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Bruce: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. I’m really excited to have a gentleman from out the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania with us, Robert Hines. He owns Men In Treestands Productions. Robert, welcome to the show.
Robert: Thank you, Bruce. It’s good to be here.
Bruce: Share with us a little bit about what you do for a job, if you have one, and then let’s talk a little bit about whitetails.
Robert: Okay. First off, I’m a Deputy Sheriff out here in Pennsylvania. I’ve been hunting whitetails for 40 years since I’m 12 years old. Like I said, it’s something we do here in Pennsylvania. Whitetails are really big out here in PA. We just love hunting them. The tradition is here. Deer camps are one of the best traditions going in Pennsylvania and it’s just a good time; we have a good time out here.
Bruce: Let’s just open up the show and talk about deer camps. You’ve been hunting for 40 years, so I bet you’ve been in all sorts of different deer camps. Why don’t you just tell us about . . . when you were a young man and then you turned in 20’s and now you’re a little bit older. Share something about the deer camps that you’ve been a part of.
Robert: Well, I’ll tell you, Bruce, to be honest with you, I have never been in deer camp until the last 15 years. My dad used to hunt. When I was hunting with my dad when I was younger, he was a big pheasant hunter, him and my uncle. They hunted deer, but they weren’t really gung-ho about deer hunting. We used to just leave from the house.
Recently, the last 15 years, we leased a piece of property and we bought a trailer; we always wanted to a deer camp. There’s a few of us that hunt there; there’s five of us in the club. We bought a trailer and we put the trailer up in our hunting camp and then we just enjoyed the hunting camp atmosphere in PA. It’s big in PA. Pennsylvania hunting camps are a big tradition out here and for the last 15 years, I’ve really enjoyed it. You get together with your friends and have a good time for the week; especially our buck season. That’s big here.
Bruce: When you’re in camp, how many days do you hunt and how many days do you set up, tear down? Just tell us about the whole process.
Robert: Usually, we have a two-week season in Pennsylvania for whitetail season. The area we hunt in is Area 3C. We can hunt bucks the first week and then doe comes in on the Saturday. It starts on Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving and it goes for two weeks and we’re up there . . . I’m up there anyway, myself and another friend of mine, are up there for the whole first week. Then we have a couple of guys come back and forth. They stay a night or two and then they’ll come back; they’ll go to work for a day or two and then come back. It’s a two-week season and we’re up there to have a good time.
Bruce: How large is the land that you either lease or own or hunt on?
Robert: We have a piece of property; we have basically two farms that we lease on. The total area is 500 acres. We have a parcel that’s 249 acres and then we have a parcel that’s 251 acres and they’re close to each other, but we have the stands set out where the guys are not crowded; they’re not crowded together. We try to keep the guys down to a minimum in our club because that’s what we want. We have some fields. We don’t want guys shooting at each other. That’s one of our main concerns, is safety.
We have, like I said, between the two parcels we have, two guys on kind of different parcels and the stands are scattered so as to not interfere with each other. So for safety reasons, especially.
Bruce: How many acres of food plots do you have?
Robert: We’ve been trying the food plots. We’re kind of limited to our equipment. We have a disker that we bought, a used disker, and some of the food plots we put in, some of the guys don’t want to do it. There’s two of us that really do; we put quarter-acre food plots in. We go up and we put in . . . we experimented a little with the [inaudible 00:05:00], we had some good success on that. We tried the turnips. We tried the oats. Oats were tremendous. We had really good success and they grow fast.
Like I said, we do quarter-acre plots, but they do make a big difference on the property; I’ll tell you that much.
Bruce: Now, you’re from the Poconos, so is this hilly terrain? Speak a little bit about the terrain your farms are on.
Robert: Well, the farms we hunt are about 60 miles from where I live in the Poconos. It’s more of a farming area. The neighbor farms have some corn planted and once in a while, they’ll throw some soybeans in. They’re not big farms. They’re only maybe 200-acre farms or 100-acre farms. We don’t have huge ranches there like some of the places out west.
