Still Hunting

Outfit My Rig!

BrianLynn — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:55:08 -0400

After being without a truck for some months, I finally bit the bullet and bought a used 2001 Chevy Blazer LT. While I'd prefer a truck, the Blazer fit the four requirements I had: four-wheel drive, big enough to haul the dog, room/a place to put the kiddo's car seat and within my budget (those aren't listed in any particular order, by the way...).

What accessories have you SUV (and truck/car guys) enjoyed the most? Are there certain brands you like better than others? Are there budget-saving brands/ideas out there? I want to hear some thoughts on how best to outfit this baby for hunting, fishing and dog training.

Below are some ideas on things I might want to add on, please let me know what, if anything, I'm missing and/or things that really aren't worth it.

Sunstein on Hunting and Animal Rights

BrianLynn — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:01:24 -0400

Enlarge Photo

In the Gun Shots blog, John Haughey, and by proxy, Alan Clemons, does a great job outlining the danger Cass Sunstein, Obama's pick to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (for which he might be confirmed as early as today), poses to hunting and how/why hunting and firearm organizations oppose his nomination.

I thought I'd take it a step farther and provide you with the source material, straight from the horse's mouth, and some of the highlights from his University of Chicago White Paper (along with some of my own comments), entitled "The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer".

Hunt Safe

outdoorlife-editor — Wed, 31 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400

When Dick Cheney mistakenly shot his hunting companion in February, it catapulted hunter safety into the public eye on a scale no one expected. It was an unfortunate accident, but like most accidents, it could have been prevented. The vice president was careless and broke a cardinal rule of hunting safety. He obviously should never have squeezed the trigger when he did.

I'm reminded of a similar scenario that happened to me 30 years ago. A woodcock hunting companion of mine changed his position as we walked through thick cover. I almost drew on a bird that was directly in line with him. Luckily, my pal's orange hat immediately alerted me to his presence. Had I not seen the hat, I hate to think of the consequences.

Hunting typically causes a degree of excitement, especially when birds are flushing. We have only a second or two to assimilate the information that is quickly unfolding. The brain makes a judgment call, and our body reacts by shouldering the firearm and squeezing the trigger—or not squeezing the trigger.

Because of the lethal nature of firearms, safety is incessantly stressed, as it should be. I've been hunting for more than half a century, and I'm never irritated or bored with safety orientations in camps prior to hunting. It's a subject that must be in the forefront of our minds as we take to the fields and forests in pursuit of game.

WEAR ORANGE Safety doesn't necessarily refer to your actions. It can also pertain to the actions of others. Because of that, I wear hunter orange whether it's required or not, unless I'm hunting species that require camo, like turkeys, waterfowl and coyotes. Some hunters think it's foolish to wear orange clothing; they feel it's a sign of inexperience or that it will alert the quarry. I disagree with both assumptions. In fact, a hunter who wears orange is far less naïve than one who doesn't.

GUN SMARTS Some hunting accidents occur even though the victim is wearing orange, as in the Cheney incident. There's no room for being distracted when a group of people are actively hunting or merely walking along. We need to be conscious—every second—of where our muzzle is pointing, even if the firearm is unloaded. Looking down the wrong end of a barrel is unnerving, even if you know the gun is unloaded. It's always a good idea to put companions at ease by deliberately unloading your gun and announcing the fact. Whenever I pose with an animal I've taken, for example, I want my pals to know my gun's unloaded, so I'll open the bolt and close it on an empty chamber while everyone is watching. If I'm climbing in rugged, steep terrain, I'll extract the cartridge from the chamber so all present see me do it. When I cross a fence, my gun is always unloaded and my action is open. It's a matter of being considerate as well as being safe.

