Going In Cold
by Steve Bartylla

Studying the topographical map, I knew I had found a killer stand site. A deep cut sliced uphill through the woods, stopping 50 yards short of the field located atop the ridge. Furthermore, just inside the wood line the ridge transitioned into a tabletop. This provided me the ingredients for one of my favorite stand site recipes. It was a location where three or more edge features converge. I was confident this would be the best stand location on the property.

The real question was if the location had been taken. I knew the property was being hunted by a group of experienced bowhunters. Not having previously scouted the farm, I was at a distinct disadvantage.

As I ran through my list of other locations targeted on my map, there were already stands in every other one. Luckily, the lack of deer sign and hidden edges resulted in my prize being overlooked. The stand was mine. In the two short hunting trips since that day, it has produced close encounters with seven trophy-class whitetails, including the 22-inch-inside-spread 8-point I harvested during my first trip. Not bad for going in cold right smack in the middle of bow season.

If given the choice, I’m sure the vast majority of us would rather have the luxury of thoroughly scouting new hunting areas before the season starts. However, reality dedicates that this isn’t always the case. This poses a serious dilemma. Do we thoroughly scout the property, alerting deer to our presence, or settle for potentially inferior stand sites? 

My suggestion is to choose option C: Find the best stands while minimizing your intrusions to nearly nothing. As I’ve said many times, mature bucks are tough enough to harvest when they don’t know they’re being hunted. Once they realize it, your odds of harvesting them plummet like a rock.

Mapping Success
Whenever I am hunting a new property, my first step is acquiring contour map coverage. USGS topographic maps, the most commonly available contour maps, illustrate features like roads, railroad tracks, buildings and major transmission lines. These features can show you how to gain access to areas and also reveal routes to stand sites. Next, you have the wooded areas that are shaded in green. From that you can see narrowed-down necks of green that show potential funnels. 

The hydrological features, such as swamps, rivers, lakes and ponds, can also show funnels. A good example is a narrow piece of dry land between two bodies of water. Furthermore, the rivers and streams shown are often used as travel corridors by deer. Additionally, water can provide excellent low-impact routes to stand sites. Also, you’ll be able to see the swamps that serve as potential bedding areas. Finally, hydrological features can create barriers that other hunters may avoid. Simply putting on a pair of waders or jumping in a canoe can provide access to the mini-sanctuaries that exist in heavily-hunted areas. 

Even better is that contours provide the ability to visualize relief. With this understanding we can begin to see topographical features emerge, such as ridges, saddles, benches, cuts and more.

Seeing The Big Picture
Aerial photos are outstanding compliments to contour maps. With the exception of relief changes, they show every physical feature that contour maps show, only better. From a good photo, you can pick up many food sources, such as farm fields, grassy meadows and even orchards. Also, some intermittent streams and smaller swamps aren’t shown on quads, but are plainly visible on photos. 

Photos even do a much better job showing the wooded areas. With most you can differentiate between deciduous and coniferous trees, as well as gauge the thickness and maturity of a wooded area. Knowing that deer seek thick areas for bedding, you can use photos to identify potential bedding sites. 

Because of the superior detail photos provide, they do a better job of showing non-topographical funnels. The brushy fence line that connects the two larger wood lots won’t show up on a map, but is easily seen on the photo. So is that small strip of woods that cuts between two swamps. The 80-acre wood lot may look all the same on a map, but you can bet that the deer are using the edge of the thicker area shown on the photo when traveling. 

Photos show the level of detail required to make educated guesses on how deer are using the habitat, while contour maps show how they use the relief. Between the two, it’s almost like scouting in the woods. When studying them, create a list of promising locations. With that, you can formulate a game plan to check each spot.

Throw Away Hunts
Before hitting the woods to scout, there is one last activity that can be preformed. Observing deer can open our eyes to specific stand locations. 
Two techniques work well. The first is as simple as slowly driving around at dawn and dusk, glassing food sources. When a nice buck is spotted, note the area, the trail he likely used and potentially good ambush spots. If he spooks from the truck, the odds are decent that his escape route is the same route he will later use to reenter the area.

When possible, I like to incorporate hunting into my observations. This is accomplished by selecting a location that provides superior visibility of a food source, uses the wind to carry odors away and has a good exit route for me to leave undetected, but still has a chance of producing a shot.

Because of their flexibility, limited impact and ease of use, I often will utilize Double Bull pop-up blinds for this task. Remember, the goal is pinpointing the trail a mature buck is using, without alerting him. Still, it’s sometimes possible to call the bruiser into shooting range. 

Investing a hunting day in observing deer may seem like a high price, but it can be worth its weight in gold. The experience of video and TV producer Pat Reeve clearly illustrates the advantages. Because of a condensed schedule of hunts, Pat’s fall is filled with numerous short hunting trips to various new areas. Rarely is he afforded the luxury of preseason scouting on these remote locations. Yet, there is tremendous pressure to produce kills on tape. Under these conditions, one would think he would never give up a day of hunting. In reality, it’s a key to his success.

“When I am going into a new area, if I had to pick one thing that helps me the most on my hunts it would be spending the first day watching deer,” divulged Reeve. “At first, it was hard to do. I’d come to a spot with five days to hunt and want to climb right up a tree. Now, I would feel like I cheated myself if I did. 

“I get such an edge from spending a day watching deer,” he says. “Deer alter their patterns with the changes in food sources and the phases of the rut. Finding sign is great, but seeing them is 100 times better. I either drive around or set up an observation post at dawn and dusk. After that, I know where the deer are and what time they are likely to be there again. With that, I’m ready to scout, hang stands and hunt.” 

Reeve’s success in Kansas speaks volumes to how productive his strategy is. In four consecutive years hunting there, Reeve has harvested four Pope & Young bucks. Each he attributes to burning a day observing deer. Even more impressive is that they have come in a grand total of eight hunting days. If that doesn’t convince people that sacrificing a day’s hunt is worth it, I don’t know what will.

Taking A Stand
With all these low-impact tools at our disposal for locating hot spots, we can now focus on finding and preparing stands. When situations dictate hunting freshly-prepared stands, it’s even more important to keep disturbances to a minimum. 

To combat odors, I always shower, wear scent-free clothing and a Scent Lok suit, and spray down with Scent Killer and use Elimitrax gloves and scent-blocking boots. Next, I conduct my scouting during midday hours. All of this helps to ensure that deer aren’t bumped and that odors aren’t left to sabotage our efforts.

It’s every bit as important to avoid creating disturbances from setting the stand. Along those lines, this isn’t the time to be clearing elaborate shooting lanes. Instead, when preparing sites during season, I rely on shooting windows. Furthermore, using clippers instead of a saw results in generating fewer odors and can make the difference between success and failure. 

The two biggest keys to going in cold and coming out with a buck are finding productive stand sites and keeping disturbances to a minimum. Identifying potential stand sites from maps and photos is a good start. When tied in with observing buck activity, all that is left is a quick midday scouting and stand-preparation trip. With that, the odds of going home happy have just increased dramatically. 

Editor’s Note: 
For a comprehensive guide to cutting-edge stand hunting methods, check out Steve Bartylla’s new book, Advanced Stand Hunting Strategies. A personally autographed, postpaid copy of Advanced Stand Hunting Strategies can be purchased by sending a check or money order for $22.50, tax and shipping included, to Steve Bartylla, 909 N Chestnut Ave., Marshfield, WI 54449. Be sure to include your name and the shipping address. 

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