Getting a mature buck can be a very rewarding experience mainly because of the time and effort dedicated to a single catch. Avid deer hunters Jake Gullickson and Sean Newberg share their experience in bow hunting mature whitetails. Both hunters talk about which are the best seasons to hunt mature deer and advise to always watch the wind and where the deer bed and eat. Talking about the benefits of having a hit list, they also share how often they hunt, their prime times for doing their passion, and how they maximize it on their stand to hunt mature bucks.
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Jake & Sean Bow Hunting Mature Whitetails
We’re heading out to Dakotas. Jake Gullickson and Sean Newberg are going to talk about bowhunting mature whitetails. I’m happy to have them because more and more people are asking me all the time, “I’m hunting a lot of deer, seen a lot of deer but I want to change it up. I know my camera says some nice deer, some 125, 130, maybe 150 class deer on my property and I don’t know how to do it.” I’m looking to find guys that are doing it and know how to do it. Jake is from South Dakota. He loves hunting whitetails. He’s with Whitetail Grounds, Bryan Richey. He’s with BuckStik. Sean Newberg is the Founder of Bowhunting Mature Whitetails. Guys, welcome. I’m excited to have you on here and I know we’re going to bring some great information, great content. Who wants to start off and tell why we’re doing this?
We’re doing this to keep Bowhunting Mature Whitetails out there and help get all the people to hopefully help them get their ways to hunt a mature whitetail and get some advice and some tips that help them have a better season this coming year.
Jake, what’s your thought about mature whitetails? What makes them special?
The challenge. I grew up hunting. I’ve done it since I was twelve years old. I started with a gun. I’ve always been blessed to have a pretty good property to hunt and most of my tags had been filled the opening day with a rifle. It’s my weapon. I put down the rifle and picked up something a little more challenging here. Years ago, I picked up a bow for the first time. The challenge of bowhunting and on top of that, you add the mature aspect to do it. It completely changes what you’re after.
How do you make that transition? You’ve seen deer, you put deer down and you get deer in the freezer and all of a sudden you said, “There’s got to be more.” I think a lot of people are looking for that because the last couple of years, QDMA says that they’ve seen an increase in the number of two-and-a-half-year-old bucks being killed. It’s just not a spike or forky or a basket buck, but it’s actually heading towards 120 or that type of thing. They’re mature animals, so two-and-a-half years old. When you think about that, how can you help bridge the gap to get people to get away from the brown and down unless they’re hunting for meat or youth or that’s just what they want to hunt? That’s certainly their right. It’s their tag. For the rest of the people, a lot of people want to get challenged that they see a 135, 150 class deer on their trail cam, then it disappears and they don’t see them. All of a sudden, hunting season’s over and there he is. How does that work?
There are two different ways here. All summer, let’s say you’ve seen a 160-inch, four-and-a-half-year-old. He’s there all summer, you see him, and then you started getting into fall, in hunting season, there are two things that happen. One, you put more pressure on your property. You’re going in there a lot more often. You’re checking trail cameras. Maybe you’re setting stands up closer to season. You’re trying to get in there because you’re like, “Hunting season is next week. I don’t have all this stuff done yet.” You’re trying to get in there and do all this scouting that you didn’t get done earlier in the year. All of a sudden you’re putting a ton of pressure on the property and that’s taking a mature deer. He’s going, “This guy keeps coming around. I’m out of here. I’m going to the neighbors.”
That’s one of the biggest issues I see for hunting mature whitetails. People don’t realize that even a little bit of extra pressure will push that deer away. Another thing that happens is deer naturally will change their fall range. You can have them there all summer, but they might have a fall range that’s two miles away where that property has got a better habitat for that deer. That’s one of two things that can happen, is they could just move off on their own or you’re putting too much pressure on your property that’s pushing them away.
How do you not do that though? Mature bucks know you’re there. If you want to hunt them, you’ve got to be there. You’ve got to get in a stand. How do you balance that?
