December 2007

The last several days I have been laid up with a nasty flu/cold. I’m glad I filled my 2 tags in October so I didn’t have to hunt in rifle season.

If you have not filled your tags, do not neglect to hunt the late bow season. The snow alters the patterns of the dear as food becomes more scarce. If you can bait in your state, you will find that deer will come to a bait pile even close to a house or barn during the day time after the black powder season in December. I have a friend who doesn’t even bother to hunt in October and November because he can fill his tags in December from the comfort of his bedroom through the window. He lives in the country, but I wouldn’t call his place isolated. He only has several acres of land with neighbors on both sides. After feeding the deer through November, several deer will visit his bait pile each day, so he gets to take his choice of which ones to harvest.

In my own experience, my left over deer bate was discarded just 10’ from the door of my workshop in December. Even though I visit the shop every day the deer have not been bashful about visiting the site during the day. However they know when I am working and wait until I am gone.

Bottom line: baiting in the late season is much more effective than in October and November. Your chances of taking a trophy buck increase as the bucks coming off the rut (they don’t eat much during the rut) are hungry. That hunger tends to overcome some of the fear of bait piles that they would not even consider visiting during the day earlier.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. The news letters will stop now until April.

Eino Rankainen,
Editor
 

November 2007

I regret that this news letter is late, but I have been trying to track down the original source of a couple of interesting deer pictures forwarded to me. I wanted to get first hand the stories behind them, but was unsuccessful.

The first is a reported 412 lb deer taken by bow in Michigan's UP in October. Since this would be heavier than any other deer I had heard of, I wanted to get the hunter's original story. For what it is worth, Here is the picture of the claimed 412 lb deer:

Here is another interesting picture forwarded to me of a deer taken with a bow. That antler stucking out of his cheak obviously broke off from another buck when they were fighting.

Recall that in last month's newsletter I related how the presence of a bear visiting my hunting site (and bait pile) kept the deer from visiting the farmer's field it overlooked. Several days after I had chased the bear away the farmer saw seven deer in the field. The next day I hunted my stand and harvested a small buck and tagged it with a crop damage permit. Ever since the bear left the approaches to the field have been productive hunting sites with 4 or 5 deer taken by other hunters. (I chose to hunt elsewhere and bagged a large and well fed 4 point.)


Another bear story comes from Marquette, MI and is an example of how dangerous a bear can be. Two hunters were hunting near each other, one having his 12 year old son with him in a two seater ladder stand. As darkness encroached, the father climbed down, but before the son could get down a large bear came into view. The father backed off, and the bear stood between the father and the ladder stand. Shouting and waving his arms the father tried to scare the bear away but without effect.

The father called his companion hunter who came on a 4-wheeler. A college student in the area was also recruited. The three men pushed the 4-wheeler toward the bear while shouting, but the bear continued to stand his ground. The student was then sent to nearby houses to try to borrow a rifle. Not able to do so he called 911 and reported the situation. A conservation officer with what looked like an assault rifle was sent, but by the time the officer arrived the bear had left allowing the boy to climb down from the ladder stand.

The bear's behavior was highly untypical, but when food is involved (or a cub) it pays to be cautious in the presence of a bear.

October 2007

I had hoped by now to be able to report success in my hunting endeavors, but unfortunately it was not to be. Between the wind and rain, we have had very few days worth hunting in the UP. In fact a bow hunter in a ground blind was killed when a tree fell on him. There are downed trees, mostly aspen (poplar), everywhere. Being 15-20' up in a tree during a wind storm is not fun. Besides, the deer seldom move when it is windy. In many years of hunting I have only killed one deer on a windy day. Apparently they are wary because their senses of smell and hearing are impaired by wind.

This year I set up my tree stand near the edge of a farmer's field. Several large bucks had been frequenting the field at night, so a heavily traveled deer trail leading to the field seemed like a good place to set up a stand. The only appropriate tree was 15 yards upwind from the trail. Baiting with apples, corn, and pumpkin began October 1, the first day of bow season (the first day allowed). The bait, mainly apples, was disappearing, so the site seemed promising. Many days of hunting were spoiled by rain and wind, but on the few good days there was not a deer to be seen. Tracks in the softer dirt also were absent. Using a strong light to sweep the field at night showed the deer for some strange reason had quit frequenting the area.

Though discouraged, I continued to sit in the tree stand when appropriate. October 13 I found the reason the deer had abandoned the field. About dusk a very large black bear, probably 5' long and 2.5' in diameter at the body, ambled right under my tree stand and up to the bait pile. I was wearing a scent containment suit so he did not detect me at all. Lying down in the midst of the scattered apples, he munched on a couple. Then he raised up on his rump and scratched his chest, lay back down and resumed eating.

