A Clean Slate (Post Season)
As a Whitetail Deer Hunter, how many times have you come to the end of the season and have been 100% satisfied with everything through the season? Maybe it was a missed shot opportunity? Maybe too much hunting pressure resulting into pushing one of your hit list bucks to be nocturnal or off the property all together? Maybe you felt as if you didn’t have the proper set up for a certain location, where you kept seeing that nice shooter show up? Just like many things in life, the way you get better at something is learning to recognize where you didn’t do something quite right and correct the mistake for next time. Post Season is a great time to plan for your next hunting season and taking advantage of these missed opportunities. Where and how you hunt can making these planning process a little different then the next person.
If you have the ability to hunt private land parcel year after year, maybe start off by looking at an aerial map of the property. Study the map as if you were a deer and how you would get from different points of interest on the property without being detected by a hunter. Points of interest for a deer may include bedding, food sources, doe hangouts, scrape lines, water, etc. Once you have these areas in mind, analyze your current stand locations and if they best fit the movement between these points of interest. You can go about your analyzation with a few questions in mind. How do can I get to these stand locations without being detected? What would my best wind directions be while hunting these stands? Can I get down and out of these areas without being detected by deer? Are there certain times during Hunting Season that certain hunting locations will have better odds of seeing deer or a target buck over other stand locations? Which stands do i value as prime stands for the Seek and Chase Phase of the Rut, and how to keep them fresh for this period?
Hunting Public Land can be one of the most intimidating things for a Michigan Deer Hunter. Though for most hunters, it maybe their only choice for hunting opportunity. As i mentioned about Private Land , the ability to study maps is even more crucial part of continued success on the public lands. How deer get from different points of interest without being detected on pressured public land is a great way to start.. Studying maps is great to finding a place to start but putting on the miles and figuring out certain section of Public Land. Once you figure one section out, go to another and another. The more spots that you explore and learn before spring green up the better. If you run into too much hunting pressure in one area, you will have other areas that you already scouted and hunt there. A lot of the time, after the snow has left the woods, you will still be able to see trails, where the scrapes were, rub lines and most importantly where the other hunters were hunting. You should be able to find walk in paths marked with tape or reflective tacks, markings on tree bark from ladder sticks or tree stands, shooting lanes, ground blinds made of dead logs for firearm hunters and etc. Most guys on public, especially the firearm hunters, have the designated spots that they return to year after year. Putting the “Boots On The Ground” and understand where the deer like to be, where other hunters hunt, the better off you will be.
With negative temperature out side and close to two foot of snow on the ground, aerial map studying is probably your best bet right now to start your own, “ Clean Slate” period. Doing majority of your scouting and homework during the spring, has zero to little risk of spooking a target buck compared to running around the woods in late September. So go ahead, cover as much ground as possible, study, and make an adaptive game plan for your hunting locations now, to prevent you from having another frustrating season.
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