Alternative Food Source

EDITOR'S NOTE: Often the lands containing the most deer sign won't produce a buck. Any hunter who continues to hunt where he sees deer sign may never take the deer making the sign. Hank Hearn of Vicksburg, Mississippi, manages the lodge at Tara Wildlife located on the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Hearn has logged thousands of hours studying deer-movement patterns to learn where to put his hunters to allow them to take deer where deer leave no sign. According to Hearn, many factors cause deer to move. However, he's found that food, sex and hunting pressure will make bucks move more than any other factors, with hunting pressure usually the strongest influence.

"Another way to have success is to know what food source deer will utilize after they've eaten the food on which they're presently feeding," Hank Hearn emphasized. "Although you may find a tremendous amount of deer sign under a food tree or around a honeysuckle patch or some other food source, the deer already may have depleted that food supply and are feeding somewhere else. To consistently take deer, especially with a bow or a black-powder gun two times when you must have a deer at close range, you must know where the deer will go to feed next after they've depleted one food supply. I'll set up tree stands in areas where I see no deer sign but spot a food source the deer haven't started to feed on yet. Many hunters waste their time hunting where the deer were instead of hunting where the deer are going to be. Once you find a food source and determine deer feed there, then locate another food source deer will go to once they leave the one with the most obvious sign. By hunting ahead of deer's movement patterns and being at a spot they'll come to instead of a place they're leaving, you more consistently can bag bucks."

Most hunters assume when they pinpoint a place with an abundance of deer sign that they've found a good spot to hunt. However, remember, the more hunting pressure deer feel and the hotter the weather, the more likely that the deer will move and feed at night. Therefore if you hunt during daylight hours over deer sign, including a food source, a scraping area, a rutting region, a creek crossing or a deer trail, you may not spot deer -- although you do see deer sign. Deer sign lies when you assume that a buck has made the sign you see during daylight hours or that the deer making that sign will return to that same area during daylight hours. Remember these tips when you take your bow or your gun into the woods to look for deer sign.

To learn more about Tara Wildlife, contact 6791 Eagle Lake Shores Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180 or (601) 279-4662.