Tag: #HSS

Looking to Find Deer on New Hunting Land? It starts now…for Next Year!

Posted on by Hunter Whiteley

Preparation is key, my 4-step “How-To” process:

  • Identify Deer Trails, make false scrapes, choose key areas
  • Hang tree stands, add safety lifelines
  • Control human scent (what works for me and my family)
  • Monitor weather, look for a rising barometer and cold front: Prime Time
As I search for my big buck, these two doe will help with keeping us healthy for the coming year.

By Hunter Whiteley

Going into this year’s hunting season, I was facing unfamiliar circumstances on new land I had never hunted before. I had to find a way to figure out boundary lines, the deer population, feeding areas, travel routes, where they were bedding and everything else I would need to know to be able to harvest mature deer.

My preparations for this season started back in the spring when I received permission to hunt a piece of property in Central Kansas that had been barely hunted. I knew virtually nothing about that property. My wildlife studies in college helped a great deal and a summer spent interning under deer biologist, Dr. Grant Woods, was really important.

I started by breaking down the property by using the “onX” mapping system app. It was invaluable in helping me figure out everything I needed to know about the property, as well as other new property my Dad and Papaw were hunting in Missouri. It connects to all my mobile devices and works even if I am in an area where I am not getting service. You really need to go to www.onxmaps.com and check it out for yourself. You can sign-up for a free trial or subscribe. I can’t begin to tell you all it will do to help you, even on land you have been hunting for years.

Trail cameras are among the primary keys to identifying deer trails and deer numbers.

After using onX to determine high percentage areas, it was time to put out trail cameras so I could see what deer were using this new property. I did a lot of research to determine the best trail cameras and chose Cuddeback® (www.cuddeback.com) because of their originality and what I read about their performance. I placed several of their cameras that utilize the wireless CuddeLink system across the property. Pictures are sent to a home networking camera and then sent directly to my phone. The battery life is exceptional, a huge advantage, providing the capability to stay out of potential prime hunting areas in the off-season. This allowed me to establish an estimate of deer numbers on the property, as well as age classes of the bucks in the area.

After several months of pictures, I was able to gather the information needed to place several treestands across the property. Because we mainly bow hunt, I chose to hang Primal treestands with their climbing sticks and hung two of them together in some places. This was for the times my girlfriend, Molly, would join me on the hunt. Dad and Papaw also use Primal on their new Missouri hunting property. Papaw likes their innovative ladder stands with the Stabilizer Truss System and Grip Jaw System that holds it snuggly to the tree. Go online to www.primaltreestands.com to check out their stands.

Use of the Hunter Safety System Lifeline will provide safety assurance during hunting for everyone that uses an elevated tree stand.

While hanging my Kansas stands, I transitioned my Cuddeback® cameras from salt licks to mock scrapes that I made using ScrapeFix® products www.scrapefix.com. I would clear a 2 to 3-foot area down to bare earth in places where there were branches deer would use as licking branches. I then put 2 to 3 puffs of their Velvet, ScrapeFix® or Rut powder, depending on the season, both on the limb and the bare ground. In several places where there was not a suitable licking branch, I used their Vine to make my own licking branch. I can attest with photographs that the ScrapeFix® products really worked. As the season approached, there were several quality bucks using these scrapes and a number of mature doe’s scent checking them, all captured on my cameras.

We use HSS Tandem Lifelines™ when two of us are hunting together. Lifelines insure our safety while ascending and descending a tree and getting into and out of our stands.

A few weeks before the season started, I freshened all the scrapes and then put up a piece of gear that every hunter should have attached to every tree they have a stand in. None of our family will climb into stands without first attaching a Hunter Safety System Lifeline™ (reflective) to our Hunter Safety System harnesses for all of our stands, no matter where they are at. Molly and I use their Tandem Lifelines™ when we are hunting together. Lifelines insure our safety while ascending and descending a tree and getting into and out of our stands. For your sake and your family, I urge you to go to www.huntersafetysystem.com and read more about the inexpensive HSS Lifelines. They are simple to use and can save your life!

Knowing that a deer’s sense of smell is its primary defense, all that prepping would have done no good if we did not do everything possible to control our scent. I did lots of research on what scent control clothing was best for us to use and decided ScentLok was the way to go. To really understand all they do to make their clothing scent-free, you need to go to www.scentlok.com/technologies and read about it.

Their scientific research was so convincing everyone in our family that hunts are now wearing ScentLok in early, mid and late season. We also use their Ozone generator bags and closet to keep our clothing scent-free, as well as their scent-free sprays for our hunting equipment.

On a morning in Missouri with a rising barometer and an approaching cold front, Papaw counted 57 deer come from all directions and Dad also saw numerous deer that day. Neither of them chose to shoot, but both these long-time deer hunters are convinced that ScentLok really works.

Molly couldn’t join me on the first morning of archery season so I geared up in my ScentLok clothing and headed to one of my Primal stands, hooked up my Lifeline™ and climbed up to hunt by myself. I saw around 25 deer that morning and, thanks to my ScentLok, none of them had any idea I was there. By 10 am I had harvested two mature does to fill the freezer for my family. By the way, this was the same morning my Dad and Papaw were seeing all those deer in Missouri, so that should also tell you the importance of being out there during a rising barometer and cold front if you want to see deer. There were a lot of text and pictures being sent back and forth that day.

