Late season bowhunting tips — one last opportunity to fill tag in December

By Don France, Pro Staff Carbon Express & Mathews & StickemArchery.com Contributor

When it comes to late season hunting and you have tags remaining to fill there is bad news and good news.  Bad news is that your schedule is getting busy before the holidays and time to hunt becomes scarce with less daylight.  The good news is the second rut is your second chance to optimize your potential to get your buck if he made it through the gun season. The does remaining not bred 28 days after the primary come into estrous again and aggressive bucks will be on the move.  Typically in SW Michigan this occurs at the end of the first week and extends into the 2nd week of December.

On our small farm 2 tactics work well.  One is to hunt the edge of a large food source, such as a bean field (or your food plot), along a major intersection where several does are known to enter the field each evening about 40 minutes before dark.  This location works well if you can approach without your scent crossing their bedding area and you remain out of sight.  Simply wait for the does and a buck will likely follow.  When I guide hunters, this is typically when they see the most action.

Second tactic is to go after a known buck back in cover.  Strategically mark lines on an aerial photo or map of your hunting property to trace exactly where you have observed deer movement and especially big buck movement and travel patterns should become clear. This should place you downwind near his core area along intersecting trails where he may follow a doe anytime throughout the day.  You may well have to move your stand to get into position.

Either of these 2 tactics will help increase your odds to fill your tag (baiting in many states including Michigan is illegal so I intentionally omitted it).  With the second rut come colder temperatures.  Be sure you can accurately shoot your bow with your insulated jacket, head cover, gloves, etc. this time of year.  Don’t leave anything to chance.  It may even be necessary to reduce your draw weight for extra chilly stand hunting.  Take a couple of practice shots before going out on afternoon hunts. You may discover you will need an armguard to reduce the bulk of your coat sleeve for bowstring clearance or that your gloves must be removed to accurately shoot your bow.  I’ve even specially altered a cold weather-shooting glove for a wrist strap release to be worn like normal except the release head sticks through the palm of the glove with a slit cut in the glove trigger finger for better accuracy.  Disposable hand warmers also come in handy.

Get out there every chance you have.  You never know for sure when it will happen, but you have to be out there for it to happen.  Good luck.

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Inside Corners! Easy to Find,

Easy to Hunt, and Highly Successful!

By:

Shane McDermott, President and StickemArchery.com Contributor/Pro Staff

Mapping The Outdoors, Inc.

www.mappingtheoutdoors.com

If you are looking for a late season bowhunting tip, Inside Corners are a great place to start if you are just beginning to use aerial photos and topographic maps to identify hot spots for hunting whitetail deer. The reason for this is that you can look at an aerial photo and identify an inside corner as one of the simplest features to locate on the map. There are usually only a few on a piece of property, and it only takes a glance at the map to find them.

So what is an “inside corner”. I would describe an inside corner as the corner of a square, or relatively square field that is bound on both sides by woods. The woods are actually the inside corner and the focus of this hot spot. Since the field edge is relatively square and turns 90 degrees at the corner, the woods will “wrap around” the 90 degree corner, and this is the feature that we call an “inside corner.” Check out map below and you can see how easy it is to identify an inside corner:

So, what is all the hype about hunting on inside corners? During the rut, bucks run looking for hot does. They will often run the woods checking fields, but they don’t often run through the fields. The buck wants to remain unseen, so instead of cutting across a field, they will cut the inside corner, remaining unseen and undetected. And that is exactly why an inside corner can be a perfect stand location. The idea is to place the stand in a spot to catch a buck cutting that corner, or coming into the corner to check out the field for does. What I try to do is find a tree that I can be as close to the corner as possible, and about 20-30 yards inside of the woods. The bucks will have a tendency to cut that corner pretty close, but sometimes they will stay back far enough that if you are right on the field edge you will never get a shot.

The tricky part is the wind. The ideal situation is to have the wind blowing out of the woods and into the field, so the buck won’t wind you. However the problem with that is that there may well be deer out in that very same field, which you are now using for bai.  Now you run the risk of getting busted by them. So, when hunting this setup you have to take every precaution when it comes to scent control. I try not to hunt this setup when it is warm, so I save it for days when the wind is right and the temperature is a little cooler than normal. I also use scent control clothing and scent elimination spray, and shower with scent free shampoo and soap right before the hunt. When it comes to scent control, especially in a situation like this one, you can’t be too careful.

A few years ago I had an absolutely amazing experience on an inside corner. In mid-summer I planted about a half acre food plot of turnips tucked in tight right in the corner of the field. I wanted the turnips to be as close to the corner as I could get them, and I didn’t want the food plot too large, because I wanted to keep the deer that fed on that food plot as close to my inside corner as possible. This stand was set up particularly for the early rut, when I could catch the does feeding in the afternoon hours, and the bucks running around looking for that hot doe.

