I offer these deer hunting tips to help you advance your hunting success. As a deer hunter, you’ll only succeed as far as your dedication and knowledge will take you. You might be satisfied with just getting that single deer every couple of years, but if you want better than that for yourself, learn how to get that trophy buck.
The advanced deer hunting tips I’m sharing with you here are for the true hunting masters.
1. Scout Your Hunting Area – This does not simply mean know where you are going to sit while you are hunting. It means to go out and truly get to know your hunting location. Often, good hunters will scout their hunting areas months in advance of hunting season. I developed the habit of getting permission to check out the lease where I was going to hunt, then I scouted out the surrounding areas. You can investigate all the potential hunting areas by “dry hunting.” This is similar to actual hunting, only you bring a camera instead of a gun. You will focus your attention on determining which areas have the most deer movement, the largest bucks, and the highest buck to doe ratio. You can walk around the lease in the middle of the day, looking for big buck signs that I could see.
2. Know the Signs of Big Bucks – Knowing what to look for allows you to zero in on the areas where the trophy deer are. Look for tracks. Note the size, quantity and direction of the tracks to indicate the size, quantity and movement patterns of the deer. Scrapes – look for any areas that look like scratches from the bucks antlers and urine; this is what they do to mark their territory and attract mates, and you’ll often find them under branches. Another thing you want to look for are rubs. As a buck attempts to get the velvet off their new antlers thy need to rub on trees and posts. They also do this to mark their territory during rutting season. A “rub line” is a series of a half-dozen or more rubs within a 100-yard area. You’ll usually find rubs beside a tree on the side that the buck’s traveling from, so you can get an idea of where the deer is moving and mark it down, making it easier to find them. You will also want to look for bedding areas, noting the size of the beds. If you don’t see any bedding, there aren’t any bucks!
3. Know Your Firearm and Ammo – You need to know the ballistics of the bullet and cartridge you shoot. Figure out how to fire your weapon depending on how far your target is away from you, adjusting for other factors as well. You should practice judging how far your shots are and maybe even walk off the distances to possible sighting areas. This will allow you to know if you are making a 400 yard shot and also know how much your bullet is likely to drop making this shot. Doing this will enable you to be able to adjust your aim to make a quality shot.
4. Shot Placement. If you master the aim and ballistics of your deer hunting rile, you will be more comfortable with precision shot placement. Personally, I am a “neck shooter.” While many hunters do not agree with this technique, a properly placed shot anywhere along the neck will drop your deer instantly. If your shot lands on the lower part of the neck you are likely to sever the carotid arteries; a shot high on the neck can damage the spinal cord; and a hit to the center of the neck can result in a combination of these fatal effects. From a broadside, front or rear quarter angle, or head-on angle the neck target is as large as the traditional “behind the lower shoulder” target and much more effective. I don’t recommend full rear shot attempts at all unless you are looking at a trophy buck you just can’t pass up; cleaning a deer that has been shot up the rectum is not a pleasant task to say the least. You want to make smart decisions when you take a shot. The best deer hunters make a fast and efficient kill.
5. Attractants, Calls and Rattling. Briefly, our last advanced deer hunting tips involve attractants (food plots, mineral blocks and flavored blocks, and salt licks) deer calls, and techniques for rattling. You have to do some prep work beforehand with food attractants. Planting and tending food plots requires as much time and attention as gardening. 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. Occasionally I have been able to bring a buck in slowly and cautiously by rattling outside of the rutting season, but during the rut, they tend to rush right in. There were times when I was nearly run over by bucks when I was rattling in a field. So if you get good at this, be prepared for some quick action. Proficiency is required, and it takes lots of practice. 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.
Every deer hunter wishes he or she could display a trophy buck at some time during their hunting career, some of us are not happy unless we bag at least one monster every season. If you are going to join the ranks of the elite hunters, then you need to know the advanced deer hunting tips the elite hunters know.
You are welcome to use these deer hunting tips in the coming deer hunting season. We also welcome you to visit Deer-HuntingTips.com to get more useful deer hunting tips to help make this your best deer hunting year ever.