Wednesday, 18 November 2009 12:24
Source: Detroit News
Dave Spratt
Special to The Detroit News
November 14, 2009 17:22 PM
Before deer hunter Steve Watkins heads to the woods with a bow or gun in hand, he's armed.
His chief weapon is information: He knows exactly which bucks he's after thanks to trail cameras that watch his hunting property 24/7. Up-to-the-minute online Accuweather reports tell him the temperature, wind speed and direction, all of which help him anticipate deer movement.
When the hunt begins, Watkins wants to withhold information -- from the deer. Camouflage clothing is a standard for fooling deer eyes, but now there are ways to fool discerning deer noses, too: Watkins dons clothing designed to trap human scent and sometimes squirts on a little scent-eliminating spray for good measure.
Welcome to deer hunting in the 21st century, where modern technology meets age-old custom.
To the untrained eye, Michigan's 2009 deer camps will look decidedly traditional: Some 700,000 grandpas, dads, sons and grandsons -- and more than a few moms and daughters -- will share wood smoke, crisp air and wall tents. By night they'll swap lies, trade advice and share a beer or two. By day they'll hit the woods with a wide array of technological advancements meant to enhance the deer-hunting experience.
Those advancements take the form of charcoal panels sewn into camouflage clothing and sold with names such as Scent-Lok or Scent Blocker. There are high-end cameras mounted on trees to provide digital images -- even video -- of what's in the woods when humans are not. There are laser rangefinders to enhance shot accuracy and special blood-tracking lights. And there's information, mountains of information, from simple weather reports to expansive online social networks that give hunters a place to float theories, learn something or just talk about hunting with other hunters.
"It all just gives you that little extra bit of confidence," said Watkins, a St. Clair Shores resident who hunts during archery and firearm deer seasons. "If you hunt a lot you kind of burn out a little bit and get tired. If you know there's a good buck out there, and you've seen him, you might sit tight for two or three hours. If you haven't seen him you might only sit for an hour. So I think it helps to give you that little bit of an edge."
Nose for hunting
Perhaps the keenest sense a deer possesses is smell, and that's a huge reason for the explosion of scent-control products on the market, according to Tom Knutson of Knutson Recreational Sales in Brooklyn, Mich. Scent-free sprays, soaps, laundry detergents, hand wipes and even breath-erasing chewing gum are all must-have items for Knutson's customers.
The awareness of scent control has changed clothing purchases over the years, too.
"Back then, you wore one set of clothes whether you were duck hunting, deer hunting, pheasant hunting or even ice fishing," he said. "No matter what it was, it went with you. Now it's not that way. They buy a hunting suit and that's strictly your bowhunting suit. There are ice-fishing suits that never get hunted in because they don't want to take that scent into the woods."
There has been debate over just how effective scent-reduction clothing is, but the court of public opinion indicates most hunters believe in some form of scent control, whether it's the reduction of human scent or the use of cover scents such as doe urine, acorns or fresh earth. Watkins uses some Scent-Lok clothing when he hunts, as well as scent-reducing sprays on warmer days.
Steve Winchester, a deer hunter from Chelsea, said he has tested scent-control sprays with his own nose and in unscientific tests in the field, and believes the latest generation of silver-based sprays really do work.
"I've got buddies that say forget all that scent stuff," he said. "Well, I want them downwind from me. Up north you absolutely have to hunt with scent protection and be very careful. The deer are just very wary up there."
Caught on camera
Another advancement that has made its way into widespread use among deer hunters is the trail camera. Early generations of trail cameras used 35-millimeter film that needed developing. But more recent models use digital cards that are easy to swap out and plug into a laptop computer or PDA. The latest and greatest provides a satellite feed that can stream straight into a computer -- for a fee.
What trail cameras have in common across their range is their ability to show which deer are traveling where and when, patterns that are usually disturbed when humans show up.
"You pick up deer that you never see or seldom see," said Richard Wilson, who lives in Lapeer County and hunts a family farm in Montmorency County.
In July, Wilson's trail camera picked up a buck in velvet he hadn't seen before. Then he began seeing the buck in a neighbor's soybean field and hoped it would return to his place.
In September, the buck showed up on Wilson's trail camera again. On Halloween, he shot it with his bow.
"A lot of them are night-time pictures," he said. "But as a hunter, you think 'OK, when the rut comes they'll be on their feet during the daytime.' "
Winchester agreed.
"The odd thing is the sheer amount of bucks you see (on the camera)," he said. "You can identify them by their antlers. There are just so many and you would never guess that was going on out there. When you're out there day after day and seeing nothing or just seeing does, it really keeps your interest alive."
Online community
Technology that benefits hunters also takes the shape of a home computer, where a serious hunter can study weather patterns, waterfowl migration routes and terrain, the latter of which can help a deer hunter identify likely places where deer might travel.
But another development has been social.
Outdoor forums like Michigan-sportsman.com provide a place where hunters and anglers can share photographs, seek advice and even make friends. The site has 37,000 members.
Michigan-sportsman.com members have held their own gatherings and even put together impromptu fundraisers for members who are down on their luck. But above all, it's a place where hunters and anglers can talk about what they love.
"I always say that besides hunting itself, the thing hunters want to do second most is talk about hunting, and the Internet and the forums sort of lend themselves to that," said Steve Helinski, founder of iGreatLakes, the parent company of Michigan-sportsman.com that also has sites for Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin.
"It really extends the camaraderie you would have at a small deer camp a lot wider than it used to be. People are sharing stories between deer camps now."
The company has begun to implement a mobile version of its forums a la Twitter, and members already are sharing what they're seeing, whether it's a buck sighting or just bad weather.
"I'm already shocked and surprised at how many people are posting live updates right from their tree stand," Helinski said. "It's cool for the people who can't necessarily go because they have to work. They can live vicariously through that."
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Dave Spratt is a free-lance writer and editor of greatnorthernoutdoors.net
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