STAY FOCUSED A memory lapse or distraction can create a dangerous situation. I was once in a drop camp for caribou in Alaska. After we got our animals we hunted ptarmigan around camp while waiting for a bush plane to pick us up. The plane arrived earlier than we expected, so we hurried back to camp, set down our shotguns and finished packing. When it was time to board the plane, I picked up my shotgun and, from the force of many decades of habit, checked the magazine. There was no shell in the chamber but the magazine was still loaded. If I hadn't checked, I might have returned it to the gun case and placed it in the airplane, mistakenly thinking that I had unloaded it when we approached camp.

Some accidents occur out of sheer ignorance. I was once at a shooting range where a man's gun exploded in his face when he pulled the trigger on a clay target. He had somehow put a 20-gauge shell in the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun and didn't realize the smaller shell had lodged in the barrel. He lost two fingers.

Last fall, while packing for a mule deer hunt in Montana, I grabbed a rifle out of my gun cabinet. I was in a hurry and didn't bother to check it out carefully. I should have, because there were several rifles that looked nearly identical in that area of the cabinet. The next morning, I got out of the truck to start hiking and checked my gun. Imagine my astonishment—and embarrassment—when I realized I'd grabbed a Remington .338 Ultra-Mag instead of my .300 Ultra-Mag. The shells in my pocket were for the .300. We scouted a bit in the prime early morning light and went back to town at midday to buy some .338 cartridges. I've always made it a practice to double-check my rifle and ammo before loading a gun. In that case, it paid off.

HUNT WITH A BINOC Carrying a scope-sighted rifle without taking a binocular along is a recipe for disaster. If you see or hear something move in the brush but can't identify it, you'll be tempted to check it out with your scope. Heaven forbid it's a human being. You've committed a grievous offense—pointing a firearm at a person. In every one of my seminars, I discuss this scenario and ask my audience how many of them have seen someone aim a rifle at them. Typically about a quarter of the hands go up. That's far too many. No hands should go up.

BLOOD TRAILS Following a blood trail sets up a potentially dangerous situation, as you have to stoop and bend over frequently to look for blood. Eliminate the possibility of your muzzle waving around by holding your rifle at alert and allowing companions to follow the trail. This is a good idea anyway, because you might need to be ready to take a quick shot if you jump the quarry.

Safety is everyone's concern, whether you're waiting in a tree stand, sitting in a duck blind or hiking up a mountain. A hunting accident could change your life forever. There's no room for error. Even a tiny bit is too much.

For information about Jim Zumbo's books, go to jimzumbo.com.

For more on hunting, go to outdoorlife.com/hunting

CROSSING SAFELY

A lot can go wrong when you navigate a fence. Keep your action open and the gun unloaded and pass it to a buddy so you can make a safe crossing. The birds will wait.

Playing It Safe

The right equipment can make any hunting excursion much safer.

1 A blaze orange hat makes a huge difference when you're hunting in woods, fields or any cover where your torso might be obscured. ($30; 888-455-2253; stormykromer.com)

2 These multi-lens shooting glasses from Beretta let you see game better under various light conditions and protect your eyes from shot, sticks and other hazards. ($98; 800-636-3420; berettausa.com)

3 If you're in a tree stand, a safety harness, like Loggy Bayou's Transformer Safety System, is a must. ($80; 870-881-9778; loggybayou.com)

4 The Pro-Amp BTH earmuffs from Radian let you hear sounds in your environment while deadening the noise from gunshots. ($100; 877-723-4267; radians.com)

Bucks Behaving Badly Deer can hoodwink us even when they're not trying

outdoorlife-editor — Sat, 31 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0400

I wish I had comprehensive answers for some of the more pressing questions about deer behavior. If I knew everything there was to know about why whitetail bucks behave as they do, I could develop some better hunting strategies each fall. All I can do is consider the theories of biologists and recollections of my own experiences to plot my season's course. Consider some of the following mysteries regarding deer, and observations regarding their possible solutions.

WHERE DO MATURE BUCKS GO?

I have the good fortune to hunt some properties that are well-managed for deer. While these properties are not high-fenced, one would nevertheless assume that there is a great supply of old bucks running around. In fact, one might conclude that there are so many bucks 4 1/2 years old and older that hunters would have to shoo them away from the trees in which their stands are fastened just to make room enough to climb down. Of course, that's not the case. Even though we who hunt there aren't shooting many younger bucks, we still see very few fully mature bucks. Where do they go?