But there’s a lot of food as far as corn and some soybeans and stuff that some of the farmers plant. We have some wood lots in-between our fields. We set the stands up according to . . . we scout a lot and with the terrain, we’ll set the stands up on the edge of a wood lot and overlooking the field, where the deer crossed the fields and stuff.
But it’s not like where I live in the Poconos. I have another little piece out there; I belong to a hunting club there that’s mainly hard woods and swamps, which is a totally different kind of hunting. You really have to do a lot of scouting out there and find your rungs and stuff.
So the two areas that I hunt are totally opposite from each other and you’ve got to do your homework on them.
Bruce: Yep. No matter where you hunt, you have to do your homework. Let’s change it up a little bit. What’s the best hunting tip you ever got and who gave it to you?
Robert: The best hunting tip I ever got? Well, let’s see what I got here. The best hunting tip I ever got? I would have to say if you’re going to hunt, hunt for yourself. Don’t impress anybody. Try to be your own . . . there’s a lot of pressure on people today, especially with these trophy bucks and stuff and everybody’s trying to get a trophy deer. Trying to hunt for yourself. Trying to please yourself as far as hunting goes. You don’t have to impress anybody. You don’t have to kill a trophy buck if that’s not the way you want to hunt. As long as you’re doing it legally, taking a legal deer.
Just do your thing. Don’t let people sway into something that you don’t want to do as far as hunting. It’s about yourself. It’s about being happy with deer hunting style. I just feel that’s a good tip as far as hunting. Don’t get pressured into being the best or shooting the biggest deer. Everybody gets all worked up because this guy beat him; he shot a bigger deer than them.
Just hunt for yourself. Be satisfied with the deer hunt and that’s the way you should be.
Bruce: Thanks for that. Since you’ve been hunting whitetails a long time, where did the passion come from?
Robert: Well, my dad started me off hunting . . . he used to take me as a young boy. He was a big pheasant hunter. We used to go every weekend . . . I never even bow-hunted when I was younger, because we were so into the pheasant hunting out here. It was really good back in the mid ’70s.
My dad grew up pheasant hunting through the ’60s and into the ’70s. When I started hunting, he used to take me . . . I was nine years old. I used to carry a stick and I used to just walk around with them. That’s how I got started in hunting.
As far as the whitetails, like I said, my dad never really got into digging the whitetails, but I started . . . as I got a little older, I used to hunt with my dad and I also, on a piece of property between the age of 12 and until I was 18, I’ve never even [inaudible 00:09:41] deer. I used to hunt bucks. We used to hunt a couple days. Thursday and the two Saturdays were the days we hunted and my dad would work the rest of the time.
I never even fired a gun for the first few years. I said “You know what? I really want to learn about this deer hunting.” So I sort of left on my own when I was 18 because my dad was getting a little up there, his eyes were going and stuff. He sort of just wanted to the small game, so I decided to go on my own. I went off to same game lands when I first started hunting. Started getting into scouting; trying to get all the information I can on whitetails and I just went out through some game lands, took a hike back in the woods, found some signs, found scouting a little bit and I started taking some bucks. They weren’t big bucks. Back then, you could shoot spikes. As long as they were 3 inches and any other buck.
But I took a lot of spike bucks; I took a lot of three-pointers, four-pointers. But I started getting some deer and the more I went out and did this, the more I was getting the bug for deer hunting. So that’s basically how I got started on the whitetail hunting.
Bruce: Along the way, you’ve had some moments when you just couldn’t figure something out and I call them aha moments, the light bulb was on. Can you share a couple of those with us?
Robert: Yeah, I’ll tell you exactly what’s one about. The first buck I ever took, I’ll give you a little story. I scouted the area, I knew there was deer in the area. It was state game lands. We had hunters . . . state game lands in Pennsylvania, they get a little crowded.
