Sep 3, 2006 By Rod Schoener 7 min read

Dyed-in-the-wool bowhunters know that archery deer season opens at the end of the month. Most have been spotting regularly at night, and some have hit the ground to do some early scouting.

Many report seeing trophy bucks.

I’ve been walking about to get a look at the big picture, and while I haven’t seen any bucks, I’m seeing some hefty does as I travel home at night, which is a good indication that the herd is healthy.

While I haven’t seen an overabundance of deer sign in some areas, some deer are present, and the mast looks to be very plentiful.

Apples are everywhere, and every oak tree I scope out is heavy with acorns.

I can’t speak for the berry crop, but most other mast producers also appear to be doing well.

Many people have been telling me about big bucks they are seeing in the Fayette County lowlands and Greene County.

Scouting is important before any hunting venture, and practice is of utmost importance before archery deer season.

Finding that deer – which are definitely scarcer than they were in years past – is important, but the key is having the ability to place that arrow in a vital area.

With a month before the season begins, take time to attend a couple of 3-D bowhunter shoots, which greatly help you to judge distance while also forcing you to shoot under pressure as your peers look on.

Years ago, 3-D shoots were an extremely popular Sunday afternoon pastime in the weeks before the start of archery deer season.

They all but disappeared for a good many years, but some area clubs are trying to revive them.

Kevin Polish, owner of KJ’s Kustom Archery in Carmichaels (formerly Kevin’s Archery) travels about the country quite a bit as the regional sales representative for a major archery supplier.

As we chatted, I noted that the new bows look a little different and asked if technology has about taken compound bows to the limit.

Kevin replied, “At first they had one wheel, then they came back with a cam. Now they found out that the limbs actually didn’t do a lot except house the wheels so they’re not even using the limbs for much of anything but that.

“The wheels are providing most of the energy, and they’re finding out that rubber has revolutionized the bow with string savers, string shocks, alpha shocks and bow tuners that we sell.”

Kevin noted that it began with the cat whiskers (a piece of rubber that was tied in the bowstring to dampen the shock and reduce noise). The use of rubber has revolutionized the modern bow and arrow.

Polish said, “The cat whisker started it all. The guy who invented the cat whisker should be a millionaire by now.

“Look how far rubber has come. They found out years ago when guys were putting those pieces of rubber through their strings what rubber could do.”

Polish then seconded what I said about mast. “Everyone that is coming in says that the food is there. The bucks are bigger and some guys are saying they are seeing more bucks than ever.

“The deer herd is in good shape. There are a lot of mature bucks – bucks in the 12- to 14-inch range from the past year that are now in the 14- to 16-inch range.

“I’ve never heard as much talk about 140-inch deer that I’ve heard in the past month. There is a lot of excitement his year.

“At first, I was not real happy with all the aspects of antler restriction, but I saw it working last year with the big deer that came into the shop, and Dave O’Hara won the buck pool with that monster buck.

“It’s definitely working. They say the buck-to-doe ratio in the northern part of the state is down to 7-to-2. I don’t know what it is around here but the buck-to-doe ratio around here has definitely gotten closer in the past couple years.

“I think a lot of guys can look more to rattling or grunting a buck in than ever before.

“A lot of guys have never done it (rattled), but if you get that buck-to-doe ratio down to 4-to-1 or 3-to1 and you hit a pair of rattling antlers on a frosty morning and you might see something you’ve never seen before.”

Are they still seeing large groups of deer?

“You know everybody that is coming in says the bucks are still together, but some say they have seen bucks pushing does as they do when the rut approaches, but they bucks are probably just feeling frisky as the temperature dropped a little. They know what mode to go into.”

Polish noted that some guys say they are not seeing many deer when scouting, but noted that deer don’t move a lot in really hot weather. He said that many deer are not coming into the fields until just before dark or right after dark.

I asked Kevin if 3-D shoots are back.

“As a national thing, 3-D shoots are back,” he said. “Around here I don’t know if it is really coming back. We had about 30 shooters in our league this year. In some areas 3-D is not real strong right now. I rep in seven states. 3-D bowshoots have fallen off all around Pennsylvania.

“I really believe that 3-D has gone down because of the cost of the targets. I think that has turned a lot of people off. I believe that if a lot of the clubs would go back to getting some excelsior bales and put out paper targets the way they did 15 years ago and charge $4 so shooters could come to the local club and shoot on Sunday, they would get 100 shooters instead of 20.

“I don’t know why the clubs don’t put out some money and build some boxes and go back to the excelsior bales and shoot at all types of targets again, such as rabbits, pheasants, squirrels and turkeys not just deer and bears.

“I think it would inspire a lot more people to shoot if they could go to a club and only have to put out four or five dollars.

“Clubs could put up a 20-target range for what it would cost to buy 10 3-D targets, and the excelsior bales would last five years, where 3-D targets only last five shoots at times.”

Noticing an ad for Kevin’s annual opening -day doe pool, I mentioned that the does were really large last year.

“The weight of the deer in the last two years has gone up by 10 percent a year,” Kevin said.

“Deer management is definitely working. A 105-pound deer won it three years ago. In 2004 the winner weighed 114 pounds and last year the biggest doe weighed 123 pounds. What will it take to win it this year – a 130-pounder?

“I was one of the biggest doubters about deer management, but it sure proved me wrong. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know. It will take three or four more years before we know for sure. There are still guys who come in here that still feel they should be able to harvest any buck.

“The younger guys are loving it, but many older hunters are not. There are still a lot of bowhunters who were frustrated the past couple of years because they could not find a buck to shoot.

A lot of guys event went untagged in gun season, and there were a lot of complaints in gun season about a lot of little bucks being found – little five-points with three on top. Just because they have three on top, does not mean they have an eyeguard.”

I have gone without shooting a deer for three years, passing on a bucks in WMU 2A that I could have killed in 2C while allowing some large four- and five-pointers go in 2C because I couldn’t put brow tines on them to make them legal.

Remember! Scouting and practice are important ingredients for any successful big game hunt.

Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors writer.