Advice for a "casual" hunter?

We used to hunt an area called Little Grand Canyon.....and it deserved that name. STEEP terrain! My favorite spot was only about 100 yards off the road, but to get in and out you had to drop off the side of a very steep ridgeline and no one else was willing to do it. Going in was the easy part....coming out was rough....especially if you were dragging a deer. But I never had an issue with anyone bothering me and the deer were thick.
 
In most hunting camps over the years everyone would get one standing shot a week and a very few would score. They just weren't ready to shoot well under the excitement of the moment. Shoot a lot and shoot under stress. Shoot with friends competitively shooting for a dollar bet or a dime or whatever. Make practice matter.

And of course practice the most with a BB gun--not a mean kicking rifle that shoots expensive bullets. A BB gun can be shot almost anywhere and the convenience of it makes it easier to do. In no time shooting at and hitting the smallest targets will be normal. Everyone gets a chance but only the practiced hunters get the deer and get it right.

I like to shoot at the large animal sized paper bow targets with just a tiny, VERY TINY dot drawn in on the preferred 1/8 inch on the deer where he would be taken quickly and cleanly. And of course practice in the woods at 10 ft. as well as at fifty yards and in between.

Good luck in your hunting.
 
Agree with virtually everything posted so far but will throw in some other thoughts. Late winter and early spring before green up are imo the best time to learn a hunting area or property and how deer use it. You can see travel sign and rut sign more clearly than any othe time of year. Walk every inch of the area and make notes. Print an aerial map and a topo and mark the things you find on your walks. Remember the key features already covered like terrain edges, field edge features, saddles on ridges, gaps or breaks in old fences, creek crossings. Those things all create travel lanes of funnels where deer will walk. Also mark things like crop fields, crp fields, old logging or field roads and feeding areas in the woods like a group of oak trees or a single giant oak, persimmon tres, honeysuckle patches. Make notes, mark up a set of maps and connect all the dots. A marked up map will show you where to hunt to have the wind in your favor no matter which direction it is coming from.

The second thing is hunt skwerls, preferably somewhere other than your deer ground. Do that with a 22. Skwerl season gives you a chance to be in the woods in hunting mode so you can get lots of practice learning to move through the woods as quietly as possible, it's an opportunity to look for and read deer sign, and you can kill stuff. Pretty much everything mentioned in this thread is geared to getting you in position to see deer. That is the easy part. There is only one way to become a consistent deal closer and that is from killing stuff. So find some places like public ground nearby or friends properties where you can be in the woods in hunting mode. Put in for public area permit hunt for doe too, anything to give yourself the most opportunities to make a kill.

Embrace the hunt, respect the game and the land and have fun.
 
I read the original post. Two time periods to improve your situation for 2017 are the first two weeks after the current season closes and then the last three weeks before it greens up in the spring. Get on the hunting ground with a notepad, pen and map. Find where the deer are concentrated. You can see the rubs from a long ways. Where is the feeding area and where are the bedding areas. Where is the water.

You can bump deer without a negative impact for 2017. You need time in the field. Use your eyes to see, use your notebook to record. If you have an snow on the ground, walk the tracks backwards to see where the deer came from. Hopefully, you can back track to beds. If you see multiple beds facing in opposite directions that is your family doe group.

The last three weeks before greenup is a great time also. You may not have snow but you can read sign.

You said you had family obligations - good for you. Family matters most. I have outlined how you can spread that impact out.

The person that told you to try to find hunting ground close is something that means if you ain't been told No twelve times you didn't work at it hard enough.

Scent free soap, rubber boots and good wind management will increase your deer sightings. Being on a cost free forum such as this forum are a wise use of your time. Learn to ask specific questions - ask people if you are looking at something right.

Be honest and write down your plan for 2017. Also, be honest and write down what you did wrong in 2016 that you wish to correct. I would say 25 years ago when my son and I began to go to deer shows and listen to the smartest outdoors folks is when our hunting approach improved quickly. I am a computer guy and I had my hunting plans / goals on a laptop. Once I was the smartest hunter in the family - now my 38 year old son is definitely the smartest! Gosh the journey has been wonderful and full of memories.

I don't know if you bow hunt or a gun hunter. Bow hunters are the smartest - they have to pick the right tree - not the right area IMO.

I like your attitude - hang in there. When you get frustration, try to remember this should be fun! It ain't necessarily easy - but the work comes first and the success second. ;)

Suggestion: Get a map of your hunting area and post it on here. Ask for help - these guys do a super job. Ask them where they would hunt and why. This is cost free. Use that opp' along with hitting the woods and walking the ground. To be successful, I think you should spend three hours scouting for each hour of hunting.
 
