Keeping Records: An Important Management Tool
By Jim Casada
As someone whose educational training was in the field of history, perhaps I’m a bit more concerned with keeping records than the average Joe. After all, records – public documents, letters, diaries and the like – are the barebones upon which we reconstruct much of the past. Yet I strongly believe that having a carefully maintained, meticulously kept paper trail can serve the hunter just as it serves the historian.
Over time, a simple hunt diary recording the basics of each of your hunting experiences – date, time of the hunt, weather conditions, game observed, gun and accessories used, animal behavior and the like – tells a story of its own. So, too, for that matter, can records of successful hunts. In the latter context, perhaps an anecdotal case in point from my own experiences will be permitted.
More years ago than I care to confess, I killed my first turkey. In all honesty it must be acknowledged that I was little more than a triggerman. The wonderful gentleman who served as my mentor in the sport did the rest. He located a gobbler before dawn, told me where to set up, suggested the bird’s likely travel route and even indicated a good point at which to take a shot. It all evolved just as he said, and minutes after I heard the lordly monarch of the woodlands leave the roost we stood admiring the bird.
Evidently my demeanor indicated an immediate (and as it turned out, permanent) obsession. Observing my reactions, the fellow who had generously shared a morning with me offered two thoughts. First, in his straightforward, pithy fashion, he stated: “That’s how it’s done. Now you’re on your own.” As I later realized, that was his way of telling me that turkey hunting was a one-man sport best learned alone.
More to the point on the present subject though, he also offered some advice.
“Find your shotgun hull,” he said, “and stick it in your pocket. When you get home type up a little story detailing the hunt, roll it up, and stick that account, along with the turkey’s beard, in the spent shell. If you come to like turkey hunting as much as I think you will, there will come a time when you can’t recall all your hunts. But if you keep this type of record, you will always be able to relive each one of these wonderful memories.”
Just a
few days ago, while hunting in
I only wish I had done the same thing with whitetails from the beginning. Although I have kept similar records of my deer hunting successes for a couple of decades, I lack the total career record I have for turkeys. Such records first and foremost bring a full measure of inner pleasure, but they point toward another, highly functional aspect of record maintenance. For those devoted to careful deer and turkey management, committing some basic data to paper on a consistent, ongoing basis can be a key tool. Let’s look in some detail at why that is the case.
HARVEST
RECORDS
Perhaps the most obvious types of records anyone serious about management should keep are those connected with deer killed. By weighing each deer, aging it, noting the sex, determining whether bucks display obvious signs of rutting, checking to see if does taken in late season are pregnant (this is common in states where the season runs well after the peak of the rut, such as in South Carolina where I live) and the like, you obtain considerable information on herd health and related matters. For example, if you are practicing some type of quality management, something that is increasingly prevalent in today’s deer hunting world, you want to check closely the correlation between a buck’s age and the quality of his rack.
Similarly, the average weight of mature does can tell you a great deal about how they are faring. If they consistently run only 85 or 90 pounds, they could use dietary improvements and/or thinning. Similarly, if you find yourself and others who belong to your hunt club or hunt on your land taking young does or antlerless bucks, some education on recognizing what should be shot and what shouldn’t seems to be in order. Ideally the does shot should be older ones, long-nosed, sway-backed ladies who have done their reproductive duties for several years. The simple process of aging does and noting consistent characteristics can be a learning process in and of itself.
Then there’s the always-contentious matter of “cull” bucks. Far too often what an overeager hunter describes as an inferior or cull buck is in reality a young animal with exceptional genetic promise. A case in point would be “cow horns” that turn out to be year old bucks rather than the purported aged deer with inferior genes incapable of producing a decent rack.
Overall, harvest data will, when recorded consistently over several years, tell you a great deal when it comes to management. You will be able to see improvement (or, heaven forbid, decline) in overall herd quality. Where there is ongoing improvement it brings a sense of satisfaction and provides measurable rewards for all the sweat equity and hard cash that went into food plots, plantings of perennials and the like. Also, you learn something about buck-to-doe ratios and what you need to attain better balance, notice genetic lines passed down over generations through observation of distinctive characteristics in racks and otherwise gain a better understanding of the deer on the land you hunt or own.
General
Data on Deer Sightings
Many long-established commercial deer hunting operations keep careful records of deer sightings by hunters. They do this in part to determine which stands are most productive, whether a given stand has more activity in the morning or the evening, and to determine whether it seems to be an area frequented almost exclusively by does. This may in some cases be as much “hunter management” as it is deer management, but certainly the underlying premise makes sense.
