15 Keys to Better Deer Hunting Want to improve your odds in the whitetail woods? Give these tag-filling tips a try. By J Wayne Fears To a whitetail hunter, "success" can be defined in many ways, but if your definition involves taking your share of large-racked bucks, you need more than luck to achieve it. Any lucky hunter can sit on the right log at the right time and occa- sionally shoot a big buck. Only a hunter who pays attention to detail can do so consistently. If you want to have more than luck on your side when whitetail hunting, try these proven tips: 1) Put your total effort into the hunt. Hunt with a winning attitude. It's not easy to put your all into a hunt when you're freezing cold, the wind is blowing, it's raining hard, you need more sleep, the bucks won't move, or you want to get back to camp for lunch. Hunt every chance you get, with enthusiasm, regardless of the weather. Deer are unpredictable, and only one thing is certain--if you don't hunt, you won't be successful. Hunt with the same zeal and alertness the last hour of a hunt as you did the first. 2) Outfit yourself to be a good deer hunter. Buy a good pair of hunting boots and have them well broken-in before deer season opens. Select your hunting clothes for comfort based on the anticipated weather and method of hunting you will do. In cold weather, dress in layers to retain your body heat. Get yourself a day pack and make it a necessary part of your hunting gear. Properly outfitted, it can enable you to stay comfortable in the back country under most conditions without quitting the hunt early. Carry a rain suit, flash- light, a change of socks, gloves, binoculars, rope, a compass, a map of the area, a survival kit, lunch, a canteen of water, and whatever else you think necessary to stay comfortable. An uncomfortable hunter is seldom alert or successful. 3) Hunt the difficult-to-hunt areas. One of the main reasons many hunters never see large bucks is that they hunt only the easy places. A buck that has lived long enough to have a large rack--three or more years--is smart enough to spend a lot of time in the thicker, more remote areas within his territory. This is especially true when the woods are suddenly full of hunters. Some of the most successful trophy hunters I know hunt only the thickest deer cover they can find. They prefer beaver swamps, creek bottoms thick with cane and honeysuckle, timber cut overs that are several years old, and overgrown, long abandoned fields. These hunters will scout the area thoroughly, locating trails that appear to be used often. Using a portable tree stand, they will set up so that they can observe these trails and may watch such an area for several days from daylight until dark. 4) Get to know the buck's habits and habitat as if he were a close friend. Read everything you can about the life history of the whitetail buck, and spend some time with a wildlife biologist. Listen to hunters who take bucks regularly. From all these sources you can learn to anticipate a buck's actions and how best to plan your hunts. This will take some time and field work. For example, when a biologist tells you the favorite fall food of deer in your area is Japanese honeysuckle, don't be satisfied until you can recognize it in the woods. 5) Look for old home sites when scouting. They often provide deer a perfect hideout. Grown up and usually overlooked by hunters, they make choice bedding areas. There may be an abundance of food in the form of recurring garden plants, fruit trees, nut-bearing trees, shrubs along fence rows, etc. The site of the smokehouse or outhouse may have become a salt m lick. Water may be available at a spring, stock tank, or even a windmill. Older topo maps are a good way to locate any former homesites. 6) Develop an eye and ear for deer. Many hunters fail to see deer in the wild because they are looking for an entire deer or a deer standing in an opening. Unfortunately, whitetails, especially mature bucks, don't often present themselves this way. Learn to watch for any slight movement at a distance. The slightest flick of a tail or twitch of an ear can reveal a buck to an alert hunter. Learn to watch for parts of a deer: the glint of an eye, the tip of an ear, sunlight shining on polished antlers, or a horizontal line--the deer's back or belly--that seems out of place. If you are still-hunting, occasionally stoop to look below the limbs and brush. Knowing the color of a deer's coat during hunting season also helps. Deer coats vary from reddish, usually in the summer, to dark brown or gray, usually in the fall and winter. However, this can vary from one locale to another. Local biologists or conservation officers can set you straight on the color of deer coats in the area you hunt Listen to sounds around you that may alert you to a deer's presence. Deer walk very noisily in dry leaves, a buck may grunt during the rut, and a deer feeding on acorns makes a popping or crunching sound. Resist the temptation to make any quick movement to identify a sound. 7) Shoot from a firm rest. Many good bucks are missed simply because during the excitement of the moment, the hunter failed to take advantage of a firm support for his firearm. The stand or blind hunter should plan ahead of time how he will take possible shots. The stalk or drive hunter should use a sling and know how to shoot using a tight sling position. Most experienced still-hunters move from tree to tree so that they will have a shooting support readily available. The hunter who takes his time, gets a firm support for his firearm, and takes only well-placed shots doesn't have to make excuses. 