PLOT YOUR WAY TO A BUCK
Plot the Direction of Your Buck
Editor’s
Note: You can blueprint a deer's movements and accurately
predict when, where and from what direction you can
expect a deer to show up. But to have a successful deer
hunt, you must get to your stand without spooking the
buck you hope to take. Although most deer hunters know
this fact, few sportsmen understand how to accomplish
this feat. This week we'll look at ways to plot your
way to a buck.
The woods birds began to wake up. The sun's early morning
glow peeped through the shroud of darkness on the edge
of the cane thicket. "I know that buck's there,"
I told myself. "I have the wind in my favor, the
buck didn't hear me come to my stand, and I believe
he's coming from the cornfield back to this cane to
bed. Unless someone else has spooked him, he will show
up." I waited for daylight and scanned the hardwoods
on the edge of the cane thicket. Fifteen minutes later,
I noticed a flash of ivory 50 yards in front of me on
the trail I expected the buck to come down -- an easy
shot with my Mannlicher .30-06. But I didn't want to
take a head-on shot. Besides, if the buck did what I
hoped, he would give me a broadside shot at 30 yards.
The trail the deer was on made a sharp turn to the left
and went into the thicket.
The
deer continued to walk down the trail. After one more
glance at his massive rack through my 3-9X scope, I
brought the crosshairs to the buck's shoulder and waited
for him to turn. As the deer continued on his route,
his image grew larger in my scope. I carefully adjusted
my scope from 9X back to 5X. Now I could see the whole
deer and could concentrate on aiming for the buck's
shoulder. The buck came to the bend in the trail. As
I had predicted, he made a sharp turn to the left. Just
before entering the cane thicket, he hesitated and gave
me my dream shot. At the crack of the rifle, the 9 point's
knees buckled. He dropped where he stood. The deer never
moved again.
I thought to myself how much I loved a plan that came
together. The buck I took on that morning had done exactly
what I had expected him to do. I had drawn a blueprint
I thought the buck would follow and predicted almost
to the minute when the deer would appear. Once I field
dressed the buck, I dragged the animal along the shortest
route back to my truck. I didn't get lost either, a
major accomplishment for me. To get into your stand
before daylight, 1/2- to 1 1/2-miles from the nearest
road, you once
had only three options. You could ...
* leave flagging tape marking the path from your stand
site to the truck. However, you also told every other
hunter in the woods to follow your flagging tape to
your tree-stand site. Often another hunter would move
to that spot with a wrong wind and spook the deer you
planned to bag. Or, on the morning you wanted to hunt,
the other hunter might be at your stand site when you
reached it.
* attempt to find your way back to your stand in the
dark without getting lost. If you'd hunted the same
area for years and had good navigation skills, you might
could walk a straight line for a mile or more in the
dark. But I couldn't without becoming lost. Before I'd
find my tree stand, I probably would walk around it
three times and leave human odor all over my hunt site.
* follow a compass course at night in the dark without
using your flashlight to get to your tree stand. If
you turned your flashlight on, a deer could see it for
a great distance. Even if you used a flashlight, your
compass would not put you exactly at your tree stand.
* wait until first light to see the direction you needed
to go to reach your tree stand and hope you got in your
stand before the deer came along the trail you expected
him to take.
All
these options have problems associated with them. However,
you can solve these hunting problems by utilizing a
hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver like
Magellan's Color Meridian. Once you log your stand site
as a waypoint in your GPS receiver, you can navigate
back to that stand site within 20 feet at any time of
the day or night without getting lost. You also can
walk a straight line back to your vehicle using the
GPS receiver if you've marked your truck as a waypoint.
A GPS receiver allows you to go to your stand site
in the dark without getting lost. The GPS receiver also
will tell you how far you are from your stand and keep
you on course. Then you'll walk the shortest distance
from your vehicle to your stand site. Successful deer
hunters usually get to their stand sites long before
daylight and well ahead of the bucks.
TOMORROW: WHAT TO DO WHEN THE WIND CHANGES
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