Those who read this column every month know that I normally rely on scientific literature to get material that will help readers have more success and fun in the field. I want to deviate from that approach just a bit. This time the “science” I am using did not come from a journal. My source was Barry Wensel, who along with his twin brother Gene, is one of the best bowhunters I know. These Iowa residents are not biologists, but their approach to hunting big bucks uses as much rigor as any scientific study ever done on deer. Sometimes they’re even ahead of the scientific community when it comes to understanding deer behavior.

Many years ago the Wensels talked about certain individual scrapes that attracted many bucks. They called them “primary” scrapes, and researchers later confirmed that indeed there were certain scrapes that were very important to deer breeding. And several years ago, one of the Wensels told me that they were hunting a big buck that did not participate in the rut. Yeah, right. But sure enough, DNA research recently conducted shows that in specific years, some older bucks never sire any fawns. Hmmm.

Every March, Barry offers a Whitetail Boot Camp (www.brothersofthebow.com), and this past spring I headed to Iowa to take this course. Even though I’ve bowhunted whitetails for 54 years, I came away with a whole new perspective on tree-stand placement, how to access a stand, and where deer walk and why they walk there.

The first day of the course consisted of a lot of lectures, reading maps and question-and-answer sessions. The next two days, the approach was simple — we went to Barry’s tree stands scattered around southeastern Iowa, and he discussed accessing the stand and why deer moved through that area.

Make Your Own Luck

I have a hunting friend who believes that if there is a ravine with deer trails on both sides, you have a 50/50 shot of hanging your stand on the side where the buck will walk. He assumes that a buck has as good a chance of walking down one trail as he does another located 70 yards away on the other side of the ravine. He is wrong.

Each receptor protein can detect one to two or three odors. Thus, for humans, relative to smell, things are very specific. The odor information in these receptor protein cells then goes to the brain, where several odors are combined to form a pattern. Stay with me here, I know this is detailed stuff.

Big bucks just don’t stumble around the woods and choose trails at random. If they use a trail on one side of the ravine over another trail, there is a reason. What you learn in Barry’s Boot Camp is that if you are to be successful on big bucks, you must determine why a buck walked on one trail over the other. Sure, there is some luck involved in picking the right trail to hunt, but you can make your own luck. The Wensel brothers make their own luck by scouting hard, then figuring out why bucks do what they do and walk where they walk.

The first step is to focus on the big picture. Sure, what we saw around the tree stand was important, but you must first dig out maps and look at the entire area. Where are the corn and soybean fields, where’s the alfalfa? Where are the major fence lines; where are funnels of trees running from one field to the next? As Barry put it, “You must first get the big picture, then put the pieces of the puzzle together.” Then “reflect on what you are seeing. Stop and think.”

We all know that edges are important. But edges are more than the intersection of forests and fields. There are all kinds of edges and intersections that determine where deer walk. Some examples include where pine woods intersect with hardwoods, streams, old fences (even those broken-down fences with just one strand can affect deer movement), and locations with thicker ground cover (this may be subtle, low ground cover, but sometimes it will affect deer movements).

Choosing a pre-rut stand location involves looking at the lay of the land and all the intersections and edges within a mile of the area. Then study the wind in that area and plan your entry. No matter how you enter the area, you will scare some deer as you walk in, or scare them later as deer cross your path. One great tip to minimize this is to use streams to enter. This is a sure way to reduce deer scenting your path.

How Bucks Travel

Let’s look at the rut. In the rut, bucks tend to walk where they can see long distances. They want to visually spot does. Of course, they also pick up hot doe scent, but in cruising around, as bucks do in November, they are looking for does with their nose and their eyes. Choose a stand site that takes advantage of this. For example, let’s say you have a steep bank that parallels a large stream. Above that bank is big timber and level ground. A cruising buck takes the path of least resistance — if he has to come up that steep bank, he will do so at the easiest point. Then he will walk on the flat, paralleling the bank and the stream, looking for does. Check the wind and hang a stand in that flat. In fact, hang two stands — one on each side of the trail, so you can hunt it in any wind.

Relative to how bucks travel, Barry presented his class with the following scenario: There is a north wind, and in the morning the bucks walk toward the bedding area with the wind at their tails. The woods are open, so they can see ahead of them, thus, they use their eyes to look ahead and their nose to detect problems behind them. When they reach the bedding area, it is thick cover. They can’t see in, and with the wind at their tail, they can’t smell what might be in the bedding area. So they circle the bedding area and enter it from the downwind side, using their nose to sniff out danger. Somewhere in that scenario there is a spot to hang a tree stand.

All of the points Barry presented made me rethink my hunting. In recent years I’ve gotten a bit lazy when going to my stands. Chalk it up to old age, I guess. For example, there is one super stand I hunt on some property in Ohio. I know there are big bucks in the area, but I haven’t seen them in recent years. Here’s why:

I used to park over a mile from that stand and hoof it in early in the morning, arriving 45 minutes before daylight. The past two years I’ve gotten lazy and have driven halfway to the stand. I’ve driven in without headlights, fooling myself into believing that I’d never be spotted or scented. But the bottom line is that those big bucks hear you and they stay away, maybe for the entire season. One mistake on one lazy morning, and all the scouting and preparation in hopes to get one shot at that monster buck goes out the window.