Month: December 2016

Steve Bartylla on Patterning a Deer

Steve Bartylla on Patterning a Deer Steve Bartylla added 9 new photos. Yesterday at 10:11am · What is patterning a deer? In my mind, few if anything in the hunting world is twisted, exaggerated or just plain made up to the extent that "patterning" bucks is. The answer to why in my mind is simple. If I or anyone else that's a self proclaimed "expert" or hunting celeb is able…

Licking Branches

Licking Branches Today's tip of the day is simply yet another hammering home of the value of using lick branches & mock scrapes for management and hunting. My goal is that everyone of you embraces, believes in and uses the snot out of lick branches and full blown mock scrapes from this point forward. If this doesn't do that, I don't know what will. Licking Branches Just watch the videos.…

Trail Cameras

Are Your Trail Cameras Helping or Hurting? by Steve Bartylla   |  June 28th, 2016 0 I was flat-out thrilled. I’d been watching the does and the 140-inch 3 1/2-year-old buck for the past half-hour. Just as my trail camera had predicted, the 4 1/2-year-old 9-pointer was now stepping into the Antler King Trophy Clover plot. The younger buck wore nearly 10 inches more antler, but the older deer was the one I wanted. With…

How much is a deer sanctuary on your piece?

I've come to firmly believe that the single biggest mistakes hunters make is hunting too much of their ground. If there is a silver bullet, golden key, holy grail to all this, it's tricking deer into believing they are safe on your hunting grounds. Simply put, you do that by most always hunting low impact stands and most always leaving the high impact areas alone. On a well designed piece…

Decoying the Rut

Have You Tried to Decoy in Gun Season? by Steve Bartylla   |  November 23rd, 2016 0 The buck was an early arrival on this second afternoon of the Illinois gun season. Yes, I was hunting a tightly managed property, but there were shots ringing out from the surrounding tracts. So I hadn’t expected Mr. Big to step into the wide-open farm field for at least three more hours. I was only there early because…

It was over before it started.

Somebody tipped them off. It was an hour before first light when he parked in the field approach.  Headlights showed a half dozen deer in the field.  He smiled at his fortune, and felt good about his spot.  By the time he got his gear out of the truck, all 6 of those deer had run off the field to hunker down for the day in the swamp on the…

Satisfied Customer

Every once in a while we get a nice email from a satisfied customer.  Joe Bartylla sent me this and I thought it was worth sharing. Joe, here is a testimonial:  -       After filling out the questionaire for the free phone consult, I wondered when I would get a response, if any. To my surprise, the phone rang the next evening with a friendly voice introducing himself…

Late Season Hunting

Stay Warm! Fieldwear Choices For Late Season Hunting by Steve Bartylla   |  January 3rd, 2011 0 Comments [caption id="attachment_5291" align="alignleft" width="300"] Late Season Hunting[/caption] Proper preparation and appropriate attire can make the difference between a miserable day afield and the perfect end to your deer season! In Wisconsin, when the temps are flirting with the 30-degree mark in late December, you can’t help but think it’s warm, but today was one of those deceptively…

Was Your Deer Season a Success?

Success can be measured many ways, and no matter what you goals are, only you can gauge success. Steve's team has helped hundreds of landowners manipulate their parcels to make them fit their goals. [caption id="attachment_2752" align="alignright" width="281"] Minnesota Deer Habitat Consultant[/caption] Common focus includes: Seeing more deer Holding more bucks Increasing age of bucks on camera and seen on stand Best stand sites for all 13 seasons of the…