Freelance Saddle Hunting for Big Bucks All Season

On a windy afternoon in November 2007, while toting my Carry-Lite 3-D deer decoy in a military duffle bag, I scouted my way through a new area in search of a place to set up and hunt. After walking through a marshy bedding area, I broke into a wooded area with tall weeds and scattered brush throughout. Within the area were several deer trails beaten down to runways through the weeds, scattered buck rubs on brush and multiple active scrapes under trees. Having already walked more than half a mile from the truck, I knew this was the spot. Now, it was just a matter of finding a good tree where I could set up.

I chose a maple with a slight lean, partly because it offered sufficient height and enough overhead branches for background cover and partly because it was in an area with shorter weeds that would allow approaching bucks to easily spot Doreen the doe decoy.

The tree was covered in poison ivy, and it took me 90 minutes to clear the vines, install climbing sticks and my ring of steps, and set up Doreen. By 2:45 p.m., I was perched in my saddle. I placed Doreen at the 12 o’clock position, allowing me to remain hidden behind the tree in the 6 o’clock position and avoid detection by any non-target deer that may come to investigate.

Around 3:15, a doe sauntered through about 80 yards away, urinated in a scrape, scent marked its overhanging licking branch, looked over at Doreen and moved on. Shortly thereafter, an 8-point buck followed the doe’s trail, smelled her urine at the scrape and took up chase. Later, a 5-pointer came through, saw Doreen, walked right in and lingered about 5 minutes before losing interest and leaving.

Around 4:40, a good buck came out of the marsh and went directly to a different scrape about 60 yards away and began working it. After I bleated to get his attention, the buck immediately left the scrape and stiff-legged his way toward Doreen. As he circled, I moved on my ring of steps to the 8-o’clock position and took the 20-yard shot. The 10-point buck only made it 70 yards before piling up.

This was a perfect example of what I call “freelance saddle hunting,” when you just grab your gear and go into an area you’ve never hunted before. Upon arrival, you simply search for enough fresh deer sign to warrant a hunt and pick a tree. With freelance hunting, you’re able to catch the deer completely off-guard, because there was no prior human intrusion.

The lightweight freedom saddle hunting offers allowed me to freelance through the swamp and into the sparsely wooded area while carrying a bulky 3-D decoy. Had I been carrying a heavy, cumbersome hang-on or climbing treestand, there is no way I also could have carried a full-bodied deer decoy, along with my backpack and bow, for more than half a mile! While saddle hunting offers many advantages over conventional stands no matter where you hunt, saddles and saddle gear are tailor made for mobile hunting on large tracts of public ground.

As an example of just how lightweight and mobile a saddle system can be, consider this: a saddle is your seat, your climbing harness and your safety system while hunting, and the entire saddle unit weighs about 3 pounds. A set of four Tethrd One Sticks with aiders weighs just over 4 pounds, is only 20 inches long and can be strapped onto your backpack so you don’t have to carry it. Depending on what saddle and sticks you use, you could be freelancing in with as little as 7 pounds of climbing gear, while only noticing about 4 pounds of it, because your saddle is worn around your waist and goes unnoticed, because it fits like clothing.

Make Your Move

On a November hunt in 2003, I planned an all-day sit in a low-lying floodplain consisting of cattails, marsh grasses and scattered brush, mixed with timber. I prepared the location the day before and, after setting up Doreen the decoy, I hunkered down in my saddle well before daybreak. Early in the morning, I passed on a good 8-pointer that came in to check the fake doe, but when he ticked an antler against her plastic body, he quickly fled the scene.

During the next two hours, I kept glassing deer moving near the river about 250 yards away. By 10 o’clock, I decided to pull my climbing gear and freelance back to where the heavier activity was for the remainder of the day. Having never been any deeper into the timber, I pulled Doreen and stashed her for my exit, then began scouting toward the river. As I neared the water, I found the most active primary scrape area I’d ever seen. There were four, truck hood-sized scrapes within a 15-yard area. The best tree to hunt the largest, deepest and most active scrape was a hard leaning tree and, once set up in it, that scrape was at my 11 o’clock position, providing me with nearly perfect cover from the trunk in my 6 o’clock position.

While preparing the tree, the same 8-pointer from earlier in the morning came in, worked a scrape and licking branch and left, all while I remained motionless halfway up the tree, supported by my lineman’s rope. Deer came and went all afternoon, and about 45 minutes before dark, I performed an aggressive rattle sequence. Within moments, a huge buck stepped out of some brush and, with hair bristled, stiff-legged his way about 80 yards to the large scrape and began working it. I drew my bow, leaned slightly to my left and took the 14-yard shot. Then I watched as the monster 12-pointer sprinted 40 yards and tipped over.