For me, I know the type of property that I have and all the times that it’s good. I know I have a good buck spot in late season. I don’t have much for that early season stuff, so therefore I tend to stay out of my hunting grounds until about the middle to end of October. From September 23rd or whatever, the season opens up until the middle to the end of October, I don’t even go on my property. I run trail cameras and my trail cameras are relatively quick and easy to get to without being too intrusive. That’s the other thing, the entrance and exit. It’s entrance and exit routes to your treestands, educating the deer the least amount as possible is going to get you further and further and closer and closer to achieving the goal of harvesting mature deer.
Just like Jake said, your entrance and exit play a huge role and he doesn’t go in there until the middle of October or so. For me, the property that I hunt, 2017 was the first year I was able to hunt that property, so I didn’t have anything to go off of for previous years. I had no clue what I was looking at. What I did was I went in in the spring. I went in in February, March and I could see a lot of the trails that the deer would take. I would set up stands according to that. During the summer, I would stay away. When you actually get onto your property to hunt it or to check trail cameras, you’ve always got to be watching the wind. Always got to be trying to figure out where the deer are bedded at, where they are feeding at. If you’re walking in there every time and blowing them out, you’re educating them. You want to get in and out as quickly as scent-free as possible. There are a couple of things I also do. I use some products to help keep my scent down. I use a scent crusher bag, scent-free soaps, scent-free laundry detergent, scent-freeze sprays. I’m one of those guys that go above and beyond to try to make myself 100% scent-free as much of the time as possible.
You mentioned something that’s important. Everybody thinks they know the best way to approach their stand, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do that, the entrance and exit. I’ve left some river bottom stands back in Buffalo County. I thought it was clear, I didn’t think anybody was around and all of a sudden I’m busted. A doe goes off and you jump out of your skin because it’s dark, you’re going out with your red light on. It’s just like I’m screwed for the morning hunt. Yes or no?
I would say no. It depends. I don’t know how many times I’d walk up to this one stand. I’d be like, “This is perfect. I’m right at this spot and seeing all these deer yesterday, I’m going to go hunt that stand.” I will walk up to that stand and I’ve got three or four does bedded literally at the base of my stand. I will walk up there and of course you blow them out because you can’t see them. I come to find out a little bit later, a half-hour after the sun rises, all those does come back. It’s not always going to happen, but by not putting a lot of pressure on your property earlier in the year, by not going in all the time during the summer, by educating the deer it earlier on, I think it gives you a little bit of leeway when it comes to at least the does and the younger bucks as far as scenting you and coming back. A matured deer, if you blow one of them out, it’s literally a toss-up. You could take a coin, heads or tails and flip it and that pretty much will be the deer. It may come back, it may not come back. You don’t know.
I’ve heard of a tactic where you intentionally bump them out of beds. You set up on the bed and hopefully catch them on their way back in. It seems to me is a pretty aggressive tactic and I probably would condone that. For me, I’d rather scout and actually know what’s around and not educate them, not bump them, not spook them and give them the illusion of safety.
Entrance and exit. Are you pretty disciplined? You only have X stand on a south wind or do you figure out if it’s a south wind, it’s a rut, it’s situational, not so much just the wind?
I would say I hunt stands based on the wind 99% of the time. There will be a few times where I don’t, but that’s because the property I hunt is a river bottom. The north side of the property and the south side of the property, the river goes east and west across it. If I know there’s a buck continually on the south side and he always go by this one spot, I might hunt that south side with a south wind. I’d have to be pretty confident though. I wouldn’t just go out there for it because everything on the north side of the property is smelling me. It’s not doing me any good. I’d be willing to take chances towards the rug where things are heating up and using all the scent-free stuff. I have gotten away a few times of having deer downwind me and they don’t smell me. It’s not something I would say you should do but there is going to come a time at some point where you have to get aggressive. The season’s almost over. Let’s say it’s middle of November, I’ve got two weekends left to hunt and I’m busy the rest of the year. When it comes down to either be aggressive and do what you can to get that mature deer down or you just pass out on and not fill your tag, it comes down to whether you feel comfortable not going to tag for yourself or not.
Jake?
For me, I hunt in a hilly terrain and a couple of my scanned locations. I hunt where more often than not, they’re good for both of north and south wind due to the giant drop off on one side or the wide open field on the other side where anything that checks me out on this way. It’s going to be below that the wind’s going to blow over on the south and then on the north wind. If it goes to check me, if I hunt them and shoot them, they’d be gone before they got to that point.
