Episode 039 Steve Flores WV Mountain Hunter

October 28, 2016

WR 039 | Mountain Whitetail Bow Hunting

Steve Flores is a passionate mountain hunter and credits his love for hunting to his dad who took the time to introduce him to be where he is today. A lifelong whitetail hunter, Steve knows his way around the woods and shares his knowledge on mountain whitetail bow hunting through a number of pages of major outdoor magazines such as Bow and Arrow Hunting, Bow Hunting World and Deer Hunting. He also writes articles for John Livingston’s DeerLab. In addition, he serves as a pro staff for Matthews. Steve reveals hunting a mature whitetail is probably one of the hardest things to do, and then when you put a bow in your hand it makes it even harder. He adds hunting in the mountains increases the challenge even more, and he’s always been drawn to that challenge of match of wits with what he thinks is one of the smartest animals God ever created.

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Let’s connect with Steve Flores. Steve is a passionate hunter, enjoys chasing mountain whitetails in the native Southern West Virginia. Steve credits his love for hunting to his dad who took the time to introduce him to become what he is today, a lifelong whitetail hunter. Steve shares knowledge of mountain whitetail bow hunting through a number of pages of major outdoor magazines such as Bow and Arrow Hunting, Bowhunting World and Deer & Deer Hunting. He also writes articles for Jon Livingston’s DeerLab. His insightful and helpful tips can also be found at various websites throughout the internet. In addition, he serves as a Pro-Staff for Matthews and uses this Under Armour gear exclusively for all his hunt.

Listen to the podcast here:

Steve Flores WV Mountain Hunter

We’re going to talk to Steve Flores. Steve Flores is a Pro-Staff member for Matthews. This guy writes a lot of great articles. He writes some content for Jon Livingston down there at DeerLab. Steve writes for Bow and Arrow Hunting, Bowhunting World, Deer & Deer Hunting, Dan Schmidt up in Iola, Wisconsin. This guy knows his way around the woods and he knows his way around the pen. Steve Flores, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Let’s just jump right into the show and talk about why you love hunting whitetails?

The biggest thing is the chess match that’s involved in it. That’s one of the main things. Hunting the mature whitetail is to me probably one of the hardest things to do. When you put a bow in your hand, it makes it even harder. For me, someone who hunts in the mountains that increases the challenge even more. I’ve always been drawn to that challenge of match of wits with what I think is probably one of the smartest animals God ever created. I always like to test myself against the animal to see how I match up. I don’t always win but sometimes I do.

We win enough to keep us coming back, don’t we?

Yeah, just enough to keep you come back for a little bit more.

Let’s talk about the terrain in West Virginia. I know we’ve got readers all over North America, so share with us where you hunt, what it looks like and how difficult it really is to match wits with a mature whitetail buck?

The terrain is nothing but mountains. There are no food plots. There are no CRP fields. It’s basically just wooded mountains. The biggest challenge is, unlike hunting in Midwest, there are no established feeding locations and bedding locations. Deer can feed in bed in multiple locations in different days, different times of the year. Actually pinpointing an area where a deer is going to feed in the evenings is almost impossible because you can’t predict which acorn tree that this buck is going to play when he gets up out of his bed. On top of that, you can’t really predict which thicket this buck is going to bed in before he gets up to go to one of 50 acorn trees dropping acorns. It’s impossible to figure out. That’s the biggest challenge is putting yourself in a position where you can find those deers that are going from point A to point B when you really don’t know where point A or point B is.

In order to intercept that buck or get into his core area, how do you do that?

WR 039 | Mountain Whitetail Bow Hunting
Mountain Whitetail Bow Hunting: Hunting the mature whitetail is to me probably one of the hardest things to do.

For me, I normally try and concentrate on funnels or pinch points and what that is for me is characteristics within the terrain that will actually force a deer past my stand. It might be areas where really steep terrain and gravely sloping terrain meet. Obviously the deer is going to choose the easy walk over the tough walk. They’re mostly lazy creatures. For me, it’s just finding those areas where that terrain is actually going to force that deer to walk past my tree stand. I like to concentrate on does. Food sources will change throughout the year but one constant is does and those bucks will seek out the does no matter what. Nothing really changes that. I’d like to find the concentrations of does. Then hang stands near pinch points and funnels and then just wait until the rut is really in full swing. Then I like to move in and I might catch a buck that’s cruising through.

