Anybody got any "GREAT" Deer Hunting Tips they would care to share with the Beginners - and me??? Here is something to kick it off:
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When you expect Deer to be within 300yds:
Wear a relatively new Face Mask(not Faded out) so you are just barely looking over the Eye Holes. Then pull a Boonie Style hat down so you are just barely looking under the Brim. This will help hide your "eyes" which will spook any Game as soon as they notice them.

When you are in a wooded area all decked out with blaze orange, pick a spot where deer are likely to come (based on water, grazing or bedding areas and wind direction) and sit down with your back to a tree or stump. Sit still and be willing to wait an hour or two before sundown and let them come to you. Impatience is your enemy.

from www.baitshopboyz.com:

When hunting deer, do not overlook any patch of
brush, no matter how small or low to the ground it
seems! One of the biggest whitetail bucks I have
ever seen sprang up from a patch which I would
have thought too small and to short to cover a
gopher.

A few years ago, I saw someone shoot a good-sized
muley buck that actually crawled (CRAWLED!)
Through a very expansive patch of brush that was
only as high as my knees, trying to get away in the
last seconds before the lung shot killed it.
We literally had to look for it and I don't mind
admitting that we would have been looking for quite
a while except for the fact that I heard one leg
scraping against the brush (less than knee-high!) As
it literally exhaled its last breath.

Tracking would have been difficult because the
brush was not crushed, and the blood fell to the
ground to be canopied by the brush. From what I
could tell, the buck went totally unseen from the spot
where it dropped 75 yards to the spot where it gave
up the ghost, and once it dropped I had absolutely
no way of knowing which direction it went. People
who has been hunting a lot longer than I have and
who have tracked deer for miles just for the
challenge of it, could not find it. The only way I found
it was by luck! Of course, we would have found it
eventually, but it would have taken a while.

The moral of the story is that these animals can
hide, and are good at it. They will get down on their
bellies and shinny around like snakes. I didn't
believe it either…until I saw it! Don't overlook any
patch of brush, when stalking or tracking, because
they can be anywhere!

--------------------------------------------

Whitetail Deer

If a whitetail doe stops every 20 to 30 yards to look back, chances are
that she is checking on a buck somewhere behind her. Patience may
reveal a trophy.


Mule Deer

To discover the location of Mule deer that might be bedded down nearby,
blow several loud blasts on a predator call. For some reason, mulies will
stand up to investigate the sound. At that point, you can either shoot or
begin a stalk as circumstances warrant.

Sometimes the most unlikely spot is the very best place to be. And what seems to be the most un-natural time for the big boy to stroll by is 12:15pm during the rut (happened to me), while most hunters are munchin on their lunch looking forward to the afternoon hunt.

After the wind, always use topography to your advantage and if still hunting and bumping a deer do not follow directly. Walk 3 times slower than you think and use your eyes 4 times more than you knew you knew how to... then you will see fawns and does... LOL

1. Don't necessarily take the advice of others as the gospel. For example, lots of folks will tell you never to shoot at sounds. Nonsense. I always do, and sometimes I gets me sumptin'!

2. If you're comfortable with your ability
and your weapon and are certain you can make it, don't blindly let someone tell you not to take the shot. On my first deer (a shotgun doe), the guy I was with said, "don't bother; you'll never hit her in a million years!" I took a knee and drove a copper solid through her head at 75 yards.

KG

P.S. For the off chance that any kiddies are reading (and more importantly for liability reasons ), #1 above was entirely in jest.

Learn to use a call, learn to use a decoy (where safe). Don't over call. Think very carefully where the decoy must go. A buck usually approaches from downwind and likes to come in to the back end of a decoy. This isn't always the case.

Learn to sit still and do it for hours and hours.

Find a farmer who hasn't allowed hunting for a long time-become his friend, the place will be crawling with animals.

Minimize your scent- lots of people don't believe in this but it works for me. It's interesting that horses and dogs freak out when I'm scent free, I guess they can't smell me enough to make up their mind.

Be aware of your scent. Don't walk on good game trails, don't investigate rubs and scrapes. Hiding in tall grass will reduce your scent as much as sitting in a tree. Watch your head in tall grass it's easy to see above the grass. Wear clean gloves and avoid touching things as much as possible-you leave scent everywhere you go.

Don't sit too close to an active trail-especially not in the middle of it.

If there is frost or rain or snow the deer probably won't need to go to water.
Still hunt like molasses, but stand still more than moving.

Tie a thread with a feather hanging off it to your gun/bow it will remind you that the wind is there all the time.

There is no better camoflauge than just sitting still (Fred Bears quote)

When it's really miserable out, get your ass out there. Look in the hidey holes and along fence lines.

Look more than you move.

If you get busted and the deer hasn't smelled you try stamping really hard, so you sound like another deer.

Learn to crawl. Keep your head from appearing over anything like the skyline or the top of a fence etc. look around stuff instead of over it.


If you find a rub line back off a bit and wait for mr big to show up.

If you find one of those posts that's been rubbed into an hour glass figure you've hit gold. I've never seen a buck use one in the daylight but they will be around.

If you don't have oak trees like the outdoor magazines talk about all the time you'll just have to hunt instead of waiting at the food source.

If everyone else is drive by hunting for sure get out and sit someplace good. maybe a place that trucks can't get to.

Follow a stream, sit by a stream.

Rainy days are great for still hunting, the rain clears up your scent and makes walking quiet.

