Area hunter Troy Pottenger uses trail cameras and wind data to search for trophy whitetails

Wind charts. Thermals. Bedding areas. Travel lanes. Finding the edge of the wind. These are the tools that Troy Pottenger uses every day during the summer to locate what he hopes is that buck of a lifetime.

While his goal is to someday find that 200-inch class whitetail buck, he’d be just as happy to take home a mature bruiser who has lived in the Idaho high country for eight or nine years.

While most hunters stare longingly at the calendar, waiting for the cooler temperatures that signal the beginning of another fall adventure, Pottenger, a school teacher from Post Falls, spends most waking hours in the bush maintaining a “trap line” of 30 trail cameras in three counties in both Idaho and Washington.

“I’m not a guide. I do this solely for myself and my archery hunting,” he said. “I’m really searching for that special kind of deer. And, I can’t do it by staying put in my little honey hole.”

The lines of cameras allow him to get to know virtually every buck living in the mostly public land where he hunts. He gets to know the buck’s core area: where he likes to lay low for the day, where he travels to get food and which trail he’ll pick based on his nose.

Pottenger keeps detailed notes on wind direction in all of those places where he keeps cameras. When he captures a buck on camera, he checks the corresponding wind.

“My whole prerogative is to catch deer where I need to,” he said. “I base everything, 100 percent, on the wind and how thermals work and how prevailing winds work.

“That’s why I hunt high country. My winds are almost always true,” he said. “You have to hunt a deer with the wind he likes. I hunt the wind edges. That is the key to consistently bowing old, mature bucks.”

Sheds to success

While Pottenger may stumble onto his buck of a lifetime, he more than likely will have tracked the buck most of the year before he ever pulls back the string on his bow.

That starts with finding shed antlers. Pottenger spends days with Tyson, his son, and a new lab puppy finding antlers. Based on those sheds, he begins to formulate a plan to get to know everything he can about that deer.

“Almost every big buck I kill, I found his sheds first,” Pottenger said. “A lot of times, I’ll find a shed in that country and kill him within 200 or 300 yards of where I found his antlers.”

Once he finds a quality set of antlers, which are typically dropped in January, Pottenger then starts looking for signs and studying the area.

“The snow is huge. I’m all over that snow evidence,” he said. “It tells you everything. It shows you where they are traveling and what they are doing. But, it’s getting out and logging those hours. To me, it’s fun. It’s not for everybody.”

As the temperature warms, Pottenger then focuses on travel lanes to food sources.

Pottenger says it’s rare he spots a buck he hasn’t previously scouted. “When you are targeting a specific deer, the early and late season is much better because I’m hunting their core areas.”

But Pottenger said he does not hunt those areas were deer congregate to feed.

“I don’t like hunting deer at a destination food source with a bow, because you end up educating the deer,” he said. “Every deer in the woods will be there. When you try to get out of the tree, every deer knows you are there.”

Candid cameras

As a result, Pottenger focuses on placing cameras on those trails near the food and bedding areas. The hope is to find the travel lanes to catch daylight images of the bucks he’s pursuing.

If hunters have access to agriculture land, specifically alfalfa fields, they should take time to scout those areas from a distance with good optics, he said.

“Then back off (feeding areas) a ways … and try to intercept them,” with the camera placement.

But, hunters should not check those cameras in the morning “or you’ll blow all the deer out.” Typically, Pottenger checks his cameras from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and only once every several days to minimize the chance of spooking deer.

Early season archery hunters should also focus on trails leading to bedding areas, which he typically finds between 2,500 and 4,500 feet of elevation.

“He’s going to exit the destination food source and work up to his bedding area,” Pottenger said. “But you have to come from the side, versus to where he’s heading. Hunt everything on those wind edges.”

During the rut, elk mostly only move into the wind. Deer, especially mountain deer, do the same, he said. And unlike deer in the Midwest, which only have coyotes as natural predators, the deer in the Northwest face wolves, bears and mountain lions.

“I’ve hunted all over the Midwest. The deer are different. Those deer tolerate a lot more,” Pottenger said. “Out here in the mountains, you have to be dialed in. In my opinion, the smartest deer we can hunt are these deer that get hunted by all these heavy predators.”

Average hunter

Pottenger understands that most hunters don’t have an arsenal of 30 cameras or have the time to spend more than 200 days in the woods trying to pattern big bucks.

However, several of the same concepts apply to anyone with a couple of cameras and one place to hunt.

Pottenger suggests that hunters focus on scrapes or licking branches, which deer use all year to keep track of each other.

“Look at your maps and pick the best habitat you can find that deer like,” he said. “In the early season, deer are not going to go a long ways.”

Once hunters locate where the deer are feeding, they should then try to find those all-important travel lanes. Once the geography is selected, they should then study the wind patterns of the area.

Pottenger said he increases his odds by making his own scrapes by placing synthetic orbital gland scent on branches along the travel lanes. That gives the deer another reason to pass by either his cameras or by him during the season.

“All those deer know each other. Then all of the sudden you introduce this ghost deer they never see,” he said. “Most dominant bucks will always check these scrapes because they want to know who all of the sudden is leaving this scent. In essence, I’m getting the deer to hunt me through this scent.”

Even with only a couple of cameras, hunters should tread lightly, use the wind and gather as much information they can to increase their odds.

“I’m not just a trophy hunter. I have options with three tags (in Washington and Idaho) and a fourth in Oklahoma to be selective,” he said. “But we live off deer and elk meat. We love it.”