On your Facebook page, Steve Flores, you’re looking at a rub. Bucks do leave signs leading up to and during a rut. What happens in September? Do you hunt in the early seasons or not?

I hunt in the early season. One of the mistakes I made early on in my career was whatever spot I was hunting in in September was the same spot I was hunting in November. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that seem to elude us. I would find these really good spots. I would start in September and I would hunt them every chance I got. I kept thinking, “When the rut gets here it’s really going to pick up. I’m going to get my buck and the area’s going to be sunshine and rainbows,” but it never worked out that way because I was basically just burning out my stand sites before November even got here. Now, I have areas set aside for the early season and areas set aside that I only hunt during the rut.

Listeners, take note of what Steve just shared because all of us have our favorite stands. All of us can go to our stands and see bucks. Especially when I say immature bucks, one and a half, two and a half year olds, even three and a half year olds, and you’re seeing does and things are wonderful and then all of a sudden things change. They change because of the food. They change because of the change in cover. They change because they know you’re in their living room. They’re not going to tolerate that, especially mature bucks, they won’t. Do you agree to that, Steve?

Absolutely. Most of the bucks, since I’ve changed the way I hunt and set aside those separate stands now for the rut, most of the bucks that I’ve shot were on the first day that I hunted my stand. I usually try to schedule my vacation to take a week off in that primetime when the bucks are really moving and usually only use about a day or two of that because the first time in, I usually end up putting an arrow through a buck. The hardest part with that is this takes a lot of discipline to stay out of those areas because you know how it is. You just get so excited, you want to hunt. You want to be in that stand. The key is just having patience and understanding that if you hold off, you’re going to be rewarded most likely. The first couple times I did, it was tough but now it’s almost just habit. I know when it’s not time to hunt those areas and I don’t go near them.

Let’s share with the listeners a couple of your a-ha moments. You’ve shared one already about burning out a stand and hanging with a stand throughout the whole season. I’m sure you’ve got a couple of others. Can you share those with our listeners?

I think it’s easy for a lot of younger guys especially when they’re coming into the sport of hunting, whether it be with a bow or a rifle, to get caught up in the trophy mentality. There’s certainly nothing wrong with chasing mature bucks and going after those older type deer. I did it myself. Early on I decided to do that and chase just the biggest deer I could find. For me, I spent a whole season doing that and actually passed up several really nice bucks that would’ve been great bucks for me for the area I lived in. I used a different yardstick. What’s big in West Virginia is not really big in Illinois, for example. It’s tough for a guy like me to try to keep up with those bucks that are shot in Illinois when I live in West Virginia. I did that for a year.

At the end of the season, I was really disgusted. I didn’t have any fun. One of my buddies looked at me and said, “If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?” That stuck with me. I thought, “That’s so true because it’s supposed to be fun regardless. If I’m not having fun going out into the woods and hunting, why I am I doing this?” I went back to why I wanted to be in the woods, just to get out, be in nature, talk to God, see deer, shoot deer. There were a lot of different reasons that had nothing to do with the size of the animal I was trying to kill. After that day, I went back to why I like to hunt. I’ve always kept that in the front. I chase mature bucks now but if I don’t shoot one, I don’t base my success or failure on whether or not I shoot a mature buck.

Brenda Valentine was on the show. One of the things she wanted to get out on the show was it’s your hunt. So many times I’m guilty and I bet every single one of our listeners, we let other pressures, whether your best buddy dumped a really nice buck and you go cranked up, “I’m going to get a bigger one.” Or you get in a situation where you go, “I’m going to push myself just like I do at work. You’re a writer so you get deadlines. You’ve got to make things happen.” Whitetail hunting is more than that. It’s about family, tradition and friends. It was a hard lesson for me to learn. The way Brenda said it, take that to heart because it’s got to be fun. If it’s not fun, and I’m not talking about the professionals out there doing TV shows and having to produce something, that’s a completely different ballgame. Most of us are never going to have a TV show, so make it fun.

