Hunting Public Land

When hunters usually think about hunting public land they think about high pressure and minimal deer. With outfitter prices and land leases at a high, for some of us, hunting public land is all we have available.  On the upside, public land can also prove to be a great spot to take a trophy animal.  If you can avoid the general riff raff, and use its disadvantages to your benefit it can help produce successful hunts. Here are five tips that we have found helpful when hunting public land.   

Get Out Early

Most public land areas make parking available in designated spots around the property.  In some cases, there may only be a limited amount of areas for someone to hunt when parking in a particular spot.  For example, if you parked where the only thing in sight was a square two acre wood lot, surrounded by CRP fields, then you know that more than one hunter is too many for this area.  If you get beat to this spot and see another truck there as you pull up you should know that the other hunter is most likely in those woods and respect his hunt by driving to another area.  To avoid these situations you must make sure you are always the first one to park and get out to your set, but understand even in this scenario other hunters may still come out, but you did your part to try and get the message across.

Post a Note

If you are in an area that offers a few different options for hunters, try leaving a note at the gate of your location.  A paper plate pinned on the fence next to the walk gate should grab most hunter’s attention.  Do your best at mapping the land and identifying the area in which you are hunting in hopes that they will respect your set.  If there is a trail or a two track that has break off trails further into the walk, you could place your note there.  Hoping they use a break off trail prior to yours this could mitigate the number of hunters that see your sign at the gate and actually know where you are hunting if this concerns you.

Know What Seasons are Open

Do your research before heading out on a hunting trip to see what other season are open.  Typically during deer season, other seasons such as duck, goose, pheasant, and partridge are open just to name a few.  If your stand is around any marshes, ponds, or next to a large CRP field, than odds are you will have a run in with bird hunters.  Bird hunters are always thought of negatively by bow hunters when brought up in conversation.  Use them to your advantage first by staying away from what looks like good bird country and second, hunting in an area that you feel they will push deer to.  If you can play it right with a little luck they will be sending deer to you all day.

Have Several Options

There are several variables that are unpredictable when it comes to hunting public land that you never face when hunting private land.  Hunting private land is challenging enough as it is.  Reviewing your scouting notes, trying to understand recent observations, watching the weather, and confirming the wind are just the basics.  Now when you are on public land add the unpredictable factors of other hunters, other seasons, state hired farmers, ATV's, and border patrol.  Two years ago I only had two sets and because I didn’t get out early enough both areas were occupied by other hunters.  This left me no choice but to sit on an open hillside and glass all night which equated to a loss of a hunt.  When you only have five days to get it, done every hunt is imperative.  Because you can never be certain what’s going to present itself that day, you need to have several back up sets.  The more sets you have and the better you get at human scouting, the less likely the chances of your hunt being affected by these unpredictable factors.  

Get to an Area Less Traveled

With all the unpredictable factors that have been mentioned, one of the best things to do to avoid these is getting to an area that no one really wants to go.  Many hunters are lazy, out of shape, and not willing to work hard for a hunt.  Most of them are going to hunt within a quarter mile of their vehicle.  Hauling a tree stand, steps, bow, and a pack adds up the weight and is not fun to carry for anyone.  Come into the season in tip top shape so that you go the extra mile and get it done.  Pack as light as you can, and get yourself away from any parking area.  Get to an area that only someone really dedicated would hang a set because odds are you won’t run into that person. 

Implementing these five tips to our hunting strategy has helped us produce more successful hunts. However, with all this said it’s important to understand that on public land there is no such thing as your spot or stand, it’s first come...and sometimes keep coming. Fuzz

Montana September 2011

My dad, brother, and I recently took a trip to Montana on a deer hunt.  The hunt posed many challenges and we fell short of successfully harvesting anything, but overall it was a great learning experience for my brother and I.

We arrived late in northern Montana on September 21st with our first day hunting being the 22nd.  That first morning we headed out to the unknown country in which we would be hunting until the morning of the 26th (short trip).  Only seeing this BLM land from topo maps, we didn’t know what to really expect.  When we arrived we noticed the land was very vast.  It didn’t take long until my dad said, “This looks like rifle country.”