Do you guys target a specific deer? Everybody has a hit list. Not everybody, but if you don’t have a hit list, you really should because it helps you focus. That’s a tip. If you’re not doing that in some way, then you’re out there rolling the dice and hoping whatever’s going to come by. The good hunters that I know have hit lists and they know specifically the behaviors of those deer. We’re talking to them about 365 hunters here, not just a casual, “I’m going to go out and getting the old stand and see what happens,” but guys and gals that are serious about it. On that note, talk about your hit list and how you build that towards mature deer.
Pretty much what I go through, I have one camera out now but coming about the middle of June, I’ll make sure I have the rest of my cameras out. All summer long I’ll sit there. Pretty much any deer that’s mature, so four-and-a-half years or older or that I feel is mature because without previous history, you can’t tell 100% how mature a deer is. After a time, you figure out with sag of the belly, the droopy neck, stuff like that. The brisket, you can tell how old he is. I always make a hit list for myself and there are two different deer I put on the hit list. I put shooter bucks, the deer that I’m targeting for that year and that they walk by. I’m pulling an arrow out. I also have my up and coming list where it’s generally three-and-a-half-year-olds that this guy is definitely three-and-a-half. Sometimes those three-and-a-half-year-olds will look older or they may have bigger antlers than some of your mature deer, so you want to shoot them. I pay close attention to that list to make sure I’m not shooting a deer that’s immature because that goes against everything I’m trying to do.
Educating the deer the least amount possible will get you further to achieving the goal of harvesting. Share on XIt’s not about inches. It’s about the maturity of the deer. With those two lists, it will help you make sure you shoot your mature deer and it lets you hope pass your immature deer. I had three deer on my hit list and I had one buck that walked by that I didn’t have a lot of time to guess how old he was. I never had him on my camera before. I guess he’s three and a half and he would have been about 130, 140-inch deer. He would have been the best deer I would have shot at the time and I let him walk by. I took a video of him. I asked all my buddies like, “How old do you think this deer is?” “He’s matured.” I’m like, “I just passed on a mature deer.” That’s where the hit list come into at work. You’re watching these deer all summer, fall, winter, then you get to know them. As soon as you see them, that light bulb goes up. He’s a shooter. You’re grabbing your bow. That’s why I have a hit list, so I know what to shoot, definitely what not to shoot.
For me, the hit list, I don’t do too much of the up and comers per se. I saved every one of my pictures on an external hard drive and I’ll flip through it. This one year, I’ve had on camera for three years a two-and-a-half. I missed him at 30 yards. It’s a sad story and we won’t talk about that. I tend to take my top two or three. I have a smaller property. I’m hunting 90 acres and 35 of that is timber and the other 35 that I don’t is made of grass and I don’t have stands or anything out there. A county that is the sanctuary. I’ll take the top two or three and focus on those. Anything that might mosey on through it during the rut that’s matured, I take a shot at it.
I’ve made a mistake but I didn’t, I saw a gorgeous deer in Iowa, a six-inch with brown tines, a perfect 10-point frame. I shot him and it was like two-and-a-half years old. I shot a booner buck. I didn’t let him grow. Where I was hunting, they said, “Do you realize what you shot?” It’s a great deer. That’s what I saw with the brown tine. I’ve learned a lot from QDMAs, and you guys are involved in QDMA. There’s a lesson for everybody. Learn from my mistakes because if I had let that deer walk, he had all the potential in the world to be a 150-plus class deer. His frame, his configuration, everything about him says, “I’m a young deer, don’t shoot me.”
When you’re hunting somebody else’s property where you don’t make this list, where you don’t familiarize yourself with it, the people say, “On the pasture, on the woodlot you’re hunting, wherever you’re hunting, here’s the hit list.” Folks, if you’re going on a guided hunt, I don’t care what state, ask them, “Do you have hit lists for each of your stand sets or each of your stand sets area?” If they say no, just say, “I’d really like to know that because I don’t want to shoot a deer that’s an up and comer. I want to shoot a deer that’s going to be represented. Some people say, “It’s your hunt, it’s your money. Whatever deer walks by, if you want to kill it, kill it.” It takes work. I know you guys are working with QDMA. Let’s talk a little bit about QDMA and how that’s helped you become a mature buck hunter.
