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Tips & Tactics

You are here: Hunting > Tips and Tactics > Articles

Winning on the Road

By Mark Melotik

Is this the year for your first out-of-state deer hunt? Every fall, Minnesota’s Bernie Barringer becomes a whitetail-hunting road warrior, and he’s refined a system for on-the-road success that can benefit other would-be travelers.

Barringer, who might be better known as a successful Minnesota black bear outfitter, hunts mostly public tracts across two or three states. And after logging dozens of such deer-hunting road trips, he’s learned — sometimes the hard way — the best strategies for notching his out-of-state tags.

Know Before You Go

From the comfort of his home, Barringer makes extensive use of a hunting app to study promising spots weeks and months before he plans to hunt them. Following is his advice:

“I really like that with [a hunting app] you can combine both satellite imagery with topographic lines, which really helps me dial-in productive areas quickly. Primarily what I’m looking for on new tracts is terrain and features that will funnel or influence deer movement. As an example, I’ve found where a winding river comes up against a high, steep bank, an isolated area that I know will be funneling local deer movement. Another good one is two separate patches of timber that might neck down where they connect, where you can expect to ambush bucks during the rut. You can bet they will be on their feet cruising between those timber patches.

“After awhile those types of things jump right out at you, and if you spend a lot of time looking at aerial photos, you can also begin to see and predict likely bedding areas. A great doe bedding area can be where a river makes a big round bend, and on the inside of that bend, if the area holds a lot of brush and weeds, you can expect it to hold deer.

“Bucks will often bed on higher points or ridges; they love to bed on the back side of a ridge so they can smell what’s behind and see what’s in front of them. A great spot is where a point comes off a ridge. You mark these areas on [your hunting app] map before you go, and then, once on site, check them out. You need to confirm everything, but detailed aerial photos combined with topo contours are just a huge advantage, and once you drop a pin you can walk right to those areas.”

Scout First, Hunt Second

“This is one of the most-important aspects of being successful on out-of-state hunts, and I’ve made the mistake of jumping in too early many times. Back when I started I would get to a property, look around a little bit, find an area that was all torn up, and just couldn’t wait to get in a stand. I think it’s very important to first get a feel for how the deer are moving around a property before you start hunting. Maybe one of your first moves is to find a good high spot to glass deer movement.

“Generally, If I’ve never been to a property, I’m not hunting the first full day or the second morning. My first moves are getting a few trail cameras out, and generally getting to know the area. Then, when I decide to hang a stand, I want to hang two stands right away. Typically, I’m hunting food in the evening and bedding areas in the morning, and the stands are not going to be in the same areas. I want to feel I’ve got the property set up before I commit to actual hunting.”

Buckmasters entertains and educates deer hunters with current strategies and technology from the most respected experts in the field.

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