Avoiding Tag Soup

Avoiding Tag Soup

By Noel Gandy

“Mm! Mm! Good!” Sound familiar? It ought to for it’s been a Campbell Soup slogan since the 1930s. Even though they make delicious and hearty soups that are great for this wintry time of year I bet even the good folks at Campbell’s cannot find a recipe for “tag soup” that seems tasty.

Every year thousands of hunters end their deer season with nothing more to show than their unfilled tag. Recipe’s for “Tag Soup,” “Tag Stew,” and “Tag Sandwiches” are often issued as plots of humor to an otherwise humorless point in time. Whether time afield was slim, you had a shot and a miss, or a litany of any other reasons for not bagging a deer is your excuse, tag soup is never easy to swallow.

Luckily, you are not the first and will not be the last to end your season without filling your tag. Fortunately, there are ways to increase your odds to filling the freezer before the end of Iowa’s deer season.

Scouting is Key
Think way back to August and September. In anticipation of hunting season many hunters burned up the back roads and hillsides of rural Iowa scouting and glassing in anticipation of finding a trophy deer to hunt during the season. Countless hours were likely spent checking trail cameras and formulating a plan to harvest your buck. When season rolls around though, much less time is spent scouting and we hit the woods. That’s very natural. However, we should never give up on attempting to locate deer even in the midst of hunting season.

The natural tendency during archery season is to locate a buck and wait for him to come to us during the early feeding patterns or the rut. Often times after a wearisome rut, pressure from hunters, and shifting food sources, deer will shift their home ranges. If you find yourself sitting in the same spots and not seeing deer this is likely the reason. As one old saying goes, “Adapt or die.”

Taking time, even if it means missing a bit of hunting time, to find where deer are hanging out is imperative to a successful late season. As the temperature drops drastically and the breeding frenzy ends the deer are focused on one thing: food! Food sources are the key to survival for animals during the blustery weather of winter and deer are no different.
Find food sources that the deer are hitting and hunt them immediately because they might not be there tomorrow! If you have the option to leave some crops standing or have a food plot of some sort, even better. Plan to hunt an active food source until it runs dry then move on to the next one.

Watch the Weather
Fortunately for many Iowa hunters the late season falls in conjunction with some of the holidays. Many of us have some extra time off that can be spent afield. However, others have to be more judicious with their time away from work and family. If that is the case, and you have to pick and choose your time to go hunting, then I suggest you watch for a drop in the temperature. Drastic drops in temperature, hikes in barometric pressure, and even fresh snow can often mean feeding frenzies for our deer herds. If you can find a combination of these factors: bingo!

Whitetail deer, and any creature for that matter, are going to be hitting the excess food circuit regardless of the weather. There is a certain bit of magic to the combination of weather elements that were mentioned above. I have experienced seeing more deer on their feet during legal shooting hours on high pressure blue bird days than I ever remember any other time.

According to Outdoor Life magazine, “Deer like a pressure above 30.00 in. And if you want to see bucks, the ratio of bucks to does sighted when the pressure is between 30.00 – 30.40 is a staggering 1 to 1! When it drops and is between 29.8 and 30.00 there were a third as many deer spotted and with that figure your chances of seeing a buck drops to 1 in 3.”

Don’t Neglect your Equipment
The Benjamin Franklin axiom that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is as true today as it was when Franklin made the quote. How often have we picked up a gun or a bow the night before a season begins and take it to the field with the assumption that “it’s still on?” Assumptions should never be made when it comes to our weaponry. Taking time to sight in your weapon and be proficient with it will cure a lot of heart ache of missing or misfiring during the cold winter months of the late deer season.

Also, practice with the clothing that you’ll be wearing. It is likely that you will be dressed much differently during the late season as you were during the earlier months of the Fall. Practicing how you will hunt will ensure that you are prepared when the moment of truth arrives.
Speaking of clothing: dress for the weather, don’t dread it! I can imagine nothing more miserable than frozen fingers and toes. Be sure that you pack hand warmers, gloves, hats, and any other necessary clothing items to keep you comfortable while afield. The more comfortable that you are the more time you can spend actively hunting.

Garner your Expectations
It is very difficult to kill a trophy buck that is not there. Be sure that you have put in the time to scout appropriately and have a good idea of what your farm holds. Many will slurp the proverbial tag soup because they were holding out for a certain class of deer. Maybe the farm held a bruiser buck during the rut. That’s great! It’s not unrealistic to think that he has shifted his range or been harvested during the length of time between the mid season and late season. Having a sense of the inventory of your ground can help a weary hunter get the most out of his/her time.

Avoid Mucho Macho
This goes along with garnering expectations. My daddy, a notorious young buck killer, likes to justify taking juvenile deer with the saying, “you can’t eat the antlers.” While this mantra rings true there are more and better ways to fill your tag: namely, does! As the season winds down and you come to the realization that a mature buck might not be in the chips for you this year consider bagging a doe. In many areas doe numbers far outweigh buck numbers. Tagging a doe not only can help fill your freezer but can also help in herd management. This is in no way shaming for tagging young bucks. My motto is, “if he makes your heart go pitter patter then pull the trigger.” But, if we’re shooting deer just for the sake of meat then maybe taking a doe is the wiser choice.

Have Tag will Travel
This final suggestion might not be possible to all but don’t be afraid to try something new if time and resources lend itself. Many states, especially those in the southern portion of our country, have very liberal deer seasons. If time has run out for you here in Iowa there are still some opportunities to put venison on the menu in other areas. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and many others not only have deer seasons that run into the end of January and even February, but also still have rutting activity. Granted, this option is not conducive for all, it’s still an option.

The most anticipated phases of deer season have come and gone and many hunters have unwillingly found themselves with nothing but “tag soup” in their freezers.  Don’t quit yet!  With some time left and cold weather on the way, the pieces could be falling into place to experience the best deer movement yet.  Stick with it and maybe you can avoid “tag soup.” Remember, October 1 is a long time away. Enjoy the time the Good Lord and Iowa DNR have given you to harvest a deer this year!