Back in the late 70s, I began to actually hunt deer with a bow more seriously. Up to this point, I mainly had deer hunted with a rifle or a muzzleloader. But the lure of taking a deer with a bow was strong and so I began my quest.
Now I did not know a soul that actually bow hunted, around here, it was all gun and dogs. I had managed to pick up a bow hunting magazine and of course, drooled all over it. But my knowledge of deer at the time was zilch.
My first couple of years of hunting was pretty simple, I found a tree that I could climb and climbed up to a limb that I could stand on or sit on. After a couple of times of nearly falling, I began tying myself in with rope or usually, a long fish stringer.
This was all done out of ignorance of course but the school of hard knocks usually is that way. I didn't know anything about deer, I just found some deer tracks or droppings and hunted that spot. Yeah, didn't see much that way plus deer were hard to come by here.
Slowly I began to look for food sources and for actual trails. I had graduated to boards nailed to a limb and they were pretty sketchy. Finally, I saw a Baker climbing tree stand in a store and bought it. No seat, just the climbing part with you hugging the tree.
That stand taught me a lot about that word, safety. Long sleeves were a must, it was a pain just climbing, not to mention the occasional slide down un expectedly. But then I began to do some things right and began to see some deer.
I was surprised to hear how vocal they were, especially a doe and fawns. It is amazing at what you can see and hear from up high like that. The first time that I heard a deer grunt, I thought that it was a hog and we had the hogs. I got to hear this dude quite a bit before I got to see him and it was exciting.
I got to see does kick the snot out of a fawn that wasn't minding, usually a buck fawn. I got pretty good at using my mouth for the fawn in distress call and they came in. Some fast but most pretty slow as they checked everything out.
I was hunting over a Game and Fish food plot, clover, and got to see two does stand up on their hind legs and go at it several times before the dispute was settled.
And then the mysteries of scrapes and such began to make sense as did the rubs. The sheer importance of the wind became very obvious and I tried everything from skunk to fox urine.
Heck I made all kinds of scents for cover up as well as getting higher and higher in my stand. But when the deer came from downwind, it usually meant that I got busted but not all of the time. These mountain winds swapped ends all of the time. I began to learn how to pick a good tree for the wind and usually had one picked out for whatever wind that I had.
By the 90s, I had a lot more competition and got good at spotting stands in trees or the tell tale signs of a climber use on a tree. I also go a lot more secretive about my stands and even the trails going in to them.
I trapped hard one year and really learned a lot about critters and deer. Now things like funnels and food sources really stuck out to me. I also had been rattling for years and knew that it can be very productive.
I guess that as you grow in wood knowledge, you get to understanding how vocal so many critters are and how important it is to them. My predator hunting had enabled me to coax in various animals for a close bow shot. And surprisingly, I have called in several very nice bucks while using a rabbit in distress call.
I also learned that I could influence a deer to come my way, not always but enough times to try it when I have to. I guess what I am saying is that I went from being totally quiet no matter what to being vocal in many different ways for deer. Most of the times, I had nothing to lose and a lot to gain. After all, I do prefer those very close shots.
