*Check out the Immediate Whitetail Sit Alert that discusses the weather necessities that combined to create the perfect conditions for Jason's hunt!
Here are Jason's details of his MI Pre Rut Whitetail Habitat success story...
Date:Sunday, October 25
Time of Hunt:Afternoon hunt
Wind Direction:SW wind (what I was waiting for)
Hunt Details:
*Excellent scent control (my routine is borderline ridiculous)
*Pop up ground blind ... Shot thru mesh
*Hinge cut tracks corridor between back field and heart field (on south side). I was pretty sure that's where he was bedding.
*Set up 45 yards south of travel corridor on east edge of heart field.
*Set up large 8 point decoy (with one horn missing) 30 yards West of me on edge of food plot pointing 10 yards in front of my blind
*Used Ever Calm rut buck and doe bed scent
*Rattled and grunted aggressively. Had several nice 8s come down edge of field and turn at my blind to face the decoy and then go over to it.
The big boy stayed in the thick woods and circled all the way around me and the decoy downwind, before approaching. Came 10 yards from blind before I saw him ... Between me and decoy. The three 8s stayed by decoy to eat, so I could not move. He turned broadside to face decoy and I shot him at 30 yards through mesh.
*Fixed blade wasp, crossbow through the shoulders.
*Ran into my property across food plot 50 yards and dropped in food plot.
*Perfect setup
Perfect wind
Perfect scent control
We named him Brutus and he was the only one I wanted this year.
I wanted to prove that if you do everything right, you can shoot a mature buck being nice and comfy on the ground.
-Jason
Central MI
Jason's MI Pre Rut Whitetail Habitat Story
Jason contacted me in late 2014 to design his Whitetail Habitat plan, and like all of my clients I was hoping that he could complete an awful lot of work ASAP. While visiting over 500 parcels since 2005 a drastic stat has emerged: When the work is completed to a high degree, the client finds whitetail success very soon.
Well when I showed up at Jason's land, the tract was large, raw and needed a lot of work. By convincing Jason he should do his best to have the work completed quickly, I left with the feeling that he would find a way to get it done, as well as find immediate whitetail success; I was pretty excited for him!
If I personally do not do a lot of the work for clients, I often refer the work to someone else and that is the route that Jason chose. After 3 days of cutting travel corridors and bedding areas, hours of food plot work by Jason, and many more hours of treestand details and blind prep, the stage was set for a MI Pre Rut whitetail habitat connection in the first season!
I couldn't be happier for Jason and his experience is just one of many examples of a lot of immediate hard work, creating a lot of immediate whitetail success. He even has over 1/2 of his MI deer season to go, and it actually wouldn't surprise me if I get another one of those awesome texts again from him this year. He even took his buck from the ground, which requires extremely detailed planning and more limited numbers of sit opportunities.
Congrats Jason....great job, and as a habitat consultant I appreciate all the hard work that went towards making your habitat design come to life!