Last edited:
As a newish hunter, I've been reading everything I can about deer hunting in advance of this year's gun season. My main takeaway so far is that just like in anything else, a hunter's level of dedication is predictive of his success.

My problem is that I don't have funds for specialized gear, such as scent-blocking clothes, rubber boots, and so on. More importantly, family responsibilities and a hunting area two hours from home mean I also don't have time to scout and learn the habits of deer on our property. So although I treat hunting as seriously as I can, I simply don't have the opportunity right now to develop my skills the way I'd like.

Obviously I plan to improve my kit and skills as time goes by. But under my current handicaps, what should I be focusing my efforts on in order to increase my chances of success?


I located a place to hunt that is 13 miles from my house. That part of the equation was solved. Find a little pocket of land close to home that people are passing by to go hunting...
As for buying all the fancy doo dads for hunting. Most of those things amount to icing on the cake. Keep your hunting clothes clean, then run them thru the washer again without soap. You can buy a scent killer reasonably at Walmart. You can kill Deer from the ground. You just have to eliminate noise, and movement while you are hunting. If you must move your hands, do it in really really slow motion. When you see a Deer SLOWLY raise your rifle... Take your time, then shoot that buck.
 
...what should I be focusing my efforts on in order to increase my chances of success?

"Success" is in the eye of the beholder. To some, they don't consider themselves successful unless they tag trophy bucks every year. To another, it may be a doe or two in the freezer. And to others, "success" may be just being out and observing and learning about God's creation. Success is personal. Only you can define it.
And "success" is not static. Your definition of success will most likely change as you evolve as a hunter.
There's a concept I've seen published many times about the natural stages that a hunter morphs through over the years. Here's just one of those articles https://firearmusernetwork.com/2008/10/29/five-stages-of-hunters/

Personally, for me success means challenging myself and then overcoming those challenges. Sometimes I overcome, but more often (way more often) the deer win. I like it that way.

My 1st advice for you is to establish some realistic goals and as you succeed, adjust goals upward as you attain previous goals. There's no way to measure success unless you start out with a goal. And setting goals too high is a recipe for frustration and failure. Stay realistic. I'd love to kill a 170" buck, but they don't exist around here. It's not very realistic to have that as a goal where I live.

As for hunting tips...
As others have said, understanding wind and odor is probably the main cornerstone of whitetail hunting. Really understanding (not just observing) wind patterns is probably the most challenging and difficult of all aspects of whitetail hunting. It's much, much more complicated than "hunt the wind". Actually understanding how wind behaves over terrain is yet another challenge to overcome and it's another goal of mine. I can't say that the wind never confuses me anymore, but it confuses me a lot less that it did for my 1st 45 years of hunting deer. The last few years have been very enjoyable (aka successful) for me in that department.
BTW, using floaters as wind detectors to the best way to learn wind patterns. And floaters are free. They don't cost you a dime.

Understanding wind and controlling odor is really just a part of the #1 challenge to not educate deer that we are hunting them. It seems obvious, but keeping deer "naive" is huge. Having deer smell us (and remember, they can smell where we've been for days or weeks) is probably the biggest culprit in educating deer that they're being hunted. And it isn't just the airborne odor that is the problem. Ground odor, and odor left along our paths is really the main problem. So, don't touch anything that you don't have to. It drives me nuts to watch hunters either on TV or out in the woods, touch rubs, scrape branches, or push stuff aside as they walk. Everything we touch leaves oily fingerprints which equals odor that educates deer. Even our clothes brushing against foliage leaves odor behind. Carry pruners and use them religiously. Don't bulldoze your way through the woods, clip your way through the woods...especially when you get near stands.

Here's wishing you "success".
Stay realistic, stay ethical, and compete only against yourself. Don't get trapped in the race to keep up with someone else.
Good luck to you!
 
So how did he do?

I'd add depending on part of the country, warm clothes. Preferably quite, wool or fleece. Wash or air them out on for a few days.

As said putting time in. Around first two days of gun can be best, and then again later as pressure drops and people quit hunting. Some areas with lots of people, the people move deer.

More you get out, the more you will think abut stuff you need or want. After the season, stuff goes on sale. Again as said, you don't need lots of stuff.

Pop up blinds or ladder stands are something to think about. Depends on what part of the country you are in. Around here, most people hunt public, and rarely see anyone.
 
Back
Top