Actually, me, Jake and one of our other buddies, we started a branch out here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Native Prairie Whitetail Branch. We’re for QDMA where we’re going through and trying to help educate other people. One thing I enjoy about them is first and foremost, they’d rather have you enjoy your hunt rather than try to throw, “You have to shoot a 160-inch deer,” stuff like that. Step number one is to make sure you’re happy. Step number two is to start learning how to differentiate between a young deer and mature deer. They talk about your doe herd, then your buck to doe ratio. They go through the whole nine yards of everything. It’s not just, “We’re going to sit here. We’re going to pass these deer so that they can hold up. Don’t ever shoot them.”
They want you to go through and make sure your whole herd is healthy, your fawns are healthy, you have good cover for your deer, you have good food for your deer. It’s not just shooting big deer. It’s actual deer health. To me, that’s a big difference as to why I enjoy QDMA so much. It doesn’t matter how old the deer is. If they’re sitting there and they’re not healthy, they’re dying off anyways. All the research they put into it, they’re one of the biggest companies that are helping keep our deer herd alive. Research and everything so we can try to help combat diseases like EHD, CWD and stuff like that. We actually still have a deer herd 100 years from now when our great-grandkids are hunting. That’s why I went to QDMA.
I’m going to second everything Sean said. Another thing that I’m going to add to that is knowing whitetail habitat is another good thing that QDMA offers. Between hinge cutting, food plots and just setting up your property to be able to hold and grow these mature whitetails and these older deer, these older age class bucks.
It does take that, doesn’t it?
Yes, unless you’ve got a free property, it takes a little bit of elbow grease.
Everything that I know it just doesn’t happen. You can keep a hunting hole where every three or four years there’s the very mature buck, you know that he’s there. I don’t know if you guys trout fish, but when I used to trout fish, there was one rock, a run log that at the right time of year always held a good fish. If you take that fish out of there, you go back the next year or for sure the year after that, the same size fish. A nice two and a half pounds, three-pound trout, whatever is using that because it’s its prime habitat, its prime environment. That’s one thing that people I think need to look for on their property. Where’s the prime? If I was a mature buck, where would be my place for water, place to feed, place to sleep, your thoughts?
I’m going to add to that. If you’re missing any of those, you can always add it. If you don’t have much for bedding areas, all it takes is a little bit of elbow grease and you can hinge some trees over and make a bedding area. You go make a bedding area with a garden rake and a little bit of elbow grease and $30 worth of seed you can make a clover plot. As simple as burying a bucket in the ground, you can make a watering hole. If any of those three things that you’re missing or any of these things that you’re missing on your property, a little bit of time and a little bit of effort goes a long way.
I would agree. That’s what I’m doing on my property right now. I’m actually just getting ready to put up the food plot in there. It’s got a creek. It’s got water. My cover there, it’s got good summer, good food all covered. Once you get it later into the fall where the leaves start coming off, your grasses all died or are dying down. It gets really bare in there. My next step after I put my food plot in, whether it’s this year or this next winter, I’m going to start going through, I’m going to hinge cut some trees. I’m going to try to open up the canopy and get an under storage growing because there’s nothing a mature deer loves more than the feeling of safety. It doesn’t matter how much cover you have, it’s the feeling of safety.
If you have good cover and you have safety, then that deer is going to live there. I’ve seen spots where you would never guess the deer would be there, but they’re out this little point in any field where there’s some grass growing. Something where the farmer can’t plant it and that’s where they’re living. You’re like, “All of it is a 30×30 yard patch of grass. What are they doing over there? There’s nothing there for them.” They’re safe. Adding into your property a safe area that has exit routes, because when you go through a hinge cut, you can make a bedding area. You need to make sure you have good extra routes coming out of there. If they don’t feel safe, they’re not going to bed there.
