Going Back To The Roots Of Humanity

© Othmar Vohringer

September 1st marks the start of this year’s hunting season, beginning with ten days of bowhunting, then general open season. This is the time of year that I anticipate most but it is also a time when I become keenly aware of our evolutionary roots. Hunting and gathering is deeply rooted in our history. For the majority of our existence on earth we existed as hunters, fishers and gatherers. Indeed, some evolutionary scientists theorize that our bodies have been shaped by the very requirement to hunt for food. Walking on two legs had several advantages to a four legged predator. An upright stance let us see further than other predators, thus spotting prey sooner. The freed up hands could now be used to manufacture specific tools to assist in hunting, such as daggers, spears and the bow. The earliest found tools of humans are all related to hunting; it was the dawn of the modern humans we know today and it was made possible by becoming the most proficient hunters on earth.

Following the ancient human traditions of hunting, fishing and gathering teaches us where food is coming from and also gives us an appreciation for the work that is involved in providing daily meals. Hunting also teaches us respect for the land and what it grows, what walks on it, what swims in the waters and flies in the skies. Society today has become very detached from its food sources and hunting is a good way to reconnect with that forgotten knowledge.

A common perception of people that are against hunting is that in the modern age hunting is not about providing food but about killing animals for the sake of killing. They believe instead of hunting we should be like them and buy the meat in the local grocery store. This argument has always boggled my mind. If, as the anti-hunters say, we only hunt for the thrill of the kill, why would we go through all the hassle of learning about animal behavior, spend countless hours perfecting out hunting skills in the hopes of just getting within striking distance of a wild animal -often in terrible weather and difficult terrains? Instead we could volunteer in one of the many animal shelters and kill a few neglected pets every day.

In a day and age where the masses are fed by a handful of multinational corporations it is easy to say we have evolved to the point where hunting and gathering food is not a necessity anymore…but this convenience has bred a lack of grasp in modern society about its own anthropological roots.

I am proud of the fact that I have the ability and rights to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors and provide my family with organic meat and fish the way we humans have done it for the past 100,000 years. Hunting has kept me in touch with nature and made me realize that humans are not a separate entity, but rather one small wheel in nature’s great plan. Hunting has permitted me to stay connected with the roots of humanity.

What Are Your Deer Hunting Goals This Year?

© By Othmar Vohringer

Set a goal for this hunting season and then work toward it.

I asked a hunting buddy of mine that question and he replied with; “Jeez, buddy turkey hunting season just started and you already think about deer hunting.”

Well, besides being guilty of having constantly whitetail deer on my mind, even during turkey hunting season, I also happen to think that it is important to have goals in life and in hunting.

Just like having a goal in life provides you with a working guideline so does having a seasonal goal for hunting. Without a goal you won’t know what to do or how to get there. It’s a bit like driving a car without knowing where you want to go or how to get there, you end up driving in circles.

This might be okay for the hunter who’s just looking to get away from the daily grind for a bit, enjoying the great outdoors. Killing a deer is a priority but rather an added bonus. However, my guess is, since you’re reading here, you’re the type of hunter that has a passion for hunting and whitetail deer. You're  the type of hunter looking to maximize the rate of success in the deer woods. To achieve that increased success rate you have to have a goal in mind and then work toward achieving that goal.

With that established you need to set a clear goal of what it is you want out of the upcoming hunting season. I don’t know what your goal is. Maybe you want to kill your first big buck, or the first deer period, or maybe hunt a place that is not overcrowded with others hunters. Whatever your goal is for this season, no matter how big or small, you have to plan for it and you have to start rather sooner than later.

My goal for this season is to find an area with a good whitetail deer population. That might sound strange to you, but where I live is not known for abundant whitetail deer populations, it’s an area with a large mule deer population and also known for big mule deer bucks. Through research I found an area with a good whitetail deer population and a better than average trophy buck population. Now my next task is to find private landowners willing to let hunters on their property, which means spending a few days, maybe even weeks, knocking on doors. The chosen area also has vast amounts of public land. My goal is to find the public land areas that other hunters avoid. To achieve this goal I have to study maps to see what the access to these areas are. My task is to find areas where vehicle access is restricted. With restricted vehicle access chances of  encountering undisturbed hunting enjoyment and opportunity rise drastically. When all this is done I have to start scouting and chose possible stand locations.

