Pennsylvania Game News - January 2015 - 58

as weeds and briars, is enough to break
up your outline and movements for any
deer within sight of the field.
The use of a cornfield also can work
well. By entering into a cornfield and
slowly working across to your location
will keep you concealed, especially if
there is a little wind to move the stalks.
Remember, though, it's illegal
to enter unharvested corn without
permission. Another great method is to
walk in a drainage ditch or creek bed
to stay out of your quarry's line of sight.
Sometimes you may have to ask
a neighboring landowner if you can
walk across their property to get to
your location.
If you have permission to move some
hay bales with a tractor along the edge
of a field you can leave just enough
room to walk behind them all the way
across the field and to your stand. This
approach takes a little bit more work
and some horsepower, but can work
just as well.
These tactics will enable you to
approach your stand without being
zapped as easy and place the odds in
your favor when entering the woods.

SMELL

This is probably the most important
of them all. It is a whitetail's No. 1
defense.
You can be hundreds of yards away
and completely out of sight, but if they
can smell you, rest assured they won't
stick around long.
It is always important to take into
consideration your wind direction
before entering the woods.
It also helps to know the property
well, and how the wind flows
through saddles and bottoms with
each wind direction.
58

It is sometimes necessary to have
multiple ways to access a stand when
hunting different wind directions. This
can be a tough test to pass, especially
with switching winds and falling
temperatures creating thermals.
It never hurts to practice scent
elimination every step of the way to cut
your chances of being zapped.
Taking a shower using scent-free
soap can aid in this area, and keeping
your hunting clothes in a sealed bag
or tote and washing them regularly
with a scent-free detergent is always
a good idea.
Hunting in a blind or shooting house
will help to prevent being detected
when the wind is not in your favor. In
addition, the use of cover scents can
be helpful in these situations as well.

HEARING

A white-tailed deer can hear just a
little better than we do, but it has two
distinct advantages - the size of its ears
and the ability to move those big ears
to better capture the direction of the
sound. That means, essentially, even
when you think your approach is quiet,
chances are deer can hear you.
This category requires some strategy
and scouting to be effective. As
mentioned earlier, it always helps to
know the property you are hunting
and where the deer there normally bed
and feed.
Although food sources might
change as crops are harvested, the
bedding areas usually remain the same.
Winter months normally are the
best time to acquire this information, as
beds are easy to spot in the snow, along
with the travel routes deer are using to
enter and exit the bedding areas.
When you have the bedding and
WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COM
http://WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COM
Pennsylvania Game News - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - January 2015
