Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I need some expert opinions on this deer hunting trick...

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What you write is absolutely TRUE, but in this case, my goal is NOT to shoot the deer myself, but rather to cause the deer to circle around me (due to my fidging, etc. which I do more and more as I get older) and walk into my son's and/or Grandson's rifles further down the well-used deer trail while the deer are still concerned and semi-occupied with me and making sure they have successfully sneaked around my position.

Thus, their attention is "split" between me and what is ahead.

Hopefully, that "split attendtion" will be enough to cause them to become somewhat less wary about coming back up on the trail since they may believe they've "by-passed" the real danger (me).

It may sound silly, but after a good many years of deer hunting, I've been thinking that a scheme like this just might work. Thus, I posted this question and you can read the answers for yourself.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Here as trick that I have used after 45+ years of hunting whitetail I listen to more experienced hunters. Specially from differant areas.

Ron,
I don't want you to consider my post as a challenge or anything of that sort. I offered an opinion to consider or dismiss as you please. You of course will do as you see fit and I wish you much success and a safe hunt.

MOGC...

I thank you for your thinking for my cause. I don't consider your comments a challenge at all, but rather all you've done was what I ask of you... and the same thoughts go for Miles Patton's comment who's perceptive posts I've read for several years here on the "Fire".

The same also goes for all the other gentlemen's posts who have been so kind as to add their thoughts... I appreciate their posts as well.

The area in Pennsylvania where we hunt 'most years (the Moshannon State Forest up on the High Plateau in North/Central Pennsylvania) is heavily hunted by a multitude of hunters on Opening Day and then, the hunter population thins out considerably after the first two days of the Opener.

In fact, I've made it a habit to go to my stand an hour before sun-up on Opening morning... and STAY PUT all day. I don't go in for lunch because I don't think it's very "savy" to be walking around in the woods with the one-or-two-days-a-year hunters in the woods from whom I've heard talk (at restaurants or bars) about shooting at "sounds" or "movement" in the woods.

Such "talk" (serious or not) scares me and I'm almost FEARLESS!


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I used to do this when calling crows as a kid. One of my siblings would walk with me to where I was setting up at the edge of a field then would walk back home by themselves. I'd start calling as soon as they were out of sight. Don't know if it really worked or not but I killed a lot of crows

I would look for the secondary trails the ones I call the buck trails not the heavily used doe trails. Set the boys up on these then enjoy your pipe and watch the biggest buck around follow the smoke trail right to you.

No expert but I do know enough to never make any predictions on deer behavior, at least not any hard and fast ones.

I feel it all boils down to the pressure of the area.

IME in thick high pressure areas you'll rarely if ever see an older buck once he's been spooked by human odor. In open low pressure areas such as the midwest or Texas, you may see the same buck daily even if he gets spooked. Around here you are very lucky to see them once after finding their sign and if they wind you, you can hang it up for that deer(for that season).

I don't know so much about being circled by an older deer(youngens will). The big boys usually get out of dodge once they smell you. Sure, they'll return, but they will avoid an area many times.

I KNOW the answer. It dpends. The question is site specific. You know better than any of us how to hunt it. The deer you hunt know all of that land and will use whatever cover/route to escape a predator is convenient. Remember, deer are like us, lazy. They will prefer a path or least resistance if possible. Push em slow.

My Dad and I hunted together until he was 84. He sat on a stand smelling like Ben Gay and smoking his hand rolled cigarettes.
He saw more deer than I did. Most walked right by him and more than once he said drag that one..referring to the bucks he shot @ 50 -100 yds

it depends on the cover. i have seen wt in east texas forests and big muleys in co. circle me to get back on their original track. they were far enough through the timber i could only see a piece of them move at times- like they knew how far to keep fom getting shot at. i guess most people would never have seen them.

Ron_T,

I ain't no expert, but that said, I have been sort of using this tactic. My Father-In-Law is a great guy, nut one of theose peeps that is in love with the CONCEPT of hunting, but lack the ability to apply the basic fundamentals. he will not sit quiet nor still, and the makers of calls are having thier portfolio stock raised by him, he buys every one known top man!

I usually set him up some where near a trail....then hun about 75-100 yds away, my back to him, with a small terrain feature, like a small hill or finger of a creek or somethig like that between us.

Last season I passed on three small does that were obviously avoiding him on three different hunts, so I have seen the basic concept that you are using work

I have been hunting the deer in 4 southern states for 46 years. I didn't even see any deer the first 2 years. I din't kill one until my 5th year. The older I get, the more deer I kill. I had to spend a lot of time listening to older hunters and learning from them, so that I could understand the deer as well as the terrain, weather patterns, reading sign, etc.

I didn't go to college until I was 38. A lot of the younger students wanted to learn how to hunt deer, and I bought a home and some property in GA near the campus. We would set up drives when the pressure drove the deer to go nocturnal. If we were short of standers, I would set out dirty, sweaty socks and tennis shoes at both ends of the edge where the clear-cut growth changed over to open field. It was hilly ground, and I would direct the standers to setup over looking the gullies. Since I was driving the thickets with my sons, it didn't matter that I had the smell of the socks/shoes on me. There were several good deer killed using this approach. As the deer headed for the corners, they would wind the stinking socks/shoes, turn toward the center to avoid the roads on either side, and turn toward the center and the gullies where they could slip through unseen. Some did manage to slip through and were seen, but too late to take a shot. Me and my sons wore plenty of orange, and as we got close to the standers, we would back off so as to avoid any mis-haps. Even though I had coached them well about safety, I didn't want to chance any buck fever accidents.

Deer are always hard to figure, but sometimes you do have to pull out your bag of tricks,or go without meat. With 4 kids to feed, and many students who wanted to try venison, I definitely needed the meat. We had a blast, killed many deer, and I made a lot of friends for an older student. They nick-named me "Boomer" cause I taught them to shoot too, and I am a baby-boomer. They also elected me to be the President of the Student Body during my Junior year. And I thought it would be hard to make friends at college cause I was older. Hunting has always been a blessing to me, even during those first 5 dry years. I always enjoyed those days afield with my elders.