9 minute read
OUTDOOR LOGIC WITH BIOLOGIC
CLOSING THE DEAL A ONE-TWO PUNCH TO BRING WHITETAILS CLOSE
BY TODD AMENRUD
A big buck stood at the edge of a picked corn field about 200 yards away. Even at that distance I could see he was a definite “shooter.” Rather than skirting the field and coming by my stand just off of the corner, he cut straight across the middle. What to do!? I picked up my rattle-bag and cracked it as hard as I could. He stopped and turned his head in my direction. I hit the rattle-bag a second time and he came on a steady trot. Once he reached 100 yards he slowed to a fast walk and started to swing downwind of where he had heard the sound. Long story short – he stood 100 yards downwind of me hardly moving a muscle for almost five minutes. The only movements were his ears searching for “the two bucks he had just heard” and his nose waving in the breeze scanning for other supporting evidence. He turned and slowly disappeared over the ridge.
What makes a set of circumstances seem real to you? If you can see it, hear it, smell it, touch it – the more senses we satisfy, the more that situation will seem real. It’s also true for whitetails and other animals! By using multiple techniques at once a hunter can appeal to a variety of the whitetails’ senses. On that day I sure wish I would have had some scent set-up or a decoy placed out to draw his attention and coax him into bow range.
Does, fawns and young bucks will often ramble straight into a well placed decoy, scent placed out properly or a vocalization that sounds authentic, but a mature buck almost always needs confirmation from more than one sense before they enter into the unknown. They do trust their sense of smell entirely, but if they see something or hear something and aren’t sure, they’ll almost always wait for confirmation before proceeding further.
Whitetails believe their sense of smell completely and if you can fool it, you have it made. Just like sight is our most believable sense, after all – “you’ve got to see it to believe it,” for whitetails their entire life revolves around their sense of smell. That doesn’t always mean using scent to draw them in, it also means practicing a strict regime of scent elimination. In fact, it’s probably most important to keep foreign smells completely out of the picture. Scent Killer Gold is one of my most important tools. For instance, if a mature buck smells the sweet odor of estrus, but there’s also a danger smell; their instinct for survival outweighs all else and all your work will go for naught.
Decoying can appeal to their sight, calling can deceive their hearing, and scent, or the lack of it, can con their sense of smell. Why not do something to play to more than one of their senses at a time? After having success with scent and with calling, I've been experimenting more with decoys. Obviously decoys are not something that most people use every time they venture afield, but using scent and calling (or rattling) are tactics that I use often.
I find that when using decoys, adding scent, calling, or a combo of both will almost always help, but you have to pay attention to a few details. First, you have to start with the correct decoy. I believe that decoy posture and movement are particularly significant.
Some decoys are in an alert posture. This typically brings other deer in ready to act and edgy. You'll often get them to come to within forty to sixty yards, snorting and stomping the ground at your decoy…or maybe it’s at whatever has your decoy so alert. Sometimes I may want an alert, more intimidating posture, but for most deer throughout most of the season you’ll be better off with other less intimidating postures.
When is it natural for a standing deer to be totally motionless? – When it’s alert, when something is wrong or out of place, or just before it’s about to bolt? I’ve done a number of different things to add motion to decoys – from tying a string to a chicken feather or white hanky, taping the string to the hind end or ear of the decoy and letting the wind move it, to tacking a real whitetail-tail to the hind-end of the decoy and operating it with monofilament line. Granted, in a fifteen MPH wind the chicken feather starts fluttering so fast it looks like the decoy will soon take flight, but I believe even that extreme motion is better than no motion at all. There are decoy kits on the market to help convert standard decoys into motion decoys and decoys that come with moving parts so hunters have many options, but motion is a definite key.
Sometimes an alert posture will work. In fact, sometimes I want a ready-to-act, aggressive posture. For instance, if I’m after a mature buck, then “playing the competition card” and using aggressive tactics has worked great for me. When after younger bucks or any deer, success depends on many other factors. The biggest detail to keep in mind is – you must give “that specific deer” a reason to interact with your set-up.
What time of year is it? Are you after a buck, doe, or will any deer do? What age-class buck are you after? Best advice here, think about what the “specific deer” wants at that particular time of year and give them a reason to close the distance. For any deer, any time of year, I feel a decoy in a feeding, greeting or bedded posture is best.
When using scent with your decoy you first have to start by eliminating foreign smell. After your decoy is cleaned in Scent Killer Soap, only touch it while wearing gloves and make sure it's stored in a place where foreign odors are not going to transfer onto it. If you have to transport your decoy, place it in a garbage bag or something that will seal out foreign odors.
When choosing lures and scents, again, think about what the specific deer you’re after wants at that specific time of the season. For instance, early season I might use plain buck or doe urine…just something to add realism to the scenario. Closer to the rut with a buck decoy sometimes I'll use a combo of Active Scrape and Mega Tarsal Plus. One gives a full spectrum scrape aroma and the other is a territorial intrusion scent. Trying to create the illusion my fake buck is moving into his breeding territory. Think about "how" and "why" a buck might interact with your set-up. Try and make it seem as natural as possible and again, “Give them a reason to close the distance.”
When dispersing the scent, I prefer to put the scent on a Key-Wick near the decoy rather than placing the smell right on the decoy. Simply because a week later your decoy smells like “last week’s deer pee.” This way I don’t have to constantly scrub down my decoy. Keep the decoy clean!
Calling is another weapon in your arsenal. Every situation is unique. It might be adding some soft social grunts during early season while using a buck decoy, or maybe adding an estrus bleat in combination with some estrus lure during the rut. One of my favorite tactics just before and after the peak of the rut, is to set up a small buck decoy standing over a bedded doe decoy. Then I'll do my best imitation of an intense buck fight. In between rattling sequences I might imitate an estrus bleat. I try to create the illusion that two bucks are fighting over my fake doe in estrus. The smell of some Special Golden Estrus should also aid in pulling off the gag. This worked to bring in two mature bucks for me a couple years ago.
Taking the decoy out of the picture and using scent and calling/rattling together happens much more often than adding a decoy to the list of tools. But even minus the decoy, the combination of calling or rattling and the use of scent can work great. They hear “deer sounds,” and then circle downwind and smell “deer smells,” it gives them a reason to close the distance. Where a decoy needs some forethought, the tools you’ll need to effectively use calls or scent can easily be carried with you at all times in your pack.
When I specifically venture forth in an attempt to rattle in a buck I almost always use real antlers. Their true to life resonance and the extra subtle sounds you can create with them like scraping a tree or smacking the ground can’t be done with a rattle-bag or any of the manufactured plastic gadgets sold today. However, I have rattled in more bucks with my rattle-bag simply because I carry it with me all the time.
Decoys are fun to use, but it’s really that “one-two punch” of calls and scent that produce the most consistent results. Some hunters think by trying to appeal to more senses you’re leaving yourself open to making more mistakes. Details are important whenever you hunt whitetails, but if you use common sense, keep human scent out of the picture, and present things as natural as possible results will follow. Answer the question of “why" would that specific deer want to interact with your setup? And if he does “how” he might interact with the scenario you've presented? Maybe to be social or maybe it's for competition. The more realistic you can make it seem the better it will work for you.