The land consisted of rolling mountains/hill with thin aspens on the high grounds.  On the slopes of some mountain ranges there were cooleys filled with thickets, while the rest of the land consisted of CRP.  Our game plan the first day was just to try and educate ourselves of the lay of land while trying to spot and identify what kind of activity was taking place.  Our tags allowed us to either take a Mule Deer or Whitetail.  My brother Gabe and I had never hunted for mule deer before, only whitetails in Michigan and Kansas.  We needed to learn and learn quickly about their behavior.  That first day we stayed on high ground and glassed with only spotting one mule doe, but figured they liked to stay in or stay close to the thickets located in the cooleys on the face of the mountains. In the afternoon we transitioned to the low to easily cover more ground.  We felt this was the quickest way to educate ourselves. That night I went back to some different high ground over looking an alfalfa field.  I observed 27 mule deer and 3 whitetails at a distance feeding in an alfalfa field that consisted of 3 decent shooters.  Hoping that this was a pattern, I moved in there on the third day morning and night hunt resulting in only seeing one doe.  With that result, I concluded that these deer where not holding a pattern, which cost me another full day.  During this time, Gabe and my dad hunted a few miles away and spotted a mix of whitetails and mule deer in the distance.

In between our second day hunts we headed back in the afternoon into the small town that we were staying to get some supplies and hang some stands on the Milk River.  While in town “The Crush” RV drove by us.  It was kind of cool seeing it and knowing that Lee and Tiffany were hunting out there near us during the same time.  When we got to the river we found a couple of good areas when scouting it and decided to hang three stands to hunt the following morning.  On day three of the hunt the temperature was approaching 96 degrees.  This made for a slow morning hunt on the river which made us head back to the hills for the evening hunt. Due to the temperature reaching 101 degrees at night, it was even slower than the morning.  The frustrating thing about it was when we would get back to the truck at night and drive out of the property our headlights would hit multiple big bucks, both muley and whitetail.  Seeing them just rubbed it in, but also let us know they were out there.

On the fourth day, our final full day, we headed back to the high hills and glassed the different thickets in the cooleys.  I spotted a mule deer working the edge of a thicket about a mile and a half away.  We kept eyes on him until we saw him bed.  Once he bedded we made our way to his home.  Blowing a stalked the day before due to no wind, we noticed that the deer worked straight up from the cooley to high ground for safety.  Because of this, we decided the best possible strategy was to try and push him to one of us. With that in mind, Gabe got down the light wind and worked above the cooley while I waited for him to get in position.  Once he positioned himself on top of the ridge above where the deer was bedded he was about 100 yards out.  I then started my slow walk right to where the deer was bedded with a slight angle in hopes of pushing him Gabe’s way.  I got about 150 yards out when the buck rose from his bed and jumped out of the thicket and stopped on a wide open spine.  He stared at me while I tried to signal to Gabe where he was.  I didn’t realize this at the time but Gabe had another spine in his line of sight that prevented him from seeing the buck.  After a 10 second stare off with this buck he bound away and was heading right towards Gabe.  When I looked at Gabe he was glassing me to see what the update was.  I was excitedly trying to signal he’s coming and draw your bow.  Well it was too late and the buck was heading right towards him until they both finally noticed each other at 40 yards.  The buck then redirected his escape and Gabe never got the bow drawn.  It was a plan that almost worked perfect.

           The increasing temperatures made the final night a bust.  It reached 102 degrees that day which was one of the worst feeling hunts I have ever been on.  For the week our coldest night hunt was 87 degrees and averaged 94 degrees.  On our way out that night we again saw several nice bucks feeding in the fields an hour after dark.  These temperatures where keeping the big boys nocturnal.

On our final morning hunt we spotted a pretty nice muley buck in a thicket with 3 does feeding around him.  We observed them for 15 minutes while coming up with a game plan. We knew this was going to be the last hunt and this had to be it.  The wind finally had picked up on this morning and we felt we had a great shot at a true sneak approach.  Even with that, one of us was still going to take the high ground incase of a spooked deer.  Gabe decided he was going to take the high ground on the northeast side (1 o’clock) of the buck, and I was going to come in on the west side (9 o’clock) of him.  The wind was coming out of the east (3 o’clock).  We made our way down the mountain that we were glassing from when we first spotted the deer and regrouped at the bottom after I took a nice spill down the last 10 feet.  Once Gabe confirmed I wasn’t going to cry we stuck to plan and moved on.  I then gave him a 5 minute head start to gain ground and get on top of the mountain that the buck was bedded.  I then started to slowly work across the middle of the mountain.  I made my way over the first spine and was coming up over the second one when I spotted the buck and noticed he had gotten out of his bed and began feeding in the cooley.  He was moving very slow but was working right towards me at 9 o’clock.  This would have been perfect but there was a huge problem, which was that Gabe had no idea he was out feeding and he was probably going to be busted by him.  I had two wishes, the buck either hurried my way before Gabe came up over the top or Gabe was deep enough on the other side that the buck didn’t hear or smell him.  Unfortunately, the buck picked him off working the top and bolted out of the coolie in our opposite direction at 3’oclock.

