Early Season: Stay In The Game
By Mark Melotik
Summer is winding down and bow seasons, in some cases, are just days away. Do you have a plan for the opener? If hunting early is your thing, sitting on fresh sign is the way to go, according to Andrae D’Acquisto, founder of Lone Wolf Custom Gear.
D’Acquisto, who has bow-bagged recordbook bucks in the dozens, has seen what he believes is a somewhat-disturbing trend among deer hunters. At the core, he says, is planning hunts based almost solely off looking at topo maps.
Of course the practice is spreading quickly thanks to the popularity of electronic, or e-scouting — using hunting apps like HuntStand, OnX and several others. These apps give users instant access to incredibly detailed maps — even maps showing scary-accurate 3-D views — of both public and private lands while in the field or in the comfort of their homes.
“The big thing now is hunting the terrain, by simply looking at a map,” D’Acquisto said, explaining the technique fails to consider the most-important variable: smoking-fresh sign that can only be confirmed by diligent, boots-on-the-ground scouting. And the more scouting the better.
“I am just so adamant about hunting red-hot sign. Fresh rubs, licking branches — even just a couple of huge tracks likely made the day before. If you’re constantly on fresh stuff, you’re always in the game.”
Being in the game for D’Acquisto means a constant cycle of scouting and hunting, scouting and hunting — getting those boots on the ground.
“Would you ever sit a piece of terrain, no matter how good it looks, that has no hot sign in it?” D’Acquisto asked. “Many people can pick [potentially] good spots off a topo, but most of those spots will get hot for maybe one week during the rut. I want to be in the game every day of the season.”
After fielding many of the same questions from mature-buck hunters over the years, D’Acquisto says it’s obvious that many of those hunters continue to shy away from getting too aggressive with their scouting. Ultimately, it’s an aggressive approach that would likely lead them to more success.
“So many hunters are still hung up on thinking that putting too much pressure on bucks is bad,” he said. “To me, that is much lesser of an evil than sitting in the same spots and seeing nothing.”
Andrae gave an example of finding an area where an isolated stand of oaks is dropping acorns and the sign says local deer are piling in. Many deer hunters might sit the spot for an evening, and if they see nothing, move on, or try it again several days later. They might believe leaving their scent in the area has compromised it.
“If the sign in the area is red hot, the last thing you want to do is rest it. You’ve got to stay on it. A week or even a few days later, that area might be a ghost town.”
Not sure you’re being aggressive enough or even how to go about it effectively? Andrae says it’s time to practice so you’ll gain confidence and grow as a hunter. He knows small parcels have some unique challenges. In those cases you certainly don’t want to bump bucks onto a neighbor’s property, but if you’re hunting a sizable property it’s okay to take some chances.
“I tell many guys to go out and [purposefully] screw up a couple spots — go do what I do,” Andrae said. “Get out of your treestand and look around; do more scouting in season. But you have to know what you’re looking for.
“When I find fresh rub lines or licking branches, I just know that buck’s dying. If you can’t do that, then even going to a fresh, new spot is better than sitting there seeing nothing. Maybe you switch to spot where you can see a long way, where you can watch open cover. And then when you see something happen, slide over there and hunt it right now. You have to swing to get a hit.”