It's no secret that most people in our area are sick of the snow. By this point most are thinking that they have done every outdoor recreation that they know. For deer hunters, this might not be the fact.
Winters like this one are hard on people, but imagine how the animals feel. Their ability to survive depends on many factors, the most important is being able to conserve energy. Deer do this through a few different methods. Hunters can use the signs left behind by the animals to stack the deck for the following season. On top of obtaining useful information, you can also be treasure hunting at the same time.
Have you ever been hunting the edge of a woodlot and seen deer passing through the center? You typically will go see where they were crossing, which for the most part can be hard to find. The reason for this is that deer tend to move along the edges of woodlots, and the sign left on center pathways can be minimal at times. There are a couple ways to determine where these trails come from and lead to. By using the available methods, deer hunters can identify these trails and set up shop for the next round of hunting.
When the snow of winter begins to pile up, deer tend to stick to certain pathways. The tracks in the snow can last for weeks, even months, which gives the hunter a good picture of deer movement patterns. They do this for a couple different reasons. By staying on well-used trails, the animals are able to save much-needed calories. Deer store energy in the form of fat reserves. Food is hard to come by this time of year, so they depend heavily on the stores they had amassed before the snow set in. What food is available tends to be the rhyme and reason behind such well -used trails. They are also able to escape the pursuit of predators by running away on the packed surface. Deep snow with a crust on it allows wolves and coyotes to stay on top, while sharp-hoofed deer break through. This can slow the deer down enough to enable these meat eaters to take a bite. It typically goes downhill from there, and results in you finding a pile of bones in the spring. Where do you start with such heavy sign?
By starting at the food source, you can easily track the animals to their bedding area. You will find that deer are attempting to stay as close to the food as they possibly can. They tend to seek out thick and well covered areas as to avoid falling snow and wind. For this reason, you can't depend on the deer to bed in the same spot year-round. You may consider the trails used to be viable information though. The heaviest used trails will likely be the ones you already hunt, so get off the typical systems and search for less used, centrally located or thick passages. These tend to be the trails used by smart old bucks. By using a compass, you can determine which side of the trail will offer the most favorable stand location according to wind and rising or setting sun. Mark the trees you plan to put a stand or blind on with surveyors tape, and also mark the trail itself. This will help you look in the right area for approaching deer.
Heavy sign and presence of multiple beds in an area give you a location for the treasure hunt. One of the items that I hunt for is pretty common, but the other, not so much. The first item is shed antlers. Besides being neat to look at, deer sheds provide the craftsman many options. I use them most often for knife handles, but also make a lot of file handles, necklace beads, fish spears, and hooks. Shed antlers were used by native people for so many things we may never know them all. One of the most common, but least understood uses for sheds was billets. A billet is a tool made from a shed antler that is used to make flint projectile points, knife blades, and many other stone tools. The proximal end was ground into the tool, which was used to percuss fragments of stone. These fragments were used immediately as tools, or refined using antler tips on sticks to further produce a more curated piece of cutlery.
The other treasure is in the form of deer droppings fire-starters. Made of nothing more than compressed vegetation, a deer pellet is easily made into a fire starter. All you need to do is find some brown weathered pellets; don't use the fresh black ones. Gather them up wearing gloves, preferably, and take them home. Melt a few bars of paraffin wax, place some pellets in the liquified wax, and give a few seconds and a stir or two. The pellets will adsorb the wax and when set ablaze, will burn for around a minute apiece. Now isn't that some stuff.
Good wishes and remember March is a good month to locate deer trails.