When the stalk came to an end we realized the trip was over; we were coming home empty handed.  It was kind of funny though, because we were both pretty excited when recapping our hunts on the walk out.  In 4 ½ days of  DIY hunting on public land, going after an animal and entering an environment neither of us have ever experienced before, we felt a whole new level of confidence.  We overcame record high temps, nocturnal deer, no wind, and hundreds of cows just to name a few.  Even with all that, we were still able to get very close a few times, just never got that little bit of luck needed to seal the deal and make this successful hunt just a little more successful.  It will be interesting to watch “The Crush” next year and see how ol Lee and Tiff faired.  

Can’t wait to see this land again in November, watch out!  Fuzz

Selecting an Out of State Hunt

I am often asked how, or why, my brother and I chose the out of state hunts that we do. We are always looking for a new and exciting hunt to test our hunting knowledge and it comes down to 5 categories when searching for those types of hunts.

Type of Hunt:

This is the most important thing to me when it comes to choosing a hunt.  The hunt needs to get me excited about the potential possibilities and leave me with no doubts.  If it doesn’t get me excited I won’t waste my time.  My first preference on a hunt is with a bow, not to say I wouldn’t do a rifle hunt, but I don’t think its even close to the same experience.  Then it comes down to the type of game that I would be hunting.  Right now I am most interested in common big game animals, but open to anything as long as the next 4 categories make since.

Outfitter or DIY:

I have yet to go through an outfitter on any hunt as my preference is a do it yourself hunt.  In my opinion if you can get away from using an outfitter the better the experience.  Most outfitters have strict rules and there is no say in what you do or how you hunt, you’re just following their directions.  I believe it takes out some of the excitement of the hunt.  In some instances though going through an outfitter is the best and only option.  There are a lot of hunts where their accommodations and land access can’t be beat or achieved on your own.  When selecting an outfitter I will be looking for one that is more there to act as support and a resource but allows you to make the final decision about your hunt.  On a DIY hunt, it’s your decisions that determine your success.  Of course this requires a lot more research and scouting on your end, but there is no equivalent to the feeling of accomplishment you get from a DIY harvest. 

Price:

Unfortunately I have to pay attention to this.  With prices increasing across the board, it makes some dream hunts an unforeseeable reality.  Out of state tags can be over $500, add a $500 flight or gas, and $800 lodging now you’re really getting up there.  It helps when you have a hunting partner or two to help split the traveling and lodging cost.  But if you are all flying then you’re not catching a break on anything other than lodging.  To help mitigate our expenses with future hunts, we purchased an enclosed trailer that we customized for lodging and figure on hitting our break even point just after 3 out of state hunts.   

Recommendations:

One of the best ways to select a hunt to go on is by choosing one that you know somebody has gone on and had a great experience.  Usually the first thing asked to someone coming back from a hunting trip is “Did you get anything?”  If the answer is no, usually everyone loses interest in their hunting stories and sees their hunt as a waste.  I like to ask “how was the hunt” and “tell me all about it.”  You’ll usually find that even though they didn’t harvest anything, they had many successful hunts and that this is a hunt for you to seriously consider.   

Hunting with Family and or Friends:

I personally would never go on a hunting trip without a family member or friend.  Hunting to me is most exciting when someone close to you is a part of the experience.  I will only choose hunts that either my brother, dad, or friends will go on with me.  The down side to this is that they can make choosing a hunt very difficult for different reasons.  If I want to go on a hunt with my dad (which is priority) it’s going to be focused more on the physical side that most likely involves blinds with close access.  When hunting with my brother and or friends it usually involves things such as money, time from work, and the home life, which makes it pretty difficult to ever agree on anything.  Fuzz   

Vortxx Quivers

When I was younger I use to to go out hunting with a huge quiver that held 6 arrows and had the mindset of the more the merrier.  Later in my hunting life, I realized that it was too bulky to have on your bow when in the confined space of a tree stand.  There are too many opportunities for arrows to fall out or snag on something and not to mention that if you needed 6 arrows in one outing while hunting whitetails in Michigan you have serious issues and should probably give up on bow hunting altogether.  So when I was about 16 years old I switched to a 3 arrow quiver and have been largely content right up to last year.  

I had been fortunate enough to never need more than 3 arrows in all of my Michigan deer hunts.  It wasn't until last year while Javelina hunting in Arizona that I started to reconsider my quiver size.  During my hunt it didn’t take long before we were hot on some pigs.  When the first opportunity presented itself I took a 50 yard shot and missed.  I then grabbed another arrow and shot a second time at the pig 45 yards away and missed again.  I immediately knocked my last arrow and shot at a different pig at 35 yards away and missed it as well.  Out of arrows, my hunt was over for the day.  I couldn’t believe I missed on all 3 shots and to make matters worse 5 more pigs, sensing my failure,  walked right by me 15 yards away and I had to stand there still and just watch them taunt me.  Since that day, I have reconsidered my theory on quivers. 