After watching him for 15-20 minutes, I wanted to get rid of him because darkness was now approaching and I needed to get out of the tree. Sitting motionless, I talked softly to him, "Mister bruin, it's time to move along. I need to get out of this tree." He looked my way but could not detect me. He slowly rose from his reclined position and ambled off. I decided it was time to find a different site to hunt.

This experience reminded me of one other encounter with a bear while bow hunting, although I never did see the bear that time. I was hunting out of a camp in an area that I had taken numerous deer previously. Again the deer seemed to be absent. After many days without seeing a deer, I found two piles of bear scat within 30' of my bait site. Back at the camp I discovered the bear had found my 30 gal garbage can full of apples, tipped it over and ate close to half of them. Apparently he gorged himself to the point of being sick, upchucked, then went back for more. I found four piles of regurgitated apples the size and shape of inverted mixing bowls within 20 yards of the camp. Then the bear thanked me for the feast by biting the downspout from the camp gutters, leaving a toothy perforation. I abandoned hunting that site also for the rest of the season.

To finish the present story, a few days ago the farmer saw 7 deer in the field before dark. Apparently the bear is no longer frequenting the site.

Bottom line: even the most carefully chosen hunting site can become unproductive depending upon predators in the area.

Until next month, may your hunt be successful!

Eino Rankainen

Editor

September 2007

If you haven't already done so, now is the time to scout for a good place to set up your tree stand. You don't have to travel to the deep woods to hunt, often a nearby farm with adjacent woods is better. Also, if a farmer has been having trouble with crop damage he will usually be very agreeable to allow hunting with a bow on his land. Check for deer sign: scat, rubs, obvious trails, etc. A gate leading to a fenced in area is an excellent spot because deer will usually avoid jumping a fence if they have to. A staging area with sign where the deer can watch an open field before entering it without himself being exposed is a good place to set up a tree stand. Make sure your stand is downwind of the prevailing direction. Clear a shooting lane at least 6-8 ft wide and measure the horizontal distance from your tree to the place where you expect the deer to be (not the line of sight distance from your stand). Set a sight pin to that distance.

Be sure your bow is ready for the hunt. One of  the most common reason for inaccurate shooting is too high a draw weight. Forget about being macho, set your draw weight at a point where you can easily draw it because after sitting in a tree for hours in the cold your strength will be at a minimum. A 50-55 Lb draw weight is more than sufficient to kill any deer if hit well. A struggle to draw will probably spoil an opportunity to take a deer (I've been there, done that). Also be aware that drawing a bow from a sitting position is more difficult than from a standing position. Practice from a sitting position as well as standing. You need to set your sights from the height you will be shooting from in your stand. Shooting downward from a tree stand usually alters your anchor point of the draw, so reset your sights from your stand. Shoot several broad head arrows as well because broadheads can fly differently from field points even if they have the same weight. When hunting aim low on the body of a deer. He will crouch in preparation for a leap if he has detected danger, and many inexperienced hunters shoot over the back of the deer.

If your shooting patterns are not as good as they used to be, check your follow through. After the release hold your sights on the target until the arrow hits it. If you have not shot for a while there may be the tendency to drop or move your bow arm as soon as the arrow is dispatched, causing poor patterns.

In my last newsletter I promised to review my evaluation of a fellow UPER's invention, the Compound Bow Rest & Holder. A few days before my last news letter I was asked by Vernon Sandel to try the bow rest and to evaluate it. Sandel asked the son of a friend, Troy Somero, who had hardly shot a bow before to be a part of the evaluation using Sandel's bow. It took about an hour to set up the bow rest to Troy's height and sight in the bow to Troy's eye. During that hour Troy was given basic instructions how to shoot a compound bow along with setting the sights. The bow rest was used throughout the sighting and instruction process. When the sights were set, five shots were recorded with a video camera without the bow rest. After the series of shots, without stopping the camera it was panned to the target and zoomed in to show the results. The same procedure was used to record the shots and results using the bow rest. I will verify that the five shots recorded in each series of shots were the only shots recorded, and that the results shown are the true results of this test.

The video we shot, shortened to just the last shot of each series, can be viewed at http://www.bowstabilizer.net. My conclusions from this experience:

For myself, I found the bow rest most useful in a situation where a draw had to be held for a long time. Holding a draw for three minutes before firing yielded very poor accuracy without the bow rest. With the bow rest, however, I could relax the bow holding arm, and shots holding the draw for 3 minutes were still accurate. I will be using the bow rest this hunting season.

