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ADVENTURE SPORTS OUTDOORS “The Voice of the American Sportsman”
TOP 10 LATE-SEASON WHITETAIL TACTICS By Bob Robb
HUNTING SEASONS ARE QUICKLY WINDING DOWN ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HERE’S HOW TO FILL THAT LATE-SEASON TAG. This winter has been weird. It’s been too warm and dry in many places for sure, but the Alberta Clipper started roaring across much of the country last week bringing cold, wind, and snow along with some good news for hunters looking to fill a late-season deer tag. Here’s how to punch it. 10) HUNT THE FOOD Pretty simple theory, really. Following a rough rut and the onset of a cold winter, bucks need calories and lots of them. Put them on a feeding pattern and go get ‘em. The key, however, is scouting, and never letting the deer know you’re there. That means employing a lot of trail cameras and using optics to glass from a distance
as you ferret out buck locations and feeding patterns. The best food? Corn, pure and simple. Also good are standing beans, brassicas, and cereal grains. 9) LOCATE FORBS If you don’t have crops or food plots to hunt what do you do? Simple. Seek out quality forage where deer feel secure. Don’t overlook forbs, which can make up 60 percent or more of a deer’s diet. Look for sunny southern slopes where weeds and wild flowers might still be green and growing. These slopes can be 10 percent warmer than shaded slopes and often deer bed there as well. 8) SLEEP IN Late season hunting — especially when the ground is frozen and it sounds like a freight train whenever and wherever you walk — is an afternoon affair, pure
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and simple. Don’t be tempted to hunt mornings, you’ll just end up frozen and, odds are, alert deer that something’s amiss. My experience has shown the best movement comes between 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m.-dark. Also, never, ever let deer in a food plot see you leave. And remember to be just as careful checking cameras as when hunting. You can’t let scent go into those bedding areas. 7) PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE Spend way more time observing than hunting. By setting up at a distance and glassing the source, a buck’s trail can be pinpointed and clues are often provided on where the deer are coming from. It can also show you where to hide out and wait for him as well as the best ways to access and egress the area. Also remember that sound travels seemingly forever on cold, calm days. I try and set up at least 100 yards off the trail (when I’m hunting with a firearm).
January 2018
6) LOOK FOR DAYLIGHT ACTIVITY I don’t care a whit about after-hours trail cam pics this time of year. I need pictures of bucks in daylight. Run your cameras on a time lapse or field scan mode — where the camera takes a photo every minute during the last 90 minutes of each day — then check them at midday. As soon as you see a good buck on camera during the day, hunt him as soon as possible, that very night, if you can. 5) THE IMPORTANCE OF COVER For bowhunters, tree selection is a huge area of concern. With no leaves on the trees, most of your early or midseason trees are now probably useless since they afford no cover. Now you must find trees
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