Here are the things I think I am doing right:
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Deer Hunting Season Wrap-Up |
- Scout in advance. make sure there is traffic where your are going to sit.
- Get in and settled an hour before sunrise.
- Camo. You must blend in VERY well.
- Be still. Very still. Even your head. Move your eyes. Don't creak your chair or even move your feet. They hear you.
- Don't make even the tiniest sound. You can hear a chip monk move 50 yards away and your hearing sucks.
- You must be comfortable enough to not move at all for 5 hours. No stretching.
- Don't smell like anything. No farting, bad breath, soap, food. Gasoline on the bottom of your shoes even.
- Don't fall asleep.
- If it's cold enough to see your breath, breath in through your nose and out into a scarf. That cloud can bee seen far away.
- Remember that you are hiding from squirrels. Deer won't go where the squirrels are quiet. It takes an hour of sitting and not moving for the damn squirrels to forget you are there.
- Eat something. Your stomach growls louder than you think. Have a breakfast bar.
5 comments:
All very good suggestions. Scent control, noise control, and camo are the holy trinity...
Go pee before you come into the woods.
Never ever piss in the woods. It's the way to keep deer away! Not even in a bottle! Don't drink coffee either! If you can smell it up close, they can smell it 100 yards away.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOISE DISCIPLINE?
You had a deer appear in front of you just after you had taken the crinkly wrapper off of a power bar. Then another deer appeared and stuck around after you wracked a shotgun slide. Oh, and you also shot off a 12 gauge round. Not quiet, that.
I admit it. I simply called them by their true mane. Then blasted them!
If I may, I think its all SSL
1. Scout. Location, location, location (yes really)! Spend every hour you can pre-season to verify deer traffic. If they are moving through the area your stand is in you are going to see deer. If you see deer you can SHOOT deer. Scouting cams and topo maps are indispensable here, but are no substitute for actually spending the time in the woods! A good example, this year I had 6-8 deer on a cam at one location. I sat in that location from an hour before dawn untill noon. Saw 12 deer. All of them moving through a funnel about 120 yards away from where they were on cam, moving through a natural funnel (old mostly filled drainage ditch) that I never would have seen if I hadnt been out there. Shot a deer that was going through there later.
My process for this is to check out on a map where I think they are likely to go, use satellite maps as well (I love you Google Earth). Get boots on the ground in the middle of the day looking for sign (trails, rubs, beds, poo, etc) and place game cameras at likely points. Retrieve game cameras a week later and review. Pay attention to time stamps, and replace as needed. Put a stand out a few weeks ahead, and spend a day or two in it.
2. Scent. Make sure you don't walk where the deer are coming through, and make sure you have several places to hunt that take the wind into account. If you have a place that has traffic as long as you don't drop scent all over then they will generally KEEP going through that area :-)
Tree stands help greatly, if you have your scent originating 15 feet off the ground, by the time it hits ground level its probably dispersed enough to not be alarming to the deer.
3. LUCK. Its called "hunting" not "killing" for a reason. Luck needs to be on your side. Your deer cams may show 50+ deer per day moving through an area for MONTHS ahead of season, until they stop :-D
The rest of it is of variable use. Sound control is good practice as long as you don't sound like a person. Deer live in a loud environment, so its not odd to see deer walking out right after you shoot one. Camo is good but I've seen deer walk out when I'm wearing street clothes as long as my scent isnt on them, and I'm staying still.
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