Since that morning, Molly and I have been out hunting numerous times and have passed on a lot of deer. I am still on the hunt for a big buck, but I feel confident with the recent pictures sent from our Cuddeback system, the time will come, whether it’s this year or next.

Follow us on Instagram @greatozarksoutdoors to see what happens. When it does, I will smile and remember all the prepping I did on unfamiliar land to get to that special moment.

Hunter Whiteley is a senior at Kansas State University where he is majoring in Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management.

THIS COULD BE YOUR LAST DEER SEASON

Posted on by Larry Whiteley

Bonus time. Click the picture for the story.

  • Some 300-500 hunters are KILLED ANNUALLY in tree stand accidents
  • Some 6,000 hunters sustain permanent injuries ANNUALLY
  • FACT: 1 out of every 3 hunters who use tree stands will fall during their hunting career

By Larry Whiteley

Go online, search for “tree stand accidents”. Read all the stories about people just like you who fell from a tree stand and it changed their life forever.

Did that headline scare you? I hope so because I wanted to get your full attention. For your sake and your family I want you to read every word of this article.

There’s nothing quite like sitting in your stand watching as the sun starts gradually peeking through the trees is there? Bird songs welcome the morning and squirrels start their chatter. Sometimes you’re rewarded with a fox or bobcat sneaking through the woods. It’s a special time to be high in a tree watching and waiting for a deer to come by your secret hiding place. If they do, that’s a bonus.

How can you prevent this from being your last deer season? Wear a safety harness with a lifeline before you climb into any kind of stand.

You may not want to hear this, but this could be your last year to sit in a tree stand. When you hear or read “hunting accident” the first thing that probably comes to mind is an accidental shooting. However, according to Tree Stand Safety Awareness (TSSA), tree stand accidents are the number one cause of serious injury and death to deer hunters.

It is estimated that 1 out of every 3 hunters who use tree stands will be involved in a fall sometime in their hunting careers. Did you understand that? 1 out of 3!

Tree stand accident injuries can be fatal and those that do survive can be permanently disabled. Some 300-500 hunters are killed annually in tree stand accidents and about 6,000 more sustain permanent injuries, according to a study by the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA).

Could this be the year you are one of those statistics? I certainly hope not, but the odds are not in your favor. I know you probably think it could never happen to you, but you are wrong. Go online and search for “tree stand accidents”. Read all the stories about people just like you who fell from a tree stand and it changed their life forever.

Read about Mike Callahan who is one of the few lucky ones who can still hunt. Except now he hunts from a wheelchair with the assistance of a friend. He finds flat areas in the woods or a field to roll onto, and behind camouflage material, rests his crossbow or shotgun onto a shooter’s rest. He aims it with a bar controlled by his teeth and activates the trigger with an air tube.

Survey’s also show a lot of hunters own one or both of these devices, but don’t always use them. The day you don’t have them both on is probably the day the accident will happen.

Also read about Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost. He was checking a tree stand on his property in Missouri when the bottom fell as he attempted to clip on his safety harness. He dropped 20 feet, crushing his pelvis and coming very close to bleeding to death. Had it not been for his cellphone and good cell reception, he admits he would have died.

Also read the stories from spouses, family members and friends talking about how life has changed for them since their loved one was paralyzed or died. You see, you are not the only one that would be affected if you fell from a tree stand.

How can you prevent this from being your last deer season? Wear a safety harness with a lifeline before you climb into any kind of stand. You can still fall, but you won’t fall to the ground because you are safely attached to the tree at all times with the lifeline.

Survey’s also show a lot of hunters own one or both of these devices, but don’t always use them. The day you don’t have them both on is probably the day the accident will happen. You have to use both the safety vest and the lifeline.

86% of tree stand accidents don’t happen while you are sitting or standing, they occur while ascending or descending the tree or getting into or out of the stand. I don’t care if you hunt from a hanging stand, a ladder stand or a climber, it can happen to you in an instant.

I started doing research several months ago for this article and it scared me so bad that I went out and bought a Hunter Safety Systems Ultra-Lite Flex safety harness and lifeline for myself and for everyone in my family that deer hunts. AND, they have all been told they are never to get in a tree stand again without using them.

Go online right now or to your favorite outdoor store and buy the best safety harness and lifeline you can buy. Then go home and practice using it over and over until you are totally comfortable with it. Make it second nature to put it on every time you go out hunting.

I hope I have scared you enough that you will never again get in a tree stand without a safety vest and a lifeline. Do it for yourself and do it for your family. It will help insure that it will not be your last deer season and that you will be around to watch birds singing, squirrels chattering, sunrise through the trees and wildlife sneaking through the woods…for many years to come.

Check out Hunter Safety Systems full lineup of products to keep you safe in the deer woods at http://www.huntersafetysystem.com/.

Bonus time.  It’s a special time to be high in a tree watching and waiting for a deer to come by your secret hiding place. If they do, that’s a bonus.