I've posed the question to a number of wildlife biologists over the years. One told me that he thinks the bucks are still there and just not moving around when hunters are near. My ego had a hard time accepting that explanation, but after studying this enigma carefully for eight years, I now share the belief that the bucks are still there. My proof is in the anecdotal evidence provided by a bad case of a deer-killing fever that took out about 40 percent of our herd late one summer. We found dozens of dead bucks, and none of us who hunt the area had ever seen any of them before. Remember, these deer that had died in late summer and in early fall were "resident" bucks. Like forest wraiths, they had been living there the whole time in their own invisible fashion.

WHAT DO SCRAPES REALLY MEAN?

Some biologists theorize that scrapes serve to mark a place for bucks to meet does. The doe beds down nearby to wait for the buck to return. If only it were that simple. In all the places I hunt, bucks totally abandon their scrapes and start roaming the countryside in search of does when the does go into estrus.

Could it be that scrapes are a way for bucks to monitor other bucks, like a male dog that lifts his leg on the mailbox post at the end of the driveway just to show other males in the neighborhood that he's still the boss? This is what I believe, and it satisfies my curiosity for now. When we eventually figure out all the messages that scrapes transmit, and how deer use that information, we'll also be able to figure out when and how to hunt these signposts most effectively.

DO DEER HAVE A SIXTH SENSE?

A deer must be keenly aware of any danger in its environment or else it will quickly become venison. Bucks can sense things that we aren't even aware of, and they do it in ways we can't even fathom.

Let's say we give a buck, survival machine that he is, three or four years to soak up and categorize everything in his environment with his highly attuned senses. Suddenly we have a super deer, a buck with awesome abilities to sense things and the experience to put the information together. Based on such abilities, it isn't much of a stretch to think that the buck can tell that a situation "just feels bad."

I've watched literally thousands of deer from my tree stands and I can count on one hand the number of times a buck or doe has shown wariness for which there didn't seem to be a rational explanation. In nearly all the other cases where I got busted, it was easy to point to a reason for it. But as for those other occasions...

CAN DEER REASON? When a big buck gives us the slip for the umpteenth time, it's hard not to believe he is outthinking us. According to various biologists, there's still an overwhelming assertion within the scientific community that deer can't reason. However, virtually everyone acknowledges that deer do have a tremendous ability to rely on experience and instinct to avoid danger.

CAN DEER REMEMBER?

We've all had experiences with big old does that just seem to have our number. It's a common scenario. She detects us on our stand once, and from then on she looks for us whenever she comes into the area. It is one of the most maddening things that can happen in the deer woods and the main reason I always carry as many antlerless tags as the law allows. Can deer remember? Of course they can, but no one knows for how long.

At some point, repeated exposure to a certain kind of stimulus simply becomes a habit that works its way into their lifestyles. But it's unlikely that they'll remember an isolated incident for an extended time. Relying purely on experience, I know that deer can remember and react to specific memories for at least a week. I saw the evidence of that while hunting near my home many years ago when a buck, after being spooked a week earlier, remembered my stand location and made a wide circle around it.

WHY DO SOME BUCKS ROAM?

I have hunted a number of mature bucks over the years. In some cases the bucks were homebodies and relatively easy to kill. Other bucks were nomads that were seen once, but never again. I've asked a lot of hunters around the country if they've experienced this type of behavior and the answer was always "Yes." Attribute it to variances in the personalities of mature bucks.

Just as people are individuals and have their own characteristics, behaviors and personality quirks, so do deer. Some bucks seem to stake their claims to a few acres of turf and stay there, while others seem to want to see what's over the next ridge.

