Gues Blog: Watch the Pressure
Posted By
Brock Halstead
at
9/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
Pressure
We’ve had a great summer… velvet footage, pics, throw a camera over a pile of corn or mineral lick site and get a picture of every shooter in the county. Your hit-list is so littered with Booners that there is no doubt in your mind that your toothy grin is destined for the front page of the local rag; sitting proudly behind the winner of the "Big Buck Contest" sponsored by the local watering hole.
Ladies and gentlemen, "Turn out the lights, the party’s over- all good times must come to an end". Remember when you backed out of the timber at last light and that giant never raised his head? Well, times- they are a change’in. The wariness of the Midwest monarchs that we chase rises step for step with their testosterone levels. When the velvet drops, the survival instincts sky rocket. No longer can we "slip" in and out of the timber’s edge with the four-wheeler or pick-up, the true giants on our properties will now be blown into the next section if you put that type of pressure on them.
These deer deserve more credit than we sometimes give them. If we run them out of the field numerous times, they become smart enough to know not to come back. Every time they see us, smell us or hear us, we are educating them. They are difficult enough to harvest, we don’t need to provide an assist by enlightening them.
So….my advice, "Admire From Afar", take advantage of the terrain, utilize a high bluff, a distant tree, or even an old barn that provides an elevated vantage point. Utilize your Nikon spotting scope, this will allow you to confirm the pattern of that hit-list buck without the invasiveness of your other scouting options.
If you want pre-season pictures and velvet footage, pull the pick-up to the side of the plot and hang the camera out the window, but, if you want a camera to be capturing your harvest photos after you’ve shot the buck of a lifetime, "Admire From Afar".
