Learning curve: Hunter attributes trophy deer to knowledge of beds, patterns
Last year, Tyler Brown was one of more than 550,000 hunters that hit Pennsylvania woods during rifle season.
After a week in his tree stand, he was also one of nearly 150,000 to take an antlered deer.
For Brown, though, it wasn’t just any antlered deer. The 4.5-year-old buck measured in at 164 5/8 with 11 points.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime deer,” Brown said.
Brown, a mountain area native, said the buck was no stranger to him. It was actually one that he’d watched on camera and in person since 2014.
“I knew him back then. I had two opportunities to shoot him, but I wanted to wait for something bigger. I let him go,” Brown said.
The buck made it through the winter, and come the following July, Brown spotted him on camera again.
“It took me a while to realize it was the same deer. He went from a 90-inch 9 point to a 140-inch 11 point — he blew up exponentially,” Brown said, adding that he attributed the gain to crops planted on an adjacent property.
Brown targeted the monster buck, though he was never presented with any ethical shots. At the time, Brown said he was still naive to the finer details of hunting.
“I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to wind direction and entry routes,” he said. Fast forward to the summer of 2016, the buck was the first deer Brown had on his trail camera.
“I knew I had to do something different than last year,” he recalled. In the months that followed, Brown said he read everything he could get his hands on. He also listened to podcasts to pick up on tips. Brown said he learned more about how they bed based on wind direction, and the importance of mixing up entry and exit routes.
He took that knowledge into the field and found what he thought were hot beds. He installed a food plot nearby on a steep ridge that worked in his favor with the wind running parallel to him.
Similar to the previous two years, the buck disappeared near the end of the September only to return near the end of October. He watched it a handful of times chasing a hot doe and running a small spike. But it wasn’t until the first Friday of gun season — Dec. 2, 2016 — that the buck finally stepped out about 4:20 p.m. with two does. It was at that point Brown harvested the largest buck he’d ever seen.
For him, though, it wasn’t all about the antlers or mass.
“I like age more than antlers. I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to see a deer like that,” he said. “From where I was sitting, it was about 300 yards from my backdoor. You can’t beat that.”
“In my mind, a lot of my success came from finding the beds and hunting close to where I thought he was,” Brown added. “I watched them go from bed to crops.”
He also noted the importance of getting creative with entry and exit routes, stating that “knowing the wind and how they travel in relation to the wind is crucial.”
“Getting creative about it was key. I would park on the south end and hunted on the north wind because that’s how they would bed about 100 yards north of the food plot,” he said.
Overall, Brown said it’s imperative to know what you’re hunting, whether it’s their patterns and habits, or their growth visible in trail camera photos.
It paid off again this year as he harvested another 9-point monster at 130 3/8 inches during archery.
“Don’t stop learning about the deer,” he said.