anyone have and good Deer Hunting tips? (rifle, 12ft. stands)
Wear orange. Lots and lots of orange.
don’t go with Chris Walken. but if you must, just remember- “One shot…”
Keep in mind that, with deer, it’s either kill or be killed.
You want a real hunting challange? Kill the deer with your bare hands.
And if you simply injure the deer you have to find it and put it out of its misery.
And in case you are from the city, the ones that go MOOOOO are cows and are not to be shot.
OK… maybe I’m not being specific enough…
I’ve hunted MANY a times before, I live not in the country, but not in the city either, and know what cows are seeing as I almost had to shoot a charging bull (isn’t there a joke…?) with my .270 last year…
but ANYHOW, real veteran hunters?
I think this year is gonna be exceptionally mild in the midwest, and I’ve never hunted in anything but deep snow, so any tips from REAL hunters??
If it’s mild, the deer likely won’t be moving. Might be a better year to walk the woods (preferably with a strategically placed hunting party) as opposed to blind hunting. Stay down wind, obviously.
I hear a big mistake many hunters make is being careless about bringing human smells to the forest that the deer’s bionic noses can pick up easily. Try to do your eating and drinking at the camp before you go out, as well as your bathroom requirements. Eat trail mix or other non-smelly stuff out in the woods. The jury’s out on deer scent; I’m not sure how effective it is. Eh, what’s a little deer piss gonna hurt? Give it a whirl.
Can you bait-hunt where you are? It’s been restricted and outright banned in many counties where I live (northern Michigan), because it’s believed to be spreading bovine tuberculosis in the wild deer population.
And another bit of advice, Ad: This board is not a good place to ask hunting questions. A little too politically correct, urban and left-leaning when it comes to that subject. And you want to ask people who spend all day on computers about deer hunting?
You’ll have much better luck finding message boards dedicated to hunting and hunters elsewhere out there in cyberspace. Check a good search engine; there’s bunches out there.
In a mild year, I think it pays to go high, go where no one else is willing to go, and spend more time than they are willing to spend. I concentrate on elk more than deer, but the same advice applies. If it’s been warm and dry, stick to north-facing slopes where it’s shady and cooler. Around here, road-hunting is big. You’ve got to be willing to get off the beaten path. Even if you do get lucky and bag a monster buck 50 yards off the road, that’s not real hunting. A lot of folks also restrict most of their activity to morning and evening, thinking that the critters are all bedded down through the afternoon. I think it’s worthwhile to stick with it all day. It’s a good idea to take hunter pressure into consideration, too, especially if you can’t afford to hunt the whole season. Later in the season, there’s a better chance for colder weather to get them moving, and many other hunters will have given up.
My own personal deer-hunting tip: No matter how tired and desperate you are, and no matter how big that buck is, and even if it’s the only shot you’re going to get–if it’s standing in the creek, you don’t really want to shoot it. In fact you’re better off to just pretend you never saw it. Don’t ask me how I learned that.
Don’t drink. WEll, ok, drink, that’s most of the fun. But don’t get DRUNK. Because than you get lost, then you get stuck in a big mudhole, during a blizzard…it’s a long story, but trust me on this one.
Here’s a hunting tip from a veteran bargain hunter:
DON’T KILL BAMBI’S MOTHER!
I bowhunt deer and elk. Tips: Wear a cover scent and scent elimination clothing. Scout the area for weeks before the season. Use topographic maps of the area to look for funnels, ravines, meadows and sources of water. Key the probable areas into your GPS, then go hunting.
Archer?
GPS?
for a SPORTSMAN?
no, no, no, I refuse to own one…
but thank you ALL for all your tips!!!
also, unfortunately though, hunting is limited to 8 days… not cool
Milossarian–
do you know if adding tree bark, leaves, and the like from the area you’re hunting to boiling water, boiling the water down to half the original volum, puting the remaining water in a spray bottle, and spraying your clothes would do any good?
I heard the smell gets trapped in the water, and the water will then smell like the outdoors…
(Late, but) My experience is that Toyota Corollas attract tons of deer but Ford trucks scare them off. I swear that I almost started carrying a couple of tags in that Corolla…
I’ve heard of that, too.
