Experts Reveal Their Secrets
How two top deer hunters consistently tag trophy-class whitetails
Fred Abbas
Fred Abbas is arguably the most successful trophy deer hunter in Michigan. He has taken 36 bucks that qualify for the Michigan record books. Most were taken with a bow, but some were taken with a gun. He has also killed scores of trophy bucks in other states as well, but his Michigan bucks are the only ones he’s entered into the books. Michigan has some of the highest deer hunting pressure found in any state. For some perspective, in Michigan there are more than 5,000 bowhunters for every Pope and Young buck entered in the books, ranking Michigan as one of the most challenging places to target trophy bucks. That fact makes Abbas’ accomplishments very remarkable indeed, and I can understand why he holds his Michigan trophies in such high esteem.
Abbas, now 66, lives in central Michigan, but hunts primarily in the southern part of the state. He’s retired from a supervisory job at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and now works with his son, Greg, producing the popular hunting show, “A-Way Outdoors” televised on the Men’s Channel. Fred started hunting late in life in his 20s and has been deer hunting for 45 years.
Abbas and his sons own or lease seven different properties in southern Michigan.
“Food plots are a major part of our hunting strategy,” explained Abbas. “We like to have at least one ‘magnet’ plot on each of our properties. A magnet plot should be large enough to provide plenty of forage for the deer so it is the final, prime destination for deer; and it should be located centrally on the property.”
Abbas also likes to have several strategically located remote plots that are usually less than 1/2 acre in size.
“We try to intercept the deer coming and going from our food plots without crowding the food sources. That way, if we get busted by a buck, they are less likely to abandon the food source and go nocturnal, thus becoming much harder to hunt,” he said.
“Imperial Whitetail Clover is our favorite food plot forage choice; however, we have been having some exceptional luck with Alfa-Rack PLUS as well,” he said. “We have been planting some of our ‘magnet plots’ in alternating strips of Alfa-Rack PLUS and Imperial Whitetail Clover. We even mix in strips of corn to add cover to the plots, which make them more attractive to deer during the day. Deer like variety and we provide that for them with our food plots.”
Keeping the hunting pressure light is one of Fred’s key hunting strategies.
“We typically only hunt each property three or four times a year. Exceptions are sometimes necessary, though, especially if we determine that a particular buck is vulnerable. In that case, we will target a buck until we either harvest him or he changes his patterns and becomes unhuntable,” he said.
One of his properties is located right on the Ohio boarder.
“The adjacent Ohio property gets pounded extremely hard during Ohio’s gun season,” Abbas said. “Michigan’s gun season occurs earlier than Ohio’s. We stay completely away from that property of ours during Ohio’s gun season. The Ohio deer move onto our land to escape the pressure and when they find our food plots and a total lack of human intrusion there, they acclimate to the area and stick around. The adult buck population more than doubles during that period. Once the Ohio gun season is over, we carefully move in for the hunt and have been able to harvest many fine bucks using that strategy.”
Abbas is particularly noted for his ability to find and successfully hunt specific trophy bucks. He often goes to great lengths to pattern and eventually bag individual bucks. That was the case in 1995 when he spotted from afar the buck of a lifetime and dedicated himself to taking that animal.
“That buck was a rare mature whitetail in that he was fairly active during the day, however, he was difficult to pattern, as his movements on our property were erratic,” Abbas said. “His main bedding area was off our property, and he would come onto our land once every three or four days. I had a heck of a time finding where he entered and exited our property. One day I spotted him from a distance and noticed that his legs were muddy to his ankles. There was only one possible spot where he could have picked up that mud, and when I checked it later that day, sure enough, I discovered where he was coming and going.
After surveying the situation, I moved a stand into position, and the next day I spotted him. As he passed 80 yards away, it became clear that he was not going to come any closer without some coaxing. During a previous encounter with the buck, I noticed some fresh puncture wounds on him. His behavior was not very aggressive either; so even though he was very large, he was probably not the dominant buck in the area. With that in mind, I laid off the ratting horns because I was afraid it might spook him. Instead, I pressed my grunt call into action. After a series of subtle contact calls, he worked his way into range, and I was able to cleanly harvest him with my bow. That buck weighed 250 pounds dressed and scored 183 5/8, becoming the new county record.”
Abbas is primarily a bowhunter. He attributes a lot of his success to remaining as scent-free as possible. Besides aggressive hygiene, Fred uses Scent-Lock clothing from head to toe. Although preferring bowhunting, Abbas also takes to the whitetail woods with a gun at times. He has a huge collection of mounted trophies on public display at the A-Way Outdoors headquarters. To find out more information about Fred Abbas, “A-Way Outdoors” television program or any of their products, visit www.awayhunting.com or phone 989-435-3879.