Of course, I just could drive into the area when deer hunting season opens and see what transpires. But that is not me. I like to set myself goals and then work toward it. It increases my chances of success, and besides that, as a passionate whitetail deer hunter it is just another excuse - a worthwhile excuse – to occupy my time and my mind with whitetail deer.

What are your deer hunting goals for the 2015 season? Let’s discuss it!

The Most Common Mistakes When Setting Up Treestands That Will Reduce Your Hunting Success

© By Othmar Vohringer

As mentioned in another column here on Whitetail Deer Passion, there is no denying that the invention of the treestand is the single biggest advantage for deer hunters. However, to use the advantages of hunting from treestands to its fullest potential we have to make sure to set them up correctly. It is here were many hunters make blunders that cost them “deerly”.

Here are some of the mistakes hunters make and how to avoid them.


Going too high

The height of the treestand from the ground is determined by the surrounding cover. If the surrounding cover is optimal at 8 feet off the ground then that is where you should hang the stand. Hang the stand any higher and you risk to be sky lighted, deer will spot you from a mile away…and no they will not come any closer to see what that bulging blob on the side of the tree is. In my humble opinion the biggest myth ever perpetrated on hunters is that philosophy of climbing high up into the tree tops to avoid deer smelling you. To avoid deer from smelling me I rely on a good shower and a set of fresh clean under and over garments before every hunt and to make sure the wind is right for the stand I am hunting, if the wind is not right I will not hunt that particular stand and go elsewhere where the wind is in my favor. Tests have shown that no matter how high you climb deer will detect your scent. The tests have shown that when you go high, around 30 to 40 feet off the ground, the air current will carry your scent maybe 100 to 150 yards before it descends to ground level. Do you believe deer that smell a hunter 100 to 150 yards away will come closer to have a look where the smell of human is exactly coming from? Neither do I! On the other hand the same tests, done with smoke cartridges placed at various heights, showed that when the stand hangs lower, around 10 to 16 feet off the ground, the scent seems to linger around the base of the tree. In that scenario with the immediate surroundings of your stand site contaminated with human scent, you still stand a chance of getting deer within shooting range, even with a bow.

Another myth perpetrated by the “climb as high as you can” advocates is that the higher you climb the less likely deer will see you. Wrong! As I stated at the beginning, if you run out of surrounding cover you will stick out like the proverbial thumb against the sky. As much advantage as treestands have, hunting from them has also educated deer to look up into the treetops for danger. In areas where hunters predominantly hunt from treestands deer always will look up first before they look ahead and around. The popularity of hunting from treestands has taught generations of deer to look up for danger. 

Hanging treestands at the wrong time

Hanging deer stands a few day or even weeks before the deer season opens is a sure recipe to spoil opening day hunting success. If you do your scouting right you should know what areas deer use on opening day, long before the deer move to that area. I hang my stands at the very least one to two months ahead of hunting season. That way the area can settle down and deer get used to the "new growth" on the tree. No matter how carful you are hanging stands it is noisy and the area is heavily contaminated with human scent. If you hunt on public land where it is not logical (stands do get stolen) or legal to hang treestands months in advance you can at the very least locate potential stand sites and do any necessary trimming and preparations. That way on opening day you can move in and carefully place your stand with low impact to the area. Having said that, I find it personally very important to practice setting up stands with the same commitment as shooting your gun or bow… and I will tell you why.

Practicing setting up stands makes it safer to use them because you're familiar with the procedure, but also there are times when a stand needs to be moved during the hunting season because deer travel patterns change. In these cases I move my stands during midday hours when the deer are resting in their bedding areas away from the travel corridors, trail intersections and feeding areas. Such stand location changes have to happen quickly and quietly. This is only possible to do if you are intimately familiar with setting up stands and that means practice and practice again until you have every move ingrained in your brain. I can take down a hang-on stand and set it up again safely in less than ten minutes. Of course, when you relocate a stand during hunting season you want to do so at the time of day when deer are bedded down.
 