Spending time in Kansas, Oklahoma and in states like the Dakotas where trees aren’t as plentiful as out east and in the Rocky Mountains. The Rocky has got millions and millions of acres of timber, but the whitetails in Colorado, along the rivers in the cottonwoods and about a mile and a half from the flat river, the Arkansas River that is basically where they live. It’s amazing if you can go do some long-distance scouting down along those two drainages. You can see a mature buck, just their tines flicking in a completely barren field. It’s not fair, but there’s the sage or there’s some cactus. All of a sudden you catch a flicker of an ear or a tine flint. “What is he doing out there? There’s nothing out there.” You would swear a big buck like that, it comes back to the safety because everybody knows a big buck would not be there. His whole life, nobody’s ever come within 100 yards, maybe a coyote or something like that. As far as a bowhunter, you can’t set up on them. How do you guys hunt those deer?
Find a different one.
There’s an honest man. I love that.
You’re lucky where you could sneak up on them if you did a spot and stalk type of deal. Those mature deer, when they’re in those grass areas where they’re like upon or something where they could see all the way around them, you have more skill than me on stalking deer or you have to get one. I will venture to guess that you’d be better off sitting there watching them and figure it out, “Where are they at least feeding at?” Maybe there’s a cornfield a quarter-mile away they go to feed at and you can maybe intercept them on the way there or once they get into the field or something like that. There’s not much cover there. You can’t really get on them. It’s just the waiting game. You’ll glass them, see where they go and hopefully you can cut them off somewhere, and if not, depending on what hunting you’re doing, if this is private land you’re hunting it all year, you’d have some more time. If your public land hunting, then this is a week-long trip I’m doing, I don’t have a lot of time, my advice, go find a different deer. You could waste all week trying to get that one deer and never figure out a way to get close enough to him. I’d always give myself a fighting chance.
Depending on how much time you have, you can always scout it and figure out what that deer is doing. There are ground blinds that you can maybe set up along the path. I don’t know how to hunt that type of habitat. Most of my stuff is pretty timber, which is rare in South Dakota. I don’t do much with the prairie hunting.
You’re in Sioux Falls, correct?
When hunting, use some products that will help your scent down. Share on XNearby Sioux Falls.
You get the Missouri River coming down through there. Do you hunt the river bottoms or creek bottoms? Where do you hunt?
We’re planning a whitetail trip and do some public ground stuff over Gregory County, which is right along the Missouri River. I hunt in many high county that runs through it. The property I hunt is about a mile off. Sean hunts in Turner, right along the river along there too.
I’ve got a couple of properties that actually the same river goes through. I think it’s the same river that goes through both, just at different points. I grew up hunting creek and river bottoms. That’s the little specialty area I always look for.
When you’re hunting a creek bottom, river bottom, how wide are they? Are we talking a quarter mile, half a mile?
The property or the river?
The river. The available habitat that the deer would use without exposing themselves on an open prairie or hillside.
One of my properties is literally huntable acres on it is 32 acres with a creek going through it. Between the creek and the edge of the timber before hits it the ag field, you’re looking at 50, maybe 60 yards in some spots at the most. The other property I hunt, it’s even less than that. Maybe 30 yards off the river is where the timber ends. It’s not very wide at all. They’re all pretty small areas. That’s how it is in South Dakota though. It’s very rarely you do have big timber setups. Pretty much either it’s flooded grounds where the farmers never went through and took all the trees out because they can’t plant anyways or it’s these old tree growths that have been there forever where it’s just not cost-worthy to take them off. There are so few of them left that your timber setups here in South Dakota, it’s still small. It’s not like Wisconsin or up in Northern Minnesota where you have hundreds of acres of timber. You’re talking 20 acres, maybe 30 acres at the most. Thirty acres is big timber for us.
If you’ve got timber of 30 acres, are they living there? Are they actually bedding the same timber you were hunting? That makes it really hard. I get the part fence lines, ditches and creek bottoms. I call them stringers, just cottonwoods or something that go on following a creek bottom, but it’s only twenty yards wide and you’ve got to find how the deer are using that as a natural funnel. Thirty yards, you can shoot across it. How do you set up in that type of situation?
I use terrain features, spots that narrow up where it gets maybe 20, 30 yards wide, where you get those that type of funnel where you’ve got wider timber. It comes down to a narrow path and then opens back up to a little bit bigger timber. We’ll all set up in that narrow patchwork where you can shoot across because the deer isn’t going to expose itself. The deer is going to want to run through the inner part of that timber to keep as hidden as possible. It’s the same thing if you’re along a creek or whatever. If you like to take the mid to high roads, a dike or something along the creek, they’re going to tend to run the top of that, especially during the rut looking for does. Sean, you’ve got anything to add?