That freelance hunt, made as an immediate reaction to my early-morning observations, worked perfectly. Hunting for a while and then changing positions in response to consistent deer movement in the distance is a judgement call that can pay big dividends. A move doesn’t always pay off, but it surely did that day!

Don’t Settle

On a pre-rut hunt in late October, I went to a red oak I’d hunted the previous season. Upon arrival, however, I discovered it didn’t have any acorns, and there wasn’t enough sign in the area to warrant a hunt. My only option was to improvise, so I headed farther back into the timber, where I’d never been before. About half a mile deeper in, I came across a large white oak that was still dropping acorns. It had deer droppings under it, and 20 yards to the west was an area that had been clear-cut several years prior. There were plenty of fresh rubs on the saplings along its border. I was hunting into a northwest wind at the time, and hunting from the oak would be perfect for intercepting deer emerging from the thick bedding cover of the clearcut.

A branch on the oak hung low enough for me to jump up, grab it and pull myself up. After climbing up another 15 feet, there was a large branch I could sit on while having my feet on another. A couple hours before dark, a doe with fawns stepped out of the saplings, moved in and began feeding on acorns. Several minutes later, I heard a buck grunting and chasing in the saplings. That prompted the doe and fawns to leave. After a brief quiet period, the chasing began again, and within 30 seconds, another doe busted out of the saplings. She was panting heavily, desperately trying to put some ground between her and her pursuer. Within moments, a 10-point buck appeared with nose to the ground and, while at full draw, I had to make two loud mouth bleats to stop him. I made the fatal shot at 25 yards.

If that hunt seemed archaic in terms of climbing, sitting on limbs and paying attention to wind direction, it was because it took place in 1976 prior to saddles, all the neat climbing gear and the ScentLok activated-carbon clothing I take advantage of today. I had taken my first big buck in 1969 in a similar manner, and after this one in 1976, I started calling this manner of hunting “freelance hunting.”

On large tracts of land, if a predetermined location doesn’t have adequate sign to warrant a hunt, you can freelance your way along until a better location presents itself for the rest of the day. During the early season, when mature bucks are in a bed-to-feed routine, this scenario could be due to food-based trees not producing mast that year. During the rut, it could be due to does moving from a previously preferred feeding location to a new area. All buck activity during the rut revolves around doe activity. So, when does alter their daytime movements due to changing food sources, mature bucks follow suit.

Proven Deadly

Freelance hunting encompasses scouting and hunting at the same time, as you’re scouting unknown areas for a place to immediately set up and hunt. It is advised, prior to a freelance hunt, to use onX Hunt or another digital mapping tool to scout remotely and make note of funnels, flat benches in hill country, lakes, creeks, rivers, oxbows in rivers, drainage ditches, ravines, draws, protrusions of security cover, crop or weed fields, saddles between hills, ridges, marshes, swamps, islands in swamps, stands of pines, cutovers, clearcuts, etc. By looking at these maps beforehand, you also can gauge whether hip boots, waders, kayak or canoe will be required to hunt hard-to-access areas.

On an evening hunt in November 2012, I went to an area I’d researched on an aerial map and headed right to the river, about three-eighths of a mile in. The aerial showed a funnel in the timber along the river, and when I arrived, there was an active scrape area with a large, leaning cottonwood 15 yards from three active scrapes. Due to a couple branches I couldn’t cut, I was only perched 18 feet off the ground with the scrapes being at 12 o’clock from my 6 o’clock hunting position.

There was adequate security cover along the river for daytime deer traffic, and at 3:55 p.m., what would have been a typical, 160-plus inch, 12-pointer had it not broken three tines off at the base showed up and casually moved through without working a scrape.

Then, a doe came in and urinated in a scrape and scent marked a licking branch with her saliva. I thought she was in heat, because she had no fawns with her and the hair on her back laid smooth with no signs of being roughed up from having been bred. Just before dark, a good buck moved into the scrapes and began working the one the female had urinated in. I moved one step to my left, drew, took the 15-yard, quartering-away shot and watched as the 9-pointer ran along the river and expired.

Knowing how to scout effectively and use the appropriate lightweight saddle gear to walk long distances easily and scale trees quickly will make you a more deadly hunter, especially when hunting large tracts of public land.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A nationally acclaimed saddle hunter, John Eberhart has taken 55 record-book whitetails with his bow, including 35 from 11 different counties in his home state of Michigan. All his deer have been killed on public land or private properties where he secured access simply by asking permission. The author of countless magazine articles and a guest on more than 50 hunting podcasts, Eberhart is the author of three bowhunting books and, along with his sons, Joe and Jon, hosts his own YouTube channel called Eberhart Outdoors. Learn more at deer-john.net.

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