Where possible a climbing treestand is much better suited for quick in season changes than a hang-on stand. To make changing stand locations quick and easy I select as many trees as I can and prepare them well before the hunting season opens. However, it must be said that climbing treestand models needing a lot of assembling are not well suited. The best models are those that only need an adjustment of the climbing cables, such as the Summit Climbers.

Ignoring the lay of the land and wind directions

The weather forecast predicts north easterly winds but don’t bet your farm on it that this holds true for your stand locations too. The topography of the land with its hills, valleys, gullies and slopes among many other features can and often do affect wind direction. In addition local thermals further affect where your scent will carry. The solution to this problem is to make sure where the wind and air currents drift. To determine that I always carry a used nasal-spray bottle filled with unscented red snap-line marking powder with me. When I squeeze the bottle I can see the red powder cloud for a long distance flowing with the breeze. This provides me with accurate information of what the wind and thermals are doing.

On that note, where ever possible I set up two stands in the same general location that way I can keep hunting by just going to the next stand when the wind or current changes. If you’re sold on scent eliminating products and clothing don’t think for a minute that deer will not smell you, because they will. I used to be fanatical about scent control, showered in scent eliminating products before every hunt, washed my clothing in scent eliminating laundry detergent, air dried and stored clothing in scent free vacuum sealing bags and wore a scent free coverall on the drive to the hunting area and used scent eliminating spray to treat my hunting gear after I left the truck, including hands head and boots. In addition I spent a fortune on scent eliminating lined camouflage garments and boots. Then one day I learned a very educational lesson that brought me back to reality about scent eliminating products. A buck came in from downwind, stuck his nose high in the air and took a deep breath, then he bolted away never to be seen again. The wind is not your friend, it is your enemy and you should always pay close attention to it.

Getting to and from your stand

How many hunters give any thought to stand entry and exit routes when they scout? My experience is that there are not many. It is a mistake that can you cost deer. It doesn’t take a degree is deer science to know that whitetails are very aware at all times what’s going on around them. The only way to outsmart the deer is to be very meticulous when scouting. Don’t just look for deer sings and a good place to hang a stand, also scout for your own entry and exit routes. The result of that consideration should be that you can enter and exit your stand site without letting the deer on what you’re doing, sometimes that means that the entry route is not the same as the exit route, or that you have to change the routes as the season goes by.

To close for comfort

Another mistake some hunters make in stand placement is that they go too close to deer feeding areas, food plots and bait. First of all it can be a very hard task to kill a deer at the feeding site and second, as studies have shown, as the season goes on deer avoid the food source more and more. No matter how careful you are in approaching or leaving the stand, eventually deer will catch on to you. The deer might not be aware of you but the minute changes and sign you leave behind each time you visit a stand site are often enough for deer to become wary and avoid the feeding area during legal shooting times. It is much better to place the stand back from the food source, preferably on intersecting trails where you will encounter much more deer traffic. Especially if you're after a buck it pays to hang the stand back from the food source. Mature bucks are notorious for hanging up in the woods and wait until nightfall before they enter the fields and food plots.

Over hunting

Hunting from the same stand every other day is a sure way to let it get “cold” in a hurry. My experience is that a stand should not be hunted more than two day per any given week, with at least two days rest in between. An old but very true saying among experienced deer hunters is; “The best chance to kill a deer from a treestand is the very first day you hunt from it.

So there you have it. I hope these tips will help you to become a better deer hunter. Feel free provide additional treestand hunting mistakes that you know or learned the hard way about it in our comment section.

Is Shed Antler Hunting Licensing In Our Future?

© By Othmar Vohringer

The thought that we need a license to collect shed antlers seems ridiculous to many hunters. Yet if new laws in Nevada, Utah and Montana catch on with other states shed antler licensing could soon become a nationwide mandatory requirement.

Utah requires a mandatory “Antler Gathering Ethics” course and established season dates during which hunters can gather them.

The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners voted to prohibit shed antler collection between January 1st and April 15th. It is not required to be licensed to go shed antler hunting. However such a step might be considered in the future.