The one property I hunt, there’s a ridge going around outside of the timber that’s about ten feet tall. When I go to access my stands, I can walk the ag fields and the deer cannot visibly see me when I’m not walking at all, whatsoever, as long as there’s the timber anyways. I could walk along that and then a lot of times I’ll set all my stands up right on those ridges if I can or not very far into the property. I’ll set my sticks up so when I walk up to that stand, I’m going straight up the sticks right then and there. I don’t have to go around the tree. If you can go off the backside of the tree from where the deer are, you’ve got a three-foot tree in front of you, it’s going to cover most of your body. It gives you another advantage of them not seeing you.
As far as hunting them, with the creek bottom I hunt, finding those creek crossings, those make a huge difference. If you’re lucky, you can find a spot where there are only one or two crossings in the whole spot. That gives you a 50/50 shot. They’re crossing here. Other than that, you’d be surprised how small a terrain features a deer will actually see and use. I’ve got some spots on my property where literally, you’re talking to two or three foot elevation change, but those deer run it because a three-foot elevation change with three feet of grass at six-foot, all of a sudden they’re running right on the backside of that. You can’t see them or you can barely see their tines sticking out. Even subtle changes in elevation, the deer will use that to help hide them from anything that’s concerning like a hunter or a coyote or anything like that.
Every place in the country, we all have our little different ways. I like the thought about putting your sticks so when your approach, you use that as cover typically where the deer are, but that’s a good tip because I had not heard of that before. A lot of people just do it because it works. When we’re talking about that, I’m saying, “Hmm.” I’ve seen a couple of setups when they should use hangout alone. That might’ve made a difference.
A big thing too is I’ve got a lot of stands that have the quick sticks where you stack all your sticks together screwed up on the tree. I’m moving away from those to get something more like stagger steps where it’s each individual set of sticks. None of them connect because one, it’s quieter, and two, you can put them on any side of the tree you wish so you get a tree that’s not completely straight. Some of these sticks, you can’t even use that tree. You’re hindering yourself, you’re making more noise and you’re not putting the sticks on the right side of the tree you want. By getting those stagger steps or something like that, you can put them exactly where you need them. You can hide yourself. You don’t have two pieces of metal clinking on each other all the time. Three, the cost of both is the same. They’re more versatile. It’s a no-brainer in my book.
Going back a few years, and hang on, we had those screw-in steps. That gave you versatility because when you were talking about bending trees, I had a great setup that a tree came out of the side of the hill was hanging down. I had to set up my screw-ins just so gravity wouldn’t suck me down. The only way they use that was actually with the screw-in step. Now you have the separate steps to do that. I do believe it gives you a lot more versatility and they are a lot quieter. I used to have a fanny pack and have about ten of those in there. I use only what you needed to use and that was it. We don’t do screw-ins anymore. People have really moved away. They’re not safe, in my opinion. They do put holes in trees.
There’s a little bit more time considering the quick sticks. The time and the energy that takes a screw three of those in versus throwing the rope around the tree, center it enough and stepping outside of that.
You think back at the beginning of this stuff when you’re doing, it’s home-built hang on treestands out of everything you can imagine. We got away from that, but that was dangerous. There are still on our farm. We don’t obviously hunt in them anymore. I keep saying we just need to go in there and take them out.
Before somebody hurts themselves.
No. If inadvertently did something stupid, but whatever. I know both of you guys are on some Pro Staffs. Jake, let’s start with you and let’s talk about Whitetail Grounds and the other Pro Staff that you’re part of.
In hunting, it’s not about inches but the maturity of the deer. Share on XWhitetail Grounds is owned by Bryan Richey and Mindy Richey. They do deer mineral as well as deer attractants. BuckStik, it’s a new product just coming off. It’s going to be a mock scrape and a mock rub with natural gland scents that you apply to it. I’m excited to see how that one turns out this year. I’m excited to see some of the stuff that’s going to do.