Cutlery to Keep In time for the observance of the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, Schrade Cutlery is offering a commemorative three-blade pocketknife. The knife is packaged in a wooden box modeled after the explorers' journal cases. (About $60, www.schradeknives.com)

Ground Pounders EXPERT ADVICE ON HOW TO COME DOWN FROM THE TREES AND HUNT ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:00:00 -0400

"I sometimes fear that we have lost track of the concept of pursuit; it seems that we have become so preoccupied with success that we have rushed right by the very core, the very heart of hunting." --Fred Asbell Stalking & Still-Hunting: The Ground Hunter's Bible

When John Madsen wrote, "It was hunting with all the fat rendered away, and reduced to clean white bone," he was talking about the sore-legged pursuit of cagey late-season pheasants. But this also speaks to the essence of ground hunting: stalking, still-hunting and the nearly lost art of how to fashion a makeshift blind using only the materials Mother Nature lends you.

Back in the Stone Age, hunting on the ground was what put meat on the spit and antlers on the cave wall. There's no greater thrill, no form of hunting more pure, than to play an animal up close and "on the level." Still, the majority of hunters--especially those in the deer woods east of the Mississippi--feel more comfortable playing "wait and see" perched in a tree. And why not? Tree-stand hunting is deadly effective and (can we just come out and say it?) easier, at least when compared to ground hunting, where the learning curve toward proficiency is commonly held to be somewhere between too much trouble and downright impossible.

"People have said to me, if stalking works so well let's see you go kill a deer in the woods right there. That's really, really stupid," says Fred Asbell, author of the book Stalking & Still-Hunting: The Ground Hunter's Bible (available from www.cabelas.com). "Granted, some places can be difficult, almost impossible to move through quietly, but there are also places where putting up a tree stand is pointless." Tree stands, ground blinds, drives, stalking and still-hunting all have a place in the hunter's bag of skills. Making it on the ground means taking the hunt to the hunted. It starts with the belief that regardless of geography, when conditions are right there's no better place to hunt than on the ground.

A WALK IN THE WOODS

After 15 seasons still-hunting whitetails in southern Arkansas, Cliff Shelby has put the sneak on more deer than he can count. He challenges the notion of what constitutes "perfect conditions" for still-hunting when he quips, "Pretty much anytime I can slip away." He has successfully still-hunted at all times of day and under circumstances that most hunters would consider futile. "I've crept up on deer when the woods were so dry the leaves were crunching under my feet like cornflakes," Shelby says.

The beginning still-hunter will have the best chance of spotting undisturbed game creeping through transitional zones between feeding and bedding areas when the woods are soggy quiet or just after a fresh blanket of newly fallen snow. The best times are morning and evening, when deer are naturally on the move or being pushed around by the usual troop of bumbling hunters. The rest of the time a little creativity must come into play.

Undisturbed animals make noise. Squirrels scurry and wild turkeys scratch. There are sounds of other deer walking, hooves trampling, acorns falling and tree branches snapping. "In dry, crunchy conditions I've done quite well sneaking up on deer by shuffling along like an armadillo rooting through the leaves," says Shelby.

Certain woodsy sounds are okay as long as they're not the bipedal crunch...crunch of a man on the prowl. Out West, where hunting remains largely a foot pursuit, some ground hunters recommend carrying a walking stick to serve as a "third foot" for better balance when silently picking a path over uneven, brittle terrain. Using a walking stick in dry conditions produces an un-humanlike third step. A staff also makes a good rifle rest should the opportunity for a shot present itself.

Bowhunter Fred Asbell accomplishes the same illusion of sound with a technique he calls "deer walking."

When he takes a bad step or when silent forward momentum is no longer possible--perhaps when closing the last few yards before the shot--he plants the ball of his lead foot first and follows it by snapping his heel down smartly. The result is a quick, lighter-sounding crunch-crunch that sometimes confuses four-footed critters into thinking another of their kind is milling about.

Obviously still-hunters should aspire to flow soundlessly from tree to tree when woods-walking. Shelby says there's a lot of good advice on how to do that in famed tracker Tom Brown's books on tracking and stalking.