Well, it wasn’t long before the action on this inside corner picked up. The first afternoon that the conditions were prime for this spot I had a ton of deer activity in the field. About an hour before sunset I had two does and a fawn enter the field from a trail that ran from just behind my stand into the turnip patch. They wandered around munching on turnips for about 30 minutes before a young buck, probably in the 120? class, came out for a look. I was seriously concerned that this young buck would run the does right out of my food plot, and then I lose my bait. As the young buck approaches one of the does I see the other doe looking over towards the other side of the food plot and stomp her front leg. It is pretty thick over on that side, and I can’t see what she is looking at, but I have a feeling its another deer approaching the field. Sure enough I see a nice mature buck slowly walk up to the field edge and check out the situation. He isn’t interested in the doe that busted him, he is watching the younger buck push the other doe around. This buck is about 35-40 yards out and I have no shot at this spot, so I just sit patiently and watch, hoping for an opportunity. This buck is easily a 4-1/2 year old buck, possibly scoring in the 150? range, and I am pumped. Although, I have a big problem now.  I have my does right where I want them, but this young buck is surely going to cause me problems. The mature buck has finally had enough watching and is ready to join the action.  He is just a little bit pissed and ready to fight. He bolts out into the field, charging directly at the younger buck. The younger buck sees him coming and hightails it across the field, running directly away from me out of sight. The mature buck chases him out of range, and then turns to look for the does.  They have decided they have had enough and have exited the field at a dead run. The last I see of this nice looking buck is his tail end running into the woods after the does, out of my inside corner and never to be seen again.

So my setup worked, at least as far as bringing in the does and holding them in the corner to bait the buck in. However, as deer hunting goes, not everything goes as planned. I wasn’t able to tag that buck, but it was one heck of an exciting afternoon.  Evidence to show that hunting inside corners can be rewarding, even when the hunt doesn’t end successfully.

Now go get an aerial photo of your hunting property and check it out to see if you have any inside corners you can hunt. They are a great rut hunting location because they are relatively easy to get into undetected because you don’t have to walk through the woods.  You do need to becareful getting out because you don’t want to run off your bait as you exit your stand that evening. Good luck and happy hunting.

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Late Season Bow Hunting Strategies & Tactics

By Brian Stephens
Stick’em Archery

For the most part the primary rut is over.  If you were fortunate to harvest a mature buck up to this point in the season, congratulations!  If you are like many of us and just did not see the type of deer you were looking for it is time to focus on late season strategies and tactics to have another opportunity to get on a mature deer.  I have several quotes that I will often relate to in my professional career that, I think are transferable to bow hunting.  The first is “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a sign of insanity” and the second is “Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier”.  How do this relate to bow hunting?  In order to be successful we have to adjust the way we hunt during the Early Season, the Rut and now the Late Season.  I am of the belief that you have to be willing to go where the deer are as they adjust their patterns to the changing season.  While bow hunting is one of the most gratifying sports it can also be very frustrating and difficult.  It is so important to stay positive and have the right mind set even when you are going through a dry spell.  I am going to share some tips on hunting the late season to hopefully give you one last opportunity to harvest a mature animal.  We will discuss factors that drive deer’s behavior this time of year, stand placement, and external factors such as the moon/WIND.

A few things that I focus on no matter what phase of the hunting season we are in and that is deer revolve around 1) Food, 2) Water, and 3) Cover.  We have had a tremendous amount of success over the years by considering these factors.  Understand that the food sources, water and cover may vary throughout the season.  Based on this it is important that you adjust your strategies/tactics.  During the late season the primary rut has occurred and bucks are looking for food to recover.  So, finding the food source is a primary factor.  This may be a food plot, and / or natural food source.  If you don’t have a food plot you may want to consider one for next year.  There are a number of resources on the site that can walk you through the right food plot for your areas.  Now we need to consider the cover situation.  As we know the cover is going to change dramatically during the winter.  A mature buck is going to find the thickest cover available to not only bed but also travel through to get to the food source.