I believe in mock scrapes I don’t know anything about mock rubs. Mock scrapes, I have used my rambling horns spray to put a rub in there coming in or going out. For some reason I think through that, put together something and that’s interesting to look at. Bryan Richey is a good guy. He was a Founder of Moon Stands and now he’s moved to Whitetail Grounds and Back Porch podcast. He’s got a lot of things going on, plus BAM Outdoors. Sean, what have you got going?
I Pro Staff for Mossy Oak, a camouflage company. I also Pro Staff for FeraDyne Outdoors, which has ten or eleven different companies that they own. Rage Broadheads, Nockturnal Lighted Nocks. They have GlenDel Targets, BLOCK Targets, IQ Bowsights, SURE-LOC, Carbon Express Arrows, Wac ‘Em. There are a few other ones in there as well. Those are a couple of companies I’m with. I’m actually part of field staff for Muddy Outdoors as well and Pure Whitetail, they have mock scrapes, both synthetic and natural deer urine as well.
What’s the benefit of representing those outdoor companies? How does that help you?
The biggest thing when you’re representing an outdoor company in my mind, first off, you have to use their product and believe in their product. Once you’re part of a company, whether you’re Pro Staff or field staff or they sponsor your outdoor shore, whatever, they’re giving you discounts for their product. You need to believe in their product to actually use it. It shouldn’t be about, “They’ll give me 20% off, I’m going to use your product.” You’re representing them. In my eyes, it should be something you believe in. You’re going to use whether you’re on their staff or not. That’s part of the reason why I’m part of Feradyne and Mossy Oak.
I’ve used their products, I believe in their products and I will continue to believe in them. I’m helping them hopefully gain more customers because I’m using them and I’m saying, “I’m using the Mossy Oak.” I’ve had a deer look at me and they’ll see me up in a tree because I moved. They look at you, they don’t quite figure out what’s there because their camouflage is hiding me. By me telling other people that, hopefully I’m helping the company getting more people to buy their products. I’m also representing them. I say, “This is a good company as well. They’re not just here to take your money. They want to actually have customers.” In turn, I help them and then they scratch my back by giving me a discount.
I’m going to second everything he says. You have to believe in the product and it can’t be about you wanting the discount for the product. You’re doing it for the company. The way I look at it is it’s a type of marketing for them. They’re giving you that 15%, 20%, 30% discount, whatever it is on the product so you use it and you tell your friends about it. I’m repeating everything Sean said here, but it’s about getting the name of the company, getting the name of the product and how to use the product out to the general public’s hands.
Let’s talk about, one, your prime time of hunting. I know some guys only hunt three days a year. That’s it. They do scouting, they do all the food plots, everything else, but actually hunting, they do it three days a year. I know another guy who spent 23 days in the stand on his farm hunting one buck. He’d obviously moved around in the stand, but he could never pin him down. It was 23 days straight that he hunted that buck. It’s a 300, 400-acre farm and large enough that he could get away with it without “pressuring the deer.” The deer had to know he’s there, that he’d spent that much time. Between those two things, what do you like to do to maximize your time in the stand so you set up an opportunity to kill a mature buck?
For me, I’m starting on the June timeline. Like Sean said, starting to run cameras, putting together a hit list from around July, August, beginning of September, getting a good feel of what bucks are out there. I usually don’t let my property soak from September until mid-October. I’m still running cameras on my trails. The first time that I go in my stand to hunt, I’ll pull my cards and go back and see what’s been going on to educate, as well as look at previous years to educate what I’m going to do the next time that I go out. Prime time, I start right around the middle to the end of October, right when the rut starts kicking off. I’m a dad and a husband. That’s the only time it comes first before my hunting. I tend to focus on the high probability days, which in my opinion is going to be the cold fronts. Weird wind changes, something where it’s going to make them get up and move or get up and make them want to move.
I don’t put a whole lot of the moon. I know there are some guys that do, but most of my deer had been shot on or around that first week of November. The last two deer that I shot both were November 5th a couple of years ago. It wasn’t a very big deer. This is where patience comes in. My wife was wanting me to get out of the trees and come home. I pulled myself off and I’ll shoot the first buck that walks by then because I’ve got Christmas lights and everything else. I shot the first buck that walked by. It wasn’t a big buck. Not taking anything away from the animal. I was happy with the harvest, but as I was going down and picking up the arrow, about 170-inch deer was on the trail right behind him, so patience. I like that beginning of November.