Montana established antler colleting seasons for all their Wildlife Management Units. It’s interesting to note that Montana, Nevada and Utah claim that the increasing popularity of shed antler hunting made such regulation necessary. We have seen it before when governments sense “increased popularity” in an activity they also sense revenue that could be obtained and therefore a “need” to regulate and license.

How Do You Pass Your Time In A Treestand?

© By Othmar Vohringer

“How Do You Pass Your Time In A Treestand?” This was an actual question a hunter asked on one of the many hunting social forums proliferating the internet. The person then went on to elaborate on how bored he gets sitting for hours motionless in his treestand as he waits for a deer to walk by. What followed the initial question of the poster was quite amusing and entertaining to read. 

Most of the forum members advised that they pass their time via cell phone, connecting with friends on Facebook, Twitter and other online networks. One of them proclaimed “I am actually right now in my treestand and checking out the latest posts on this forum.” A few others wrote that they take a book with them to read while in the stand, others read their favourite hunting magazine while others watch hunting TV shows on their newfangled electronic devices.

Interestingly enough from the 40 plus replies to the question not a single one of them mentioned that they hunt while on stand. Hunting deer from treestands is still somewhat new to British Columbia, and yes, it is the most effective way to ambush deer, particularly the wily whitetail deer. However, to take full advantage of a treestand scouting for the exact location of deer travel hotspots is of paramount importance. Just hanging a stand somewhere along a deer trail can have a hunter sit for many hours and days on stand without ever seeing a deer.

Are You Overanalyzing Hunting?

© By Othmar Vohringer

There used to be a period in my hunting career where I would analyze everything down to the smallest detail. While this can be a good thing it also can quickly turn into self-doubt caused by trying to analyze too much. I used to ask myself all kinds of questions before a hunt.

Things like.

What stand should I hunt today? Will the wind be right for that stand? Will the deer move by that particular stand or have they gone elsewhere? In addition to all this, and more, I was concerned about the wind, weather, moon phase, the gear I had with me and on and on it went.

I constantly asked myself; “What if?” The questions and analytical process seemed endless. It came to a point were hunting became a chore rather than an enjoyable time in the deer woods. One day a few seasons ago I just had enough of it and told myself. “Just go hunting.” Ever since that day I enjoy hunting more and appreciate the time in the woods more.

Hunting has become too complicated, when in fact it is simple. If you’re doing your scouting right then what else can you do? With years of hunting experience under by belt I remind myself that I should trust my knowledge and gut feeling more. I’ve been a successful hunter before I started to worry about every little detail and I am still a successful hunter now. But now I enjoy hunting more again.

The lesson learned here is. Don’t overanalyze hunting too much. Do your due diligence in practicing your shooting skills, learn about deer and their habits and scout. When all this is done just go out and hunt.

Antler Addiction

© By Othmar Vohringer

I’ve been holding off with this column for a while now. Why? For two reasons. First I was not sure if the hunting community would perceive it as a slander and second I wanted to get it right. So why write it now? Well I thought about it and in the end found it’s just wrong to worry about what other might think or if I get it right. So here it goes.

For the past several years I’ve received a considerable amount of emails and calls from readers of my blogs, newspaper columns and hunting magazines articles, that are dismayed by the amount of “antler addiction” that is going on. Or, as one email writer said it. “No matter what magazine I read or hunting TV show I watch, it’s always about big antlered deer and bigger antlered deer and I am getting tired of it.” That hunter is not alone. There are many others that feel the same way. The simple fact is that big antlers sell magazine and increase viewers for hunting TV shows. But does that make it right?

It’s a tricky discussion because at the heart of it all it is human nature to be competitive, wanting to be better than the next guy or simply doing better than in the past. Outdoor writers know about this competitiveness, they are part of it, and so most keep writing articles about the “ten secrets to hunt big antlered trophy bucks” or “how to grow you own monster bucks on your land.”

