snareman1234
11-26-2013, 12:14 AM
Preface- As alluded to by Ourea in the “Some Big Whities For Ya... (http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?98219-Some-Big-Whities-For-Ya)” thread, there is a story to be shared. I believe the “Ourea method” has been explained on here previously but let me summarize and provide some context before I begin the story. The spots we are hunting were identified between last year this time, and early summer 2013. These spots are all <100 yards from a busy FSR used by industry, hunters, and recreationists (I saw people camping, having pallet fires and just driving around in cars). Furthermore, all spots were within 25 minutes from a busy city center.
The consistent trend with the spots was a high “horizontal stem density” also known as “hair on a dog’s back”-type timber that is used as a buffer for the whitetail to move through. This type of habitat is also responsible for the “there are no bucks here, they are all shot out” mentality in the area, as the deer are hard to see if one is “driving and hoping”. Some spots bordered old growth timber, but the whitetail certainly found safety in the thick stuff.
Cameras and grain were consistently maintained on these spots after identification. Some spots were culled, but the rest were retained. Prior to November, buck presence was not highly scrutinized; the presence of does was of most importance.
WOW, that was like school eh…Pumping info like a textbook…Surely many have glazed over? I believe this will rekindle interest (does anybody even read the text on this site anyways)?
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/Penticton-20131116-01729_zps3669550f.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/Penticton-20131116-01729_zps3669550f.jpg.html)
Sunday, Nov 17, 2013- I receive a message essentially saying “your time is now, get up here” which was accompanied by some trail cam pictures that could only be described as “motivating”
Monday- spent working my bag off to assuage my week absence announced the morning of
Tuesday- rubber hit the road and I was off. Arrived at noon. We sat in the blind until dark and were visited by a couple does. We pulled all the cards in the cams, which were then reviewed in the evening, which became a nightly “debrief, quantify inventory, and reanalyze”. These evening session were among my best memories of the trip as they were spent with great company, many laughs, good drinks, and high quality intel.
Temperatures began to drop, we left the truck at as low as -20 on Wednesday. The rut should get crazy soon??
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/DSC00117_zpse9ce46a4.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/DSC00117_zpse9ce46a4.jpg.html)
Wednesday-Friday- were spent on the “rinse and repeat program”. The evening intel sessions showed all spots holding bucks, but one spot was of particular interest to me. This spot had a natural funnel, high horizontal stem density, two bucks that I considered shooters, and most of all- I could hit the road with baseball from my blind. The two bucks of interest were entering into the rut and as a result were beginning to show up closer to shooting light.
As a side note- at this spot and the others, there were some other VERY good bucks showing up, but these were young deer with an abundance of potential so they were on the “no shoot” list, so my personal “shoot” list was composed of an old gnarly buck (the “spoon” buck, shown above) and a few other average five points (Note “average” is a relative term- if I was driving my pickup through a clear cut and seen one of these “average” bucks, I’d probably spasm, throw on the gas and have a wreck…these are nice deer, but I quickly became spoiled with the stream of intel and good bucks).
The “rinse and repeat program” followed as such:
1)Up at 5am, have breakfast, pack lunch, coffee up
2)Get to blind before first light, sit down, light propane heater, settle in for the long haul
3)Mentally cope with the long haul (generally games on the phone such as deer hunter 2014, candy crush and angry birds) and other random things. It would be enjoyable to watch a video of a guy in a blind for a full day, there are many odd things a one does to keep busy. Many odd movements, stretches, expressions, mental conversations, and very awkward urination sessions out of a 4ft blind by a 6.5ft dude…
4)Leave after dark, pull card
5)Head back home, have a few cocktails, dinner and reanalyze after looking at cards. Let’s be clear on two things here:
a) hunting whitetail was mentally tough, but whitetail camp was not “tough”. Luxury is a better descriptor. Beef tenderloins and Disaronno trumped my usual frozen tent and porridge program;
b) Between Wednesday and Friday, one single deer was spotted, despite numerous hours in the blind. This may seem to be a poor outcome, but the evening debriefings consistently showed BIG bucks coming into the areas, sometimes within 15 minutes of my departure after dark. This type of data keeps a guy in the blind, which was the key to my success (spoiler alert?). Pair this data with Ourea’s insatiable desire to chase big critters and an unshakeable resolve; it was EASY to find motivation in this “camp”
This is the blind I set up (ever see a 7500 cu.i mystery ranch pack with a SPOT device on it used for WT hunting within 100 yards of the pickup? Seems a bit out of place)
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/DSC00120_zps3bd5d798.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/DSC00120_zps3bd5d798.jpg.html)
The shooting lane I cut on the hill above the site. The timber density is nowhere near the density at the bottom. Notice this is not exactly a wide or open lane. I wanted to disturb the areas as little as possible and only afford enough to see a deer at the site and permit a shot.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/2013-11-23141906_zps7bd67925.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/2013-11-23141906_zps7bd67925.jpg.html)
Saturday- The same program was still in effect. The previous night, my host had mentioned that although I was slated to be back at work on Monday, I was welcome to continue the pursuit until the season closed on the 30th. What a guy ehh? Opportunity is my kryptonite.. Now I had another task in the blind, draft up an email detailing how I could justify taking another week off. Saturday was accompanied by many games of deer hunter 2014, candy crush saga, and some crafty writing that was going to be my ticket to “less work, more big whitetail”.