While you sometimes hear a deer coming before it hears you, most often they seem to materialize after the flickering of a tail, the wink of an ear or the sudden white flash of an antler tine. Typical of all proficient ground hunters, Shelby says that nearly every deer he's ever taken has been first spotted while he was standing absolutely still, just watching. In this game, the hunter's eyes have it. This is why forward progress on the ground is measured in a ratio of feet to hours: Figure one mincing step for at least five minutes spent dissecting the surrounding terrain with a handy binocular. Beyond a pair of soft-soled boots and wool or fleece outer garments, a good binocular is the only essential gear for still-hunting.

Use the terrain. Shallow-running streams and standing corn are two avenues a hunter can always use to creep soundlessly through areas where deer are concentrated. Dry creek beds and small, wadeable rivers often course through swampy tangles and suburban woodlots, the kind of natural bedding areas where whitetails in particular feel safe. Likewise, getting into cornfields with the deer, especially in the evening, and prowling like a puma between the always-rustling rows is a deadly technique for getting up close.

If a deer makes you first and spooks, stay put. Shelby's experience is that deer are curious creatures. If they're uncertain of what exactly startled them, they'll either return to investigate or stand stock-still and try to identify the potential source of trouble. After a few minutes, they'll go back to milling around.

"I never make eye contact with an animal that has made me," says Shelby. "With my rifle slung barrel-down over my shoulder and pressed tight to my body, I also try to move through the woods with my legs in close to keep my shape as 'together' as possible. Another thing I've had some success with is to walk directly at the deer in an open field--head-on instead of a more circuitous route. Often, you're able to get closer. It must appear to them like you're just getting taller."

THE RIGHT STALK

A bull elk bugling in the green wash of an alpine meadow; a black bear clawing over a charred stump in old burn; a river-bottom swamp buck bedded in a tangle of alders awash in the noonday sun. All common scenarios, yet when it gets down to the business of stalking and how to make the quietest approach, no two hunters have ever done it exactly the same. Narrowing the space between hunter and prey is an effort that is always unpredictable and dynamic. Every step must be negotiated without a snap, crackle or pop.

It's when you finally spot the quarry that the delicate work of closing the distance begins. The animal should be bedded down for the day or moving in a direction--perhaps in following a valley, hollow or river bottom--that will permit you the time to try a little end-run maneuver. Obviously, the direction of the wind is a major consideration. You should be mindful of not only how it's blowing near you, but also how it's swirling around the animal. Note specific landmarks that will guide you to your quarry should you drop out of visual contact. Whenever possible, keep out of sight during the stalk by using large boulders, trees or any hills, cuts or dips in the terrain to hide your approach until the last possible instant before the shot.

Above all, study the animal and the area in which it has holed up, and be realistic about your chances. This is especially vital in mountainous terrain, where hours can be wasted attempting to stalk an animal that is either too far away or has wisely chosen a resting place that makes it unapproachable.

It seems somewhat paradoxical that the attributes that make a good still-hunter--among them patience, caution and persistence--are not necessarily traits that best serve a hunter once game has been spotted. Good stalkers are fearless and aggressive, too. The same hunter faced with an agonizingly slow belly-crawl through bramble bushes and across muddy creek bottoms must also know when to move, and move fast. Sometimes a stalk might start out looking like a footrace.

Judy Kovar of west-central Illinois, a bowhunter with more Pope and Young whitetails to her credit than any other woman, remembers one such encounter. After spotting her sixth trophy buck (she currently has seven) along the edge of a cornfield running parallel to a brushy ravine, Kovar ducked into the brush to intercept the deer. She sprinted the length of a ridge only to arrive face-to-face with the big-racked buck, which simply turned and trotted away.

After noting his route of travel she set off again, this time coming around to a logging road. She began to still-hunt and the buck soon appeared just ahead of her, looking back over its shoulder. Kovar waited for the deer to come and ended up taking it with one arrow at 15 yards.