Why do we wave to people? Because our hands are like flags. Cover your hands or put cammo paint on them.


Respect the land and you can expect to hunt there again next year.

Don't assume - because they may break every rule in the book !! Scent ? I took a break once and walked out to my truck. Then I realised that I had dropped something so I went back just the way I went out. Looking down for what I dropped i heard a noise . There standing right next to my stand was a buck !! so much for scent ! ..One friend passed up a bush thinking it's got too many points to be a deer. The bush ran off , it was nontypical antlers with about 25 points !!!

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
from www.baitshopboyz.com:

When hunting deer, do not overlook any patch of
brush, no matter how small or low to the ground it
seems! One of the biggest whitetail bucks I have
ever seen sprang up from a patch which I would
have thought too small and to short to cover a
gopher.

A few years ago, I saw someone shoot a good-sized
muley buck that actually crawled (CRAWLED!)
Through a very expansive patch of brush that was
only as high as my knees, trying to get away in the
last seconds before the lung shot killed it.
We literally had to look for it and I don't mind
admitting that we would have been looking for quite
a while except for the fact that I heard one leg
scraping against the brush (less than knee-high!) As
it literally exhaled its last breath.

Tracking would have been difficult because the
brush was not crushed, and the blood fell to the
ground to be canopied by the brush. From what I
could tell, the buck went totally unseen from the spot
where it dropped 75 yards to the spot where it gave
up the ghost, and once it dropped I had absolutely
no way of knowing which direction it went. People
who has been hunting a lot longer than I have and
who have tracked deer for miles just for the
challenge of it, could not find it. The only way I found
it was by luck! Of course, we would have found it
eventually, but it would have taken a while.

The moral of the story is that these animals can
hide, and are good at it. They will get down on their
bellies and shinny around like snakes. I didn't
believe it either…until I saw it! Don't overlook any
patch of brush, when stalking or tracking, because
they can be anywhere!

--------------------------------------------

Whitetail Deer

If a whitetail doe stops every 20 to 30 yards to look back, chances are
that she is checking on a buck somewhere behind her. Patience may
reveal a trophy.


Mule Deer

To discover the location of Mule deer that might be bedded down nearby,
blow several loud blasts on a predator call. For some reason, mulies will
stand up to investigate the sound. At that point, you can either shoot or
begin a stalk as circumstances warrant.

My dad said the biggest deer he ever saw would craw anytime it was in an open field. he said he saw it a couple times out of season. but someone finally ended up killing it with a spotlight

I mostly deer hunt in mountainous areas and the foothills on foot. This is mostly directed towards that:

Basics - Have a working knowledge of bedding areas, food/water souces, travel patterns.

Obstacles to Overcome - The difficulty of the terrain, the deers sense of smell and their ability to detect movement. A deers natural ability to be motionless and virtually disapear when standing in plain sight.

How I Overcome Those Obstacles - Be physically and mentally fit. Learn and understand the prevailing winds, thermals and air currents. Locate doorways in the deers travel routes such as a bench directly below a well used north-south ridge line, especially if this bench is above an obstacle. Limit your movement and keep your outline broken. Work on your ability to spot deer before they spot you. Look for the unatural appearance the horizontal line their backs make. Look for small details like the white tuffs you'll see when they twitch their ears or tail, or they bob their heads. Work your position so the deer become skylined as they move below a ridgeline, etc.

In most areas I hunt, I'll locate several such doorways to target. Depending on the time of day and the winds, I'll choose the best target and direction to attack it from.

What I find the most difficult is focusing on the task at hand. It is easy to become bored and get into the "grass is greener on the other side" mentality. You give up and go to move, this is when you kick up a huge deer you missed that was bedded down w/in 30yds.

good luck,
GVA

My ten tips to better deer hunting would be:

1)Scent Control
2)Good Camo that matches your surroundings(Full Body Camo)
3)Scent Control
4)Watch the Wind
5)Scent Control
6)Don't drive your truck right up to the area you intend to hunt, the game will hear you far away. Walk in quitely with goo drubber boots and don't touch anything.
7)Scent Control
8)Only use Estrus scent when it's the right time, using it to early or too late will spook game.
9)Scent Control
10)Did I mention Scent Control!

Good Luck

Reloader

I go along with the

quote:

1. Don't necessarily take the advice of others as the gospel.

During the 35+ years I have been hunting both white tails and mule deer, I have noticed that deer have not read the same books as hunters, and that deer don't write books.

Over a large part of the U.S., white tails especially are very rarely out of sight, scent, or sound of humans.

The main things that have helped me over the years are:

1. Be flexible with how you are hunting.

2. Either hunt into the wind or across the wind. For me this is not so much an issue of scent control, but one of sound control. To muffle the noises I make me, and to let me hear the sounds going on around me.

3. Be prepared to re-act. Whether it be dropping to the ground and staying still if you spook a deer, or ready to take the shot when it is presented.

4. Learn how to spot a deer by looking for pieces of the deer, not the whole animal.

5. Mule Deer aren't the only ones that will run for a while and then stop to look back. I have seen white tails do the same thing, usually they get away with it, because a 40 to 50 yard run puts them in heavy brush, sometimes though, after they get behind that first bush or two, they will feel like they are out of sight an they will stop and look back.

Everyone needs to develope their own strategies and techniques, simply because what will work in one state/county/area or property, may not work at all on another. JMO.

Spend more time out on foot than sitting in a pickup.

MG