stand until at least 11 am. Then, if you haven't killed a deer that morning, plan to repeat the scouting process midday to find another hot spot for the next hunt. Just keep repeating this process. This is basically my early season strategy. I scout for hot deer sign and hunt it immediately. I hunt both mornings and evening, though. Deer will be going from one hot tree to the next as that one plays out. Deer favor white oaks to red oaks since white oak acorns have less tannins in them and taste better. The red oaks will be eaten later once some rain and sun has leached out some of their tannins. If you find a red oak with a lot of uneaten acorns under it, but no deer sign, make a note and check back in on it. It may get hot later in the season when they have exhausted the white oak acorns.

I know I have forgotten to mention a lot. There is so much to learn, and it is a never-ending thing for those who enjoy learning about deer and hunting them. Good luck.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Look for trails and look for creek crossings.
Deer will be going from one hot tree to the next as that one plays out. Deer favor white oaks to red oaks since white oak acorns have less tannins in them and taste better.
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A lot of great info there @NMSbowhunter I wanted to emphasize a couple of points you made in your excellent hunt plan strategy. To me creek crossings and drainages altogether can br a great focal spot to begin your scouting checks. I love finding beaten down trails leading to and and from a creek crossing with rubs on both sides. The cooling water tends to pull your scent to it allowing you to cover both sides and the crossing. Another point about mast. Everyone looks for oaks and I do too but there are locations I have that don’t have a lot of oaks but still hold great deer. The preferred mast in that area are Hickory and Beech nuts. I also like finding old apple and pear orchards to set up on.
 
woodsdog2 said:
A lot of great info there @NMSbowhunter I wanted to emphasize a couple of points you made in your excellent hunt plan strategy. To me creek crossings and drainages altogether can br a great focal spot to begin your scouting checks. I love finding beaten down trails leading to and and from a creek crossing with rubs on both sides. The cooling water tends to pull your scent to it allowing you to cover both sides and the crossing. Another point about mast. Everyone looks for oaks and I do too but there are locations I have that don’t have a lot of oaks but still hold great deer. The preferred mast in that area are Hickory and Beech nuts. I also like finding old apple and pear orchards to set up on.
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Great points. I have actually hunted out of the creek itself before, sort of like a ground hunt but even lower, like deer trench warfare, lol. Set up on the downwind, down creek side and just cover the crossing. A good way for people to find creek crossings in to look for a creek on a map and then scout the creek out by following it. The crossings will stand out. hopefully there are just a few prominent ones that you can focus on. That is one of the first things I do when scouting a new area. Walk the creeks, up one side, then cross and come back down the other. I wish we had old apple and pear orchards around here.
 
Last year was my first year bow hunting and saddle hunting. I'm fortunate to hunt an area with alot of deer and never have problems harvesting a few with a shotgun at ranges up to 100y.

Wanting to hunt with a bow, I knew I had to get closer. Like OP, I didn't want a hang on, mostly due to a bad lower back. Saddle hunting took care of the back issues. I spent more time scouting locations than I had the prior 10+ years combined and had (2) presets on creek crossings. I saw plenty of deer but quickly realized that I had set the presets with a gun mentality. Good cover and great visibility but too far away for confident shots with an arrow.

After a few weeks, I gave up on those spots and went to an area I didn't scout but knew it was a historical trail. I climbed a tree that I didn't like. It had a lean to it, was too wide to get a good purchase with my platform so it wiggled. It had limited shooting lanes with equally limited visibility. I spooked a few deer walking to the spot. The only action most of that afternoon were a deafening flock of grackles, squirrels gathering seed pods and a chipmunk who was far too interested in my base anchor then spend at least 15 minutes chirping at me. In short, I hated the everything about that spot.

Shortly before sunset, I heard a noise behind me. Turning around, there were (2) doe graving their way towards me and the first one calmly walked and stopped about 7 yards away with the perfect quartering away broadside shot. She was my first and only bow kill last season.

Key take-aways for me were:
1. Think like a bow hunter, not a gun hunter,
2. Thinking like a bow hunter, setup where the deer will be, not where you want them to be,
3. Pick the tree that puts you in the best spot, not the tree that is best to climb.
 
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