So you want to get your deer! Well that is the goal of all hunters’ young and old. The years of pursuing this quarry helps one gain much experience and no matter how many we get over the years, each new season is like the first time!
I have condensed what I have learned from my father and others over the years to provide some simple but very important information.
Hope this helps:
1. If you want to be successful, hunt in areas that have a lot of deer. The more deer in an area, the greater your odds of getting your shot, this is especially true for bow hunting! A truly good hunter can hunt an area with minimal deer and be successful; a novice can hunt an area with a lot of deer and be super-successful!
2. Get up early, hunt all day, and come down late! In an area with lots of deer, this is one of the most successful things you can do. I like to get up a tree in my climber 1 hour before daylight. This allows for things to quiet down before shooting light. It also allows for any scent I have left in the air to blow away or dissipate. If things are slow, I hunt all day. I have killed numerous good bucks between 10:am and 2:pm. They get up and move after everyone else has left the woods for they’re mid day siesta! Often as not, the other hunters getting out of the woods get up bedded deer that move into my area. If the mid day is slow, then I continue to hunt till dark.
3. Hunt High! Not on drugs, ELEVATION! I like to hunt as high as possible. When bow hunting, I will hunt 30-35 feet high. No I cannot see well or shoot 45 yards, but any deer offering me a shot won’t know I am there. Hunting high offers you the opportunity to move a little in your stand, keeps your scent from hitting the ground anywhere in your general vicinity. Many times I have had deer bed down under me during the mid-day and never knew I was there.
4. THINK Commercial REAL ESTATE! A new store is looking for LOCATION, LOCATION, and LOCATION! Scout well before season, do not just stomp through the woods looking for tracks or pellets, STALK! Actually hunt the deer without a weapon! You can even use a camera! FIND where they are bedding, feeding, traveling too and from these areas. If you think you have found that HOT SPOT bring in your climber one day before daylight, a good lunch, climb a tree and hang from daylight to dark. This can give you an idea of how good the area is EXACTLY where the deer ARE moving, and WHEN they move! NOW you will be ready for opening morning!
5. BOW HUNTING: shoot regularly and learn to be proficient! Don’t start a week before season and go try and shoot a deer. It is not fair to you for the time you have invested in hunting, AND it is not fair to the quarry to injure it and let it die a slow death of infection or starvation! Start practicing 3-4 days a week a couple of months before season. A week before season, start practicing while wearing the clothes you will hunt in. Make sure no pockets or loose sleeves will come into contact with your bowstring. It only takes a minimal brush of the string to throw your arrow WAY OFF!
6. BOW HUNTING Distances: KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS! Practice at 10-40 yards. HOWEVER you should never shoot over 30 yards at a deer. I know many have killed deer over 30. I have killed at 49 yards. But I have not taken a shot over 30-35 yards in years. Too many deer are crippled each year because it only takes a deer to move a fraction when you release to cause a non-vital hit to be made.
7. Movement: if you hunt under 30 foot in a tree, be as still as possible! Nothing besides scent will spook a deer quicker than a fast movement! Try to be a statue, be as still as possible when in the stand. Deer can not see colors like we do, in fact, most tend to think their eye sight is rather poor, except when it comes to picking out motion!
8. The Church Mouse Theory: When entering the woods and walking to your stand, be as quiet as a church mouse! Noises such as stands clanking, clothes rustling, metal to metal, limbs cracking, etc., carry a long way in the dead calm of dark. Try to touch as few limbs as possible with your hands so as not to leave any additional scent. You should have bathed with a quality scent neutralizing body sop, washed your clothes in a scent elimination detergent, and sprayed your boots and pants legs with a quality odor eliminating spray! Be quiet and as scent free as possible when moving in and out of the woods.
9. Tree Stand and Climber Safety: Make sure you inspect you climbing stand before and every week of hunting season. Loose nuts or worn bolts are dangerous and can cause injury or death! If you are hunting from a lock-on or permanent ladder stand, check them out to make sure the platforms, ladder rungs, or ratchet straps are in good condition! Check your safety harness for weak stitching, seams, or frayed lanyard straps! NOTHING IS MORE TRAJIC than someone getting hurt, paralyzed, or killed because of faulty equipment or stands. It not only will affect you, think of your livelihood and how it will affect your spouse or children! LIVE TO HUNT: HUNT TO LIVE!
10. If You Hunt Alone: Always leave a note, a drawing, and directions to the general area you will be hunting and a general time and date you will arrive back! If something was to happen to you, someone could actually find the general location you are at and get assistance to you! Having a buddy to hunt with you is really the best thing. Even then you need to communicate with each other as to where you are hunting and what time to expect each other at a predetermined location. If hunting alone it is really a great idea to carry a cell phone (that actually has service in the area you are hunting) If your cell phone does not work in the area you hunt, check out a pre-paid cell phone that DOES work in the area. It is also a good idea to carry a couple of flares or a small flare gun kit. If that is not feasible, get a small flashing battery powered strobe light. If you are hurt and cannot yell, then it can give away your location to search and rescue personnel from a very long way off.
11. GUN HUNTING: NEVER pull a loaded gun up into the stand! NEVER climb a tree whether a ladder stand or climber with a LOADED gun on your Back! Always unload your weapon prior to getting in a stand or up a tree. IN FACT: NEVER load your gun until you are ready to hunt! AND NEVER transport a loaded gun in a vehicle! ALWAYS BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR OF WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT AND WHAT IS PAST THE AREA YOU WILL BE SHOOTING INTO! If you have never had a gun safety course certification, please take the time to get one, even OLD DOGS CAN LARN A NEW TRICK!
12. Be respectful; of other peoples property and rights! Be considerate to others hunting the same area! Especially if you are on a game reserve or public land. So he crowds you, yes it makes you mad but he is the one being a jerk! He has every bit as much right to be there as you, if he want’s to crowd you, do not stoop to his level! Go find another spot and know you are the better person!
13. The Environment: Be one with the woods, and above all, leave the woods and waterways cleaner than you found them! Never litter; pick up any garbage or litter you see in the woods on your way out.
14. The Shot: Make sure that EVERY SHOT you make is good! A true sportsman will make the cleanest and quickest kill shot they can, or pass it up! I know we all have had one that got away, but try to eliminate it from happening as much as possible!
15. After the shot: I feel that it is the sportsman duty to learn how to track a shot animal. No if, no but, no maybe! You owe it to the animal, yourself, and the sport to be able to recover every animal shot. This is especially true on open public land! Nothing hurts our sport than for a non-hunter who is accessing that land looking at flora, trees, or watching birds, than to walk up on the rotting carcass of a lost animal.
16. Share you knowledge with others! Get over the HE-MAN attitude of being a GREAT hunter and share your knowledge with those trying to learn the sport. This alone will help keep our sport growing instead of declining! Especially share the knowledge with the youngsters! One of your greatest legacies’ as a hunter will be for a youngster to carry your knowledge of the sport till he is older and pass it on to his children!
17. Hunting Private Property: If someone is nice enough to allow you access to his or her property to hunt, for heaven sake, respect it! And if you kill, make sure to bring them some backstrap, a roast, or some sausage to show YOUR appreciation for THEIR generosity! In fact, you should go by, show them what you have harvested, and offer them whatever they would like of it! I guarantee you that you will get an offer to come back!
18. If you harvest more than you can consume or use, share with those less fortunate, the poor, the elderly, and the injured! Ask your benevolence administrator at church, I am sure he can tell you where there are some needy families in the area! The smile, the thanks, and the hugs they give you is far greater than the thrill of the kill…. I know this personally!
Hope this helps some!
Wayne Kendrick