I’ve seen a lot of guys these days especially on social media and Facebook, they’ll have a success picture of them and their buck. The first thing they say is, “He’s not the biggest buck, but.” Who are we trying to please? Are we trying to please an audience? Or are we doing it for ourselves? I fell into that trap but I do my best not to do that anymore. My kids are getting older now and they’re starting to experience outdoors with me also, so that’s where I’m going to find a lot of my enjoyment is watching them grow up in the outdoors.

Let’s talk about the class of deer that you’re chasing in West Virginia. Are they poking young-type deer? Do they weigh 150 pounds? Just tell us about the animal, a mature buck in your neighborhood.

I would say the average on the bow hunting county that I hunt is probably in the 140s, low 150s, that’s average. My largest was pushing 170. Probably my lowest, I’ve shot some really small deer too. The body weight is not comparable to Midwestern deer. I would say on average you’re looking at 140s. There are a lot of 130s that are taken, poking young. That goes back to a lot of guys wouldn’t shoot a 130, 140 class buck in the Midwest for a good reason. There are a lot of big bucks in the Midwest. For me, where I live, that’s a really nice deer.

Age class three and a half to four and a half or 140?

Four and a half, five and a half, I try to go after at least four and a half and up.

Let’s switch it up a little bit. You write for a number of magazines. What do you like about Deer & Deer Hunting? Dan Schmidt over there is a senior editor. Why do you like writing for them, other than they might pay you a couple bucks?

The key is having patience and understanding that if you hold off, you’re going to be rewarded most likely. Share on X

Deer & Deer Hunting, they seem to have this information that you can’t really get anywhere else. They take a scientific point of view with them and there’s really a lot of stuff. I can get a lot of information from that magazine that I normally wouldn’t get anywhere else from a scientific standpoint. They also have the tips and tactic stuff, but they seem to have a lot of science-based information that I like.

I like Deer & Deer Hunting one, because they began with the Stump Sitters back in I believe in 1979. That’s how long that magazine’s been going. Sometimes if you ever meet Dan, talk about how he reached his goal. I won’t say anything more about that but it’s a great story. You’re writing for a lot of articles. Where do you go out to get the information? You just shared with me Deer & Deer Hunting. Are there any websites? Are there any specific books you’ve read that have helped you become a better hunter?

The problem that I ran into when I was younger is Midwestern hunting whitetail and hunting whitetail in the mountains is completely different. When I was younger I read everything I could get my hands on that dealt with whitetail deer. I always tried to apply it to where I hunted and it never seemed to work. One of the writers that I really enjoyed reading was Bill Winke. There were a lot of information that I learned from him just from his writing, that once I adapted it to the mountains I could use it. I’d have to say he was a big influence. Cameron Hanes’ book, BACKCOUNTRY BOWHUNTING, it was a big influence for me. Even though a lot of his stuff was for Midwest or actually the Western big game hunting, there was a lot of his philosophy and work ethics and stuff that I could pull from that book and apply it to whitetail hunting in the mountains. Even though he’s chasing elk in the mountains, I’m chasing deer, there’s still that work ethic that you have to apply in order to be successful, the training that comes with it. I would have to say his BACKCOUNTRY BOWHUNTING book was a big influence for me.

Cameron Hanes, I think took our sport that we love and brought it to the understanding that people like yourself, Steve, and back in my younger days, we were athletes, we really were. I live out in Colorado and have been fortunate to hunt in North America. If I was in shape then I could just keep going. My mental process stayed where it needed to be to finish the deal and to hang in there when, as you know, times get tough. Give me some feedback on that statement.

Where I hunt in West Virginia, let’s say you have 100 pounders or something, most of them are going to pick the easiest spot they can find to get to hunt. It’s just human nature. Most of them will seek out an easy to get to location where they can either ride an ATV to get to or somewhere that’s going to require a lot less energy. The deer knows that, I think. The mature bucks know that, they understand that, so they actually avoid those areas. In order to find the really mature bucks, you’re going to have to go where nobody else is really willing to go, which usually means the sickest, nastiest, deepest places you can find.

WR 039 | Mountain Whitetail Bow Hunting
Mountain Whitetail Bow Hunting: In order to find the mature bucks, you’re going to have to go where nobody else is willing to go.