So I walked back about a mile and a half into the woods. Found some nice signs. I set up and I hunted the first day, I didn’t see a deer. I hunted the second day and it was a rainy, drizzly, foggy day. I was sitting by a tree and I glanced up, I saw a deer walking towards me and it happened to be a spike buck, about 7-inch spikes. Back then, I used to carry an old .35 Remington Lever Action with open sights, that was the big gun back when we were younger. A Lever Action .30 and .35s.
So I picked the gun up, I knew it was a legal deer and I fired and the deer ran up to me about 20 yards and fell over right in front of me, about 10 yards and from that time on, I was hooked on whitetail hunting. That was . . . my first buck to me. It could have been a [inaudible 00:12:30] buck for all I care my first year.
Bruce: Wow. I bet when you’re telling the story, you just replayed in your memory. Having that buck . . .
Robert: Absolutely.
Bruce: I’ve killed a couple of bucks, but I’ve never had them run at me. They always take off and go the other way.
Robert: Yeah. It just caught me off guard and I sort of froze. I was by myself. I was only 18 years old and I knew I hit him. Like I said, he ran right at me. When he cut in front of me, he just fell over 10 feet away. It was amazing.
Then like I said . . . ever since then, I said “That deer on the ground looked like a [inaudible 00:13:13].” It was my first buck ever in Pennsylvania that I took and I was hooked on whitetails ever since.
Bruce: That’s great. What’s one thing you think that might be holding you back from even being a better hunter than you are?
Robert: I’d have to say my job. I work a lot of hours, being a Deputy Sheriff. I take all my vacation for hunting. I don’t get to go on as many trips as I’d like to go because of my work schedule and you only have so much vacations. So I try and schedule my vacations around the deer season here and I take a week off through the end of our archery season when they’re in the rut, which is the best time to be in the woods, naturally. Sorry, I’ve got a little tickle in my throat. I’m sorry.
Bruce: That’s all right.
Robert: But like I said, my job is very demanding with the overtime and we can all use more time to hunt deer, believe me.
Bruce: You’ve got a two-week season and it’s split between bucks and does. What’s the size of the herd in Pennsylvania in 2015?
Robert: I’m not exactly sure of the numbers. The herd style, they cut the herd down. It was meant to be like this. When they started giving more doe tags out. They wanted the herd diminished because they’re trying to get some bigger bucks in PA. So they put an antler restriction on here and started issuing more doe permits. Bonus permits . . . they allocate so many for each area. If they’re not sold out, you can apply for another doe permit and you can get a second one. If they’re not sold out, you can apply for another one and get one of those.
But they did cut the herd down quite a bit from what it used to be. Like I said, I’m not exactly sure on the numbers of them, but they’re trying to emphasize more in the antler size, with the antler restrictions, taking more doe and that’s basically what our game commission is trying to do right now.
Bruce: You mentioned a couple of times, Robert, about enjoying the hunt, the joy of the hunt and it’s not so much of the score, but the deer might have the [inaudible 00:15:54] with a bow of Pope and Young. Do you think that’s a good thing in the industry or is it okay? What’s your thoughts in that?
Bruce: My own opinion is I’m a buck hunter. I don’t shoot does. That’s my way of hunting. That’s not saying everybody else who shoots does is wrong. Hey, if you want to go out and take a doe for meat, by all means, do it. My philosophy is just . . . I’m a buck hunter. If I’m out there . . . I’m a little more particular in the bow season because we do have some nice deer here as far as antler size. I’m a little more particular on what I would take in the bow season with the rut . . . because we can actually hunt in the rut with the bow than I am with the rifle.
