As they climb those impossible treks, their back feet step in exactly the same place that their front feet … 1,213 ft. Altitude start. If your hunting big-timber and you find yourself frequently bumping deer, you might want to rethink your treestand location. Unsympathetic ATV rides over steep, rocky terrain, will test any bow systems ruggedness. They innocently think that is where the majority of bucks are killed; maybe so. A few clever moves and one well placed arrow was all it would take….and he would forever be his. and in hunting magazines. Bucks move through these bedding areas looking for does, creating activity that is very consistent. They have found that wise old bucks often avoid such easily accessed areas like the plague because most hunting pressure originates there. Again, we are dealing primarily with bucks that are on the move during the rut. I messed up on one of the biggest 8-pointers I have ever seen in my life from that stand, but that is another story. More importantly, the overall color scheme must match a multitude of conditions. Instead, concentrate on your background, your camo, and any natural funnels that will diminish approaching deer’s ability to locate you before the shot occurs. For 2010, ScentBlocker introduces their greatest technology yet….“Cold Fusion”. Initially, hunt the outside perimeter of the pattern until you feel it is time to move closer. When a buck is crossing from one slope to another, a saddle makes the mission easier. 1,012 ft. Altitude max. 2015-11-02T21:11:43Z The letter F. An envelope. Through the years they’ve proven to be fast, quiet, accurate and more importantly, dependable. Adding to the uncertainty, is the back and forth promotion by high pro-file “celebrity” hunters; advocating one item this year and a different one the next. And you never climb out of a treestand if it suddenly shifts directions. Now pick a spot for your stand amid that uncertainty. If you’re not in shape when you hit the mountains of the East, you’re going to suffer. Don’t expect a picture perfect setting. When it comes to bowhunting, you probably understand that if you’re not confident in your bow, no matter what brand you choose, it can greatly influence you’re ability to perform at your best. It could be a protective Black Bear with cubs in the pre-dawn darkness, an inconspicuous crack in the earth (mine break) under a innocent pile of leaves, or a treacherous ATV ride that somehow gets a little to crazy; sending your high dollar means of transportation rolling down a rock-strewn hillside. These swales are basically saddles across open fields, a way for the buck to stay out of sight as he traverses open land. You see, in the places mountaineers hunt, there are no well defined bedding or feeding areas. Waiting until the pre-season to do your scouting is worthless. Place your stand near the edge of the bluff and then hunt it with the wind blowing out over the valley below. They can be three feet tall at the shoulder and weigh anywhere between 100 and 300 pounds. Saddles accomplish the buck’s goal of staying out of sight by lowering the ridgeline. Plants and animals living in the mountains could never survive in the surrounding deserts. Well, deer are very agile and sure-footed. The bodies of mountain goats are machines built to climb. We just can’t know all the factors that will influence their schedule. Looking back over the bucks the deer hunter taken, each one was shot the very first time he laid eyes on them. Set up along the top of the ridge, right where it drops off into the saddle. He wanted to understand the whitetail buck, get inside its head and know what it was thinking before it was even thinking it. I get right down in them and sneak along. It’s true that any particular buck isn’t any more predictable than a particular person. It survived, as most shoulder-shot deer do, and tragically it was killed by a van on a nearby highway the next year. Mountain goats can powerfully scale up the most precipitous slopes with the grace of hooved ballerinas. Downhill, well, that one isn’t so bad depending on where your transportation is. I love setups like that. Bologna! As deer travel the side of a ridge, they will detour up and around that ravine. As a result, it is crucial to pick a camo pattern that merges with the terrain. Rebecca Harrington. Now you have a corridor that permits you to stay out of sight, keep your noise to a minimum and lay down scent in a place where deer are unlikely to walk. Wednesday, September 22, 2010. Your typical “Mountain” buck is different than most of the deer you see on television or read about in magazines. Several different studies on daily deer movement show that during the fall deer are most active at night around dawn and dusk, and from 12:00 – 2:00 AM. Naturally, when you here someone say “just hunt the wind”, you have to laugh because they have no idea what its like to do that in the Eastern mountains. They are named for their oversized ears that resemble a mule's ears. Your email address will not be published. Naturally, when you here someone say “just hunt the wind”, you have to laugh because they have no idea what its like to do that in the Eastern mountains. One hunter accepted this fact long ago and decided that unless he found a way to make deer think he was further away than he actually was, he wasn’t going to be very successful. The areas where a ridge narrows are natural locations for a treestand. Each of the toes has wrap around toenails that can be used to catch and hold to a crack or a tiny knob of rock. This would be a good stand for all phases of the rut and the place that bucks will use to enter the field to feed during the early and late season—an all-purpose stand. The hind is a female red deer whose home is the mountains. There is nothing simple about taking a shot at a whitetail in mountain country. After passing the 2.2-mile mark the trail flattens, and even loses roughly a hundred … Next, adjust your height and/or which side of the tree to place your stand based on this information. It also promises to put to rest any doubts regarding the effectiveness or regeneration of carbon garments.”