Traditional Whitetail Tactics Still Work in the Mobile Hunting Era

I shifted nervously in the treestand. Rain gear and hot weather always make you wonder whether it’s worth wearing the garments to stay dry from the rain, considering the amount of sweat that accumulates underneath.

Despite the anxious wait for its arrival, the first days of deer season always require some adjustments. It takes a few sits to remember what becomes autopilot as the season progresses. Do I like how my bow hangs? Is my harness at the right height?

As I shifted and adjusted, I took a moment to lean back against the double poplar I was perched in. It was Sept. 9, 2023, in Southern Maryland. The heat had been stifling. ‘Real feel’ temperatures had been over 100 degrees, with oppressive humidity — not exactly what you hope for at the onset of deer season.

As I leaned my head forward, I was caught off guard by the brown object 50 yards to my front. My game eye was not yet honed as it would be as the season progressed, and it took me several moments to realize I was staring at a deer browsing along the field edge. As the deer tipped its head back to grab another branch, I caught a glimpse of an antler. While trying to decipher exactly what buck this was, a second deer appeared. The dark brown glow of full velvet tipped this one off to me. Hunting senses honed or not, I immediately knew he was a shooter.

As quickly as I became hopeful, the hope faded when the deer began to amble toward the cornfield. Then, at 45 yards, they miraculously turned on a dime and headed in my direction. I lost sight of the first deer behind the trees. As the buck rounded a white oak at 20 yards, I began to draw…

A Change In Plans

The day prior, opening day of archery season, found me deep within a marsh hunting sika deer. I logged slightly more than three miles while wearing hip boots and carrying a treestand, slogging through water and muck on the opening afternoon.

But on this day, I had a change of heart about going afield. Perhaps it was the weather forecast that drove my decision. Heavy thunderstorms moved across the region beginning in early afternoon. According to the rain gauge in my garden, nearly three inches of rain had fallen already in two hours. The same rain and winds were predicted to continue long into the evening. As I accepted the notion there would be no hunting, I settled into the couch and stared out the window. Gradually, the rain lessened. The wind didn’t whip the red oak branches nearly as rapidly, and I was drawn to the front porch. As I stepped outside, I thought to myself, Wow, it feels nice out here.

Along with the rain came relief from the stifling heat and humidity. Although only technically a couple degrees cooler than before the storm, the world just felt different. After a week of high heat, it seemed downright pleasant. As it neared 6 p.m., the rain had nearly stopped. I had more than an hour of shooting light left. This weather is not too bad, I thought to myself. I initially planned to take my climbing stand, scout my way in approximately three quarters of a mile and check a few cameras and oak trees before I settled into my evening perch. Without nearly enough time for that, I pondered the ladder stand I had just hung behind my house.

Fourteen days before the opener, I’d settled on and moved into a new house. With slightly less than three acres, I had the ability to hang several treestands. I had great neighbors on each side and had been hunting one neighboring property on permission for 22 years. Nearly every hunter has a desire to own their own hunting land, particularly if you aren’t born with any. Naturally, this eagerness led me to make hanging a few treestands one of my earliest new homeowner tasks. That said, none seemed overly promising. Perhaps, as the rut picked up or the white oaks dropped acorns, activity would pick up on our little piece. However, one spot did hold reasonable potential — a simple trail traversing the property, heading for the neighboring cornfield. A double poplar sat a mere 15 yards away, offering ideal back cover for a basic, 15-foot ladder stand. I cleared the leaves for a walking path back to the house and left a trail camera overlooking the path. Something about the whole setup seemed a bit “too simple.”

What’s Old Is New Again

Like a lot of hunters, my style of hunting has evolved over the years. My early years consisted of hunting from permanent wooden stands or sitting on a 5-gallon bucket on the ground. These stands took time and effort to erect and therefore were set in locations that yielded consistent deer movement from year to year. The most common locations would be on trails between bedding and feeding areas. Although simple setups, these areas could produce surprisingly consistent results. Back in those days, it seemed everyone had their “own” stand site, and it was not uncommon to hear how certain hunters were able to take nice bucks from the same stand, year after year.

