Helpful Deer Hunting Tips
I offer these deer hunting tips to help you advance your hunting success. The average deer hunter with only average knowledge and commitment, over time gets only average results. Any hunter can bag a small buck once every year or two and might occasionally get lucky, but bringing home that majestic trophy buck with regularity takes commitment and knowledge.
The advanced deer hunting tips I’m sharing with you here are for the true hunting masters.
1. Scout Your Hunting Area – This does not simply mean know where you are going to sit while you are hunting. It means to go out and truly get to know your hunting location. Some of my most successful hunting seasons were started months before opening day. Get permission to be on the lease you intend on hunting and scout out all the potential hunting spots. I surveyed all the potential hunting sites and then did a “dry hunt” — went through the motions of hunting but without a gun, so I could get to know the areas that had the most deer movement, the largest bucks, and the best buck-to-doe ratios. It is advisable to scout the lease during midday as well in order to find any signs of big bucks. Speaking of which:
2. Recognizing The Signs Of Big Bucks – By knowing what signs to look for, you will be better prepared to find the area where the trophy bucks are located. Look for tracks. Note the size, quantity and direction of the tracks to indicate the size, quantity and movement patterns of the deer. You also want to look for scrapes. These are areas where a buck scratches the ground and sometimes urinates to mark their territory and attract does. Bucks usually do this below low hanging tree branches that are located on the border of heavy brush areas during the rut. Look for Rubs – Areas on trees or posts where bucks rub the velvet off their new antlers or mark their territory during rutting season. A “rub line” is a series of a half-dozen or more rubs within a 100-yard area. Bucks usually rub on the side of the tree or post that he is traveling from. With this in mind, if you pay attention to which side of the trees are being rubbed you can have a clue as to which way the deer is moving. Also, look for bedding areas and make a note of their size. If you are not able to find any signs of bucks, it means there are no bucks in the area.
3. Understand Your Firearm. Know the ballistics of the cartridge and bullet you are using. Know the distance you will need to shoot and be able to make adjustments for geography; for example, the rise on short shoots and the fall for long shots. Practice judging distance and if all possible walk off the probable sighting areas ahead of time so if you are making a 400 yard shot you know it is 400 yards and you know the drop your bullet will realize at that distance and be able to adjust.
4. Shot Placement – You’ll be much better at your shot placement when you know how best to aim your deer hunting rifle. Personally, I am a “neck shooter.” While many hunters do not agree with this technique, a properly placed shot anywhere along the neck will drop your deer instantly. If you hit the deer lower on the neck the carotid arteries will be severed. If you hit the deer high on the neck you will break the deer’s spinal column. Finally, if you hit the deer in the center of the neck you will get a combination of both of these effects. No matter what angle the deer is at, whether it is broadside, front or rear quarter angle, or head-on, the neck will be as large of a target area as the typical “behind the lower shoulder” targets. The difference is that the neck target is much more effective. Taking a full rear shot is not advisable unless you have a trophy buck standing there and you just can’t leave it. If you have to clean a deer that has been shot up the rectum in not at all pleasant. You want to make smart decisions when you take a shot. The best deer hunters make a fast and efficient kill.
5. Attactants, Calls, and Rattling – While we do not have time to go into a lot of detail, it is an important deer hunting tip to use attractants (like natural food plots, salt licks/mineral blocks, feeders, and flavored blocks), deer calls, and rattling methods. You have to do some prep work beforehand with food attractants. You’ll have to put in enough time and effort into a food plot as you would a garden. You should set out food attractants in an area weeks or even months prior to hunting season, so that the deer will become familiar with their feeding times and the location of their meals. Calling and rattling are hit-or-miss techniques that usually only work during rutting. I have had bucks come to my rattling slowly and cautiously out of curiosity when they were not in rut, but typically when it works well they tend to come rushing. You could run the risk of getting run over by bucks if you rattle, so make sure you are prepared to act quickly if you want to do this. It’ll take a lot of time to get good at this. To effectively mimic the call or re-creation of realistic fighting sounds of deer has a learning curve, but can become very effective once learned.
Every deer hunter wants to display a trophy buck at some point, and some of us can’t rest unless we bag at least one grand creature every season. If you want to be able to regularly bag trophy bucks on a regular basis, you need to know and understand the deer hunting tips explained here.
If you want to learn more about deer hunting and get more deer hunting tips that can help you land the large bucks that get you trophy racks, go to Deer-HuntingTips.com and have a better hunting season than you’ve had in years.