. Finding a ridge is only the first step; you then need to decide where along the ridge to hunt. With a gun, saddles are killing fields. If you can climb the bluff from below, you have the ultimate stand setup, one where the deer never detect your entry or exit and they never smell you while on stand. Malibu Canyon, Las Flores Canyon Rd, Tuna Canyon Rd and Topango Canyon Rd. Eventually, he sought to turn that dream into reality. The mountain goat has the ability to climb almost vertical mountain walls. One hunter reflects upon his own experiences. If you are out of shape you’re not going to go into the nasty places that gnarly mountain bucks like to hang out. Mature bucks typically slink around like ghosts; they are around but not really visible. Because pursuing mountain bucks will humble you like nothing else and if you base your success or failure on what waits for you at the end of the deer’s blood trail….you will find little solace. They can ascend to very high places where other animals cannot always go because they may be more unsteady, lack the proper footing or body design, or simply have too much bulk to climb very high. Make no mistake, the mountains are tough, the hunting is tough, the animals are tough, and getting there and back is tough; but that’s not the hardest part. Lucky for him, he wasn’t venturing close enough to the “center” of the pattern to completely blow his setups. Privacy Policy   •   Contact Us   •   Warnings   •   FAQs   •  © 2021 National Rifle Association of America, Remington Model 700 American Hunter Rifle Project, Women On Target® Instructional Shooting Clinics, Volunteer At The Great American Outdoor Show, Marion P. Hammer Women Of Distinction Award, Women's Wildlife Management / Conservation Scholarship, National Youth Shooting Sports Ambassadors, NRA Outstanding Achievement Youth Award Presented by Brownells, National Youth Shooting Sports Cooperative Program. This pathetic excuse for sportsmanship is evident in a good number of deer harvested each year. Those two factors will give you the confidence to stay on stand even though you haven’t actually seen a buck with your own eyes. That may sound odd, especially to a flatlander, but much of the terrain is such that you’re really only above an approaching deer’s line of sight on one side of the tree. I do this when laying out and managing properties for different people and when hanging stands on my farmland in Iowa. If the ridge dips you have a saddle—start looking for stand locations. Many of my best bucks have come from this exact pattern and I look for it as my No. Deer are usually shy creatures, and it would be pretty reckless for a deer to climb a tree, considering the way their bodies are and also their brains. When they do encounter an individual it usually signifies an attempt on their life. I guess I'll have to figure out how to keep them off my deck before I put the flower pots out this spring. Try that in the East and you will be 30 feet off the ground on one side of the tree and 15 on the other. The bends of the “S” are generally holes with high banks on the outside, while the straight portion between the bends is generally shallower with a lower bank. Due to their long legs with strong muscles, deer can travel at speeds up to 30 MPH. Those are few and far between and routinely hold the least amount of deer in hill country. This is the definition of the perfect entry and exit route. Creeks are not as easy to navigate when they are carrying a lot of water, but when they are low they also represent the perfect access route. Every motion of … This means … Forget about rolling out your ineffective “deer cart on wheels” and whisking away your trophy. Setting up with a favorable wind to cover all of the possibilities is next to impossible. Understanding the lay of the land and how deer use it (funnels are key) will bring about more success than any scrape or rub-line strategy ever could. Although it’s been awhile, one deer hunter can still remember how seductive the thought of chasing whitetails with a bow and arrow was as a young boy. That can be tough, mentally, for the aspiring big-woods bowhunter. As mentioned earlier, bucks can come at you from any direction. Neighboring Saint Charles Peak can be viewed to the south. Forget about hunting elk out west. This high point gives you the best field of fire to cover anything using the saddle and, by staying high, you remain in the consistent wind that streams over the ridge versus dropping down over the top where the wind is sure to swirl. Practicing exactly how you plan to hunt is the only way to prepare for the