The Value of the Hang N’ Bang

For a long time, the Working Class Bowhunter Podcast crew has preached the importance of the Hang n’ Bang (coined by the WCB crew) - The idea that you are not limited to pre-hung sets. The basic idea is that you have a stand and sticks that are light, compact, and easily caried in and out. This allows you to make adjustments, whether little or big, based on most recent information (MRI). It also allows you to tear down and move if the wind isn’t as favorable as predicted. The value of this type of hunting was made abundantly clear to me on Friday the 13th of this year.

Before sunup, I went in with my stand on my back and set up on a ridge top where I knew that does sometimes bed during the day. I had great visibility and the wind was forecasted to be straight out of the north east. However, when the sun came up and the day winds began blowing, the wind was blowing due east. The direction I was expecting deer to be coming from. It was a light wind so I decided to stay put and hope that the thermals would override the wind direction and suck up to me out of the bottom. This was not the case. At 7:45 I let out a few grunts and waited. The leaves were crisp but I failed to hear the buck slip in from the bottom. I heard a deer take off and turned in time to see a nice buck bound away. He had come up the ridge in a blind spot and got directly down wind.

Frustrated, I tried calling but it was pointless. I started looking at my map and remembered a ridge that I had scouted two years prior that had a great transition line where thick pines met the hard woods. It had been littered with rubs and scrapes along that edge so I decided to slip over there and try that. The transition line ran east/west so I set up on the south side of it down far enough so that if a buck was traveling along that line, the wind would be in his favor but I would be just south of what he was smelling.

(The red line in the transition line and expected travel route. The blue arrow is the wind direction. The stand location is marked by the yellow x)

I started tearing down my initial setup at 9 AM and 45 minutes later, I had moved locations and was in the tree ready to hunt. It was a slow first hour but, like they say, it can all change in an instant - and that’s what happened. At about 10:50 I heard crashing and running. I looked behind me and saw a doe running down the hill from the opposite ridge. She started coming up towards me and stopped to look behind her. That’s when I knew there was something behind her. Not five seconds later, I spotted a big bodied deer trotting down after her.

As he neared her, she took off running up the hill towards me and walked twelve yards from me into the thick pines. The buck came straight up on the same trail following the doe.

(Twelve yards away - the moment before the shot)

That morning I had no intention of hunting this location. I set up in an area that I thought bucks might travel while scent checking for does. It was a mobile setup to begin with but the wind was wrong and I had been busted. If you listen to lots of well-known big buck killers, they will tell you that the number one concern that a hunter should have is wind direction. Having blown an opportunity, it took some mental back-and-forth to convince myself to tear down and move, but once I had made the decision, I was kicking myself for taking so long to do it (it took about an hour from when the buck busted me to when I decided to make the move). Fortunately for me, I was set up with plenty of time to catch this mature 8 coming through with the doe. I was unsure of the shot so I backed out and went in to look after dark. My buddy brought his dog out in case it was a tough track job but the shot, although a touch back, had been good and got the back of the lungs. The deer was dead 88 yards from the shot and had died running.

(Lucca got on the trail and brought us straight to him in less than a minute)

There is no doubt in my mind that the ability to be mobile is what killed this deer. I had never hunted here before, although I had scouted it in previous years. I made an adjustment based on wind direction and I will never think twice about moving again. The Hang n’ Bang hunting style has proven to be effective over and over again and I would encourage everyone to try it. Call this my “ahah moment”. It is mentally daunting at first but I feel confident that if you are smart about it, you will see the benefits and reap the rewards.

Story Of Triton

The story of Triton begins on August 19, 2019. A trail camera placed on the inside corner of a midsummer bean field caught a sequence of six pictures from a buck that we had no history with, a buck my daughter Taylor would later give the name Triton. These six pictures would be the only pictures we would get from this mystery buck.

We assumed the buck was bedding on an adjoining property and had only been passing through. After talking with one of our neighbors and sharing pics ,we confirmed our suspicions that he was staying on their property.

Fast forward to November 13, my alarm went off at 345. I rolled over and pulled up the forecast on my phone. It called for morning temperatures in the single digits and wind gusts 10-20 mph increasing throughout the day. It sounded like a good day to sleep in and head in to the stand a little late. My wife on the other hand wasn't keen on being woke up twice and kicked me out of bed. So off I went! Conditions were great for the 2nd week of November. There was a fresh inch of snow on the ground that covered my noise entering the stand along with a stiff SSW wind. The morning started off with some great action. Smaller bucks cruising , grunting, and chasing does all over the ditch bottom I was dug in to. The plan for the morning was to sit until 930 or so, head to town to grab a bite to eat and warm up a bit, then head back in to sit the rest of the day. Those plans didn't stick long because the action didn't stop all morning. At 10:40 I caught movement on the opposite side of the ditch. At first sight it was a "No Brainier" , this buck was a shooter. I quickly grabbed my bow and range finder. If he was to stay on the path he was headed, I'd have a 49 yard shot at him. As I'm getting ready to dial my HHA Tetra to 49, I looked up and he split off the trail and started heading up to the bedding area. I had to make something happen now. I picked up my grunt call and tried to give a few soft grunts, but it was froze up. I gave one hard blow until the reed freed up and threw out 4 horribly sounding grunts. He turned and started down the hill for me and it was then that I realized that it was Triton! He started running down the ridge straight for me stopping at the creek pausing for a brief second. He then leapt the creek coming straight in on a string. I drew my Elite Ritual settled my single pin on his vitals as he came closer and stopped at 22 yards broadside. I slowly squeezed off the shot sending a shot through both lungs.

After the shot my emotions and the cold settled in instantly. I had to sit down and get my bearings. I made a few quick teeth chattering and blubbering phone calls to buddies and my wife. After sending some messages to my Working Class Bowhunter Podcast friends ,I decided to get down and back out for a bit. I thought the shot was kind of high and Triton needed some time to expire. After giving him a couple hours , I headed back into track. Instead of heading straight back in to the blood soaked arrow, I decided to sneak down the edge of the ditch, glassing where he had ran into instead of risking the wind if he was still alive. There were two drainages that lead to the creek where the deer like to bed, so I figured I'd give these two spots a quick look. The first drainage came up empty, so l moved another 10 yards to check out the second. As I'm working my way up the drainage with my binos I make out the rump of a deer. I rearrange myself to see around the tree and there he was laying in his bed; expired! I ran straight across the ditch, knelt by his side and offered thanks.

The story of Triton was short-lived. He no doubt lived up to expectations of a mystery buck. Curt Geier will be scoring the rack after the 60 day drying period is done.