Our rifle season is more hit or miss, I guess. Because there’s so many hunters in the woods . . . it’s almost impossible to pattern some deer and the rifle season has so much pressure on them. Whatever somebody is comfortable with shooting . . . by all means. As long as it’s legal here, go ahead and take it because that’s my philosophy. I’m not telling anybody to go out there “Oh, you should only be shooting trophy bucks.” If you want take a legal buck . . . our antler restriction where I hunt is three points on one side. We’ve had guys take them with three points in one side. I have no problem with that if it’s a legal deer in Pennsylvania.
I’ve done it. I get down towards the second week of the season and like I said, just myself, I don’t shoot does. So I would take a six-point buck, I have no problem taking it, get some meat. That’s just my philosophy. But like I said on the last previous question, satisfy yourself as far as hunting. If you want to shoot that deer and you’re happy with it and it’s a legal deer, by all means, go ahead and do it.
Bruce: Let’s talk about your two plots of lands of 500 acres. How many trail cameras do you use if you use trail cameras?
Robert: To be honest with you, a few of us use them. We had a little problem with the [inaudible 00:18:23] up there, where we have our property. We had some stolen. I used them once. I don’t usually use them a lot. Like I said, I’m more of an old-fashioned type of hunter where I get out in the woods, I’m actually scouting myself. I do my own scouting. I’m checking for bucks signs. I’m walking through the woods doing it that way.
Some of the guys use them. They’re a fantastic tool to know what’s in the area if you’re after a particular deer. We tried using them . . . like I said, we had a few of them stolen on our property, unfortunately. I’m not a big user of them. I use them on occasion, but I don’t use them all the time.
Bruce: With your private land, do you think there were neighbors just coming in and didn’t want you to see the bucks that are on the ground? Let’s talk about that a little bit.
Robert: I’m not sure, exactly. I know we had some gas drilling up here in the recent years. The natural gas drilling has really boomed up here. The property owner that we leased decided to have this land . . . I guess he had the right of way for some pipeline and some gas drilling. Like I said, I don’t know if that’s the problem.
I know we’ve had some problems with neighbors and I try to meet all the neighbors, get to know them, just to introduce ourselves and stuff. It’s hard to say who actually would be doing it. It could be the neighbors, it could be the gas company that came in. It could be the guys from [inaudible 00:20:16], we don’t know.
They had always treated us pretty good up there as far as the gas company. I’ve spoke to them on numerous occasions. But I guess it happens everywhere. Some hunters or neighbors just want to steal your stuff. It’s just one of those things that goes on everywhere, I guess.
Bruce: Unfortunately, it does. Let’s talk about when you find out new information or you just can’t figure something out, are there any resources that you go to?
Robert: If I wanted to figure something out, I use Google Earth a lot to get an aerial view of our property. I use it the best I can. Sometimes, it’s hard with some of the pictures you get as far as getting the lay of the land and stuff. Topographical maps are good for the terrain.
The best way I found is to just know your property, know your cover areas, know your bedding areas, know your food sources. I personally just walk the property. Sometimes, they tend to change. The deer patterns will change from year to year. So the stand you had last year might not be good this year. It might be on a different food source and like I said, I’m an old school type of a hunter where I would just go out and do my own scouting by walking the place the best I can.
I use the topographical maps and the aerial photos as a guide to show me what might look good or a spot that might look good that I want to check out. But basically, I just do my own walking and looking for a sign.
Bruce: What type of stands do you use?
Robert: We have a few guys that use some portable stands. I build my own. I’m a bigger guy; I’m 325 pounds. I feel safer building my own stands out of treated lumber with heavy duty. I usually don’t go above 16-foot; that’s probably about as high as I want to get up in the air, personally.
But some of our guys use portables. I do have portables. In case I have to move, I use the portables that are rated for bigger hunters. In case you have to move or if you find a better area, just throw out the stand really quick.
But I usually set up three or four stands in the area with the wooden stands that I build myself.
Bruce: You’re on runways, you’re at a funnel or pinch point?
