It may be the “off season”, but is there really ever such a thing? Even though most of us aren’t able to shoot deer right now, the work being done at this very moment could help you close the deal next fall. So with that being said, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get to work and here are four projects you can focus on right now that should help you close the deal in 2012!

1. Look For New Hunting Ground: As we all know, hunting ground can come and go more often than we like. So it’s always a good idea to have more than you need. Now is the perfect time to start your search for new property, and I like to do this in several ways. First off, if you’re looking to determine what properties are worth leasing or asking permission on,  over the next few days you can still spot a lot of deer in fields with headgear, and a few drives around town can help you identify general areas with good bucks. Then in February and March go ahead and try getting permission to shed hunt on some of these properties. From here, take this opportuntiy shed hunting to also do some good scouting and determine whether any of these properties are worth pursuing further.

If you’re looking to lease or buy ground, take advantage of online hunting property sites like Whitetail Properties, Hunting Lease Network or Base Camp Leasing to help you find available properties. The internet is an incredible resource when it comes to finding and researching new properties, and online maps like Google Maps can be hugely helpful as well. That all being said, don’t forget about the power of good old fashion people too. Sometimes just asking around can be the ticket for finding a gem of a hunting location. And remember, when it comes to asking for permission, the worst they can say is no!

2. Practice With Your Bow Or Gun: This is a task that should, if possible, be year round. I know this is certainly not revolutionary advice, but it’s so important I just have to bring it up again. All the work in the world is wasted if you can’t make the shot count in the end.

Practicing with your weapons of choice in the off season is obviously helpful to stay in shooting shape for next fall, but it’s also a fun way to shake off that cabin fever. And if you’re really looking to take your target practice to another level, hit the woods and do some coyote hunting! Kills two birds with one stone.

3. Review Your Past Season: Here’s something that I’ve been trying to do a better job of the past few years, and it is reviewing my past season. If you keep a hunting journal, it can come in really handy for this. If not, no worries, just try to take some time over the coming weeks to look back on your hunts in 2011 and analyze what went right and what went wrong. If you can pick out at least one mistake, and brainstorm how you could have done things better, it should help you down the road.

You can also study any notes, videos or pictures from the past season you collected, and sometimes these records can help you identify trends or patterns. I’m trying to get better at collecting as much data from each hunt as I can, for example wind/weather/stand location/etc, and then recording it. This gives me some great information to look back on and consider for future reference.

4. Keep Learning: If you want to be a great whitetail hunter, I’m convinced you need to be a life-time learner. There’s always more to learn when it comes to whitetails, and these cold winter months are the perfect time to catch up on some whitetail studies.

Looking for some ideas? Here are a few pieces of recommended reading that I’ve enjoyed recently – Mapping Trophy Bucks, Bowhunting The Eberhart Way, Deer & Deer Hunting’s Guide To Better Bowhunting and Hunting Mature Whitetails the Lakosky Way. It also couldn’t hurt to keep up on Wired To Hunt too!

So if you’re starting to get the post-whitetail season blues, don’t fret. A new season has begun and it’s time to get busy!

“I heard a song ’bout a ramblin’ man
Bought a guitar and I started a band
I got a gig at the local Am Vet
I was gone and I ain’t back yet

Lookin’ back at the moments, black and white
I wouldn’t change a thing that changed my life
For the worse, for the better
Man, I was gone, gone forever”

As I listened to this song I couldn’t but help relating it back to my deer hunting obsession. If this was my song it would be talking about the moment that forever changed my life and made me a deer hunting goner forever.

I was 9 years old and up at our family deer camp in Northern Michigan. One of the guys in camp had dragged a big 8 point buck out of the swamp early on opening day, so I was shocked when my grandpa came back in the cabin that evening saying that he shot a nice buck too! We all got changed, grabbed lanterns and headed out to the area that my grandpa shot his deer. I remember as just a young child the unbelievable excitement and anticipation I had as we began to track that buck. We finally came upon the massive 7 point, as it lay perfectly posed on the other side of our stream. As I saw the ivory white tines shine in the glow of our lantern, I stared in awe at the magnificence of that deer. I wondered to myself if  I would ever be able to get a buck like my grandpa had. That night and for the rest of the week at camp, I stood in front of the buck pole gawking at those two giant MI bucks, restlessly waiting for the time to come when I could start chasing whitetails myself.

