Successful Hunters How Do You Do It?

[Biggie Hoffman]

"Where you hunt is a lot more important then how you hunt..."


Good point Walt...that's certainly been true for me.

[kojac]

the where you hunt is huge and just go out there as much as you can. Don't worry about what mistakes you might be makeing.

If your at a point in your life where you have no family obligations but you have more time than money go spend some time in the woods.

good luck & hope ya shoot a Biggie  :D

[Scott E]

can't wait for saturday. I would hunt but havent gotten my January tags yet. So I'm going to scout hard and see what I can find I think each one of these responses will definetley help me. I have a five day weekend next week so productive scouting this weekend could result in a deer next week   . Wish me luck and thank you for all your tips keep them comin.-Scott
Deadbolt sent you an e-mail

[-Achilles-]

i have killed quite a few over the years and im by no means amature...BUT...I have a couple questions myself...some said look for the white oak acorns...ok but where i hunt there are white oaks everywhere so what then?...and some said to find where they bed...ok...but I mean I know where ALOT of bedding areas are and the only way to KNOW which ones are fresh is by actually going and checking risking jumping them up or maybe put a trail cam at every place they bed...sometimes they just bed whereever for no particular reason also

[Larry247]

Some acorns tast better than others, i guess. If you look for it when you hunt oak's you'll see that some trees are better than others. I've got three big red oaks that the deer have feed under for years. If i hunt one of those trees i'll kill a deer. The best trees will look like a dozer had been plowing around them.

Bedding areas can be a tricky thing. I have at least three doe groups on my place and they all bed in a differant spot. You need to keep a record of when and where you saw deer. This will help remind you where to go and where not to go at differant times during the day. Bucks will frequent these spots during the pre rut and the rut.

[RC]

After Biggies lessons from Barry I gave him shooting lessons then it all came together for him.I think Shuster or Joebuck taught him how to swim....RC

[pseman]

Something else that might be helpful, is to keep a log or journal of your hunting and scouting trips from year to year. I've been doing this for a number of years now and I always review the log during the current season. I look to see what I was seeing and where I was seeing it in past seasons. Deer are very much creatures of habit. Usually if you find an area that is productive at a certain time(scrape line, feeding area, etc) one season, it will follow much the same pattern year after year. I know the deer on our property seem to utilize certain areas more at different times throughout the season. I don't know how many times that I have found scrape lines, often under the same overhanging limb, year after year. Keeping a journal will allow you to have notes to refer to for in-season scouting.

As has been mentioned already, TIME is the best teacher. The more of it you can spend in the woods, the better hunter you will be.

Good luck!

[Scott E]

If you see a deer in an area at a particular time what are the chances of you seeing that deer in that area again around the same time? not including the rut of course.-Scott

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Scott E:
If you see a deer in an area at a particular time what are the chances of you seeing that deer in that area again around the same time? not including the rut of course.-Scott

This question is probably out of my league but I will relay a recent experience that I had.

It can kind of very I think.

For instance, last week my trail camera showed a doe in an area at 9:am this is typical where I hunt. The morning activity is usually between 7:00-9:30. So I setup close to the area of the game camera. At 8:45 I heard a deer snort (up wind of me) and seconds later I saw 4 does and a buck pass 100 or so yards to my east.
The next day I setup on the trail that the deer ran on the day before and I saw nothing. They may have changed their pattern because they were spooked in that general area the day before.

[Steve Kendrot]

I often don't have the time for scouting like I used to so I often scout on the fly while I'm hunting. I often pick a general area and fine tune my stand placement over several sits, depending where I see deer. I have also done some trapping and through that have learned a lot about how animals view and use the landscape. These days, I hunt more using landscape features than microhabitat features like food sources and bedding areas. Movement corridors are where I start and google maps is a great way to begin that interpretive process. Fine tune your set ups once you've done some "ground truthing" based on sign.

Of course, homogeneous environments are a bit more difficult if you don't have the topography to help you out. I often print my maps with topos on one side and aerial photos on the other. I refer to them constantly when learning a new area.

I also found that my skills as a hunter increased dramatically once I started hunting new areas after I dispersed from my  "natal" home range where I grew up. Hunt new areas and you will develop a better understanding of how deer use the landscape than if you just get to know one area really well.

I was 14 when I started hunting and 18 when I killed my first deer. Patience is key... Good luck on your long weekend.

[6X5]

Hate to show my ignorance but what is a funnel?I have never heard anyone use that term hunting the blacktails that I hunt in Oregon and Washington.