With the commercialization of metal ladder stands, we gradually replaced the wooden stands. These stands gave us a wider selection of trees to choose from but still limited most hunters to a few locations where the ladders could be erected prior to opening day. Of course, climbing stands were always around too, but the noise, bulk and weight kept their use limited. As technology continued to advance and stands became lighter, mobile setups consisting of lightweight hang-on stands and climbing sticks took over. It may have taken the better part of 20 years, but our whole style evolved from hunting very few locations regularly to becoming much more mobile and aggressive.

Adopting a more mobile deer-hunting approach has obvious advantages. Hunting new locations regularly makes it much harder for the deer to figure you out. Instead of sitting back and just knowing that deer would move past a stand eventually, we were able to get aggressive and push closer to their bedding areas. As oak tree productivity changed, we could relocate to specific food sources close to bedding areas instead of waiting to intercept deer on their way to the major, and often distant, agricultural field. Quite quickly, our success increased. This mobile, aggressive style led to more consistent daylight encounters, particularly with mature bucks.

As with many new things, be it tactics or technology, we tend to believe newer is better and we forget what worked before. But if it worked then, why wouldn’t it work now?

The previous November, my father had proven this point. Acting on a tip from the landowner, he elected to set up on the edge of a picked bean field for the afternoon hunt on Nov. 21. This heavy ladder stand had been in the same oak tree for more than 15 years. The lessons I learned in that stand while bowhunting as a teenager were countless. However, we had mainly stopped hunting it in recent years. Only its weight and difficulty in moving it had kept it in the same location. I questioned Dad’s judgement and stand selection, as the rut was winding down. With the natural anxiousness to get on a buck before the rut subsided, something about his choice seemed “too simple” to me.

However, when my phone rang an hour before dark, I knew what he was going to tell me. A fine 8-pointer had chased several does around the field before giving him a 5-yard shot. With a mechanical broadhead through the heart, the buck barely made it to the edge of the field. Marveling at the simplicity of the hunt as we took some pictures in the cool evening air, I thought to myself, Maybe it’s NOT too simple.

Simple Success

Leaning back in that double poplar, I could not help but think about my father’s success from the year prior. Perhaps it was the casual walk down a nice, cleared path to the stand. Perhaps it was the simplicity of climbing into a pre-set, comfortable ladder stand. Or maybe it was the timeless setup of a simple trail between bedding and feeding.

As the buck continued its approach, my bow arm was infected with a severe case of the shakes. And as I started to draw, the buck turned to face me. Caught at half draw, I could see my leafy suit shaking as I slowly let down. As the buck milled around at 14 yards, I was fearful he would hear my heart beating! As he turned to head further down the trail, I was finally able to reach full draw and release my arrow. The broadhead pierced the top of the buck’s heart and exited the opposite shoulder before coming to a rest beside the trail. The buck made it just out of sight before crashing.

As I walked up to the buck, I was in awe. I had never killed a velvet whitetail and was amazed at the texture and beauty of the fuzzy antlers. As I knelt beside the buck, I felt the soreness in my shoulders and back from the previous day’s effort carrying a treestand across the sika marsh. Looking up at my house, a mere 75 yards away, I thought on the totality of it all. Maybe you don’t always have to hunt mobile? Maybe you don’t always have to hunt aggressively? Maybe sometimes, all it takes is a timeless setup such as a deer trail heading to a cornfield. Maybe, sometimes, it really is that simple.

Vincent Bowles is an avid deer hunter and longtime Bowhunter reader from Prince Frederick, Md.

Author’s Notes: On this hunt, I shot a Bear Species bow outfitted with a Tactacam Stabilizer, TRUGLO sight, Trophy Ridge Whisker Biscuit rest, Kwikee quiver, Gold Tip Hunter XT arrows and G5 Deadmeat broadheads. I used Vortex Talon HD 10x42 binoculars and a Vortex Impact 800 rangefinder.

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