real thing. by Bill Winke - Don’t hunt the stand unless the wind is blowing from the feeding area toward the bedding area (into your face as you approach). A huge buck -- the buck -- was standing in the saddle. It is simply a matter of suppressing your human scent to the point that you are no longer perceived as a threat. It’s about sharing with you the gear hunters deem vital to their success as mountain bowhunters. These crossings are generally evident by two brushy ravines on an aerial photo. As mentioned earlier, if a buck notices you, he will likely be looking downhill or at you from the side. There are no food plots to monitor from afar, therefore piecing together an early season travel pattern is impractical. I accessed the stand by walking up the slope, right on the edge of the quarry, so I got in and out without detection. Hopefully, somewhere in the midst of the following truisms, you will discover the key to help you do just that. He wanted nothing more than to fulfill his dream of harvesting a “Mountain Buck”. However, if it is quartering across the ridge, you must favor the downwind side of the saddle or you will spook too many traveling deer. Deer are ruminants, meaning they have four-chambered stomachs. I once hunted a single ridge stand 14 mornings during a 16-day stretch. Males have large antlers, which allow them to fight off predators. Oak trees don’t produce acorns year after year, and deciphering which heavy thicket is being used on the day you plan to hunt can be a nightmare; to say the least. You can easily find and hunt the crossings they are likely to select. The 34-year-old five-time U.S. sport-climbing champ nailed the route on the 3,000-foot granite face in 21 hours, 13 minutes and 51 seconds. Now, some 20 years later, he has learned one cold hard truth….be careful what you wish for. Meaning, the closer you get to the center, the more concentrated things become. Even in the midst of chaos, there is a way to walk in spiritual freedom and joy. With a bow, most saddles are less exciting, but still worth hunting. Required fields are marked *. The sides of the goat’s toes consist of the same hard keratin found on the hoof of a horse or deer. Well, almost.. This section isn’t about promotion. The buck parade typically starts shortly after the does arrive—roughly an hour after sunrise. Altitude change. I have hunted many saddles over the years that were only 5 to 10 feet deep, yet they were very productive stand locations. That is where the deer cross. This conditions most of the deer (especially older class bucks) to avoid locations that are routinely occupied. There is only one way to find these shallow saddles and that is on foot. In most parts of whitetail country, a ridge narrows because a draw or ravine runs up from the valley below to end at this point along the ridgeline. You have to walk the ridge tops. That means that for a saddle to appear on the topographic map, it has to be 20 feet deep. I have hunted a few of these stands where the conditions were perfect. SaddlesSaddles may not be my go-to terrain feature because they don’t occur everywhere, but they are easy to find and easy to hunt. The very idea of it consumed him and he often fantasized about loosing himself in some remote corner of a lonely forest. When you see contour lines that are close together, you are looking at a bluff. Mule deer are very common throughout the western United States. Because of the remoteness, wilderness deer simply aren’t accustomed to human interaction and therefore become extremely sensitive to our intrusion no matter how slight it may be. Deer Mountain is a 10,013 foot peak in the northeastern part of Rocky Mountain National Park. After all, that is where the vast majority of eastern giants like to spend their time. Creeks scream at you from topographic maps, are obvious on aerial photos and you literally stumble over them (or into them) when walking the property. Consequently, not only must you blend with the very tree you’re hiding in, but the ground behind you as well. For example, access roads, easy to reach treestand locations, and most open timber are rarely visited during daylight hours; simply because deer know these areas harbor the most activity and can be detrimental to their wellbeing. Forget what the rules of the mid-west say. In the south-central Wet Mountains, Deer Peak is a mellow, easy-going peak with nice views of the Sangres across open meadows. One thing you can count on is bumping deer on the way to your treestand. * You can’t think you can hunt as hard, climb as high or as quickly or get to a mule deer as fast as someone who lives and works in high-mountain terrain daily. Most of us can’t imagine such a … Therefore, if you are going to hunt where the deer are, you have to hunt where the crowds are few and the wind most often swirls. On the other hand, “uphill” is going to make you work like you’ve never worked before. My friend, Chad Schearer of Belt, Montana, TV host , former owner of Central Montana Outfitters and PR Manager for BPI Outdoors put everything in perspective. The bottom line is this. Some hunters to try and “will” deer to move through a certain area simply because it looks like all of the picturesque places seen on T.V. On top of this, the effects of poaching also come into play. The guide will familiarize you with the mountain and help you on your climb. The