Until next month, I wish you great success in your hunting experience.

Eino Rankainen
Editor

August 2007

 As the sun sinks low in the sky lengthening the shadows, the hunter has been sitting almost motionless in his tree stand for three hours now. The antics of the resident squirrel no longer interests him as he drifts in and out of a semi trance like state. He begins to experience a slight chill as the temperature drops.

 The sudden snap of a twig jars him out of his torpor. Turning his head slowly to the left, he sees a deer slowly approaching on the deer trail sporting antlers, but through the brush and trees it is difficult to count the times. Only a few more seconds and he will reach the shooting lane! With rush of adrenalin, heart pounding and breath coming in a short pant, the hunter draws his bow as the deer moves behind a small spruce. Then deer stops with only the head visible. Mentally cursing his luck, the hunter wonders if the deer has detected him. The buck is obviously wary, sniffing the air with raised head. 

“Come on!” thinks the hunter whose arm is tiring from holding the draw. “Just one more step!” The tine count is now six, not a trophy deer but a worthy prize. After a minute or two which seemed like an eternity, the deer takes that cautious step forward into the sights of the hunter, whose arm is now shaky with fatigue. He fires, the deer bolts flicking his white tail as it disappears into the woods. The arrow had sailed over the back of the deer, coming to rest in a rotten stump behind where the deer had stood.

All too often I hear tales like this. What can be done to prevent such a scenario? Actually a number of things. First, the deer probably heard the draw, which caused him to stop. There could be many sources of the alarming sound, let’s consider a few. It may have come from the scrape of cloth against cloth as the hunter raised his bow. This can be minimized by wearing soft fuzzy outwear and moving slowly. Another common source of sound in drawing the bow is the scrape of the arrow on the arrow rest. Metal surfaces on the rest should be covered with either a teflon tape or a fuzzy tape to prevent the scraping sound. Deer have incredible hearing, and even if you can’t hear the arrow scrape the deer can. Also be extremely careful when moving your feet to prepare for the draw.

 The hunter probably erred by aiming too high on the body of the deer. A deer, particularly one that has detected possible danger, will bolt upon the slightest unusual sound or movement. The deer could very well have bolted upon hearing the sound of the release, which is called “jumping the string”. In preparation for a leap the deer crouches. You should aim low on the body in anticipation of the coming crouch.

You often have to draw your bow before the deer gets to an area for an open shot. Holding a draw for any extended period is extremely tiring and leads to poor accuracy. Conditioning through extended practice can help since the muscles used in archery are not commonly used in our daily lives. Unfortunately, the average bow hunter either cannot or is not willing to spend the time to build the muscular structure. Fortunately, there is a product that can help. 

A few days ago I tested a device invented by a fellow UPER (Upper Peninsula native) called the Compound Bow Rest and Holder. I won’t give all the details at this time since this news letter is getting long already. It is a boom device that acts very much like a shooting rail does for a rifle while aiming and shooting. It steadies the bow. It also takes the weight of the bow and archer’s arm while drawing the bow and holding a draw. With the 60-80% letoff of the modern bow and with the Bow Rest taking the weight of the bow and your arm, you can almost relax while holding a draw. However this advantage comes at the cost of somewhat limited aiming in the vertical plane. I will give a complete evaluation in the next news letter. Anyway, you can check out this product at http://www.bowstabilizer.net. I tried to get a picture, but it doesn’t show up very well.

 Until next month,

Eino Rankainen
Editor

July 2007

Finish people are one of the main ethnic groups in the UP. We don’t tell Polish jokes, we tell the Finish variety. This one was told to me by a full blooded Fin:

Wife calling the news paper: “Obituaries department?
Clerk: “Yes"
Wife: “Can you print dat Toivo Moilanen fell out of his tree stan and died?”
Clerk: “Well, yes, but you can say more than that.”
Wife after short pause: “Den print ‘hunting bow and tree stan for sale’.” 

Last month I discussed some of the problems with peep sights, which were:

  1.  Poor low light visibility due to light restriction by the peep.
  2.  String rotation misalignment of the peep.
  3.  Breakage of a rubber peep alignment tube or band.
  4.  Reduced arrow speed due to peep mass.

If we were able to be completely consistent anchor point with the head always in the same position relative to the bow sights, we would not need a rear sight. Since this takes years of practice to achieve this consistency, for the average hunter the peep sight has been the standard method of improving anchor point consistency. Looking through the peep forces you to position your eye in line with the front sight at full draw. However, bow torque (twisting the bow by gripping too tightly) can misalign the eye laterally. Differences in the length of successive draws actually move the peep up or down, causing vertical misalignment relative to the front sights. Thus a consistent anchor point is important for accurate shooting with a peep sight. One way to improve this consistency is to use a “kisser button”, a button shaped disk that fits on the bow string that at full draw touches a consistent spot on the face, usually at the corner of the mouth between the lips. This button also has the disadvantage of further reducing arrow speed.