8) Use binoculars regularly. All whitetail deer hunters should invest in a pair of quality binoculars and use them on every hunt. Many eastern hunters think only western hunters need binoculars in their vast, open country. Wrong! Many successful hunters say they spot more bucks with binoculars than with the unaided eye. Bin- oculars are especially valuable during periods of low light such as dark days, early morning, or late in the afternoon, and for studying the edges of clear cuts, agriculture fields, or creek banks. 9) Wear yellow shooting glasses on dark days or when hunting in dark timber. By filtering out ultraviolet rays, these lenses increase contrast and improve visibility. They are good to use whenever the light is poor. It's also important to wear them when scouting, as they help in spotting sign in dark shade. They are good protection for the eyes any time you're moving around in brush. 10) Pay attention to wind direction and air currents. A deer can detect an upwind hunter by scent from as far away as half a mile. Within 100 yards, a buck can pinpoint the location of a hunter with the slightest air current. Considering this, hunters must be very aware of wind direction and air currents. Many seasoned hunters tie a length of sewing thread--about four inches--to their rifle's upper sling swivel or the upper limb of their bow to be able to check even the slightest movement of air. It is surprising how much air movement occurs on what appear to be calm days. An important air movement that many hunters are not aware of is the up slope and down-slope movement of air near the ground caused by the heating and cooling of the earth's surface. Starting fairly early in the morning as the sun heats the ground, air movement is up slope as warm air rises. In the late afternoon, as the earth's surface begins to cool, the direction of air movement has changed to down-slope. This can play a major role in determining where to place a stand or the direction of a stalk. For example, if you are hunting in an area with hills and valleys, you might hunt hilltops during the warm part of the day and valleys at daybreak or late in the afternoon. Knowledge of this air movement can be especially helpful when you know the bedding and feeding areas and travel routes of the deer in a specific area. Another air movement that can quietly carry a hunter's scent a long way, especially on clear days, is the movement of air from cooler to warmer spots. As the air is warmed and rises in a spot where the sun hits it first, a flow of cooler air is drawn from cooler spots to fill the void. How can this affect the hunter? Let's say a bow hunter has his blind in a forest adjacent to a clearcut where bucks are known to bed. As the sun warms the clearcut first, the scent of the hunter in the cooler forest is pulled into the clearcut, warning the bucks of his presence. 11) When deer are feeding on agricultural crops, set up stands on the approaches to the field rather than at the field edges. Bucks feeding in open fields most often feed at night. They follow a trail to a spot near the field during the late afternoon and hold up there until dark before entering the field. A stand on a heavily used trail some 100 yards into the woods from the field may catch the buck slowly approaching the field or milling around awaiting darkness. 12) Use only masking scents that are common to the area you are hunting--pine scent in pine woods, sage in sagebrush country, cedar in cedar hills, etc. Don't overdo it and don't think wearing the scent replaces the necessity of watching wind direction and air currents. In fact, some of the best deer hunters I know never use- a cover scent. They keep their hunting clothing and themselves clean, avoid taking any foreign odors (smelly soaps, aftershave lotions, gun oil, hair tonic, coffee, or food) into the woods with them. They watch the wind religiously. 13) Learn to sit motionless for long periods. Nothing gets a keen eyed old buck's attention any faster than a squirming hunter. The best tree stand or camouflage clothing won't conceal a hunter who is swatting at mosquitoes, scratching his nose, wiggling his feet, or constantly turning his body to look behind him. We hunters are within view of mature bucks much more than we know, and movement is our biggest giveaway. 14) Exercise patience. Successful whitetail hunters take their time in planning a hunt and don't change plans midway through the hunt. If they select a stand, they stick with it, even though after sitting there a couple of hours they see several other locations that look better. They can spend several days hunting an area they like even though they don't see any deer moving. When still-hunting, they will take an hour to cover 300 yards. Perhaps what is most impressive about these hunters--and I am convinced it is the reason they take more large-antlered deer--is that they have the patience to pass up small-antlered young bucks. By exercising some self discipline and passing up smaller bucks, they sooner or later get a chance at a mature one. In most areas, when you pull the trigger on a buck, your hunt is over. If you take small bucks, you will rarely get a chance at a wall-hanger. 15) Take advantage of natural cover when selecting a stand site. Hunters often rely totally on camouflage clothing for cover when on a stand. This is usually not enough. In a tree stand, be mindful of your background from the perspective of a deer on the ground. Have a tree or thick branches and leaves breaking up your outline. Don't leave a rope dangling from the stand to wave in the wind. When selecting a ground stand, find a tree or stump large enough to lean against to break up your outline. Clear an area for your feet and legs so that any movement won't make a lot of noise. Use grass and saplings to help break up your outline, but don't forget to clear out any obstacles to shooting in the logical directions. The more comfortable your stand is, the more likely you are to sit still. It is also a good idea to wear a camo face mask and gloves when on the ground, in a tree stand, or stalking.