Ken’s Deer Story

At the age of 82 yrs old I feel I should share some of my experiences. I have been a guide in the United States and Canada for over 40 years. I have been retired for 8 years now and since my retirement still hunt on an average of 100 days a year for whitetail deer (that’s over 800 days in the past 8 years).  Over this time I have had the opportunity to help produce numerous videos and shows for the outdoor channels.  During my retirement I have also kept a log of statistics to truly understand the hunt and this is what i learned.

If you want to harvest a trophy buck, the most important things are genetics and the age of the deer. The quality of the buck has a lot to do with the area you are hunting. My advice to you is never go after a trophy buck, let them come to your food source. It could be on the edge of field with corn, beans, a food plot, corn feeder or in an area with a lot of oak trees. If you hunt the same area year after year, set a goal of what you classify as a trophy buck, then never shoot one less than your goal.  Don’t shoot a small buck just for bragging rights. If you are a sportsman that enjoys God’s nature, you will know it is not all about killing. This past year I hunted a large field with beans. There was only 40 acres of woods in this area. I hunted in my deer blind 100 times and had it placed 100 yds. away from the woods. I never went into the woods at all. During the late season I baited with corn and drew the deer within 30 yds. of my blind. I saw a total of 263 buck. If you have to harvest some doe’s for deer management always choose to harvest only the one year old doe’s. You want to keep the older doe’s for breeding and when they bed in an area it will hold the younger deer there too. I seen the same deer over and over during the entire year.

Make sure the deer never see you going into your blind or coming out at night, so the deer does not ever see you going into your blind because if they ever see you, smell you or hear you and they will run off.  At night before I come out of my blind and find there are deer around, I will softly tap on the walls of the blind. The deer will never know where the noise is coming from and they will either walk or run away slow and not feel threaten. Over the years I made a lot of tests to see if a deer can pick up your scent when the windows are closed in your blind. Sometimes I will go as many as five days without taking a shower, so I can use my body odor to do my testing. Over the last four years, I only had one deer that snorted at me.

I am coming out with a new blind this year, it has (3) fold down shooting tables that are 10” wide X 4 ft. long and you can use sandbags for long range shooting. We use ¼” plexiglass for our windows and are made to slide up & down. In the early morning and late evening’s the plexiglass windows can be difficult to see out of, so our blinds allow you to open the windows a couple of inches at this time for a clear view. When you are sitting in your chair, there is a pull cord above your head. This pull cord will open each window separately at any height. When you are hunting in the blind, do away with your camouflage clothes. Wear all black including your hats, facemask, and gloves. I have also tested this with clothing.  I would tap on the window so the deer would look up in my direction, wave my hand a couple inches away from the window and they would never react to it. If you are putting a blind in the woods, I would recommend not to go higher than 8 feet that way you are below the leaves on the trees and you can see up to 200 yds. That gives you plenty of time to open your window. You should never let a deer get any closer than 30 yds. from the blind.