Dan has a friend who owns a duck hunting lake. It also forms one of the most remarkable bowhunting spots he s ever seen for giant whitetails.
The lake is big and wide, formed by a half mile long earthen dam in a shallow, heavily timbered valley. Below the dam, along the creek forming the lake, it s a network of briers and tangles, as thick as Cambodian jungle. Impenetrable—just the way bucks love it for bedding and resting away from man and predators.
On either side of the lake, above the creek, dam and thicket, are large cornfields in which deer regularly feed. The lake creates a huge barrier, forcing deer in the thickets to walk around the dam and into the corn.
By setting tree stands on either side of the dam, a bowhunter can effectively cut off any buck working out of the thicket and into the corn. Dan alternates hunting the two stands, picking whichever is best for wind direction. Over the years, he has bowhunted the lake site four times. He s never needed to hunt it more than three days to arrow a good buck. And he s seen bucks there big enough to get anyone s attention, including a pair of animals he is certain were in the Boone & Crockett class.
Dan says such great hunting spots are not found every day; having a place with such remarkable whitetails that can be cut off as well is even more rare. But if more bowhunters spent more time carefully looking and analyzing their hunting terrain, Dan is convinced they d quickly discover there are many such cut off spots that can greatly increase odds for whitetail bowhunting success.
For example, most bowhunters know whitetails regularly travel between feeding and bedding areas. Deer make their moves a time or two each day, and many bucks are arrowed by archers who hunt along such travel areas. The trouble with this hunting tactic, Dan explains, is that all too often, deer utilize so many trails between bedding and feeding areas, they re too scattered to offer consistent bowhunting opportunities. The odds of a good buck wandering by within bow range aren t as high as they could be if a hunter located a concentrated spot to cut off deer. While it s true that such places aren t always available, if you know what you re looking for, they re easier to identify when you see them, contends Dan.
Figure where deer are feeding, learn where they re bedding, Dan says. Now locate a place to cut off the bulk of them from a tree stand. Last year, for example, I discovered a very deep, wash out creek in a draw between a pair of oak ridges that deer were just hammering. The ridges were open, and it seemed like every oak was dropping acorns, so deer weren t concentrated enough to make bowhunting around a single oak very promising. But the creek between the two ridges was super deep, a real pain in the neck to cross. It was hands and knees work getting down and then up the other side—except for two places where the banks were less steep, and well worn whitetail trails crossing the two spots showed deer had found them, too.
It was a perfect cut off zone, and I hung a stand 20 yards away, downwind of one creek crossing. From my stand, I also could see the second crossing about 70 yards away. I wanted to put my stand between the two crossings, but the wind was wrong, and I couldn t cover them properly from one stand anyway.
His second morning in the creek crossing stand, Dan saw a high rack eight pointer cross the distant spot, and he passed a pair of 18 month old bucks that walked over the creek near his stand. A bit after 9 a.m., though, on that frosty morning, a wide nine pointer showed up, and Dan took him broadside as he slipped across the creek just 18 yards from the archer s tree. Dan had effectively cut off the buck s travel route from one oak ridge to another, and the deer paid the ultimate price.
It s important to concentrate bowhunting efforts on deer travel patterns according to the way animals are acting at a particular time. The important thing, believes Dan, is the current pattern, because whitetails regularly change their habits—sometimes from week to week.
At times animals move into areas to feed on acorns or apples. Other times they may work corn or soybean field edges. They may go to water, or walk ridges during the rut. Once Dan figures the current deer travel pattern, he goes into the area and looks for a natural barrier that prohibits their free movement to the place they want to go.
I don t look for tracks or trails, rubs or scrapes, he explains. What I want to find is a small lake or pond in the woods, down timber, felled trees, a fence, deep ditch, or thick brush—anything that inhibits ease of deer travel through an area. Once I find such a barrier, I place my stand near it— knowing deer will walk around the barrier and I ll cut them off when they come within range. I hunt this way a great deal, and it works well.
Author Resource:
Albie Berk enjoys hunting and sharing what he has learned and any successful tips he can with others. He enjoys South Carolina hunting and usually stays at Island Plantation. Http://islandplantation.com
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