For me, you can’t access areas like that if you sit on the couch ten months out of the year and then decide when deer season starts that you’re going to be a mountain man and go after deer. It doesn’t work like that. Someone like Cameron Hanes, he’s really brought the fitness aspect to the forefront of hunting. For guys that live in the Midwest and hunt over food plots, it may not apply to them but for a lot of us on the East that hunt mountain bucks, especially the guys in the West that do elk hunting in those mountains, it definitely applies to us.

One thing that you just said, the Midwest, if you go for an all day sit and a lot of guys and gals will do that especially during the rut because you want to be out there. That takes a lot of mental concentration. In my opinion, if you’re not in good physical condition, you’ve got to stay away from hanging out in the bars until closing time and then getting up at 4:00 and 5:00 and trying to sit a stand all day, you can’t do it. You might be able to but I hope you’ve got your safety harness on because you’re going to go to sleep, I guarantee it. It’s tough. Listeners, take to heed about taking care of your body because if you do that, you’re going to have the mental awareness to hang in there and get your job done.

Let’s share just one or two lessons learned. I want you to start thinking about it, Steve, about giving shout-outs to your sponsors and people. We’ve already mentioned DeerLab, you’ve mentioned Cameron Hanes, that have impacted your world plus some of the companies. Share with us a couple of lessons learned that the listeners should take some notes on.

Just make it fun. Whatever it is you do, make sure you’re having fun. What everybody else was doing or what the industry’s doing, just try to have fun. That’s it for me. There are a lot of different things that can suck the fun out of one of the most enjoyable sports that I’ve ever experienced. Just try not to let that happen.

Let’s talk about your gear: your bow, your arrows, your rest, release, if you use one.

I’m shooting a Mathews No Cam. I’ve got a HHA 10-10 slide on it. It’s the same with pin-sight, which I really love that sight. I’ve only been using it for a couple weeks but it’s a really nice sight. I’ve got an NAP drop away, Apache drop away rest. It’s not an expensive rest but it probably shoots better than any drop away rest I’ve ever had on any of my bows. It’s virtually half the price of most drop aways that are on the markets. Arrows, I’m shooting Carbon Express. I tip those with NAP Thunderhead.

How about scent control?

For scent control, I use Under Armour. That’s the only thing I wear is Under Armour. Scent control, a lot of guys think, “I’ve got this suit on, the deer can’t smell me.” That’s not really how it works. Scent control for me starts a month before the season even opens and I start using unscented soaps. I stop using shaving cream. I don’t use any type of cologne. There are a lot of steps that goes into scent control that has nothing to do with the type of clothing you’re wearing.

Thanks for that. You’ve given us some great information and I can’t wait to have you back on the show again because I’ve got almost a page of notes. That’s pretty good, Steve. I appreciate that. Let’s give a shout-out to how people can get in touch with you, some of the companies you write for, some of the guys and gals that have impacted you. I know you shared some already but just wrap up the show with that information, please.

If anybody wants to check out what I’m up to, they can look me up on Instagram, @MountainBowHunter. I’m also on Facebook. I write for 365 Whitetail. I blog for DeerLab. I blog for BowHunting.com. I also have a small website that I’ve started. Sometimes I’ll put some information up on that, MountainWhitetails.com. Those are pretty much the main resources to get a hold of me or just to see what I’m in to.

Whatever it is you do, make sure you’re having fun. Share on X

Anybody you want to give a shout-out to?

There are a lot of people that have helped me along the way especially Matthews and Under Armour. Going back to the fitness aspect of how I hunt, Wilderness Athlete is a big sponsor for me. I actually started to incorporate supplementation into my hunts because dragging a deer or actually just getting to a deer in these mountains is a workout in itself. I’ve actually adopted the philosophy of, “Why not use supplementation to help me get to those areas?” With that, Wilderness Athlete has been a big supporter of me, so I want to give a shout-out to those guys.

Steve Flores, thank you so much for being part of the show and joining the Whitetail Rendezvous Nation. I look forward to having you on the show again.

Thank you, Bruce. I really appreciate the opportunity just to ramble on about with you for a little while and share my thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Folks, keep the sun at your back, the wind in your face and always be patient. Let’s throw out one for Steve that I’m going to tag on for everybody, and make it fun.

I want to thank each and every one of you for spending your time with us. I look forward to sharing with you in the next episode more whitetail hunting tips, techniques and stories. Until then, keep the sun at your back, the wind in your face and always be patient.

 

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