Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best Deer Hunting Secrets

LOL

You dont need cover scent, atv is better than walking

There are some good tricks for getting blacktails depending on the terrain and cover. I won't tell all of them but some I will tell.

If you jump a big blacktail buck from his bed near a hilltop and he lets you watch him bound off, usually you get a couple bounces and he's in the brush or around the hill out of sight. If you got a good view of him going right, turn 180 and proceed left. Don't waste your time following him. He expects that. He let you see him run (as opposed to holding tight or sneaking out) to bait you into following him.

If they let you watch them escape one way, they'll turn when out of sight and go back the other way, eventually coming up close to where they started. I've turned and walked away from them and bumped into them circling me I don't know how many times. Basically, if he goes one way, go the other and be ready!

In mountain blacktail country, find steep ridgelines with bedding cover on one side and work your way up or down the ridgeline throwing rocks down in the brush as you go. The deer will move out ahead of the noise and when you get to a saddle, end of the ridge, or otherwise natural crossing point if you've been doing it right they'll walk out right in front of you.

Big blacktails hold tight, so if you're still hunting, stand around alot, and expect deer to explode within feet of you at any time. You won't see them ahead of time no matter how close, but you can be prepared for it now that you've been warned!

If it's rut time and you come across does just standing around, not feeding or doing "normal" deer stuff, those does are advertising their estrus condition to bucks that are known (to the does) to bed or travel downwind of that spot. Hunt the downwind thickets or stake out the edges of them and wait.

There's many more, but that's all I'm giving up. Already said too much.

This is a secret only for those who are willing to wait for that big one to come out. I know this secret to be an absolute FACT! If you want to kill a big buck, you MUST hunt where they are at!

I have a lot of frustrating seasons in pursuit of the wily blacktail.

When I was a boy we'd run deer drives with sure-shot uncles on a stand. Deer were plentiful then, not anymore in California.

Thanks for the advice, Fireball.

WTH

LOL!

thanks, but i got that covered

actually, i've only seen two bucks in December...they don't move like they do during the rut

I like to wait until all the early risers get up and leave before dawn. I warm up their leftover coffee, eat a sweet roll, take a dump, and take a walk outside of camp.

More than once I have a buck hanging before they get back from the morning hunt.

hahahaha

You'll see more bucks with a spotlight
and there is a lot less hunter competition at night.

A former co-worker, very successful bow hunter with numerous Pope & Young record bucks, consultant team member for a former Archery equipment company (Xi/Indian Archery), told me he killed the majority of his P & Y bucks, after gun season ended and the primary rut was over.

He said after gun season ends and rut activity has dwindled big bucks are famished and interested only in one thing --- feeding. That's where he said hunted - where he figures the big bucks most likely will be feeding.

Buy a wheel borrow inner tube and put just a few pounds of air in it and carry it with you. Makes sitting on the ground or in a stand soooo much more comfortable. Light and easy to carry and your ass with thank you.

You got some lazy phuggin deer then....lol.

This is literally my secret to any outdoors pursuit. If it's easy to get to or you can do it without sweating or shivering a little, some hack has already been there and gotten whatever you're looking for.....

Used to saw through bones on deer/elk/hogs then went to loppers... now I use a WWII machete.... MUCH easier.

"You gotta be where the deer are at." That's kind of a running joke in my house. Deer are basically herding animals. Especially late in the season when they yard up. You can spend a week sitting in the woods and never see a deer if the herd isn't there. In the east, this is especially critical because the lots are broken up into such small areas. If you don't have permission for the property they are yarding on, you are out of luck. Usually it's the sunny side of a hill, out of the wind.

they move, I'm sure, just not during the day

Just trying to be Captain Obvious, dripping with sarcasm!

I'm gonna go with my apples jubilee idea. Bought a couple bags, sliced them up and will put one at each location. Those apples really smell, they should get the attenton of a big fat hungry doe.

If you want to stop deer along a well travelled route so you can make a good shot, drag a small tree across their trail. They will stop and stare at it before going around.

Want to make deer cross a fence where you want them to cross? Tie the top strand to the middle strand of barbed wire and then drag a small tree to block access to their former crossing spot.

Want to have a permanent deer blind for cheap? Buy a junk car from a salvage yard and have it towed to your spot in the woods. Stuff old clothes with newspapers to form dummies and place them in the front seat. Opening day you simply toss the dummies into the rear seat and hunt with the windows open. Deer can't tell the difference between the dummies and live hunters. No kidding, this works!

My Dad (1922-2004) taught me these tricks.

Sherwood