Now consider your stand set up.  Do you put your stand on the food plot?  Maybe, but I would suggest that you first think about 1) Where are the deer bedding this time of year?, 2) Where is the food source?, and 3) How are they going to travel to the food source? A mature buck many times is going to wait until dark or right before dark before you would see him in the food plot.  So how do you get on him?  I would suggest that you get between his bedding area and the food source.  Find the travel zone and staging area that you think he is going to use.  We have all seen that once the rut has occurred many of the mature bucks will go nocturnal.  It can be challenging to have an opportunity harvest a quality deer during shooting hours.  If you can find the crossing, funnel or bottleneck that may be between the bedding area and food source, you may have a good chance at getting a shot.
A few other things that are vital to consider are managing the WIND, stand placement and getting to your stand.  The wind factor is nothing you don’t already know about, but this still is over looked many times.  Where you set up your stand and the tree you find is very important.  Consider finding the area that you believe that buck is going to travel through (cover) between bedding area and food source.  Pick a tree that is in staging area that is close to the bedding area but not so close that you will bump that deer as you approach your stand.  Next, is finding the right tree with enough cover.  This can obviously be tough this time of year.  Look for a tree that can give you some kind of backdrop and that is not right on the trail.  Get a few yards off the trail, so you can draw your bow without getting busted.  Now that you have found your tree think about how you are going to get to your stand.  Think about getting to your strand without walking down the trail the deer travel or walking by the bedding area to get to your stand.  Something that can be challenging this time of year in areas where the leaves are on the ground.  As you have experienced, it can be noisy in the mornings getting to your stand.  A trick I learned from someone many years ago and that is to mimic a buck chasing a doe.  You can walk at fast pace (without tripping) while blowing the grunt call as you walk.  While the primary rut is over, there will be some does that come in late that bucks will want to breed (Think about the bucks you have seen chasing a doe – it makes a lot of noise).  This has worked for me on several occasions when I have been walking to my stand and had a deer blow.  They did not wind me but I did scare them.  I immediately got on the grunt call and quickly walked to the stand.  I have seen the deer come back towards the stand as I got up in the tree to investigate.

Finally, I believe you need to put everything in your favor that you can control.  We cannot control the weather and the wind.  Although, we can work around them to some degree.  One factor that I believe in and that is hunting around the moon phases.  If I only have a few days to hunt, I am going to pick the days that the moon is going to be in my favor.  We have a number of resources that you can use on the site such as the Game Forecast or Moon Phase Map.  While there are no absolutes, I do believe the moon has impact on deer movement.  The major feeding times are going to revolve around the moon up and moon down phases.  Now, I don’t protest to be a moon expert.  I am a bow hunter that try’s to put as many factors in my favor as I can.  Below is a link to our Moon Phase Map for the United States and Canada.

http://www.stickemarchery.com/Main.aspx?pid=30&tab=31

Understanding Arrow Front of Center %

F.O.C. stands for Front of Center balance point. This measurement results from the relative weights of the components used in the arrow: shaft, insert, head, fletching, and nock. Let’s talk about how to come up with the F.O.C. calculation:

Step 1. Overall length:

Measure the total length of the arrow from the nock groove to the tip of the arrow with the point you plan on using.

Step 2. Balance Point:

Install the tip you will be shooting. If you are testing stability for 3-D shooting put your field point into the arrow. Of course, for hunting install your broadhead. Find the arrow’s balance point by sliding it back and forth along a fairly sharp edge. You’ll find the spot where the arrow just balances. Next measure in inches from the bottom of the nock grove to balance point.  Then measure in inches the length of arrow from the nock grove to the edge of the arrow shaft (not the insert-also known as the cut length).  Mark it carefully. Now measure from the point of the arrow to the balance point and enter the distance above.

Step 3. Determine F.O.C.:

To find the F.O.C. (which is always expressed as a percentage) divide the overall length by two. This should produce the physical center of the shaft. Now subtract this number from the balance point and divide by the overall length. Multiply by 100 to express the fractional value as a percentage.  A projectile’s flight is most stable when most of the projectile’s mass is positioned Front of Center or F.O.C..  Based on this, and arrow should be heavier in the front than in the back.  By how much is the question?

This is another hotly debated issue among archery enthusiasts. Some claim that F.O.C. makes little or no difference, others swear that F.O.C. has a profound effect on accuracy. Even the industry experts don’t seem to agree, as the ballistic physics for F.O.C. include some rather elastic variables that make finding an “mathematically optimal” F.O.C. very difficult to declare and prove. To make matters worse, we even see a variation in how F.O.C. itself is calculated, depending upon which “expert” you ask. So while we have no interest in the fine points of the debate, we will agree that the tricky issue of F.O.C. is at least worth considering when purchasing a new set of arrows.

With all that said, it is generally believed that an arrow with a high F.O.C. will fly well, but with premature loss of trajectory (nose-diving). While an arrow with a low F.O.C. will hold it’s trajectory better, but it will fly erratically. So again, another trade-off for you to consider.

To learn more about arrow Front of Center and how to Calculate your arrows FOC %>>Click Here.

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