Mainely Outdoors: A trio of tactics for Aroostook whitetails

Deer hunting is an ingrained Aroostook tradition practiced each November by a wide variety of Crown of Maine outdoorsmen. Tactics and techniques pass from grandfather to father to son over several generations and during the last half century more sportswomen are enjoying the whitetail challenge. Despite depleted deer habitat and severe winters that have decimated regional deer populations, tried and true venison enthusiasts stay the course and shoulder the challenge each and every fall. “Get your buck, yet?” is a frequent conversation starter from post office to grocery store to bank lobby!
For novice deer hunters, especially those who have no family mentor or close friend to offer advice and options let me review the holy trinity of hunting styles to bag and tag a buck. The primary and oldest method, and arguably the most productive, and requiring the greatest woods skills is still hunting. Contrary to the name, still hunters actually do a lot of traveling, albeit slowly and stealthily, hoping to sneak up on or cross paths with an unsuspecting whitetail.
Pre-season scouting offers marked advantages to sports who stalk deer. Tracks, trails, scrapes, rubs and of course actual sightings pinpoint specific areas that deserve concentrated still hunting efforts. Birch ridges, edges of cedar swales, wild apple trees and recent cutting sites where food is plentiful all deserve attention early in the season. Later in November, once the rut is underway, locate areas where does congregate and eventually a buck will visit with romance in mind.
Once the snow cover arrives, hunters get a bit of help in locating fresh tracks and trails. Rather than randomly still hunting, a fresh track can be spotted and followed until the whitetail is sighted and a shot taken or until the buck discovers its pursuer and bolts away unseen. Stalking is slower, sometimes slippery and noisy depending on snow conditions, and always colder, but tracking is easier and after a good shot a very visible blood trail generally assures quick simple location of the quarry.
It’s essential for novice still hunters to learn that the eyes play a far greater role than the legs. “Walk a little,—look a lot” was one of my Dad’s mantras. Take a few slow quiet steps, then stop, stand, listen, and look all around with an eye for colors and shapes that don’t fit into the normal symmetry of the forest. Stealth and sharp eyes yield success!
The second most popular method of deer hunting, but growing in popularity over the last decade is taking a stand. For generations, veteran deep hunters taught novices the advantage of locating a heavily used trail or a cutting area and selecting a stump to sit on and wait. Though some sports use ground blinds as cover and to ward off wind and weather, most now prefer the height and better view form a tree stand.
Once the leaves drop from the trees, it’s amazing how far a hunter can spot game from a 14- to 18-foot high tree stand. Height also makes it less likely for a deer to spot motion or detect human scent since they seldom check for danger from above. Erecting a tree stand overlooking heavily used game trails, on a field edge where whitetails frequent to feed or even man-made food plots offers regular success.
For those outdoorsmen who have a couple of hours to hunt before work, tree stands near home on a pasture, winter cover crop field or small wood lot provide easy daily access.
Just last week four of us were goose hunting one morning from our ground blind on a cut grain field when a hefty 8-pointer sauntered across a hundred yards from our decoy spread. And us with only shotguns and no slugs! Bucks travel regularly, they have established patterns, so using a tree stand or blind in the right spot leads to sightings and success.
Last but certainly not least, riding woods roads and farm fields at dawn and dusk leads to a lot of deer sightings and bagged bucks. Advanced age or physical problems restrain many older hunters from beating the brush, but the desire to be out and about in search of game and to enjoy the outdoors still glows in their hearts. Heater hunting sure beats sitting home and wishing you weren’t.
Since deer season opened I’ve seen 13 does and two bucks while driving around looking for fields to hunt geese. A friend of mine has spotted 23 does and four bucks by driving or sitting on field edges at dawn. He did manage one shot, but it was a long range miss. More bucks will be moving with the cold weather and beginning of rut, so road riding shooters will be seeing deer.
Aroostook’s whitetail population is making a slow but sure growth return and persistent sportsmen will benefit whichever of the three tried and true hunting styles they select. Get out often, make sure of your target, and best of luck.