THE GROUND HIDE

A dark-haired northern Cheyenne Indian, Kovar is not surprisingly a still-hunter at heart. One record-book black bear, a mountain lion and all seven of her record-book whitetails were taken on the ground, most often with the use of some sort of blind.

Rather than use bulky, commercially made hunting blinds, Kovar likes to keep it simple and improvise whenever she can. With a pair of pruning shears, any blowdown or brush can quickly and silently be made into a hide. While still-hunting she pauses dozens of times along her route, for anywhere from five minutes to upward of an hour, using any available cover to conceal her human form. Sometimes these so-called "mobile blinds" are nothing more than a tree.

But instead of putting her back to the tree, Kovar puts the tree between her and the suspected path of an oncoming deer. "I will also use the terrain, any deep ditch and sometimes the hole left after the wind has uprooted a tree," says Kovar.

Kovar is also fond of ghillie suits. Just as many hunters fall into the trap of judging a spot by the availability of good trees in which to hang a tree stand, you don't want to do likewise on the ground by passing up a perfectly good ambushing site because of unsuitable cover for building a blind.

"I took my seventh Pope and Young whitetail last fall using a ghillie suit from Sleeping Indian Designs," Kovar says. The buck was a non-typical 11-pointer weighting over 330 pounds with a green score of 172 gross. Kovar suspects that it would have spooked if she had used a commercial blind or other elaborately constructed setup.

"It was like cutting the trail of a ghost," she says. The ghillie suit allowed Kovar to move wherever the buck left the most promising signs, yet still kept her concealed without having to disrupt her surroundings.

Ground hunting will probably not suddenly transform you into a more successful hunter. But if nothing else, getting comfortable on the ground will help you to look at the woods differently, opening your eyes to a host of new possibilities this hunting season.

STILL-HUNTING TACTICS It's the middle of the day and conditions are hot and dry. Does still-hunting make sense? You bet. This buck is bedded in the center of a sprawling tract of hardwoods. A typical stalking situation: tough but not impossible, depending on the wind, your knowledge of the hunting area and the wise use of your natural surroundings to mask noise and movement.

ROUTE A. THROUGH THE PINES When the rest of the woods is a minefield of brittle leaves and sticks, walking under pines is usually a softer and quieter option. Make it to the creek and you're almost home free.

ROUTE B. UP A CREEK Running water, high banks and typically thick streamside brush will offer the closest shot.

ROUTE C. THE CORN Rustling and tall, October corn stalks offer the fastest route, though a shot from the cornfield and into the woods might be difficult due to unseen brush between you and the deer.

Open-Country Bucks Sneak up on whitetails in the farm belt

outdoorlife-editor — Sun, 31 Aug 2003 20:00:00 -0400

I can't keep the crosshairs steady," my hunting partner whispered. "The wind is rocking my rifle. Heck, I can barely see the buck in all this blowing snow. He must be 300 yards out."

Such is deer hunting in the wide-open spaces of the Midwest, where distance and the weather must be mastered. We were experiencing what many of the prairie settlers described in their letters to East Coast relatives during their first winter on the Great Plains. The oceanlike prairie provides no buffer to the wind. This day snow was blowing at more than 30 miles an hour. Conditions were whiteout at times and the windchill dipped to 40 degrees below zero.

We would have been more protected hunting in the shelter of the wooded creek nearly a mile in the distance, but the buck we targeted had found shelter on the backside of a bare prairie butte. While the butte blocked the wind from him, we were on our bellies in the wide open and could feel the raging storm at full throttle.

Taking time to regulate his buck fever, my companion waited until the wind paused, allowing better visibility. Even with my earflaps down, the echo of the rifle was a shock, but the view through my 10X-power binocular told the final story. The buck crumpled in the snow.

Bailing Out

Although the prairie might seem to be so flat it couldn't hide a housecat, it actually has plenty of preferred whitetail cover. Wooded rivers and creeks, brushy hillsides and cedar-choked draws dot the landscape from Texas all the way north to the Canadian provinces. Most whitetails seek out these traditional habitats, but hunting pressure can alter a mature buck's view of such shelter. Hunters afoot and in trucks methodically hunt pockets of cover, pushing open-country whitetail bucks to new refuges.