Little did I know that from that point on I would be hooked and I was gone, gone…forever.

When did you know that you were a goner for deer hunting? Please share your story in the comments section!

If you have any success please let us know!

Should crossbows be allowed during archery season?

I recently read an article in Outdoor Life magazine, entitled The Crossbow Controversy, discussing the current controversy surrounding the spread of crossbow use in America. Seems that crossbows are increasing in popularity and are being legalized in many states during their bowhunting seasons. One side believes that crossbows are a great new tool for hunters, increase accuracy and the amount of ethical kills and they bring more hunters into the woods. On the opposite side, traditionalists claim that crossbows take away the spirit of the hunt. Being that they are too easy and technically similar to guns rather than bows.

In this article, Ed Wentzler, the legislative director for United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania explained his issue with crossbows by saying,  “Archery equipment should be defined as implements that are held by hand, drawn by hand and released by the motion of the hand in the presence of game,” he says. “If you are shooting a crossbow, you are not drawing the string in the presence of game. That alone gives crossbow shooters an unfair advantage. It is not bowhunting.”

On the side for crossbows, Ohio’s wildlife management chief supported crossbow use,  explaining, “ Crossbows allow hunters to get out in the woods more often, and allow them to be more successful hunters,” says Risley. “For wildlife managers trying to kill as many deer as possible, crossbows have become a necessary tool.”

In my opinion I would have to agree with Wentzler, I feel that bowhunting is so special because it is so darn difficult. The key attribute of a bow is that you must pull back and hold the bow string when your target moves into range. This is the greatest challenge of hunting during archery season and it is part of what preserves this traditional way of hunting. I don’t have an issue with hunters using a crossbow, but I don’t believe they should be categorized or used during archery season. Instead they could be used during the firearm season, muzzleloader season or possibly in their own short period.

What are your thoughts? Should crossbows be allowed during bow season or do they pose an unfair advantage?

This past semester I’ve been taking a Wilderness Survival course at Michigan State University and it might be the best class I have taken yet. We’ve covered a lot of of interesting ideas in regards to the psychology of surviving and I’ve thought almost daily that this is such a relevant topic for hunters. Every year  hunters get lost in the wild and have to deal with these survival ordeals in one way or another. So are we, the big bad hunters, really as prepared as we may think?

Over the next couple weeks I plan on highlighting some interesting stories and tips that might help you survive if your grand hunting expedition takes a turn for the worse. As a hunter, it’s easy to believe that we can handle the wild and anything that mother nature might throw at us, but it’s usually not as easy as it sounds. The story of Ken Killip, a hunter and fireman from Denver, really illustrates this point. Ken and a buddy decided to take a weekend and hike across the continental divide in Rocky Mountain National Park. The two coworkers headed out on to the trail at dawn and headed towards a mountain lake to try for some fish. As their hike progressed Ken began to fall further and further behind his partner and he eventually lost sight of him. At the top of a rocky hill top Ken was suddenly caught up in a nasty lightning storm and became separated by several hours from his buddy.  After the storm,  Ken took off in the direction he thought the lake was but unfortunatly he was very wrong. Over the next several days Ken continued to plunge deeper and deeper into the wilderness making many more mistakes along the way. Despite his wilderness training and hunting experience Ken took wrong turns at many junctures, panicked, misused resources and did a lot of things that would make Man vs Wild’s Bear Grylls shake his head in disappointment. But how does this happen?

Check out this detailed account of how Ken’s trip out to the Rockies went terribly wrong on National Geographics website and think about what really happened on this fishing trip gone wrong.

Laurence Gonzales describes a moment in Ken’s journey in this way -

It was a crucial moment. Killip was now teetering on the invisible dividing line between two worlds: He was in a state of only minor geographical confusion, for he could still turn back. But by the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other, he could very quickly cross over into the state of being genuinely lost. …

What do you think Ken did wrong? Maybe the more difficult question to answer is whether or not you would have made the same choices he did. What would you have done?

Next time I’ll discuss a few of the mistakes Ken made and how we hunters can learn from them, ensuring that the next time you hit the woods, you’ll come back out in one piece.