How far this obsession with trophy-sized deer has gone becomes clear with the Quality Deer Management. From the onset this has been a very noble program aimed to improve the overall health of deer herds, but over the years it had been reduced to nothing more than a management program to achieve maximum antler growth. The question I ask myself is this antler addiction we all seem suffer from, yes I like big antlers too, doing the hunting sport any good? Or more to the point. What are we teaching our children and future generation of hunters with this addiction to antlers? I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the antler fascination. The problem arises when the attraction crosses the fine line into addiction and hunters begin to place large antlers before herd management, stewardship and sportsmanship. Antler addiction is not good because, like any addiction, it spirals into and obsession that can spawn a whole host of negative activities and emotions.

So are hunters to blame for this antler craze? Certainly some are, but not all. I believe the evils of antler addiction are a symptom of society in general. We’re a society focused mainly on keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, instant gratification, entitlement and totally commercialized-way-of-life. This is what turns quality deer management focused on healthy ecosystems into trophy deer management, or worse, greed. I think it is important to re-focus our attention on the less obvious returns. Place an emphasis on the hunt. By all means enjoy antlers, but do not enjoy them more than the hunt and do not place the hunt above its real purpose.

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Do we get an early rut this year?

© By Othmar Vohringer

In the third week of September I observed something very strange that I have never seen before. While scouting a new area I discovered fresh and re-freshened scrapes. Usually scraping activity does not start around here until the first to second week of October. Did the deer know something I didn’t?

When on October first the weather changed drastically overnight from a mild Indian summer to subzero temperatures and the first snowfall occurred I thought that this early cold snap might have something to do with the early scraping activity and may have triggered a false rut.

But then reports came in from as far south as Tennessee and Florida where hunters too observed scraping activity. I even got some reports from hunters that have seen bucks chasing does in the first week of October. Now I could understand that the cold front we had up here in the southern interior of British Columbia may have deer fooled into early rutting activity, but in the south of America where the temperatures are still in the mid and upper 50’s?

I am still puzzled about this early rutting activity and asked some deer biologists if they had any idea what could have happened but thy are not sure either.

If that keeps up I may have to hunt the rut in mid October. Wouldn’t that be crazy? For me the bigger question is. If the deer are indeed beginning to breed that early they also will give early birth when weather conditions are not favorable to raise offspring. Indeed there might be still snow on the ground in many areas of North America. This in turn could lead to heavy fawn mortality. Whatever it is I sure don’t like it.

I would like to know what you guys observed in your hunting area and what your opinion is on this very unusual phenomenon.


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Deer Rut, Early Rut, Unusual Deer Behavior

Is this for real?

© By Othmar Vohringer


This image is making the rounds on the Internet for quite some time now. It was only a matter of time until it would end up in my email inbox. Yesterday someone sent me this picture titled: Best bowkill on camera. But is it real or is the image made up in photoshop or some other photo-manipulating program?

Whenever I cam across this image on the Internet I discovered that it unleashed a hot discussion of real versus fake. Lucky me I am married to a photographer and graphic design artist. My wife knows a thing or two about manipulating images so I asked her to take a look at it.

Here verdict after close examination. This image is one hundred percent fake.

The buck looks dead as in laying on the ground and then has been cut out and placed into a background that might be taken my a game cam. Notice the pile of corn at the bottom right corner of the image.
The blood splatters have been painted in. I had no clue but I am told by my wife that photo draw programs come with a variety of “brushes” that let you paint anything from a house to a tree and mountain, or in this case, blood into an image.

Knowing an animal’s anatomy I paid close attention to the muscles. If a buck jumps up in the air, as this one appears to be doing, you wpuld see the hind leg muscles bulging from the strain and force needed to leap that high. But I can’t see any muscle strain. In fact all the muscles are relaxed as they would appear on a dead deer.

There seems to be also something wrong with the buck’s eyes. Usually the color of the eye is black when you take a picture of a life deer but will reproduce white on a dead deer. These eyes are white.

Then there are the other factors to consider. When a deer jumps up like that it happens very fast so fast in fact that the camera cannot capture the movement without blur unless the photographer uses what’s called a fast lens with a wide aperture and the camera is set at around 800 to 1000 ISO. No game camera is capable of "freezing" fast movement not even with a flash.

With all these observations and my wife’s professional opinion I came to the conclusion that this image is as fake as a water turtle in the Sahara.

What’s your take on it?


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit