***Archery Tip of the Week 2007***

[Deitz Dittrich]

This was a blast last year. Many of our forum members did an OUTSTANDING job last year stepping to the plate coming up with stuff to help us all in our quest for the mighty bowhunt!

Lets do it again Who's in this year?

As it may take a while to get things going, I'll fire it up and will cover from today till Aug 5th.. unless someone can put something together for the week starting the 30th... The big day on FishingMinnesota is Monday.. so lets try and get our tips in by Sunday evening.

My tip..

I am a hunter by love, but am more of a target guy. So many of my tips have more to do with form and the such. This is no different! For early season, its important to get a lot of repitition, but not to much. No need to make your muscles sore. Start with somethign manageable and work from there. Make each shot count! As you are not shooting as much, its important to make the best of each shot till you build muscles. Make each spot hit the exact fiber of yoru target that you are aiming for. If you dont, do your best to figure out why!

Aim Small, Miss small

who is up for next weeks Archery Tip of the Week? If nobody steps up your going to have to hear another of my lame tips.. LOL

Aug 5th Big Bucks

Aug 12th shiner2367

Aug 19th Strats

Aug 26th Scoot

Sept 2 Cooter

Sept 9 Dark Cloud

Sept 16 DonBo

Sept 23 Bassboy1645

Sept 30

[harvey lee]

I will have one up this Sunday, July 29th. subject will be ????. I will decide tomorrow.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Sweet!.. So who wants the the one for Aug 5th?

[harvey lee]

The subject I will talk about for next week will be an in depth article on clearing shooting lanes.

Who else would like to take a week? Easy to do, nothing professional, just from your expeirence's out in the field and what you have learned. No such thing as a bad informative post. We can all learn something from each other as we did last season.

[Nate McVey]

I'll give it a shot................

[bigbucks]

I'm game for doing the August 5th one. I'll probably put it up the Friday before. It will be along the lines of "Planning Your Season." August should be a good time for that topic. Even if people think I'm whacked on my approach maybe it can help trigger their thinking on how they want to approach the season, before it's here.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks Big Bucks... I put you down for the 5th.. .Thanks also to shiner2367, I put you down for the 12th! I really looking for ward to reading em guys! Thank you!

[harvey lee]

Thank Shiner and BigBucks.

As far as your approach BigBucks, we all have some things we do different and thats how we all learn new things to try. Thats what this Tips post is all about.

We will get a date lineup and can place the names with the dates so all know who is up and what date is open.

Again, thanks for the willingness to help out.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Quote:

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We will get a date lineup and can place the names with the dates so all know who is up and what date is ope

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Harv- look at my lead post again.. already got it started.

[harvey lee]

Harv is blind.

[Nate McVey]

Thanks guys, I look forward to sharing and learning from everyone.

[Stratosman]

Hey I'll do a week again this year... I think I'll discuss the importance of scent control. Whatever week you write me down for will be fine.

[harvey lee]

Thank you Sir.

[harvey lee]

Clearing Shooting lanes

We have all been there and if your are new at archery hunting it will happen. That deer will walked within range and you could not get a shot. All archers have the dream of one day dropping that trophy buck but, have we done our homework to know what and what not to do? The biggest bucks in the woods are the most offended to excessive trimming.

Here are a few tips that I have found that have worked well for me over my 30 years of archery hunting.

If I have an opportunity, I prefer to clear my shooting lanes long before the next season. After my fall hunt, I know where the trails are and where they are traveling. After the fall season is over is when I start to look for new areas to hunt for the next season. I will during the winter or early spring look for a good spot to hang a stand and start to trim out a few spots to take a shot. In early summer is when I like to go back and trim the new leaves with pruners.

1- I always try to wear scent proof clothing when clearing shooting lanes and it is even more important when you are doing this closer to or in the archery season.

2- Trimming a few small branches can be the single most important factor tipping the odds in your favor. I usually am not too concerned about trimming to many overhead branches.

3- I always crawl up into the stand to see if I have a good 20 yard shot to the trail they should be traveling. If there are some tree tops in the way, I will trim the whole tree and not just the top. The reason for this is the deer will be aware that a half tree is now there. If the tree is too big to tree cut it down, then I will relocate my stand.

4- When I have decided my trimming is done, I will remove all trimmings from the area and also cover up with dirt and leaves any tree stumps that I have left in view.

5- If one has the time to do your work in the late fall or early spring, it is also a good time to remove some debris so one can enter and exit there location without making a lot of noise coming and going. Crucial mistakes are made when you have a great looking area and when you approach the stand in the early morning darkness you make enough noise to wake up a hibernating bear. No whitetail will put up with to much noise in their home territory.

6- Another trick that I have used many times is to tie off branches with a small string or rope. If one has a branch that will open you up too much to the line of sight of the deer, I like to take a small string or rope and tie a 1” nut to the end. Then I sling the nut over the branch and pull the branch to a spot that will open up enough of a spot to clear that area. I will then try to pull that branch to a location that will be of better use in another area around my stand to help conceal me.

I like to compare trimming shooting lanes to moving furniture in your home. If you were to move a lamp or even a small picture in your home, you can bet someone will notice it. A whitetail deer will notice the branches cut or moved or a sawed of tree even more as this is their home area.

With all this said, just try to be as scent free as possible, do your trimming as far away from the season as possible and remove all your trimmings to a different area and I will bet that your chance of being busted will be reduced. Also, don’t over trim.

Good luck this fall and have a safe hunt. Also, don’t forget about your safety harness.

[BLACKJACK]

Good ideas Harvey on trimming!!!

One other recommendation that I have is to do it with a partner, you can sit in the tree stand and point out the offending branches for them to cut. Having a partner with cuts down on the number of times you have to go up and down a tree. A pole saw is also a great tool to have when trimming, one of my better bowhunting accessories.

[Scoot]

Great info, HL! I think this one is often skipped by many people and it costs them a lot of deer.

DD and HL, if you want me to do a tip o' the week, I'd be happy to.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks Strats and Scoot, I put you both down!!!! Check the first post for your date.

[Cooter]

DD, I'll take Sept 2, I'll figure out a topic.

Edit from Deitz....Scoot I put you on for Sept 2, thanks brother!

[harvey lee]

Thanks for the help Cooter. Thats another week you won't have to read DD or myself.

[Dark Cloud]

I did one last year and i'll try again. Put me down for the 9th of sept...

[edit from Deitz... Thanks Dark, I put you down for the 9th]

[harvey lee]

Thanks for the extra effort.

[bigbucks]

Dietz or Harvey, should I put mine for Monday up today or wait until Monday? I won't be able to do it until after 9:00 on Monday morning otherwise.

[harvey lee]

It would work to place it up today or wait until Monday morning. Whatever is the best for you.

Thank-You for going the extra mile.

[Scoot]

DD, just for clarification- when am I supposed to do a TOW? Looks like I'm Aug 26th on the schedule, but your edit in Cooter's post makes it look like I'm Sep. 2nd. I assume you meant "Cooter" instead of "Scoot" in Cooter's post??? Not trying to be nit-picky, just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row.

Also, regardless of which date it is, I might be in baby-land at that time, so if I miss the date by a couple days, don't be totally shocked. I'll get it done one eventually though.

[bigbucks]

August 5th Tip of the Week

I was afraid I'd forget Monday, so here goes: (I couldn't figure out how to get the bold to work for the whole thing, so maybe one of you moderators can do that for me or tell me how.)

Planning your season:

We all do this to some extent, certainly with some of our vacation days. I’ve found the more of this I do ahead of time the happier I am with my season when it’s all over, even if I didn’t have great success harvesting the animals I wanted. This is going to be different for every hunter, depending on schedule, property options, how much you want to hunt, what you want to shoot, what you can shoot in your hunting area(s), & other favorite activities you want to schedule in.

First I like to fill in as much as I can on the calendar. I use one of those big desktop calendars, weddings, birthday parties, duck opener, bow opener, Viking’s games, work travel, etc. Make sure you try to find out any time that your wife or significant other’s going to be gone & you need to watch the kids, ie: Little Falls Craft Fair, work, or whatever. Then concentrate on the times from 9/15/07-11/2/07 (Friday before gun season), for this season. Some of these things you’ll put on the calendar & then based on weather at the time or how full a certain stretch is, you can anticipate what events you need to start figuring out a way to “get out of”. If you have kids in school, especially if they hunt with you, get MEA marked on your calendar, that’s a great time for that long weekend out of state trip.