Joe Hankins
For someone who has been deer hunting seriously for only 13 years, 39-year-old Joe Hankins has certainly been busy tagging a bunch of big whitetails. During that period, he’s hung 25 deer heads from the walls of his home. They range in scores from 125 to 181. Two of his trophies are Booners and a bunch surpasses 160 inches. He is a home builder by trade, but deer and turkey hunting are his real passions.
The hunt that resulted in his second largest buck, a 176-inch whopper, was a real heart-stopper. Hankins was hunting a new spot in late October when the huge whitetail came to within 10 yards of his stand. Unfortunately, the instant he came to full draw, the buck stepped forward where some brush blocked his shot. He held at full draw for several minutes but eventually had to let the bow down. Of course, as soon as he did that, the buck finally stepped clear, and Hankins was too spent to draw his bow again. The buck proceeded to work a couple scrapes right below his stand as Hankins kept trying to pull the string back. After 10 minutes of this nightmare, he finally managed to yank it past the peak weight into the valley, took aim and at 15 yards, sent an arrow through the vitals.
Hankins lives near Martinsville, Ind. He’s killed a number of good bucks in his home state of Indiana, but a lot of his trophies were taken in Illinois, a state famous for its monster whitetails. “I've been hunting in Illinois since 1995 and have tagged at least one good buck there every year,” he said.
Hankins started out hunting in Illinois with an outfitter, and then he started leasing property. Desiring more prime lands to hunt on, Hankins eventually formed a hunting club where he pools the money from many hunters to secure more and larger lease lands. It takes a ton of time and effort to line up those leases and also scout and organize the club’s hunting activities. Judging by the degree of his hunting success though, it may very well be worth it.
“I travel to Illinois at least every other week during the off season,” Hankins said. “During the fall hunting season, I spend every day possible hunting our leases. Some of our properties are leased by the week, which means that I have to scout these areas very quickly, hang stands and then hunt the spots, all the while trying not to spook any deer. This ‘power scouting’ technique relies heavily on the use of aerial photos and topographic maps so scouting sessions and hunting effort can be maximized.
“The hard work never seems to end,” Hankins continued. “We typically hang a dozen or more stands on each property we lease, so by the end of the season, I’ve climbed more trees than a squirrel. That’s more than 100 stands every year. When I’m not hunting in Illinois, I’m home in Indiana, where I also like to deer hunt as much as possible. By the end of the season, I’m exhausted from the intense pace of my hunting lifestyle.”
Even though Hankins hunts on some awesome trophy-whitetail properties, those big bucks are certainly not stupid.
“If you want to consistently harvest trophy-class bucks anywhere, then you need to remain as scent-free as possible,” he explained. “I like to shower using scent-eliminating soap before every hunt. All of my hunting clothes are washed in scent-free detergent designed for hunters. When not worn, these clothes are hung outside in the open air where they won't pick up foreign odors. I also spray odor eliminator on myself before each hunt.”
Hankins also relies heavily on food plots for success. Most of his leases have ample agricultural crops of corn and soybeans. He will seed annuals right over corn and soybeans during the late summer to keep deer on his properties after those crops are harvested. Hankins also has Imperial Whitetail Clover food plots in strategic spots along the edges of certain large crop fields. The deer are drawn to the Imperial first as they enter fields, and that is where he sets up his treestands.
In 2004, I was fortunate to have been able to hunt one of Hankins’ setups as a guest on his Indiana lease. On the last day of my hunt, I intercepted a big 8-pointer as he headed for a large Whitetail Clover plot that flanked a picked cornfield.
Hankins doesn’t use any commercial deer lures. He instead believes in low-impact hunting to keep the element of surprise on his side. For much of the deer season, he doesn’t much rely on calling, except during the prime rut period when the calls work best.
“If you call and rattle during non-prime periods, it tends to educate the deer, making the techniques less effective when they have the best chance for success,” he explained.
Hankins likes to hunt very high. I’ve hunted from a few of his stands, and one of them, at 50-feet high, ranks as the highest stand I’ve ever climbed aboard. He rarely hunts below 30 feet and uses mostly hang-on style stands.
A high-tech bowhunter by choice, Hankins tries to stay on the leading edge with his equipment choices. He currently shoots a Mathews bow and can consistently shoot softball-sized groups at 50-yards.
Both Hankins and Abbas keep themselves in top physical condition year-round. When you hunt as hard as these guys do, keeping yourself in shape is critical to success. Both also pass up dozens of sub-trophy bucks every year, which is perhaps the single most important reason why they shoot big bucks so consistently. You can’t kill the big ones if you settle on little bucks.