I have a passion for hunting, but I think the most challenging and rewarding method is spot and stalk hunting.  And the western states are ideal for that type of hunt.  Maybe that’s why every year, I feel this weird desire to have cactus in my socks, sunburn on my neck, and point the truck west.  This year, I headed to Wyoming for a public land hunt for muleys.  Not just any muleys, those big smart public land bucks that vanish like dust on the prairie when the sea of orange takes to the hills.  That means hiking, and lots of it to get away from the competition.  Getting to those hard to reach areas is not easy, and it requires the lightest of gear to make it possible.  On this hunt, the CVA Scout rifle would be at my side as I hiked the ridges, mountains, and prairies, searching for that elusive muley buck.  At about 5 ½ pounds (we’ll say 6 with a scope) I barely knew I was carrying a gun at all—although I was quickly reminded on the 5^th day when I let the hammer fall on this public land bruiser.  Light, simple, and foolproof, these Scout rifles are a joy to carry, shoot- and you can bet the next time I sit in a cactus, the Scout will be at my side.

Editor’s Note: CVA Pro hunter Tony Smotherman discusses the value of using deer calls when hunting with your CVA muzzleloader rifle.

Question: Tony, let’s talk about deer calls. Do you use them or not?

Smotherman: I use deer calls quite frequently, but my experience has been that they only call in deer about 30 percent of the time.

Question: Tony, what’s your favorite deer call to use?

Smotherman: By using a deer call, you have a 30-percent-better chance of calling-in a buck than you have if you don’t use a deer call. If I was playing the lottery I’d be really excited if I had a 30-percent chance to win. But that 30-percent increase only applies if you’re using a grunt call. I believe that using the snort/wheeze is far-more effective then the grunt call. I’ll always have a snort/wheeze call in my pocket when I’m hunting. I consider the snort/wheeze a challenge call that says, “I am the toughest guy in the neighborhood. If you think you’re tougher than me, come over here, and prove it.” When a buck hears a snort/wheeze, he assumes that the buck that’s made that call will run him off, if he doesn’t leave. But if you use that call, and there’s a buck in the area that thinks he’s the dominant buck, then he’ll to come to that snort/wheeze call. To put it simply, Ibelieve that the snort/wheeze call works on any greedy buck that doesn’t mind banging his antlers on another buck. Therefore I think that the snort/wheeze call is more effective in the Midwest and West, where the buck-to-doe ratio is closer to 1:1, than it is in much of the East. Too, the bucks in the Midwest seem to enjoy fighting more then the bucks in the Southeast do.

For some reason, the bucks in the Midwest just seem to be tougher, perhaps due to age and size. In the Midwest, a 4-1/2-year-old buck will weigh around 250 pounds. Any deer that lives that long and gets that big will think he is dominant and tough enough to whip any deer that intrudes into his area. Remember that in a lot of instances, bucks are often like hunters. Some bucks are just a little-bit greedier than the other ones are. I took a buck in western Kentucky last year that was 3-1/2-years-old. He didn’t have terribly-big antlers – 120 range on the Boone and Crockett scale. But I have video-camera pictures of this buck pushing 4-1/2-and 5-1/2-year-old bucks out of the food plot that he thought belonged to him. This buck was fighting and whipping bucks that had 150- and 160-class antlers. This younger buck was just bad to the bone and more dominant than the older, bigger bucks he was running-off. I’ve learned that the snort/wheeze works on an aggressive buck, regardless of his age or the size of his antlers.

Question: Tony, tell us about a buck that you found with your trail-camera surveys in June and then took when muzzleloader season arrived.

Smotherman: I found a deer in Illinois that we called the Big Seven before bow season with our trail cameras. We lost him during bow season and didn’t see him for several weeks. Later, we found him again. He was coming to our food plots during the second muzzleloader season, probably to meet his does, because these same does stayed in this food plot for most of the year. We took that buck during that second muzzleloader season. Now don’t get me wrong. I will shoot a doe as quickly as anyone, since I love to eat venison, and does produce some of the best-tasting and tender venison. However, when I’m going to take does, I prefer to take them during the early season. As the time gets closer to the rut, I don’t take any does, because I want those does to attract the bucks I do want to take. If your area has only a short doe season, and you have to take those does over green fields, stop taking does at least 2 weeks before the rut begins. I’ll also take does at the end of the season, if the landowner wants more does removed off his property. The place I’m hunting and the management system of the landowner usually dictates when and if I take does.