Robert: Tunnels, yeah. I hunt . . . especially the one area I hunt out there, it’s a really good funnel area. For the last ten years for me, I’ve taken some nice bucks out of there. It’s a pinch point funnel area where they’re going from the food source to coming into the bedding area. There are certain areas on the property that we don’t bother because they’re bedding areas. We don’t want to go in there. We just want to leave the deer alone, we don’t want to pressure them too much and we leave them alone and we set the stands up on the outskirts of the area.
We just leave that area alone and we’ll look for pinch points, wood trail signs, and stuff like that to set the stands up.
Bruce: What’s your concept of fringe hunting? What does that word mean to you?
Robert: Fringe hunting?
Bruce: Yes.
Robert: Fringe hunting, to me, it would mean hunting the edge of a woodlot, a field or the edge of thick cover as opposed to coming into open [inaudible 00:24:23]. That’s a good area to hunt, fringe hunting, as far as I know. Because they like to use the fringe areas. They’re close to their cover or they’re close to the woods if you’re out on the edge of a field. That’s what I think when I think of fringe hunting, anyway. That’s the way I always thought it was.
Bruce: If you thought back to last year, where did you see most of your bucks? Not deer, not does or fawns, but where did you see most of your bucks?
Robert: Most of the bucks that I see on a section I hunt were coming through . . . there’s some trails that these deer use coming out into a brush-y area and it’s a pinch point between the gas pads that I have where I told you, the natural gas people drill. It funnels down into area where my stand is that’s 30 yards wide.
So you can shoot either side. I put my stand right on the edge of some pine trees and right at the edge of this heavy brush cover coming town, where the deer come through the timbers out into this heavy brush and then they’ll come down past me. They can go either way. They can go one way; I have a stand set up on the other side. They can go around the other side of the gas pad or they can come down my side.
I usually see them on the one rung that they do come out on and I’ll work them in with a grunt call or a doe bleat and doe in heat scent and try to get them in that way and it’s been pretty successful for me.
Bruce: Sounds like you know your property pretty well.
Robert: Yeah, you have to know your property. That’s very key. I would suggest anyone, if they’re going to hunt a new piece of property, learn the property. Learn where they’re going, learn where they’re moving from and moving to and your hunting will just get much better.
Bruce: Robert, we’re at the point in the show that I’m going to give you a couple minutes just to tell us about Men in Treestands production company that you have and anything else you want to share, gear that you like. Whatever you want to share, please go ahead.
Robert: All right. Men in Treestands Productions is just something I started. Basically, it’s a different kind of filming that I do as opposed to some of your standard films. I attach a camera to my gun or bow. They’re getting my perspective of the hunt. I don’t have a cameraman. I do all the filming myself. My camera is right on my bow or my gun and you’re getting my perspective of what I’m seeing, exactly how it’s happening in the woods. I film it and I have a site on Facebook, Men in Treestands Productions with Deputy Sheriff Hines on Facebook. I’m on Twitter @DeputyHines on Twitter and I’m also on YouTube. You can look up my channel on YouTube at Men in Treestands Productions. I just started that. That’s only a week old. I posted a few of my hunts on there that I’ve taken some nice bucks and I still have more to put on there, actually download. But I’m just getting that started.
Bruce: Anything else you’d like to share?
Robert: Like I said, we’re all whitetail hunters. We all love the whitetail deer and I’d just like to tell everybody to have a great time while they’re doing it. Enjoy themselves. Hunt for yourself. Hunt to please yourself and enjoy the great hunting that this country has as far as whitetail deer is concerned. It’s the number one sought after game animal in America and there’s nothing like it. Like I said, being from Pennsylvania, whitetails, that’s the number one game animal here. Just go out and have a good time. That’s what it’s all about.
Bruce: Robert, thank you so much for being on the show today and I hope our listeners have gleaned some, as I call them, “big buck nuggets,” from the discussion with Robert. Wishing you well and may every hunt be a great hunt. Thank you for listening to “Whitetail Rendezvous.”
Robert: Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate it very much.