I’m a big fan of late October and late November. I’m not a big rut fan, but I tend to key in on one or two certain deer and those are the ones I want to hunt. Generally those deer, I see more of early season or late season. Rut is the worst time of the year for me to hunt those specific deer. Generally, once the does are pretty much bread in my little 30-acre spot, which doesn’t take very long, most deer have gone. They move out and they will find other does as well. The deer that I want to shoot is now on the neighbor’s property or two miles down on another neighbor’s property where they shot. I prefer to get in there before they do, but I really like the late October days where you get nice cold front coming in, your barometric pressure goes up. I will look into everything when it comes to deer hunting. Your barometric pressure, your Moon phase. I look at the wind, natural wind versus different wind, whether it’s cloudy or sunny, all of that.
It was October 27, I had one of my bucks, which is about a 160-inch deer. I had them up and moving around that 2:00 in the afternoon. I’m sitting here posting on Facebook, “I’m out in the deer woods,” and everyone’s like, “Aren’t you out there early?” I take a picture of the deer sitting out there because he was bedding out. He was bedding about 50 yards away and I’ll go, “Nope. My number one hit list buck is moving around at 2:00 in the afternoon. This is the perfect time to be out here.” It was one of the days were the barometric pressure was higher. We had a little bit of a cold front coming. You had a good day to be out in the woods and you got those late October days, the deer are still a little more predictable than during the rut. During that rut, you find a group that’s bedding somewhere and you hunt it and you have no clue of what deer or what buck is going to come by. You can’t predict anything. Late October you can predict, “This deer has bedded here. Here’s his main food source.” He can still get up and move, but they’re also getting to be close to that point where they’re starting to get ready to start checking does. They’re getting anxious. They want to get up on their feet earlier. They want to go. To me, nothing beats late October cold front in the woods.
Folks I want to thank Jake and Sean for being guests on Whitetail Rendezvous. I hope you picked up some of the inside tips that they’re sharing. Sean, how can somebody get ahold of you if they want to reach out to you?
I’m on Facebook. Sean Newberg or Bowhunting Mature Whitetails are on Facebook there as well. If you guys want to send a message and say, “Do you want to talk to me?” Actually, I hate to say it and my phone numbers are on Bowhunting Mature Whitetails too. If you ever really want to give me a call, go for it. Send out a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. I’m generally pretty good about that. I’m always willing to talk about deer hunting.
Jake?
The same thing on Facebook. I’m part of a Bowhunting Mature Whitetails. You can get ahold of me through there as well as on my personal page.
Under Jake Gullickson?
Yes.
Are you on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, anything else?
When marketing for hunting gears, you have to believe in the product. Share on XYes, but no.
We do have a Bowhunting Mature Whitetails Instagram page, but I’m still trying to learn how Instagram works. I’m a Facebook guy.
Thanks so much for taking your time. I hope one day to get up and hunt the Dakotas. That’s a draw system, isn’t it?
For rifle, yes. Archery, it is not a draw system.
Can you go and get over to counter tags for archery?
It’s a draw but you have to spend and apply, but you’re guaranteed the archery tag. They’re not over the counter.
There’s a specific time during the year you have to apply for it. Is it statewide? Is it East River, West River?
Both, there was a statewide deer tag for bowhunting. There’s East River tag and there’s the West River tag. You’re only allowed either the one statewide tag or the one either West River or you can get both a West River and an East River. If you apply for the statewide, you only get the one that you want to hunt both of the beautiful west side of the state or even the more beautiful east side of the state. You can apply for both of those as well.
There are some added tips, folks that are thinking about expanding horizons. I’ll tell you one thing. I’ve had a lot of guests from the Dakotas and there’s some wonderful deer. You’ve heard made reference by Jake and Sean. That 150-plus class matured deer do roam and you’ve got to hunt them differently though. It’s a little different thing. It sounds like you’ve got to do your homework before you start hanging stands. Thanks so much, guys.