Bucks that have lived through a few seasons often abandon traditional hiding places, even without pressure. Their maturity and experience tells them it's time to get out. At least that's how open-country expert Jim Nelson of Rapid City, S.D., sees it. Nelson has a passion for hunting prairie whitetails. Five years ago he purchased his own parcel of land and has become familiar with the bucks roaming within the ranch borders.

"The majority of the young deer, including the three-and-a-half-year-olds, use river and creek bottoms for sanctuary, but once a buck turns four and a half, he becomes a different deer," explains Nelson. "Big bucks won't use the cover where you'd think they'd be. They flat-out stop using it. Instead, they'll go find some stupid little spot, some little finger draw with hardly any normal cover or trees. These spots are everywhere on the prairie and they're effective hiding locations."

After they've lived through a few hunting seasons, bucks learn that the biggest hiding places also are the ones that hunters check first. Once a buck reaches the age that he stops using obvious cover, you have your work cut out for you. The prairie is a huge stretch of land and whitetails have discovered they can disappear in the same small spots that harbor ringneck pheasants and sharptail grouse.

Locating the Hideouts

You've heard the old saying, "It's like finding a needle in a haystack." Trying to locate a buck hiding in the open can be just as tough. The prairie may look as barren as a desert, but take a hike across a 1,000-acre pasture. Rolling hills, wetland depressions, grassy knolls, eroded draws and weedy fence lines provide adequate cover for a buck. The federal government also helps whitetails hide through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which takes land prone to erosion out of crop production and returns it to grassland. Often the grass is dense enough to conceal a deer. CRP currently involves more than 34 million acres, most of it in the prairie states.

The chances of ambushing an open-country whitetail in such a vast space swing in the hunter's favor if he can find and gain access to whitetails' food and water sources. Although natural food is plentiful on the prairie, farmers have added to the mix with plantings of corn, milo, alfalfa, wheat and new varieties of soybeans that thrive in the semi-arid environment. Don't overlook the lure of water. Flowing rivers and creeks provide much of a deer's daily requirements, but it's a good idea to keep an eye on small reservoirs and stock tanks fed by underground water lines.

While surveying for food and water elements, you'll discover the main key to ambushing an open-country buck: does. Concentrations of does near ample food, water and cover will cause even a mature buck to make mistakes once the rut progresses. If does are feeding regularly in a field, a good buck will eventually show up.

After noting the lay of the land and observing deer movements, pinpoint the main hub of activity and then expand your search in progressively longer distances from the center. Mature bucks will feel safer bedding away from the main activity area, but they'll stay close enough for daily visits. I've seen them hoof it more than two miles to be in the middle of the doe hangouts and food sources.

Quality optics, high vantage points and a tankful of gas are the key ingredients in locating bucks after discovering an activity hub. Don't overlook traditional tactics either. Nelson recalls one hunt where he and a buddy were able to track a buck, which is uncommon in the prairie.

"Six inches of fresh snow dropped overnight. We found a fresh set of buck tracks heading across a huge wheat field," Nelson recalls. "We followed the tracks by driving along the field for a while, but we lost the trail when the buck walked through an uncultivated patch that held grass twelve to fifteen inches tall."

Nelson and his hunting partner stopped and got out of the truck to again find the tracks. As they were standing at the edge of the grass, the buck suddenly burst out of the patch to make a hasty retreat.

"If we hadn't seen the tracks, I would never in a million years have thought to look for a buck in that small patch of grass in the middle of that big stubble field," says Nelson.

Setting Up an Ambush

Having been raised in the prairie country, I've adopted some tried-and-true regional hunting techniques and invented a few others that have served me well. First, begin your hunt by glassing the surrounding country from an elevated position near an activity hub. If you can't find a high hill, resort to a position in a haystack or even an abandoned barn.

