One of his points is that late season hunting requires surgical precision, and I couldn’t agree more. So if you’re still looking to fill a tag, give this video a watch and I’m sure it will help you fine tune your set up and strategy over the remaining sits of your season! Good luck out there Nation.

Several weeks back I posted a quick blurb about an interesting article I read from Bill Winke, in which he discussed using trail cameras to determine whether or not a buck was huntable, based on getting daytime vs nightime pics (read here). I found this pretty interesting, but I had some questions, so I reached out to Bill and asked him to elaborate. He was kind enough to do so and we posted his response on W2H as well (read here). By understanding that some bucks are more likely to be daytime movers, Bill has been able to use trail cameras to determine which bucks have these tendencies and then spend the majority of his hunting time on deer that are more likely to appear during hunting hours. A very interesting idea, and one that I know many of you had opinions on.

So with that in mind, to finish out this topic, I wanted to share with you all a recent episode from Bill Winke’s Midwest Whitetail TV show on The Sportsman Channel, in which this very same topic is covered. If you’re interested in learning more about this trail cam technique, I’d highly recommend checking this video out.

Today while perusing the local grocery store, I made my weekly pilgrimage to the magazine rack. I’m always on the prowl for the newest issue of Deer & Deer Hunting, North American Whitetail or one of the other great hunting publications that grace the shelves. Well I came upon an interesting article on hunting early season whitetails by Bill Winke in Petersen’s Bowhunting (if my memory serves me correctly). And in this article, Bill made an interesting point that I wanted to share with you. Here’s what he said, in regards to how he uses his trailcams in the early season.

“You need to know what bucks are nocturnal, which ones are mostly nocturnal and which ones often travel by day. Obviously, the daytime travelers are the ones we want to see. Don’t be duped into thinking you can hunt an area where a strictly nocturnal buck is living and somehow he will move during daylight just to oblige you. I have fallen for that temptation too many times. I won’t let it happen again. All I did in those cases was needlessly over-hunt the buck’s core area at a time when he was not vulnerable. The risk of educating him was much higher than the possible reward of shooting him.

So like I said. Very interesting thought, and one that I hadn’t really considered myself. I think it makes plenty of sense, but it also makes me ask a few questions as well. For instance, if I only get trailcam pics of a buck at night, could this possibly be more because of my camera placement and not really his tendency of moving in day or night? The average Joe probably can only afford to put out a few cameras on a property, so does this limit your ability to make a quality judgement of whether this buck is nocturnal or not? I definitely think Bill brings up a good point, but I imagine you need to take it with a grain of salt and not make a rash judgement call on a buck’s nocturnalness or not, based on one trailcam pic or location. But that being said, I’m definitely going to keep this in mind come October.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this? Do you think you should wait to move in on a buck until he shows daytime movement on trailcam? Or are you missing out on a chance to fill your tag by waiting?

“I love maps and aerial photos of hunting land,  I can’t get enough of them.  I stare at them for hours.  Over the past 20 years I have spent hundreds of hours learning to recognize great stand sites, the best food plot locations and the ideal entry and exit strategies directly from these studies.  I would love to be able to help the Wired to Hunt Nation develop great strategies for the properties they hunt.”

- Bill Winke, Midwest Whitetail

Just picked up a new piece of land and are trying to figure out how you’re going to attack it in 2011? Or maybe you’ve been hunting your “back 40″ for years, but you’ve yet to really wrap your head around the best strategy for hunting it? Whatever your situation might be, I know we all have plenty to learn about the best strategies for hunting and managing our properties. If it wasn’t a lifelong learning process, it wouldn’t be so much fun! And that’s why I’m so excited to share with the Wired To Hunt Nation a new opportunity to get an expert opinion on your very own hunting land! As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one, and that second head is especially helpful when it’s Bill Winke!

Now who is Bill Winke? Bill is a household name for most hardcore hunters, but if you’re not familiar, he is one of the most published and respected whitetail writers in the outdoor journalism community and the creator/host of Midwest Whitetail. Midwest Whitetail is the incredibly popular new hunting show featured on MidwestWhitetail.com and the Sportsman Channel, which we just posted about yesterday on W2H as one of the top online hunting shows of 2011! Needless to say, Bill is one of the most renowned whitetail hunters in America and his opinion and advice is considered gold to those who seek monster whitetails. Few of us will ever have the opportunity to learn as much as he has over his many years studying and chasing mature bucks across the midwest, but now we’ll have a chance to reap some of the benefits of his experience.

Bill recently announced a new service he’ll be providing this year, in which he will remotely study your hunting property via aerial maps, discuss the details of the property with you over the phone and then develop a comprehensive hunting and management strategy for your very own piece of whitetail heaven.

In the words of Bill himself, ” If you want a very simple summary of what this service entails, look at it this way: assume you just gave me permission to hunt the area.  It is the only spot I will have to hunt this fall and I need to get everything squared away before I drive out there and start putting up stands.  I will ask the same kinds of questions and put in the same level of study that I would invest if I were going to hunt it myself.”

Bill and his partner Greg Clements will analyze your property and mark up an aerial map, including the top 10 stand locations, entry and exit routes and even food plot locations. Included in this comprehensive report will also be overall strategy notes such as what stands to hunt during different parts of the year, which stands should be hunted often or sparingly and much more in regards to how to most effectively hunt your property.

This is obviously a unique and intriguing opportunity for avid deer hunters across the country and for those looking to take their hunting property to the next level, this may be just the ticket. For more information about Bill’s new property consulting service, check out his own blog post,  which covers specific instructions and details on how this service will take place and what will be provided. To sign up immediately for Bill to analyze your property, click here to enter the consulting services purchase page.

The ever-flowing fountain of bowhunting knowledge we call  Bill Winke recently had an article published in Petersen’s Bowhunting that really struck a cord with me. His article discusses two easy changes you can make to improve the way you release your arrow. It all comes down to being able to effectively achieve a “suprise release” (learn more about the surprise release here). To best pull this off  you need to be able to almost effortlessly squeeze the trigger until the arrow, much to your surprise, is launched towards your target. In this article Bill emphasizes that small technical tweaks to your release aid can greatly effect your success in the field.

Winke’s Two Release Tweaks

• Shorten your release aid length…“Rather than using the first articulation of your index finger to pull the trigger — from the first joint to the tip — use the second articulation. This puts the trigger on the pad of flesh between the second joint and the first joint. To do this, you merely have to shorten your release aid and extend your finger a little farther forward when reaching for the trigger.”
• Adjust the trigger tension…“Trigger tension or trigger pull is a somewhat personal thing, but for most archers, a light trigger works better than a heavy trigger. A light trigger permits the bow to fire within the first few seconds of starting the squeeze, and that is important. Beyond the obvious reasons of needing to get a shot off quickly when hunting, most archers become impatient after about three or four seconds of aiming; the longer they aim, the more mentally distraught they become.”

These are two quick, yet super effective tweaks I plan to make on my release aid to improve my “surprise release” technique and in turn my hunting success.

Make sure to read Bill’s full article to pick up on all the details and explanation surrounding these two ideas.

Release Tweaks For Hunting – Bill Winke .