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John's Journal... Entry 219, Day 2

FIVE MOST CRITICAL INGREDIENTS TO BAGGING A DEER WITH A BOW

Ray McIntyre

Editor's Note: Almost every bowhunter I know considers one of these five ingredients-the wind, the availability of food, the rut, the weather and hunting pressure-as the most-critical element of successful bow hunting. However, you really must take into account all five factors if you plan to back a buck with your bow. Here, five of the nation's most successful bowhunters pick the ingredient they consider most important to their success and explain the reasons for their selection. Ray McIntyre, the former president of Warren and Sweat Manufacturing in Grand Island, Florida, which produces tree stands, has hunted and bagged bucks with his bow in every section of the country for over 40 years. His book, 110 Percent Success Bowhunting Whitetails, has suggestions that can improve your bowhunting success.

Every animal, including the white-tailed deer, has to eat each day. Therefore, the most-dependable place to find a white-tailed buck, regardless of the time of year, is near his preferred food. For this reason, I choose food as the most-critical ingredient to successfully taking a buck with a bow. Even when the rut's in, the does have to eat. The bucks will find the does and feed where the does feed. If you know where a buck feeds at any time of the year, that spot will be the most-productive place to try to take him with your bow. Deer prefer specific foods at various times of the year in different areas of the country. Also, different foods become available at various times of the year. The real secret to taking a buck with your bow over food is to know the time of year the deer prefer what food in your area. Then you need to locate that food source and wait for the buck to appear and begin to feed.

You also need to realize any preferred food source only may last for a couple of days or a few weeks. If you hunt this region after the food source has disappeared, you may find a large number of tracks and plenty of droppings, but no deer. I don't think where a buck sleeps, walks, waters or breathes really matters. If you're sitting at the restaurant where a buck's going to eat, you've got the best chance of taking him. But remember, just finding the food source the deer concentrate on during the time you hunt doesn't ensure you'll get that buck of a lifetime. You can't disregard the other key factors of successful bow hunting. Often a bowhunter may make the mistake of choosing a tree-stand site with plenty of cover close to a food tree rather than a spot with less cover downwind of the food tree. Even if a deer sees you in a tree, he may not spook and run away. But if the deer smells you, your hunt's over.

Another mistake many bowhunters make when they're hunting over food sources is choosing their tree-stand sites within 10 yards of the base of the food tree. When deer come in to feed, they generally feed five to 10 yards away from the tree trunk. Therefore, if you place your tree stand 30-yards away from the trunk of the tree, the deer you plan to take will be within 20 to 25 yards of your stand. The closer you are to the feeding site, the more likely you are to spook a deer. Always when you're hunting over food, pick a tree-stand site downwind and away from the feeding area, regardless of the amount of cover it has around it. If you want to hunt a big deer, inspect the droppings under the tree. Generally big deer leave big droppings, and little deer leave little droppings. The bigger the droppings, the better your chances of taking a large buck at that tree. However, don't concentrate your hunting over food solely around nut trees. The deer also will feed on soft mast, including persimmons, muscadines, crabapples, honeysuckle and blackberry bushes.

To learn more about master deer hunters, click here for John Phillip's deer-hunting books.

TOMORROW: WILL PRIMOS

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about FIVE MOST CRITICAL INGREDIENTS TO BAGGING A DEER WITH A BOW ...

Day 1 - Brad Harris
Day 2 - Ray McIntyre
Day 3 - Will Primos
Day 4 - Mark Drury
Day 5 - Hank Hearn


John's Journal