Getting the Hang of Bowhunting
By Marlene Odahlen-Hinz
Every one has a learning curve and it seemed that my curve was steeper than most bowhunters. It takes time to pull it all together to take advantage of a magic opportunity.
I’ve never considered myself a trophy buck hunter. I love being afield and enjoying the total experience of what nature unfolds for me each time I sit in the woods. My job kept me out of the woods during the rut so I never really understood what all the hype was about. That was—until—I finally experienced my first “peak rut” season a few years ago.
That was the year my education began about what happens those all too few days in November. The more time I sat in the woods, the more I was able to observe whitetail behavior during the breeding period. Since the range of the bow is short, most of the scenarios that played out were beyond the reach of my arrow. Most of the time I was part of the audience and not on stage with the actors.
Over the years I learned what I was capable of regarding my ability to adjust to deer movement around my stand. Timing truly is everything in hunting. The right time to move and draw back differs with each encounter. More often than not I’d get “busted” when I did happen to get a buck within my 20 yard shooting range. But every once in a while perfect situation would present itself and my arrow would shoot true.
Generally the heavy snow cover hasn’t arrived yet and deer are still able to drift through an area as they browse when the rut arrives. Because I’ve hunted the same area the last few years I know that during the breeding season I sit in areas that serve as bottle necks to restrict deer movements. Bucks will travel these established corridors as they cruise for does. Does also bring the tending bucks with them as they too travel these familiar routes to and from bedding and feeding areas.
A large part of my pre season scouting is trying to identify these “pinch points”. Sometimes it’s an area between two swamps or an area just below a ridge along a bog or slough. It could be a fence line or the strip of land where a cornfield meets the woods. I need to keep up with any changes in these areas because crops get rotated and low areas dry up.
This past October I had an opportunity to participate in an urban deer elimination project conducted in a St. Paul public park as a member of the Minnesota Metro Bowhunter Resource Base. MBRB is a management program that addresses the overpopulation of metro deer herds that began in 1995 and has since been implements in other states.
I joined the organization in 1997 and have been a hunt coordinator since 2000. This year my name was randomly drawn to be a hunter. As coordinators we caution all hunters to minimize their scouting because pressured deer, rural or urban will move out of an area. So using downloaded aerial maps, park maps and what I could observe walking the park’s paths and trails I tried to identify bottlenecks. Only when I felt I’d pinpointed a couple did I venture off the beaten path. I earmarked a spot where a swamp met the base of an oak ridge. I picked out a tree that allowed me to cover two trails and then made sure with my Nikon rangefinder that both were within the 20-yard shooting limit regulation stipulated by park managers.
The park was divided into 4 zones and 4-5 hunters were placed in each zone. At a pre-hunt mandatory meeting we were allowed to select the zone we wanted to hunt it. During the first 3-day hunt in October participants can take only antlerless deer because the focus is on management. The first morning I saw a doe and fawn but was caught as I tried to draw back. I didn’t see anything else the final 2 days of phase one. I knew I needed to do some tweaking of where I wanted to sit when I came back for the second 3-day hunt phase in November.
Phase two was held during the peak of the rut. Hunters who participated in the first 3 days of the elimination project are now allowed to take a buck if the opportunity presents itself. On the first morning of this 3-day hunt I did moved my stand back a few yards to a tree I’d felt put me in a better position and while I was finishing putting up the last of my equipment hangers a doe and her tending buck came by. The only thing I could do was let them pass and hope that I’d see something else once I was organized and settled down. I’d made the decision to just spray down with Scent Killer but not use any Mega Tarsal or Doe in Heat lures that first morning. I’d hoped to get a deer moving naturally out of the swamp to feeding areas. My plan was to place put attractants along the trails I was covering in the afternoon.
Not long after the buck and doe had gone a deer did come into my field of vision about 250 feet away. As I watched it I became aware of his antlers – they were sizable and he had a drop tine. His head was down most of the time and I felt that as soon as he caught the scent of the doe I’d seen earlier he’d be heading this way. When it seemed like he was taking another path I grunted and he came closer but then he started drifting back into the swamp. I took out my grunt call again and blew louder. This caught his attention and as he made a beeline along the swamp trail I drew back my Reflex Super Slam and waited until he got to my opening. I stopped him with a “baa” and release my arrow. My Rocky Mountain tipped shafts have neon green and pink vanes so I could see clearly that my shot was good. He went 60 yards before collapsing and when I able to take a good look at him—his antlers took my breath away. He was truly what dreams are made of.
I don’t participate in these projects to trophy hunt but when such an opportunity come along I wasn’t going to pass it up. I used the same techniques with metro deer as I do with their cousins outside the city limits by finding those bottlenecks and setting up along those corridors. I think I’m finally getting the hang of this bowhunting.
NOTE: SCI green score 205. Front drop tine 10 inches. 21 points total. Weight 170 pounds. Approximate age: 11 ˝ years
( To see hunt pictures, click on the "Pictures" link! )