By Jeff Johnston
Generally speaking, whitetails in the western prairie regions of the U.S. must travel further between food sources and cover. Since they behave differently from hardwoods-hugging eastern whitetails, they can often be hunted differently, using spot-and-stalk-type strategies. What follows are three general tactics for hunting western whitetails.
Spot and Stalk
The vast majority of eastern hunters I know would much rather spot-and-stalk big bucks than sit motionless in a treestand all day. But unfortunately, spotting is near-impossible in the eastern hardwoods, as is stalking anywhere without sounding like a highschool marching band. But not out West. Open country and scenic vistas make glassing whitetails a fun and fruitful hunting tactic.
Classical spot-and-stalk hunting means walking slowly into the wind until you arrive at a vista overlooking enough cover to hide a whitetail. But don’t just give it 10 minutes before calling it quits and continuing on. Rather, get comfortable behind the binos for at least 30 minutes or more before moving slightly to glean a new angle. Then glass some more. Once the area of interest is thoroughly glassed, the hunter should then sneak to the next patch of cover and repeat the process. Eventually, you’ll spot a buck. And when you do, you’ll generally have two options: If hunting with a rifle you can often gauge the wind and formulate a plan of attack to go in for the kill immediately; With a bow you might be best served to devise a longer-term game plan; one that might involve coming back in the hours or days that follow with a treestand or blind, depending on the wind.
Spot-and-Stand
Spot-and-stand hunting differs from spot-and-stalk in that rather than spotting a buck and going after him right away, spot-and-stand hunters note where the buck lives and then study his daily routine so they can anticipate his movements before setting up a stand to get within killing range.
The key to this style of hunting is to find terrain features that influence deer movement, thereby making it more predictable. Examples include lush river bottoms (indicated by trees with green leaves) that provide both cover and food, pockets of dense bedding cover, open fields, crop fields and pinch points such as rocky cliffs, lakes, steep ravines, roads or rivers that deer must navigate around.
Once deer are located in and among such an area, invest hours or even days glassing it from a vantage point in order to learn if any good bucks exist. If and when you spot a good buck, zero in on a pinch point or another area that 1. you believe the buck must travel through or near at some point during his daily activity, and 2. allows a stealthy entrance for getting into range undetected. If bow hunting, you’ll often have to get in tight, all while being mindful of the wind. If rifle hunting, you might only have to find another vantage point within several hundred yards.
Find the Ag
While it’s true that whitetails have been living on their own without man’s help for millions of years, it’s also true that man’s agricultural endeavors have helped them thrive in western areas that were historically more conducive to mule deer and elk. The point is, if a hunter has access to ag fields such as corn, wheat, alfalfa, sorghum, etc. he or she’d be foolish not to try those fields first. While rifle hunters can often find a high vantage looking over large portions of the entire field, bow hunters are best served to glass the field from afar until they identify the areas of the field that bucks enter and exit during hunting hours before easing in with a treestand or ground blind. Remember, however, that established cover such as brushy fencelines, old rows of hay bales, or even rusted-out farm equipment often make the best places to wait in ambush near ag fields because the deer are used to such things.
Note
A few years ago I drove to Nebraska to hunt whitetails, and I was amazed by not only the size of the bucks I saw, but by the sheer numbers of deer the fertile river bottom country held. It was also very easy to hunt compared to the thick hardwood country I’m used to hunting. Ultimately I set up a treestand in a giant cottonwood tree overlooking a portion of the North Platte River and a large wheatfield, where I’d see 10 to 20 different bucks daily as they cruised between food sources and cover. Knowing a long (300-yard-plus) shot would be possible if not likely, I chose a flat-shooting, hard-hitting new caliber in Winchester’s new 6.8 Western. When a big-bodied, 150-class 10-point stepped out of the brush, the 175-grain GamkKing put him down fast.