Depending on how many places you have to hunt, I think you need to try to get in as many hunts as your schedule, which in most cases includes your family’s schedule, & your body can handle. Bow season is 3 ½ months, but the pre-gun season, which is what I consider the prime season, is 6-7 weeks. When you put in all that other “stuff” it’s not that long, you need to plan accordingly.

Try to train your family ahead of time that those last two weeks before gun season you’re going to hunt EVEN MORE & maybe at the drop of a hat. Start telling your family in September that the first time it snows you’re going hunting that first night or as close after it as possible, so much so that when they hear that it’s going to snow they know you won’t be around that evening. Look at the regs, in my case I can now only shoot 2 deer in one of my areas & still 5 in a couple of others. This year I’m planning on concentrating on the 5 deer areas early in the season, just to keep my options more open. Make sure which places it’s okay with the landowners that you hunt right up until gun season. I’ve had surprises before on spots I was saving for prime rut & the landowner said a few days ahead, why don’t you leave it alone now that gun season’s so close. I could have hunted it earlier & blew my chance. Save a spot that you can hunt the night of 11/2/07 that no one will care if you do, even a marginal one, for those last couple days before gun season. You might be surprised how good it can be when the bucks are rut crazy, especially if it hasn’t been hunted much.

Once you get all of that stuff in your calendar you can backtrack & figure out when your portables need to be out at certain properties, permanents have to get checked, shooting lanes trimmed or mowed, new stands completed, etc. (August, in other words now, is the short answer to that one.) Keep in mind when you plan to use them. This is where the more detailed micromanaging of hunts comes in. Check the crops on all your properties, assuming you didn’t ask the farmers already over the winter what they were putting in each field this year, like I did & probably most of the veterans on FM. Figure out which places are your early season first choices & what winds, figure a lot of SW, S, & SE winds for the September hunts as that’s what we get a lot of usually, but not always. I usually hunt hay, beans, or acorns, even water, early in the year & switch to primarily corn sometime in October, of course that depends on what choices you have available & if you’re seeing deer. Figure out your protected spots for really windy days that may be the only day for most of a week you can go, don’t stay home just because it’s “too windy”, there’s likely somewhere on your properties it’s not too windy. If you don’t think there is, go try that spot on public land you wanted to try that’s tucked in out of the wind, chances are the other guy(s) won’t be there that night… Windy nights are ones you can likely get away with stumbling around trying to figure things out without hurting as much. Wind covers noise & disperses scent quicker, plus even if you do screw it up, it’s not like you’re wrecking one of your “go to” spots. I’ve found some pretty good new spots, hunting on questionable days when I didn’t want to risk screwing up a known good spot with high or fickle winds.

Hopefully this rambling has helped you think of at least one other thing to consider that can make your bow season more productive, or at least go smoother with the family. Last year I got in 33 different morning or evening sits of varying lengths, prior to opening morning of gun season. My typical year is 25+. Work up to what fits everybody’s schedule in your household, if you hunted 8 times last year, maybe make a target of 12. Sometimes the best thing to do to make your whole season go better is to take a night off from hunting that’s marginal, or one when you really are just too tired. There are times when staying home with the family, or just to get some projects done, so you can go when you get those “ideal” conditions you’ve been waiting for to happen, is the best plan. Workaholics tendency will be to do that all the time, don’t do that either if you want to get a deer or a few. It can all happen in an instant, but it’s unrealistic to think it’s going to happen in an instant every time. I think we’ve all waited for the perfect night for the perfect spot & it just didn’t happen. On the flip side I’ve shot plenty of deer when I thought conditions were poor, the spot was, or both. The old saying about not shooting them on your couch is 100% true. If you really want to go some night & time is short, but it’s A-Okay at home, go somewhere even if it’s just 50’ off the lawn.

Have a great season everybody.