Question: What tips can you give our readers that will help them take a buck this season?

Smotherman: You need to:

• · Be extremely gentle with your hunting in the early season, and don’t put a lot of hunting pressure on the big bucks you want to take.
• · Try to get as close as possible, even though you can make a shot out to 100 to 200 yards. Be extremely quiet and cautious as you move-in and set-up to take that buck. Never go into the area where you have your tree stand set-up, if the wind’s not right to hunt that region. If that big buck you’re hoping to take ever smells you, he may move to a new zip code.
• · Get to know your blackpowder rifle and how far you accurately can shoot before you go hunting. I feel confident to take a deer up to 200-yards plus away with my CVA Apex. You also need to know how your gun performs out to 100, 150 or even 200 yards, because deer don’t always appear where you think they will. If your tree stand is set-up to take a deer over a green field at 40 to 50 yards, that buck comes-out at 150 yards, and you decide, “I think I can make that shot,” then more then likely you’ll miss your buck. However, if you’ve been shooting your CVA rifle and know for certain where that bullet will impact the deer, then you can honestly say to yourself, “I’ve made that 150-yard shot before, and I know where to aim. I can take that buck.” You’ll have a much-better chance of taking instead of spooking the buck you’ve been photographing with your trail camera since June.

With my CVA Apex, I know for certain I can put three PowerBelt bullets inside the bottom of a coke can at 200 yards. I spend time on the rifle range with my gun, testing different types of bullets and setting-up the mill dots inside my Nikon scope to make that shot. Putting-in the time out on the range is what will tell you whether or not to take those shots. The reason Charlie Daniels is a far-better fiddle player then I am is because he’s spent a much-more time playing his fiddle then I have mine. The person who spends the most time on the range getting to know what his or her CVA rifle will do at different distances will be able to shoot far-more accurately at longer ranges than the hunter who goes to a rifle range the week before the season and shoots three rounds at 50 yards and says, “I’m ready to go hunting.”

Puzzled by why a big buck would come to a scent he’d never smelled before, CVA interviewed deer researcher Dr. Karl Miller, professor of wildlife management at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Miller explained, “A deer will come-in to check-out any strange smell he finds. He wants to know what that new odor is, and what’s causing it.”

Many hunters are aware that deer will respond to strange smells. Some hunters use:

* shaving lotion;

* the smell of fresh paint;

* the smell of fresh earth;

* fox urine;

* doe urine;

* buck urine;

* tarsal gland and

* a wide variety of other scents and lures to bring deer to within bow or gun range at various times of deer season. Sometimes when you find a buck in a place you can’t reach, such as a clear-cut or a thicket or across a property line, you often can use deer lure to bring that buck to you.

Not all deer lures work equally well, and you’ll find some more effective than others. Dr. Larry Marchinton, retired professor of wildlife biology at the University of Georgia and longtime deer researcher, says, “Lures will work sometimes. Often I think deer react to a lure more out of curiosity than anything else. They may be responding to a strange scent in their environment.” Michael Cartwright, former wildlife biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, mentions that, “During the breeding season, the communication between the bucks and does is very strong. That’s why the behavior pattern of a buck changes, and he begins to make scrape lines and deposit scent through urine over his tarsal glands on his hind legs. The urine mixes with the scent on the tarsal gland, leaves a very-strong smell and communicates information to other deer in the area – both does and bucks. The bucks can tell by the scent a doe leaves whether or not she’s receptive to breeding during the breeding season. Scent communication is much-more developed in deer than in humans.” Lee Christianson of Wisconsin, an avid deer hunter, explains that, “Basically lures are a sex lure that initiates a breeding response, a food lure that calls deer to eat or a curiosity lure that stimulates a deer to come and investigate. You’ve heard the old saying that curiosity kills the cat. I believe curiosity has killed more deer than it has cats. Deer are gregarious herd animals and very social. Because they want to meet and greet new individuals in their herd, they’ll investigate the smells of what they perceive to be other deer.”

