Deer Hunting Tips To Make You A Successful Hunter
Following are some of our best deer hunting tipswe offer for your success. As a deer hunter, you’ll only succeed as far as your dedication and knowledge will take you. It’s likely that every hunter will manage to bag a small buck every year or two, and maybe will even get lucky and hit his target more often. But it takes a deep understanding of hunting and the dedication to do whatever is required to bag a majestic trophy buck.
The advanced deer hunting tips I’m sharing with you here are for the true hunting masters.
1. Scout Your Area Ahead of Time – I don’t mean analyze where you are going to sit when the truck drops you off, I mean really get to know the area you are hunting. The most successful hunters actually start hunting months prior to the first day of the hunting season. Get permission to be on the lease you intend on hunting and scout out all the potential hunting spots. Do a “dry hunt,” where you just look at all the hunting sites you have available unarmed, with a camera, and find out where you can find the biggest bucks, and most movement, and a better buck to doe ratio. I would also walk the lease during midday noting the signs of the big bucks, and speaking of the signs of the big bucks:
2. Recognizing The Signs Of Big Bucks – By knowing what signs to look for, you will be better prepared to find the area where the trophy bucks are located. One thing you want to look for are tracks. You want to look at how big the tracks are, how many tracks there are, and in which direction the tracks are going. This will allow you to understand how big the deer are in a given area, how many there are, and what their movement patterns are. You also want to look for scrapes. These are areas where a buck scratches the ground and sometimes urinates to mark their territory and attract does. Bucks usually do this below low hanging tree branches that are located on the border of heavy brush areas during the rut. Look for Rubs. These are the spots on trees or posts where bucks rub the velvet off their budding antlers, of where they mark their territory in rutting season. A “rub line” is a series of rubs, six or more within about a 100 yard space. Most often, rubs are on the side of the tree that the buck came from, so knowing which sides of the trees have rub lines will tell you which way the bucks are going. You will also want to look for bedding areas, noting the size of the beds. No signs of bucks means no bucks!
3. Know How Your Firearm Shoots – Know the ballistics of the caliber and cartridge you are using. Know the distance you will need to shoot and be able to make adjustments for geography; for example, the rise on short shoots and the fall for long shots. Practice judging distance and if all possible walk off the probable sighting areas ahead of time so if you are making a 400 yard shot you know it is 400 yards and you know the drop your bullet will realize at that distance and be able to adjust.
4. Shot Placement – You’ll be much better at your shot placement when you know how best to aim your deer hunting rifle. I am a “neck shooter,” which means I believe a shot well-placed anywhere on the neck will bring your deer down every time. There are many hunters who disagree with me on this preference. No matter where you hit the neck, you’ll get him very effectively; you’ll either sever the carotid artery or breach the spinal column, or some variation thereof, depending on how high or low the bullet lands. No matter what angle the deer is at, whether it is broadside, front or rear quarter angle, or head-on, the neck will be as large of a target area as the typical “behind the lower shoulder” targets. The difference is that the neck target is much more effective. Taking a full rear shot is not advisable unless you have a trophy buck standing there and you just can’t leave it. If you have to clean a deer that has been shot up the rectum in not at all pleasant. You want to make smart decisions when you take a shot. The best deer hunters make a fast and efficient kill.
5. Attactants, Calls, and Rattling – While we do not have time to go into a lot of detail, it is an important deer hunting tip to use attractants (like natural food plots, salt licks/mineral blocks, feeders, and flavored blocks), deer calls, and rattling methods. The food related attractants require previous preparation. You’ll have to put in enough time and effort into a food plot as you would a garden. Continuous feeding of an area should start weeks or even months ahead of the hunting season so the deer get used to the location and timing of their free meals. Calling and rattling are hit-or-miss techniques that usually only work during rutting. It’s been my experience that bucks would approach my rattling cautiously, and only out of curiosity when they weren’t rutting. When it does work during the rut they usually come rushing. You could run the risk of getting run over by bucks if you rattle, so make sure you are prepared to act quickly if you want to do this. It’ll take a lot of time to get good at this. To effectively mimic the call or re-creation of realistic fighting sounds of deer has a learning curve, but can become very effective once learned.
No matter how interested in deer hunting you are, anyone with the slightest interest dreams of getting a nice trophy buck; you might also be a deer hunting fiend who wants a trophy rack each year. If you plan to become an elite hunter, you need to know the advanced deer hunting tips that the finest hunters have mastered.
If you want to learn more about deer hunting and get more deer hunting tips that can help you land the large bucks that get you trophy racks, go to Deer-HuntingTips.com and have a better hunting season than you’ve had in years.