For the assiduous record keeper though, these basic concepts from outfitters can be notched up several levels. In return, the information thereby gathered has potential to be far more useful. Here are some suggestions you might want to follow in that regard. Once you have noted the date, begin with listing all weather-related factors: Temperature, atmospheric conditions, wind, moon phase, whether there is any rain or snow, whether a front has just passed or is approaching, the presence of a heavy frost or dew in the morning, fog or indeed anything that seems relevant. Over time, accumulation of such information will begin to reveal noteworthy trends, and you can use those trends to good advantage when hunting.
Another vital consideration is when deer are seen. As the season progresses, particularly in heavily hunted areas, deer typically become increasingly nocturnal in their feeding and travel patterns. However, there are a number of factors that can change this behavior, and it behooves you to notice and use it. For example, three different times in my life I have seen animals fooled by the weather. In each instance balmy temperatures and fair skies gave way, in a very short time, to a hard-driving cold front that brought snow during the middle of the day. This resulted in deer and other animals becoming quite active at a time they normally stick to their beds.
Deer also show a pronounced tendency to move more after a prolonged period of bad weather, and bitter cold necessitates more movement to feed. Obviously there will be more daytime travel during the peak of the rut. These and other factors, when faithfully recorded for several years, will tell you a great deal. Simply by reading your records and assessing what they reveal, you will have answers to questions such as these: When is the peak of the rut here? What type of weather conditions produce atypical movement patterns? What are the most likely times to spot deer at a given point in the season?
Knowing predictable answers to these and many other questions can be an invaluable management tool. You will know when to be taking does and when it is probably wise to let them walk because a buck might well be trailing them. You will learn the times when “shooter” bucks are most likely to appear. You will realize when deer begin to become increasingly nocturnal and know not to wait beyond a given time to take out the recommended number of does. Knowledge on these and other matters, little more than an educated guessing game without records, becomes abundantly manifest with sufficient data to study.
Another key element of information, and it is one that is commonly overlooked even where meticulous records are maintained, focuses on where deer came from and where they are going. If you have precise information on where deer show up consistently or know their preferred travel routes as revealed by first-hand observation, that tells you a great deal. It enables you to understand where deer bed in a given area, how they approach a food plot or other area according to prevailing wind direction and helps with simple matters such as foreknowledge of where you should focus the most attention when scanning the terrain in an effort to detect a tell-tale flick of a tail or an ear.
One other area of information you might want to consider, though it is one some would just as soon eschew, is stomach contents. After you gut a deer, the typical approach is to bury the entrails or get rid of them in the camp “gut pile.” Yet you might be well advised to open up the stomach and see just what the deer has been eating.
A personal example might give a meaningful indication of what this can reveal. Several years ago I carefully cut into the paunch of a hefty doe after having dropped the innards from the deer. To my surprise (and dismay) she was crammed chock full of corn. Since there were no corn crops for miles and given the fact that baiting was illegal, that single slice with a sharp knife told me a great deal. Someone was almost certainly baiting on the adjoining property. I notified the local conservation officer to the situation and sure enough, a few days later he told me he had made a case for illegal baiting.
Usually though, what you learn will be more mundane though nonetheless meaningful. You will be able to tell, in particular, what the favorite food of the day is. Should you find a deer filled with acorns when you didn’t realize they were dropping yet, somewhere there’s a tree you need to find. Similarly, a paunch of persimmons tells you that “deer candy” is falling to the ground. Stomachs filled with Imperial Whitetail Clover or other greenery from food plots likewise tells a story.
No matter what information you record, in the final analysis the real point is that knowledge is power. The more you learn, through careful, consistent maintenance of sound records, the better you will understand the deer on the land you are hunting. In turn, you will be able to use what you have learned to fine-tune your management and do what is best for the deer and for your deer hunting.
Simplified
Record Keeping
It’s one thing to accept the merits of keeping records and another proposition entirely to do it on a consistent basis. Perhaps some suggestions on how to keep the process simple and meaningful will help. First and foremost, you have to follow a strict regimen. That means recording the vital statistics of every deer (or turkey) killed, making the proper notes after every outing, and doing everything in prompt fashion. An “I’ll do it in a few days” attitude just won’t cut the mustard. Instead, decide on the approach that works best for you and follow it religiously.
For the computer literate, that’s probably the easiest route to travel. But I’m just old-fashioned enough, even though these words are being written on a computer, to like the substance and “in your hands” nature of a diary or logbook. Also, it’s something you can take along with you to deer camp, while a portable computer in camp is likely to be about as welcome as a PETA member at a venison cookout. Additionally, I’ve never heard of a logbook “crash” or “data loss.”
Whether you commit the data to your hard drive, save it on a floppy or write it out in long hand, do it on time every time. After a season or two the records input will become second nature, and chances are you will actually find it an exercise that brings immediate pleasure as well as long-term benefits.