Too, for scents to pay buck dividends, you must match those scents to the amount of hunting pressure in an area. As one hunter explained to me, “At the beginning of bow season, deer are in full-rut mode hardly anywhere in the country. So, you may not want to use a sex scent at this time of the year. You may prefer to choose a different type of scent. If you’re hunting in a high-pressure region on opening day of deer season, and everybody hunting is putting-out some type of deer lure, then any deer lure probably will be counterproductive because of the large amount of lure being put-out by hunters.” Many hunters consider the words, buck lure, a misnomer. A buck lure probably contains hormones a doe will give-off when she’s ready or getting ready to mate. These hormones attract the buck because of his natural mating instincts.

Dr. Marchinton believes that, “Many things are labeled buck lures. If the tarsal scents are made from tarsal glands, and if that scent is representative of the actual smell of a deer, then we think this lure can communicate the individuality of the animal. That scent may be able to communicate the sex of the animal that has produced the scent. We strongly suspect that the scent probably even communicates the social position or rank of that deer in the herd. This theory is not proven and is not scientific fact. Biologists only have some circumstantial evidence to support this idea.”

For many years, muzzleloader enthusiasts were limited to the effective ranges of their muzzleloader rifles. However, in the rapid succession of shooting flint locks to sidelocks, to inline rifles and from round balls to conical bullets, to the most-modern PowerBelt bullets, the muzzleloading industry has extended the range of the muzzleloader hunter up to 200 yards or more. For the western hunter, this extended range is often a real advantage. But for the eastern hunter, I wonder if the extended range has caused us to forget how to be effective deer hunters.

I’m the classic example. For much of my early life as a hunter, I hunted with a 12 gauge 2-3/4-inch shotgun using buckshot in the 00 and 1 sizes. The president of our hunting club said, “We won’t have any of those high-powered rifles with the telescopic sights on them, because taking a deer like that just isn’t sporting. You can take a buck 1/4-mile away, and he doesn’t even know you’re there. But put dogs on him, and that buck realizes there could be a hunter behind every tree. He’ll be running through the woods, ducking and dodging. There’s a good chance he may get away. No, sir, we’re not going to have those high-powered rifles at this hunting club.”

When we weren’t hunting with dogs, we used our shotguns to still hunt and stalk hunt deer. Then, a few years later, our club finally approved the use of rifles and scopes for hunting deer. “If I had one of those high-powered rifles with the telescopic scope I could shoot any deer I see,” I said to myself. However, that hunting season, I missed five bucks. My bullets never cut a hair. I knew I had to learn to hunt with my rifle. So, before the season started the next year, I made the decision that served me well the rest of my life. “I’m going to play like this deer rifle is a shotgun shooting 00 buckshot. I’m going to scout intensively and attempt getting within 50 yards or less of the buck I’m trying to take. If I can’t get within that range, I’ll hunt that same buck on a different day when I can get in close.” That season I filled-up my freezer and all of my neighbors’ freezers with venison. Back then in my home state of Alabama, you could take a buck and a doe a day.

I think we’re going through this same phase with muzzleloader rifles. With many muzzleloader rifles, if you spend enough time at a rifle range fine-tuning your rifle, you can learn to shoot well-enough to take a deer from 200-yards away. But remember, big bucks rarely travel in open spaces during daylight hours. They got to be big bucks by hiding in thick cover and rarely crossing openings. In much of the East where I generally hunt, rarely will you ever see a deer at 100 yards, unless you are hunting above a green field. The more you hunt over that green field, the less likely you are to see that buck. Therefore, just because you can shoot your blackpowder rifle out to 200 yards doesn’t mean that you should hunt in a place where you expect to take a shot at that range. My high-powered deer rifle easily can take deer out to 300-yards plus. However, most of the older-class bucks I’ve taken, I’ve downed at less than 100 yards. Yes, today’s modern inline rifles can extend your range. However, in many sections of the country, especially in the Southeast and the Northeast, more than likely you’ll take most of your deer at less than 100 yards.