There are a number of alternatives to the peep sight that offer significant advantages to the archer as well as solving some of the peeps problems. Two basic types of peep alternatives are optical devices and rifle type sights. Both types attach only to the riser of the bow.

No-Peep (http://www.timberline-archery.com/) The No-Peep is an eye alignment device that works along with your normal bow sight. Instead of using the peep sight to align your eye with the sight pins, you align a black dot in the center of two concentric circles.

The advantage of this system is that bow torque becomes obvious because twisting the riser causes the dot to misalign. Also slight differences in the length of draw do not affect the eye alignment. With the eye properly aligned, placing the proper sight pin on the target yields consistent shooting without the peep. The No-Peep is advertised as an excellent training aid since it forces eye placement consistency. Since the lighting of the concentric circles depends upon ambient light, it will not work in very low light conditions, but if you have practiced enough with the No-Peep your proper anchor point should become instinctive. Then you can shoot in almost total darkness.
During the month of July the No-Peep is on sale for $37.98. Normally the price is $43.98.

 Hind Sight (http://www.hindsight.com/) The rifle type sights have both the front and back sights attached to the riser and operate like the iron sights of a rifle. The Hind Sight is an example of this type of sight. As with the No-Peep, bow torque becomes obvious and can be corrected. The Hind Sight is sold as a circular rear sight with four glow in the dark pins that can be used with standard bow sights or can be purchased as a package of front and rear sights. In use, the top pin of the front sight is centered between the four pins, and the proper distance pin is aimed at the target.  Fifteen sight packages range in price from $24.95 for the rear sight only to lighted complete sets for up to $124.95.

 Other peep sight eliminating products can be found at http://www.eradicator.com, http://www.vitalgear.net, and http://www.zeiss.com/

 Until next month,

Eino Rankainen
Editor

May and June News Letters are not available.

April 2007 

It looks like Heikki Lunta (the Finish Snow God) has finally given up on us, and spring has finally spring. Last week we had one doozy of a snow storm, but the snow is all but gone now. Soon it will be time to get the old bow out and start building up those arm and shoulder muscles that have atrophied over the winter.

We in the Upper Peninsula take our deer hunting seriously. I didn’t realize how seriously until I met my friend Toivo, whom I had not seen since last summer. I asked him how he had done last deer season. “I got a doe in da bow season,” he said, “but I got a nice 8 pointer in da rifle season. It was kinda sad though. My cousin Fred was helpin’ me haul it in when he collapsed wid a heart attack. I hadta drag dat deer near half a mile back ta camp to get help for Fred.”

“You mean you left Fred in the woods and dragged that deer back?!” I asked incredulously.

 “Well…, it was a tough choice, but I figgered nobody’d steal Fred”. He broke a bit of a smile as he said this last sentence, so I gathered he was pulling my leg. But he claimed it was the gospel truth so I don’t know whether to believe him or not. Knowing Toivo, it could even be true.

People often think of us Yooppers as backward folks, but let me tell you we are not as backward as the Canadians. Traveling through Manitoba and Saskatchewan several years ago my wife and I went many, many miles with crop fields on both sides of the road. There were no rest stops, and hardly a bush to relieve your self behind. We Yoopers realize that gas tanks are bigger than bladders, so we built ourselves a rest stop. I can prove it, here is a picture of it:

I have a quiz for you. How would you tag this deer? Although it is hard to count the tines against the brush, it is clear that this is about a 9 point buck, right? 

 Wrong. It is a doe! This doe killed by Eric Weymiller last rifle season has been officially scored at an amazing 152 4/8” net NT by Loren Miller, Official B&C and P&Y scorer from Lansing Iowa. Weymiller’s deer might be the new “unofficial” world record non typical doe!

For the tip of the month: If you plant a food plot (your garden?) in an open field with no suitable trees to set up a tree stand, how can you bow hunt this situation? Getting close enough to shoot a deer with a bow in an open field is quite a problem. A farmer friend solved the problem, however, by constructing a blind of rectangular hay bales, leaving holes to shoot through. The smell of the hay effectively covered his odor, and he was able to call a doe within a few feet of an opening with a bleat call. Deer are smart enough to recognize things that don’t belong in an area. A ground blind, unless it is left in a field for a very long time, will be avoided. 

Until next month,

Eino Rankainen
Editor