At this point some more context may be valuable. For those who don’t know me, I am a mountain hunter. I spend my time hunting out of my pack, doing extended trips for mule deer, elk, goats and sheep. I have never seriously hunted whitetail, and the only buck I’ve harvested was driving down an FSR opening morning in 2010, and I needed meat! But what I was immersed into on this WT program was ADDICTING, and I knew I was on track to beat this buck by >100”
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/P9121081_zps0a6ac785.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/P9121081_zps0a6ac785.jpg.html)
The consistent trend with the spots was a high “horizontal stem density” also known as “hair on a dog’s back”-type timber that is used as a buffer for the whitetail to move through. This type of habitat is also responsible for the “there are no bucks here, they are all shot out” mentality in the area, as the deer are hard to see if one is “driving and hoping”. Some spots bordered old growth timber, but the whitetail certainly found safety in the thick stuff.
Cameras and grain were consistently maintained on these spots after identification. Some spots were culled, but the rest were retained. Prior to November, buck presence was not highly scrutinized; the presence of does was of most importance.
WOW, that was like school eh…Pumping info like a textbook…Surely many have glazed over? I believe this will rekindle interest (does anybody even read the text on this site anyways)?
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/Penticton-20131116-01729_zps3669550f.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/Penticton-20131116-01729_zps3669550f.jpg.html)
Sunday, Nov 17, 2013- I receive a message essentially saying “your time is now, get up here” which was accompanied by some trail cam pictures that could only be described as “motivating”
Monday- spent working my bag off to assuage my week absence announced the morning of
Tuesday- rubber hit the road and I was off. Arrived at noon. We sat in the blind until dark and were visited by a couple does. We pulled all the cards in the cams, which were then reviewed in the evening, which became a nightly “debrief, quantify inventory, and reanalyze”. These evening session were among my best memories of the trip as they were spent with great company, many laughs, good drinks, and high quality intel.
Temperatures began to drop, we left the truck at as low as -20 on Wednesday. The rut should get crazy soon??
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/DSC00117_zpse9ce46a4.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/DSC00117_zpse9ce46a4.jpg.html)
Wednesday-Friday- were spent on the “rinse and repeat program”. The evening intel sessions showed all spots holding bucks, but one spot was of particular interest to me. This spot had a natural funnel, high horizontal stem density, two bucks that I considered shooters, and most of all- I could hit the road with baseball from my blind. The two bucks of interest were entering into the rut and as a result were beginning to show up closer to shooting light.
As a side note- at this spot and the others, there were some other VERY good bucks showing up, but these were young deer with an abundance of potential so they were on the “no shoot” list, so my personal “shoot” list was composed of an old gnarly buck (the “spoon” buck, shown above) and a few other average five points (Note “average” is a relative term- if I was driving my pickup through a clear cut and seen one of these “average” bucks, I’d probably spasm, throw on the gas and have a wreck…these are nice deer, but I quickly became spoiled with the stream of intel and good bucks).
The “rinse and repeat program” followed as such:
1)Up at 5am, have breakfast, pack lunch, coffee up
2)Get to blind before first light, sit down, light propane heater, settle in for the long haul
3)Mentally cope with the long haul (generally games on the phone such as deer hunter 2014, candy crush and angry birds) and other random things. It would be enjoyable to watch a video of a guy in a blind for a full day, there are many odd things a one does to keep busy. Many odd movements, stretches, expressions, mental conversations, and very awkward urination sessions out of a 4ft blind by a 6.5ft dude…
4)Leave after dark, pull card
5)Head back home, have a few cocktails, dinner and reanalyze after looking at cards. Let’s be clear on two things here:
a) hunting whitetail was mentally tough, but whitetail camp was not “tough”. Luxury is a better descriptor. Beef tenderloins and Disaronno trumped my usual frozen tent and porridge program;
b) Between Wednesday and Friday, one single deer was spotted, despite numerous hours in the blind. This may seem to be a poor outcome, but the evening debriefings consistently showed BIG bucks coming into the areas, sometimes within 15 minutes of my departure after dark. This type of data keeps a guy in the blind, which was the key to my success (spoiler alert?). Pair this data with Ourea’s insatiable desire to chase big critters and an unshakeable resolve; it was EASY to find motivation in this “camp”
This is the blind I set up (ever see a 7500 cu.i mystery ranch pack with a SPOT device on it used for WT hunting within 100 yards of the pickup? Seems a bit out of place)
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/DSC00120_zps3bd5d798.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/DSC00120_zps3bd5d798.jpg.html)
The shooting lane I cut on the hill above the site. The timber density is nowhere near the density at the bottom. Notice this is not exactly a wide or open lane. I wanted to disturb the areas as little as possible and only afford enough to see a deer at the site and permit a shot.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/2013-11-23141906_zps7bd67925.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/2013-11-23141906_zps7bd67925.jpg.html)
Saturday- The same program was still in effect. The previous night, my host had mentioned that although I was slated to be back at work on Monday, I was welcome to continue the pursuit until the season closed on the 30th. What a guy ehh? Opportunity is my kryptonite.. Now I had another task in the blind, draft up an email detailing how I could justify taking another week off. Saturday was accompanied by many games of deer hunter 2014, candy crush saga, and some crafty writing that was going to be my ticket to “less work, more big whitetail”.
At this point some more context may be valuable. For those who don’t know me, I am a mountain hunter. I spend my time hunting out of my pack, doing extended trips for mule deer, elk, goats and sheep. I have never seriously hunted whitetail, and the only buck I’ve harvested was driving down an FSR opening morning in 2010, and I needed meat! But what I was immersed into on this WT program was ADDICTING, and I knew I was on track to beat this buck by >100”
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/P9121081_zps0a6ac785.jpg (http://s29.photobucket.com/user/empire_baller/media/P9121081_zps0a6ac785.jpg.html)