Because I never bow hunted anything other than whitetails growing up, the thought of multiple shots on something never really crossed my mind.  After my Javelina experience, I understand that there are certain hunts that require you to carry along more arrows.  I have known people that take a dozen arrows with them when they go mule deer hunting out west.  This sounded absurd to me at first but after being on a few different hunts it now makes since.   Since I will be hunting Javelina again next year along with a Deer hunt in Montana I had to upgrade my setup.  

When searching for a quiver I wanted something that could hold a minimum of 5 arrows but I didn’t want something that spaced them out across my bow like guitar strings, as I said earlier it's too bulky and always hitting or getting caught up on things.  To my surprise I stumbled across a quiver on the Internet that was such a sweet concept I just had to order it.  It’s called the Vortxx Quiver and is made by New Dawn Outdoors.  It’s a 6 arrow quiver that holds all your arrows in a 360 degree rotating circle, similar to a 6-shooter pistol.  The circumference of the quiver is a little bit bigger than a soda can.  There is one opening on the circular ring located on the front of the quiver that allows you to either load or retrieve your arrows.  Loading the quiver is accomplished by placing an arrow in the opening and turning the head of the quiver which locks the arrow in place.  Once your arrows are secure, you retrieve them by turning the head of the quiver to bring the desired arrow towards the center opening.  The arrow is then easily plucked from the quiver, leaving your remaining arrows securely in place.  This quiver is very light and compact.  The hood of the quiver is covered with a soft padding that prevents any rattling while serving as a dampener.  In my opinion, this quiver provides everything you want in a quiver.  It allows for a good supply of arrows, with out the risk of losing them, all in a compact and lightweight package.   Fuzz

Long Range Shooting: Anti Can't Device

Over the last year some friends and I have gotten into long range shooting.  We have learned quite a bit about it through online forums and a lot of trial and error but still have a long way to go.  I pretty much have the basics down but I am not the guy reading wind and temperature and calculating precision shots.  There is one thing I have recently learned about and added to my setup that I can say has made a drastic difference in my long range shooting.  It’s called an Anti Cant Device.

Anti Can’t Device:

When you don’t have your gun level when shooting and it’s tilting to the right or left, that’s called CANTING.   Below is a diagram to help explain the results of a gun that is CANTING to the right at different degrees.

• Looking at the aim point which is the RED 1 center dot, if your gun is level, in theory, when shot the bullet will travel up to the RED 2 dot and on its way back down will hit your aim point (Center RED 1 dot).
• Looking at the aim point which is still the center RED 1 dot.  If your gun has lets say a 20 degree CANT to the right when shot will travel up to the GREEN 3 dot and fall straight down and impact low and to the right (Shown as GREEN 4 dot).

The same would go for the BLUE and BLACK dot pictured.  The larger the degree of CANT the further from the aim point your shots will end up.  This all has to do with gravity.  Gravity affects everything the same and is going to pull your bullet straight down from its peck no matter how its shot.  This is most notable in further distance shots.  If you’re only shooting 100 yards its not that noticeable, maybe a inch or two with a slight CANT.  But if you were shooting 1000 yards lets say with a 6 degree CANT you would be off more than 36 inches from your aim point.  Two weeks ago I shot at 600 yards and noticed a similar pattern to the diagram above.  After some research I learned about the Anti Cant Device which is a level made for rifle scopes.  This prevents you from CANTING to the left or right and your shots are truer.  I order one online and put one on my scope and the next time out I was shooting 5 inch groups at 600 yards.  Not bad for a beginner.  Below is picture of the device on my gun.   Fuzz

Buddies taking shots:

    

    Dialing in @ 600 yards

    

    Getting setup for 700 yards

Trophy Taker Micro Alpha V5 Sight

When I was thinking about putting a sight on my new bow this year two thoughts crossed my mind, do I take my G5 off my old bow, or look for something new.  After thinking about it for awhile I realized that there where a couple of things I didn’t like my current G5 sight.  With that said, I ended up looking for and purchasing a new sight.  After lots of research I went with the Micro Alpha V5 by Trophy Taker.