slopes are steep and the angle to your target changes with every step the deer takes. Steep ridges and points, combined with heavy thickets make it hard to get a good look at anything that isn’t setting right in your lap. Ditch crossings typically take three forms. Hard-core climbers and hikers might scoff at the mini-mountain next to Colorado's 14'ers (mountains that are higher than 14,000 feet in elevation), but it's a nice challenge for vacationers and people who want a day hike at the park. They have excellent hearing and eyesight that warns them of approaching dangers. During the first 2.2 miles the trail makes a steady climb up the western slopes of Deer Mountain, while traveling over a series of several switchbacks along the way. Old deer track climb takes you to the top of "Drop and Slide" Old deer track climb takes you to the top of [Skip to Content] Mountain Bike . Most tend to favor those camo patterns utilizing a lighter, more natural feel, with browns and grays being the dominant color. Yet there is hope, as there is one aspect of a mature buck’s travel patterns that is somewhat predictable: How bucks typically use the terrain. The opposing brushy fingers are both good stand choices; deciding which to hunt comes down to the direction of the wind and the availability of good trees. Honestly, when you hang a treestand, wind direction is the last thing you consider. The climbing mechanics of extraordinary mountaineers. The weakness of relying on topographic maps to find saddles is the scale of most maps. Saddles offer the two things bucks look for when traveling: the path of least resistance and a low profile. “Good” means a pattern that’s effective when viewed from a variety of angles; not just straight up. It doesn’t get any better than that. These are various lessons that the deer hunter has learned in the past 20 years while hunting mountain bucks. Thus by analogy, the mountains are “islands” surrounded by … It indicates the ability to send an email. If you’re going to hunt where the majority of Goliath mountain bucks hang out, you’re going to encounter swirling winds. Lone Wolf Portable Treestands Best Treestand for Bowhunters. Saddles permit this behavior by reducing the amount of time the buck remains on the skyline. Ditch And Creek CrossingsNow we are getting into what I think is the best natural stand location in rolling or rugged areas. Saddles will appear as a gap between the contour lines that make up the ridge top. He may not even know where he is going to be next. This will make the task of finding the likely travel routes much easier. The deer know this and therefore steer clear of those places for much of their daily travels. Go in before the season with a chain saw and remove all the brush and fallen trees from the ditches so you can walk through easily and quietly, even in the dark. It is easier to show you what a saddle looks like on a topographic map than to try to describe it, so I have included a map image for that purpose. A hind is a female deer that lives in mountains such as these. Bluff EdgesAny buck cruising along a side-hill will funnel up the slope to bypass the steepest section by walking the bluff edge. The first two crossings are easy to find from a map study, but you have to walk the ground to find the third type. Saddles can also be very good on opening day of the firearm season when other hunters keep the bucks moving. This will usually be around the time breeding has begun; after the chase phase has ended. The wind, not the sign, dictates which side you should pick. If you did, you would spend very little time actually deer hunting. In fact, I like the undetected access afforded by creeks and ditches so much that I go out of my way to find stands along these corridors just so I can use them to slip in and out undetected. If we always do the other thing, we are more likely to spot deer other people miss. 1 morning option everywhere I hunt. I have hunted some impressive trails through saddles up in the mountains when hunting elk, but here we will focus on whitetails. You will see that higher is usually not better due to fluctuations in the terrain. It is also a top reason the majority of deer hunters stay “close to the road”. Steve credits his love of hunting to his Dad who took the time to introduce him to what has become a life-long obsession....bowhunting for whitetail deer. Some deer have long, sharp hooves in front, which they can use as weapons. New for 2021: Leupold RX-1400i TBR/W Rangefinder, First Look: Meopta MeoPro Optika LR Rangefinding Binoculars, CVA Announces Paramount HTR Muzzleloader in .40 and .45 Calibers, 2021 National Rifle Association of America. 201 ft. Altitude min. So many deer hunters are under the illusion that treestands have to be hung 15 feet off the ground in order to avoid detection. Sure, you can easily hunt atop the main ridges where the wind is constant; but many have played that game. So like any enthusiastic teenager, he began to read and scrutinize everything he could get his hands on pertaining to bowhunting this elusive creature. Things are more chaotic and the deer don’t notice my coming and going as readily. Now before you write this deer hunter off as crazy, he does have a plan. Steve Flores is a passionate hunter who enjoys chasing mountain whitetails in his native southern WV. 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