king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated Magazine Dec/Jan 2008 - Coyote Crazy! - Index

P atience,
persistence, and
knowledge – these are three
awesome words that every great
hunter must have woven into their
very body fi ber. These three words,
to me, make up a man or woman and
what they can become. They will
determine the level of success you
can achieve for your whole lifetime
in the hunting world. If you focus
on these three words and try to add
them to your hunting skills, you will
always be on the cutting edge of
great hunting and will soon be known
as one of those lucky hunters. Lose
sight of these three words and, after
only three days of hard hunting, you
will end up seeing nothing and most
likely go away discouraged. You
must at all times and at all costs, no
matter what, learn to stay focused.
Now, I believe that of these
three great words, knowledge is by
far the best of the best to have in your
little black book of ‘how to and how
not to.’ For the most part, it will take
a lifetime of failures and successes to
achieve. You can, for example, be the
most patient man in the world when it
comes to sitting in a tree stand or on a
rock, but if you never use knowledge
to get you in the right tree or on the
right rock you, my friend, will most
likely only get a cold, tired butt.
Also, you can be the most persistent
woman hunter ever (always out there,
fi rst one up, last one to say uncle,
etc.), but without the knowledge of
knowing where to walk, when to run,
when to sneak, when to look up, look
down, whether to turn right or left
or stop altogether, you will not be as
successful. You need to keep track of
the wind, never lose your advantage
20 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
MULE DEER
Deer Drives Part 2
Thinking like a deer.
5MULE DEER5
Dennis Wintch
point, and know when it’s a waste of time start fi guring out the do’s and don’ts
to walk all the way to the bottom of the of where to sit during a drive. The
ravine or canyon….I could list a hundred walkers need to fi gure out where they
other things you need to keep in mind. need to walk so they can successfully
Without knowledge, you must always push the deer to the sitter. As a hunter,
rely on luck and I would tell you all who you also need to know what time of
only rely on luck that you will make a day is the best time for that particular
poor hunter at best. You must get past spot. It will take much longer than
the word ‘Lucky’ and come to know all three years if you don’t think, be
the things that make a good hunter lucky observant of your surroundings,
(successful) every year! There have check out the deer tracks and notice
been more big bucks killed running away where they are coming and going and
from Joe and into Fred on the next ridge take note of what went wrong on that
than any other way. Being in the right drive or what worked and why. How
place at the right time is a big must if you many times has a big buck jumped up
wish to be consistent in killing a ‘Mr. and only given you one quick shot -
Big.’ Here again, it is your brainpower or no shot at all? How many times
or knowledge that puts you there. You have you wished you had been at a
can’t afford to be a slow learner - tags particular spot when that buck ran
are costly, hard to come by and you are through the trees, or watched two
getting older each year. So, let’s take a big bucks run up a mountainside 200
closer look. Let’s look a little deeper into yards away and wished you were on
how to make successful drives.
that ridge? Well, what I am saying is,
1) It will, for the most part, take next time be there!
three years of hunting the same spot to
2) Never try to push a big