Please read these deer hunting tips carefully. The average deer hunter who has average skills and an average commitment to the hunt, usually get average results for his efforts. 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.
The advanced deer hunting tips I’m sharing with you here are for the true 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. Often, good hunters will scout their hunting areas months in advance of hunting season. I would ask permission to go to the lease I was going to hunt on and scout all the areas. I surveyed all the potential hunting sites and then did a “dry hunt” — went through the motions of hunting but without a gun, so I could get to know the areas that had the most deer movement, the largest bucks, and the best buck-to-doe ratios. 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. Look at how big the tracks are, where they’re going, and how many there are, and you can see where the deer are moving. Look for Scrapes - areas where bucks scratch the ground accompanied with urination to mark territory and attract does, typically below low hanging tree branches at the border of heavy brush during the rut. Look for Rubs - Areas on trees or posts where bucks rub the velvet off their new antlers or mark their territory during rutting season. A “rub line” is a series of a half-dozen or more rubs within a 100-yard area. 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. 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 ballistic characteristics of your deer hunting rifle, you can be more concerned with exact shot placement. 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. If you’re shooting from the side, front, hindquarters, or head-on, the neck is the most effective target, even more so than the traditional “behind the lower shoulder” target. 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. Always make wise shooting decisions; making a fast, efficient kill is be the goal of all advanced deer hunters.
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. Preparation time is necessary for food-based attractants. Planting and tending food plots requires as much time and attention as gardening. Start your food plot a few months before the hunting season begins, so that you can get the deer accustomed to that food you are giving them. Calling and rattling are hit-or-miss techniques that usually only work during rutting. I have had bucks come to my rattling slowly and cautiously out of curiosity when they were not in rut, but typically when it works well they tend to come rushing. There have been times when I have almost been run over by a buck while I was rattling. With this in mind, if you choose to use this technique you need to be prepared to react quickly. 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 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.
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.
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