After locating a traveling buck, study the terrain to see if there's a way to intercept him using creek bottoms, rolling hills or fence lines as stalking cover. Most open-country ambushes require crawling to take advantage of available cover. I once crawled a quarter-mile to put myself into position for a shot on a prairie trophy.

If the terrain doesn't allow for an immediate assault, file the location away and return for a morning hunt. Sneak into your position well before daylight to intercept the buck as he meanders back to his daytime sanctuary. Stay all day if you've located what you consider to be a trophy worthy of your patience. Be prepared to spend a few days studying a buck's routine. Open-country deer frequently switch bedding areas, depending on weather, does or hunting pressure.

Nelson, a devoted bowhunter, likes to use ground blinds. He's found that blinds don't alarm deer if they are placed near round bales of hay. On his own property, Nelson leaves round bales out year-round in strategic positions so he can quickly erect a blind when a buck pattern is pegged.

Drives as a Last Resort

Spot-and-stalk hunting provides the best opportunities for the biggest open-country trophies. Organized drives usually generate a lot of action and some shooting, but drives don't necessarily result in a lot of mature bucks being taken by any hunters in the group.

"In the last three to five years I have developed more respect for big whitetails," says Nelson. "In the past we killed some of our big bucks by forced movement, often through sheer luck. It can be effective, but if you educate an open-country buck to how drives work, he'll get wise quick and start using cover that is even less obvious to hunters. Or else he'll move to the neighbor's land and wait you out. I'd rather hunt a buck on his terms."

Taking a wall-hanger in a land that favors his survival requires a stealthy hunter. As careful and safe as they seem to be in this open land, prairie bucks have weaknesses in their defense systems that an observant and adaptable hunter can exploit.

Long-Range Rifle Rigs

The open terrain of prairie country dictates the need for a flat-shooting rifle and a quality scope. Most hunters can whittle ranges to below 300 yards by using the cover on hand. If you plan to hunt open country, however, practice out to 400 yards and find your comfort zone.

Choose a caliber that delivers enough punch to knock down a 300-pound buck at long range. Here are a couple of suitable rifle/scope combos:

WINCHESTER MODEL 70/KAHLES 3.5-10X50MM: The Winchester Model 70 Black Shadow chambered for the .270 Winchester is a fine rifle that won't break the bank. It features a blued black barrel with a composite stock.

The 130-grain .270 is a flat-shooting bullet with 9.8 inches of drop at 300 yards when zeroed-in at 150 yards. Depending on the load, the .270 produces upward of 1,600 pounds of energy at 300 yards with light recoil.

Top the rig with a Kahles 3.5-10x50mm with the TDS reticle system. This reticle-ranging system works with most factory ammunition. Hash marks on the reticle correspond to the average chest size of deer-sized game. To use it, put the animal between the marker bars that sandwich its frame snugly, aim and squeeze the trigger.

REMINGTON MODEL 700 BDL/LEUPOLD 3.5-14X50MM: You can't beat the price or the performance of the Remington Model 700 BDL SS chambered for the .300 Remington Short-Action Ultra Magnum (SAUM). Top the stainless-steel-and-composite rifle with a Leupold Premier 3.5-14x50mm scope with its handy side-focus parallax knob.

The .300 Remington SAUM has a bit more kick than the .270, but you won't feel it in the heat of the hunt. This caliber drops 9.7 inches at 300 yards when zeroed at 150 yards using a 165-grain bullet. At that range, it sustains a punch of 1,828 foot-pounds of energy.

Try to know the range before you shoot in open country. Equip yourself with a laser range finder like Bushnell's Yardage Pro 1000. Range finders can back up reticle-ranging systems like those offered by Swarovski and Kahles. The Yardage Pro 1000 offers good readings to 500 yards on deer and is water-resistant.

Finally, invest in a pair of shooting sticks or a bipod. These are available from most shooting product outlets. Harris bipods and Underwood shooting sticks are both personal favorites.