[Terry Green]

A funnel is where the game your are after narrow down into a travel corridor created by a variety of terrain variables and transitions.

I'll post some examples in a bit....and maybe others will also.

[John3]

Funnel is any structure (pond,fence,saddle in ridgetop, river, blowdown, edge cover,,,ect) that forces deer to "funnel" their movements.
My key is to find the bedding areas as well as the food source at the correct time of year. Food source could be crops, mast or a weedy browse patch. Deer leave ragged riped edges when they browse, rabbits, ect.  leave clean crisp cuts.
 Get out this time of year and find where the bedroom is. Crawl if you have too through the thickest cover on your property that people never go into. You will find deer sign. I like to pick a rainy day so I don't make much noise.
Experience is a great teacher. Call your state deer biologist if need be. They are a great information source regarding food sources.  Remember if this was easy it wouldn't be any fun.

John II

[Terry Green]

Good post JD.

Narrow strips of woods between crops, saddles, narrow pinches in bluffs, water barriers that coincide with other hard to travel terrain features, thicket narrows with hardwoods on both sides etc...

[Biggie Hoffman]

RC's right. (there's a 1st time for everything)

It doesn't do much good to find 'em if you can't hit the crease. Don't forget to practice whilst you learn all this stuff.

[woodchucker]

"You just gotta be in the right place,at the right time".....My Dad

"You can't shoot deer sittin' in The Diner".....My cousin "Buzzy"

"The best time to shoot a buck,is when he walks in front of you".....My "Uncle Pete"

"If you aint out there hunting,then you aint hunting".....My GrandDad

"Sometimes ya just get Lucky"....."woodchucker"

[RRock]

Alot of good stuff so far!
When it comes to bedding areas, once you find the primary bedding area stay OUT of it. Walk around at a distance and find how the does come in and out of it.
Pay attention to the the weather and wind, when the wind blows backward the does will be sleeping some place else that night.
Know what food is available available to the does and how do they get there.
I guess to keep it simple, pay very close attention to the does, understand them and what they do when they do it and why they do it. If you concentrate on the does, that will take care of the bucks.
Don't over hunt an area. Thats a good why to screw up all the scouting you've done from afar. I try not to hunt the same the same area more then 2 nights in arow. It dosen't take much for a belle doe to know your there.
Like most people know, if the wind is wrong for that tree or blind stay away.
Another thing I really like to find are trees that have been rubbed on for multiple years especially when your opening up a new area, kind of lets you know that something there is favorable to the bucks, could be a staging area maybe. The does might be out in that bean field eating the tops and the bucks are just hanging back alittle. Theres a whole bunch more to learn but you usually do that by making mistakes.
Keep track of the ladies, unless you mess up they stay pretty tight to their home area.

[KentuckyTJ]

Scott, you have no shortage of replies on here from successful hunters.  A lot of great replies.  My only addition is be out there as much and possible and keep the wind in your favor. Also remember even us self proclaimed successful hunters aren't successful every time.

Good luck!

[joe skipp]

As a ground hunter....I try to stay as clean as possible. I'm a believer in Cover Scents, I wear soft fleece camo(ASAT) and I never wash them. I want the cover scent impregnated in my clothing.

Stillhunt mostly in cross wind, move slowly and glass often. Never disturb the bedding areas. Scout Jan/Feb to find new areas and travel routes to and from bedding/feeding areas.

When setting up natural ambush locations, I do this in Jan/Feb so the animals get use to the new unatural "blind". Set up ambush locations on both sides of travel routes at different locations, play the wind.

Use mock scrapes, make them large, dress them up with good lure, I prefer JV Scrape Gel. Follow a good scrape or rub line and hunt the fringes, always paying attention to wind. key to know the predominant winds in morning and evening.

99% of all my shots are quartering away. Past few years been using a face mask with the eyes cut out. Just seems to work better from the ground than face paint. I've had deer walk by me at 5yds....my kind of shot. Timing your draw is important another reason I dropped my bow poundage to 55-57#. I can hold longer until the shot presents itself.

Sharp heads, a well tuned bow, a well placed arrow equals venison on the table.

[Don Thomas]

Funny; the original question was totally open-ended with regard to WHAT was being hunted, but 99% of the answers referred to whitetails, implicitly from tree stands. Nothing wrong with that, but can I really be the only one out here who thinks bowhunting is a bit more complex than that? In terms of he answer to the original question, it doesn't really matter. The answer is: spend as much time in the field as possible, and learn as much as you can while you are there. There are no short cuts. Don