Originally Posted by
Chuck7
Hey folks,
I've been trying to better my odds at being a better deer hunter..Please share some things that you know great hunters do.
I'll start the list and see if we can't help one another..
1. Scout..average Joes do haphazardly scouting..real scouters go out there with a purpose and understand this is the most important part of the hunt. I hunt at a HIGHLY pressured WMA..When I'm finished with my hunt..I've learned not to take the trail/ road back to my truck..but I walk through the tough stuff in hopes of finding another hot spot.
2. Pee Bottle..not sure if it's necessary but a deer's nose keeps them alive. I plan to start using a pee bottle..a pint gatorade would work great as it doesn't crackle.
3.Climb high..I don't like heights but I must man up and go at least 16 '
4,Use a few trail tacks as possible..You don't want your honey hole found by others.
5. Sit all day if possible. I talked to one old timer last year . He had shot his 7th buck.I ask him for his reson for success.He said, " I sit ALL day in my stand."
6. Wash your clmber and harness..wear rubber boots.
Please add to the list.
Thanks,
CHuck7
First, with just a few decades of experience, I have to disagree with a couple of the traits above.
I have never and never will carry a pee bottle. For over 30 years, I have used nothing but my own urine to start and maintain scrapes and I have always peed out of tree stands or anywhere I wanted. Best deer ATTRACTANT I have ever used.
Next I only climb or place stands as high as the cover dictates, often below 10 feet and never above 20. Climbing high accomplshes nothing. But then, I am primarily a bowhunter and the higher you go with a bow, the greater the disadvantage. Might want to sometime, get a smoke bomb and climb a tree and see what scent does from different heights. Learn a lot that way.
The rest I agree with except I have never worn rubber boots, when warm enough, I wear tennis shoes. Course they are kept clean and only worn iin the woods. Can't ever recall a deer smelling where I put my feet. Most of the time, if one smells where I waked, they smell where I put my hands.
But the major trait in my opinion has not been mentioned. Inquisitiveness. Curiosity. Yours, not the deer's.
If you don't continually ask why, how do you learn? If you don't learn, how do you improve as a deer hunter. I have only killed 300 or so but I tend to think each one of them, especially the mature bucks and does, taught me something. Always asking and always learning
True story.
I sat an hour ago and watched a doe with her six-month old doe fawn go under a fence. When I walked over and looked at it, it did not appear to be over eight inches off the ground. Then I pulled up on the bottom of the wire. It was not stapled to the post and I could raise it nearly 18-inches. How did that doe know that? I've known for a long time a deer would much rather go under a fence than over one but today I learned how to make a fence crossing I had never thought of. only took me nearly 60-years of hunting to figure that out.