Five More Pre-season Deer Scouting Secrets from Mark Drury
John E. Phillips 09.05.12
Editor’s Note: Mark Drury of Saint Peters, Missouri, the founder of MAD Calls, co-owner of Drury Outdoor Productions with his brother Terry and a long-time avid bowhunter also is a member of PSE’s Pro Hunt team. This season Mark will be shooting the new PSE Dream Season EVO.
Secret No. 6
You’ve got to have good glass to scout for bucks. I want to stay at least 400 yards away from the fields that I’m scouting. For this reason, I’ll usually use 10X binoculars when I’m scouting and/or use a spotting scope. Eastern hunters don’t take advantage of spotting scopes nearly as much as western hunters do, and you’ll rarely see an eastern hunter scout with a spotting scope or 10X binoculars. However, remember, the further you stay away from the deer, the less human odor you’ll introduce to your hunting site, and the better your odds are for taking an older-age-class buck.
By using quality binoculars and spotting scopes, you can spend more time scouting from your truck, which keeps your human odor in your vehicle. I use a window-mount device for my spotting scope to mount the scope on the window.
Secret No. 7
I’ll begin to move tree stands or set up new tree stands as I learn more about the deer from my scouting program. I hang many tree stands on the farm I hunt during January and February, after deer season. Then, during July and August, I go check these tree stands to make sure they’re still safe and secure. I hang new tree stands, so that I will have stands in the location where the deer will be traveling in the beginning of bow season.
The two factors that determine the day I will hang a tree stand are weather conditions and time of day. In the summer months, I try to hang my tree stand in the middle of the day when the weather is hottest, and when I’m almost certain rain will come in the afternoon. Because hot weather helps evaporate human odor, and a rain washes it away, I know that my human odor won’t linger long, and the rain will wash away what human odor I do leave. I wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts made of breathable material when I’m going through the woods. I want all of the stands I’m going to hunt from during the upcoming deer season to be in place by the middle of August or the first of September. This way when I start bowhunting in October and November, I’ll have fresh stands to hunt from that don’t have any human odor associated with them.
Secret No. 8
My brother Terry and I have several farms we hunt. Before the season comes in, we try to have 80 to 100 tree stands in place and ready to hunt from on these farms. With that many stand sites, there’s no way we can remember or find all of them. We plot out every tree stand site with GPS. We log each stand site into the GPS and give each one a name. We also record all of our stand sites’ names, location and every wind direction that stand can be hunted from on paper.
By using this method, we can turn on our computer in the morning and go to www.weather.com to learn what wind direction we will have that day in our area. Then we check our list of stand sites and see which stands we can hunt with a favorable wind. Once we have decided the stand sites we can hunt from, we pick out the stand where we believe our chances are best for taking a buck that day. Then, we pull that stand site up in our handheld GPS, go straight to it in the dark, get into the tree and are ready to hunt before daylight.
Secret No. 9
I begin to pick the bucks I want to hunt from the motion-sensor camera information and from observing the deer in the field. The bucks I’ll try to hunt aren’t always going to be the biggest bucks I see. The secret is determining from the bucks you have identified which bucks appear on the trails the most often during daylight hours. Some bucks have a tendency not to move until after dark. If you attempt to hunt these bucks, you can hunt several days and not see those bucks during daylight hours. However, if you hunt for the bucks that have a tendency to move down trails and be in the green fields during daylight hours, you drastically increase your odds for taking a buck during the first week of bow season. Once I identify these bucks, I may move some of the cameras and my tree stand to learn all I can about these individual bucks I’ve decided to hunt. Knowing which bucks move during daylight hours gives me a tremendous advantage when hunting season opens. I can learn which bucks move the most during daylight hours by scouting during the summer using binoculars, spotting scopes and motion-sensor cameras without spending much time in the woods and alerting or spooking the deer.
Secret No. 10
I want to find the best spot to take the buck I want to hunt and know where he is living and moving during bow season. If I try to take him over the green field or the agricultural crop, I may spook him and the other deer that are coming to that food source. I’ve learned from my motion-sensor cameras that most bucks will move to water before they’ll go to feed. My brother Terry and I have learned that often the most productive place to have a tree stand site for older-age-class bucks in the early season is along the trail that the bucks use when they’re going to water.
To learn more about Mark and Terry Drury and Drury Outdoors, visit http://www.druryoutdoors.com/. For more information about PSE’s bows, go to http://pse-archery.com, and for information about Mossy Oak, check out http://www.mossyoak.com/.
For more bowhunting tips, check-out “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros,” a new eBook for Amazon Kindle by John E. Phillips. You also can go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks and type-in the name of the book to find it. Too, you can download a free Kindle app that enables you to read the book on your iPad, computer or SmartPhone.
To read more of John Phillips’ articles on hunting, fishing, cooking, and all outdoors pursuits (including more expert tips from the Drurys), check out his author page and article archives here on Outdoor Hub.
John, the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors.
Phillips has been a contributor to many national magazines, has been affiliated with 27 radio stations across Alabama serving as their outdoor editor and wrote for a weekly syndicated column, "Alabama Outdoors," for 38-Alabama newspapers for more than 13 years. Phillips was Outdoor Editor for the "Birmingham Post-Herald" for 24 years. Phillips was also the executive editor for "Great Days Outdoors" magazine for 3 years.
The author of almost 30 books on the outdoors, Phillips is a founding member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and an active member of the Southeastern Outdoors Press Association (SEOPA). Phillips also is the owner of Night Hawk Publications, a marketing and publishing firm, and president of Creative Concepts, an outdoor consulting group.
Phillips conducts seminars across the nation at colleges in freelance writing, photography and outdoor education besides teaching courses in how to sell what you write to writers' groups. Phillips received his photography training as a still-lab photo specialist for six years in the Air Force. He was the chief photographer for Mannequins, Inc., a Birmingham modeling agency, for 11 years.
While serving as 2nd Vice President of the Alabama Wildlife Federation, Phillips was in charge of all press releases for the organization as well as serving as Chairman of Alabama's Big Buck Contest, which he founded more than 30 years ago. He also was president of the Alabama Sportsman's Association for three years.
Phillips is the recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the Governor of Alabama and the Department of Conservation for his work in the outdoor field. Phillips is vitally interested in the outdoors and travels the nation collecting personalities, stories and how-to information for his articles and features.
EDUCATION: B.S. degree from the University of West Alabama with a physical education major and a history minor.
EXPERIENCE: 10 years parttime and fulltime physical director for YMCAs and 34 years as a freelance writer, photographer, editor, book author, lecturer and daily-content provider for websites. Currently, Phillips is a field editor for Game and Fish Publications; serves on the editorial board of Grandview Media; is a regular contributor to 12 internet magazines and a daily content provider for 8 websites.
WRITING AWARDS: Runnerup - Best Outdoor Magazine Feature - 1981 - SEOPA; Certificate of Merit - Awarded by Alabama's Governor for writings on conservation; Most Outstanding Sports Writer in Southeast - 1983 & 1984; Best Outdoor Feature in Alabama, 1987 - Alabama Sportswriters' Association 3rd Place; Best Book of the Year - 1989 - SEOPA; 2007 - inducted into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Communicator; 2008 - received award naming him 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the Year from the Crossbow Manufacturers' Association; 2009 - GAMMA Honorable Mention for Consumer/Paid Best Essay for July/August 2008 in "Southern Sporting Journal."
