Please read these deer hunting tips carefully. As a deer hunter, you’ll only succeed as far as your dedication and knowledge will take you. You might be satisfied with just getting that single deer every couple of years, but if you want better than that for yourself, learn how to get that trophy buck.
The following contains some deer hunting tips that the experts of deer hunting use every day to get the big ones.
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. Often, good hunters will scout their hunting areas months in advance of hunting season. I developed the habit of getting permission to check out the lease where I was going to hunt, then I scouted out the surrounding areas. I would survey all the available hunting sites and “dry hunt.” Act just like I was hunting but not bring a gun (only a camera) to evaluate which areas had the most deer movement, biggest bucks and highest buck to doe ratios. And at noon I walked around the lease, looking for signs of big bucks. And speaking of big bucks….
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. One thing you want to look for are tracks. You want to look at how big the tracks are, how many tracks there are, and in which direction the tracks are going. This will allow you to understand how big the deer are in a given area, how many there are, and what their movement patterns are. Look for Scrapes. These are the areas where bucks scratch against the ground and urinate to mark their territory and attract does. Usually scrapes are beneath low-hanging tree branches along the edges of heavy brush. Rubs – If the bucks rub the velvet off fresh antlers on posts and trees, be sure to see it and mark where they are. If you find a “rub line,” you will be able to find six or more rubs in a matter of about 100 yards. Most often, rubs are on the side of the tree that the buck came from, so knowing which sides of the trees have rub lines will tell you which way the bucks are going. You will also want to look for bedding areas, noting the size of the beds. If you don’t see any bedding, there aren’t any bucks!
3. Understand Your Firearm. Know the ballistics of the cartridge and bullet you are using. You also need to know how your gun reacts to the distance you are shooting. You need to know how far your shot raises for short shots and how far it falls for longer shots. Take some time to practice estimating distances. If possible, walk around the likely sighting areas ahead of the hunt, so you’ll know what length of shots you’ll be making and what sort of drop your bullet will make at that distance.
4. Shot Placement – You’ll be much better at your shot placement when you know how best to aim your deer hunting rifle. A lot of other hunters don’t agree with me on my preference, but I am a “neck shooter.” A shot properly placed anywhere on the neck brings down your deer, right then, every time. If your shot lands on the lower part of the neck you are likely to sever the carotid arteries; a shot high on the neck can damage the spinal cord; and a hit to the center of the neck can result in a combination of these fatal effects. From a broadside, front or rear quarter angle, or head-on angle the neck target is as large as the traditional “behind the lower shoulder” target and much more effective. Don’t ever try a full rear shot, unless it’s the only way to get a fantastic trophy buck; you won’t be nearly as effective at bringing down the buck, and it’ll be very uncomfortable to have to clean a butt-shot deer. Always make wise shooting decisions; making a fast, efficient kill is be the goal of all advanced deer hunters.
5. Attractants, Calls and Rattling. Briefly, our last advanced deer hunting tips involve attractants (food plots, mineral blocks and flavored blocks, and salt licks) deer calls, and techniques for rattling. If you are going to use food related attractants you need to prepare it in advance. Planting and tending food plots requires as much time and attention as gardening. 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. Usually calling or rattling will only work occasionally and only during the rut. Bucks will mostly be attracted to the rattles and calls because they’re curious if not in rut, but while rutting they’ll rush toward the noise, which is far from an ideal situation. There were times when I was nearly run over by bucks when I was rattling in a field. So if you get good at this, be prepared for some quick action. Proficiency is required, and it takes lots of practice. There’s a learning curve involved in knowing how to effectively mimic the calls or recreate the fighting sounds of deer. But once you learn how to do this, it’s a very useful skill.
No matter how interested in deer hunting you are, anyone with the slightest interest dreams of getting a nice trophy buck; you might also be a deer hunting fiend who wants a trophy rack each year. If you are going to join the ranks of the elite hunters, then you need to know the advanced deer hunting tips the elite hunters know.
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.