Editor’s Note: Many muzzleloading hunters completely overlook tools they need to spell success afield, especially when hunting public lands, including a mountain bike, a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS), maps and Bright Eyes Highly-Reflective Tacks.
When someone asked Denny Brauer, one of the nation’s top professional bass fishermen, “How do you catch a big bass on any lake?” he answered, “You have to fish in an area where a big bass lives.” And, the same is true if you want to take a big blackpowder buck with your CVA rifle this season. Although hunters emphasize the importance of deer lures, odor killers, quality optics, rifles, bullets and powder, none of these hunting items can or will produce a big buck this season, if you’re not hunting where a big buck lives. You can use trail cameras to learn the home range of a big buck. Too, a mountain bike will get you further into the woods than most hunters will go on trails, firebreaks, foot paths and right-of-ways. The second essential tool is the hand-held GPS, which allows you to move deep into the woods, while marking the trails you travel, to find deer sign in often out-of-the-way places to take the big bucks with your CVA rifle that other hunters can’t reach. Bright Eyes Highly-Reflective Tacks allow you to confirm that you’re on the right trail to reach the stand site you’ve selected to hunt for an older-age-class buck. Stick these reflective tacks into trees only about 8-inches above the ground and 2-inches apart. Then if another hunter spots the tacks before daylight, he’ll wrongfully assume those two glowing spots beside that tree are raccoons or rabbits. Or, he’ll begin to wonder why in the world someone has put trail markers so close to the ground. Then you can navigate in the dark or with a small flashlight to reach a place away from the crowd and hunt in an area where you’ve found deer sign that indicates an older-age-class buck has set-up a home range where he’s least likely to be found.
Another tool that’s essential is a map of the region you’re planning to hunt to learn topography, trails and terrain. Google Earth and others offer these, including:
USGS – The U. S. Geologic Survey has topographical and aerial maps of the entire United States. These maps can be purchased from the USGS web site, or you can use their Map Locator to download free topographical maps of specific areas or order these maps through the USGS map
store. You also can download the free TerraGo toolbar, which allows the user to maximize their capabilities with GeoPDF files. With TerraGo, you can measure distances between objects on the map, add personal comments to specific regions on the map, view the map in conjunction with Google Maps or integrate them with your GPS to track your position, all for free. Through the USGS map store, you can purchase topographical or aerial state, county, U.S., world, historical, satellite images, national parks and national atlas maps, as well as USDA Forest Service – National Forest and Grassland Maps. http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/b2c/start/%28xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd%29/.do.
USGS Links – The USGS also has a web site where you can get links that will take you to selected Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) and USGS Business Partner Program (BP) partner sites, where you may view USGS maps and aerial photo images from your web browser. Links include Microsoft TerraServer, MapMart by IntraSearch, Inc., Maptech MapServer by Maptech, Inc., TerraFly, Earth as Art, GlobeXplorer, HistoricAerials by NETR Online and DDS MapFinder by Digital Data Services, Inc. http://nationalmap.gov/gio/viewonline.html
National Geographic – National Geographic Maps offer various products, including their popular Outdoor Recreation Map Software products. Offered in this line of software products is the TOPO! Series, which includes the State Series and the Explorer and the Explorer Deluxe. The
State Series comes in 28 individual state and multi-state packages covering the entire United States, and the Explorer is National Geographic’s first software powered by continuously updated set of online maps. Both the Explorer and the Explorer Deluxe come with credits to download 25 SuperQuads (with each SuperQuad containing (6) layers of map information including: USGS 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 scale topographic, I-Cubed Aerial Photography with 4-meter resolution, USGS Digital Elevations and Names, and an exclusive HybridQuad that blends Aerial Photography with topographic line work), and the Deluxe package comes with an additional seamless, nationwide, set of USGS 1:100,000 scale topographic maps. Also available in this line of software products is the Trails Illustrated Series, which includes Trails Illustrated Explorer and National and Single Parks Explorer 3D. With the Trails Illustrated Explorer software, you can create and print your own custom trail maps. The Parks Explorer 3D comes in 11-different parks, including Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Yellowstone National parks and more. National Geographic Maps also offers traditional maps for purchase. http://www.natgeomaps.com/products.html
Digital Topo Maps – This website offers various products for purchase. The Terrain Navigator Mapping Software provides a regional collection of topographic maps you can browse, customize and print, as well as make topographic profiles, export data, view maps in 3D, plan routes, estimate distances, estimate areas, and exchange waypoint and route data with your GPS. Also available for purchase through this site is the DeLorme Topo North America 9.0, which is an all-in-one topographic mapping software and the National Geographic Topo, which contains all topo maps for an entire state or region at 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 scale. You also can purchase access to unlimited USGS topo maps and aerial photos for $29.95/year. http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/
Trails.com – This site contains online topographic maps of the United States and lets you browse down level-by-level to the exact topo map you want. They also have aerial photos and aerial maps available for the most zoomed-in map levels. This site does require membership to access maps. http://www.trails.com/maps.aspx
Also, check with landowners, your state game and fish agency and the U.S. Forest Service, depending on where you’re hunting, to make sure that using a mountain bike to reach locations where other hunters won’t hunt is legal. But you’re probably already thinking, “If I take a deer several miles away from the nearest road with my CVA rifle, how will I get the buck out of the woods and back to my vehicle?” Luckily, there are types of animal carriers and carts that you can attach to the back of a mountain bike to solve this problem.
One of the reasons most fishermen don’t fish where big bass live is because they’re afraid of losing their lures, or they believe if they hook big bass in thick cover, they won’t be able to get those bass out of the locations where they’ve hooked them. However, Brauer who’s also an avid deer hunter, explains, “An angler never should forget that his purpose in fishing for a big bass is to try and take that big bass first and then start solving the problem of how to get that big bass into the boat.” And, the same is true of taking a big deer. You’ve got to find that nice buck first, hunt for him, take him with your muzzleloading rifle and then solve the problems you may encounter to get him back to your vehicle. Good hunting with your CVA rifle this season.
