Advanced Deer Hunting Tips
If you are an average deer hunter, you have average deer hunting knowledge, put forth average commitment, you will only get average results. It is easy for the average hunter to be able to get a small buck every year or so, but being able to bring home that beautiful trophy buck on a regular basis requires more commitment and more knowledge. In order to help you become a better hunter, I am going to provide you with the advanced deer hunting tips used by deer hunting masters.
1. Scout Your Area In Advance. I’m not talking about where you’re going to sit when you arrive at your hunting spot — I mean be genuinely aware of the area that you are hunting in. In fact, my most successful hunting seasons actually began months before opening day.
Often, good hunters will scout their hunting areas months in advance of hunting season. Scout all the areas where you plan to hunt, being sure that you have permission to do that first. 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. You can walk around the lease in the middle of the day, looking for big buck signs that I could see.
2. Learn to Recognize Big Buck Signs – In order to find out where the trophy bucks reside, learn what to search for. Keep your eyes open for 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 there movement patterns are.
Look for Scrapes. These are the areas where bucks scratch against the ground and urinate to mark their territory and attract does. Usually scrapes are beneath low-hanging tree branches along the edges of heavy brush. 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. If you see six or more rubs in 100 yards, that’s called a “rub line.” 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 should also look for bedding areas and make a note of their size. If you don’t see any bedding, there aren’t any bucks!
3. Understand Your Firearm. Know the ballistics of the cartridge and bullet 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. Take some time to practice estimating distances. If possible, walk around the likely sighting areas ahead of the hunt, so you’ll know what length of shots you’ll be making and what sort of drop your bullet will make at that distance.
4. Shot Placement – You’ll be much better at your shot placement when you know how best to aim your deer hunting rifle.
Personally, I prefer neck shooting. While many hunters do not agree with this technique, a properly placed shot anywhere along the neck will drop your deer instantly. If you hit the deer lower on the neck the carotid arteries will be severed. If you hit the deer high on the neck you will break the deer’s spinal column. Finally, if you hit the deer in the center of the neck you will get a combination of both of these effects. 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.
I don’t recommend attempting full rear shots unless you are trying for a trophy buck that you can’t pass up. Cleaning a deer that’s been shot in the rectum is unpleasant, to say the least. Make wise shooting decisions; a quick, efficient kill is the goal of the advanced deer hunter.
5. Rattling, Calls and Attractants – 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. Preparation time is necessary for food-based attractants. Planting and tending food plots requires as much time and attention as gardening. You should set out food attractants in an area weeks or even months prior to hunting season, so that the deer will become familiar with their feeding times and the location of their meals.
Only try rattling for bucks or using calls during rutting season, as that’s the only time it will usually work. Bucks will mostly be attracted to the rattles and calls because they’re curious if not in rut, but while rutting they’ll rush toward the noise, which is far from an ideal situation. 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. There’s a bit of a learning curve that comes with accurately recreating the sounds of deer fighting, but if you get it right, it’ll be very advantageous.
While every deer hunter dreams of being able to display a trophy buck at some time in their life, advanced deer hunters are not satisfied unless they get a trophy buck each and every year. if you want to be able to regularly bag trophy bucks on a regular basis, you need to know and understand the deer hunting tips explained here.
We hope that you use these advanced deer hunting tips and techniques during deer hunting season to enjoy the most successful hunt ever. And please visit us at www.Deer-HuntingTips.com to learn more secrets and advanced deer hunting tips.
Tags: Deer Hunting, Deer Hunting Tips, Hunting, Outdoors, recreation, sports