I’m not sure how effective any scent-blocks are. Some hunters whose opinions I hold in high regard think it’s all bunk. And how do you judge if it is effective? If you bag a 10-point, was it because of the doe scent you sprinkled? If you didn’t get a deer, was it because it didn’t work?
My attitude is, it’s cheap and it probably can’t hurt, so try it. More important is trying to avoid cracking open beers, eating your macaroni and cheese and taking a leak or a dump outside your deer blind.
I’ve got one tip for you…watch the movie “Powder”
gak!!
Most important hint
Hunt where the deer are.
Get out and scout the area.
Get permission if you are hunting private land.
Hunt edges borders and single solitary points.
Milossarian–
last year I bagged a 10 pointer just sitting… after taking a piss… and getting my coffee out (isnt that when all the deer come out?) stood there, BROADSIDE, 40 yards out…
didn’t hear the shot that killed 'im…
I think I might try some scent… maybe a call even…
Lohman makes a very easy to use, very realistic sounding multi-tone reed call… I’ll have to try that…
Thanks, and keep the suggestions and hints coming…
See now you basically learned one of the most important rules that I was going to mention. Never underestimate the dumb luck factor. This is key.
However there is no substitute for preseason scouting and knowing the patterns of the deer in your hunting area. Learn their escape routes.
One of the best things I ever learned about deer hunting is Watch for horizontal lines in a vertical background.
Ok so we know you are not hunting in Michgan, Minnesota or Wisconsin if your season is only 8 days. Where are you that you have apparently had snow lately for hunting. I pray for snow this year. I don’t hink we have had snow on the ground for 4 years now here in Mid-Wisconsin.
Milo brings up an interesting point when he mentions the general lack of respect hunters get because of the PC nature here at times. Kind of flies in the face of fighting ignorance doesn’t it. This board is about the spreading of knowledge and that is what you asked for in this thread.
Milo ,
Did they ban baiting all over in Michigan or just downstate and in select counties in the U.P.?
I think it’s restricted everywhere in the state, outright banned in counties where deer and cattle have been found with bovine TB.
I guess in the northeastern Lower Peninsula (Alpena area) baiting is a big thing. People would put HUGE piles of corn, beets, etc. out. And many people would feed deer through the winter.
Biologists here speculate that the rare random deer that gets infected with bovine TB usually doesn’t come into close enough contact with other deer to infect them before it dies. But with these bait piles, the deer are all nose-to-nose.
Michigan is now the only state with bovine TB sustaining itself in a wild deer population. And if you know anything about deer up here, they’re everywhere. Before long, infected cattle were found in the Alpena area.
As bovine TB can potentially be passed on to any mammal (humans included) this is a very major deal. Whole herds of cattle have needed to be eradicated. Family farmers who’ve been struggling to begin with have gone under. Businesses reliant on hunting related tourism have taken massive hits the last couple of years.
They thought for awhile that the problem was isolated. But then a few infected deer were found in three or four counties well outside the expected contamination zone, including a county about 4 miles from me.
Many surrounding states won’t buy Michigan cattle anymore. Don’t want to go through the time-consuming testing, (or the wait while Michigan farmers do the testing), and why take any chances? This is having a multi-million-dollar impact on my state’s economy.
It’s a hard disease to catch. It’s pretty rare in humans now, but used to be much more prevalent in the early 1900s. (That’s the main reason why milk is pasteurized.)
You’d actually be all right if you ate properly cooked venison even from a contaminated deer. But do you want to take that chance? I don’t.
Many farmers are pissed, because they don’t believe the State Department of Natural Resources is taking the correct approach: Rigorous testing and restrictions on moving cattle, while not much is being done on the wild deer end. Just some hunting season modifications, bait restrictions or bans.
But as some DNR folks have pointed out to me, you could bring in a couple of miltary battalions and not wipe out all the deer.
This issue could end up getting national attention. Deer don’t recognize state borders, and there’s no reason why what’s happening here couldn’t happen elsewhere.