Here where my reason for the change:

The G5 Optix XR overall is not that bad of a sight, but there where two things that I didn’t really like about it.  First, the adjustment of the pins I found difficult.  You loosen pins on the side with a hex wrench to allow movement of the pin up or down.  It’s hard to note your adjustments.  The second reason is purely preference.  I used to shoot a single vertical pin before switching to this one and I realized that it was harder for me to identify the aim point with the multiple horizontal pins.  I feel that the sight just blocks too much of the animal and presents more risk of a poorly placed shot.  Below is a diagram that I made to try and explain my thought process with this theory. 

PICTURE 1: Horizontal Pins

PICTURE 2: Vertical Pins

 

Picture 1 shows the horizontal pin setup and picture 2 shows the vertical pin setup.  Granted these pictures aren’t to scale, but you get the idea.  To me, I believe that if using the horizontal pins you have a harder time of identifying the aim point.  With the Vertical pins, I feel you have greater sight picture which allows you to easily identify the aim point and tighten up your arrow placement.

When researching a new sight, I was looking for a good vertical pin sight.  The Micro Alpha V5 in my opinion was one of the best sights that offered this.  The sight has multiple mounting options in the arm for you to choose from.  I mounted mine as far away from the bow as I could to present a smaller sight picture (aim small, miss small).  The sight housing has micro adjustments that move with a turn of a dial.  It doesn’t take long to find your line.  Each pin is also adjustable with a hex wrench with either a right (to rise) or left (to lower) turn.  Another great feature about the pins is that they are each marked with hash marks that make it easy to note your exact adjustments.  This allows you to really zero your pins in.  This sight is very durable and easy to adjust, I couldn’t be happier with it.   Fuzz

Welcome to HEAD STRONG!

We would like to welcome you to our Blog and introduce you to what it is that we are looking to create. To get started, we are just two ordinary brothers with a passion for hunting. We would consider ourselves average hunters that are constantly looking for ways to enrich our outdoor knowledge. The views expressed in this Blog are the writer’s opinion, but feel free to comment. Our goal when creating this website was to attract and maintain followers that are interested in the hunting world, by providing useful information through experiences not only from us, but also our members. In order to achieve this goal we encourage others involvement. We are doing this by inviting members to create Posts such as stories about their hunts, writing product reviews, posting videos, adding pictures to the Trophy Room, etc., for other fellow members to review. We are excited about the idea of sharing experiences and learning from other fellow members!

2011 Bowtech Invasion CPX Review

This year I wasn’t thinking of getting a new bow since I have been very happy with my Mathews DXT, but after seeing the new line of 2011 bows I soon reconsidered.  I did a ton of research on-line looking at the specs all the new bows had to offer.  I researched many different bows such as Mathews, Hoyt, Elite, and Bowtech just to name a few.  The only bow I really didn’t look at was PSE.  The reason behind this is because the few people that I talked to that carry multiple lines of bows didn’t have great things to say about them.  After doing lots of research I went to the local archery shop and shot the bows that I narrowed my search down to.  I shot the Mathews Extreme, Elite, Hoyt Carbon Element, and Bowtech Invasion CPX.  All these bows felt and shot excellent, but overall, the Bowtech Invasion was the one that stood out to me.  Here is my review and why I chose this Bow.

           

The Bow Specs:

                        Mass Weight: 3.9 lbs

                        Let Off: 80%

                        Axle to Axle: 31 1/32”

                        IBO: 343

                        Brace Height: 7in

Bow itself:

The first thing I noticed when picking up the bow was how light and small it is.  It's very comparable to the DXT I used to shoot.  To me it’s all about keeping it light and versatile and this bow is just that.  The cams where the second thing I noticed as they look fierce.  They included the Overdrive Binary Cam system that was popular and proven on their 2010 Destroyer model.  This bow also has a nice thin wood grip that feels great in your hand and reduces the possibility for torque.  The other two great things featured on this bow are the Flex guard, which eliminates riser torque, and the string stop.

Shooting:

The draw cycle is pretty smooth with a little noticeable hump about 3/4 of the way the back.  I will say that my DXT was smoother, but it’s not that much different.  After shooting a few arrows here are my observations. 

• There is a little vibration in the handle and the bow actually resets back towards you on the follow through as oppose to forward.  This is caused by the Overdrive Cam.  It ended up being a simple fix with a 7in octane stabilizer.  It took out all vibration and leveled the bow out nicely. 
• The bow is very fast and accurate due to the OBC and Center Pivot Technology.  Just as Bowtech promised “Scary Accurate” and “Extremely Fast.”
• Very Quite

Overall:

As I stated early, there a lot of excellent bows out there to chose from.  After lots of research and field testing, this is the one that stood out to me.  I sighted this bow in 0 – 70 yards in less than an hour on my first day of shooting it.  Since then I have shot three more times without making any adjustments to my pins.