I just started hunting last season and didn't get up in my stand too much because I don't have a car up at school and I couldn't get home too often. I'll be going to school in my hometown next year so hopefully I'll be able to get out a bunch this year. I'm planning on going to the DNR office to get a list of landowners who want their land hunted so I can get permission to hunt. I was wondering what the best areas to hunt are? For example, I hear people talking about funnels but I don't know what that is? Also, when should I go out to the properties and check it out? I'll be hunting South Western Ohio if that helps.

A funnel is anything that causes a narrowing effect in the area.It is an area that is not as wide,for example,like the shape of an hour glass,wider on the ends than in the center.This will force deer to travel through the narrow portion increasing your oppertunities for a shot in your shooting range.Good luck on gaining permission.

A couple quick tips that seem to always work for me.
1. Walk along a small stream and watch for sign for some reason deer seem to concintrate mostly to one spot to cross. So look for a spot where thereare a lot of tracks at one spot.
2. The obvious look for an area that has a lot of dropings that shows that deer spend a lot of time in that spot. As with any place you hunt deer don't spend too much time scouting the same spots as this will spook the deer out of them. Locate an area hang a stand and then stay away until you hunt. And don't over hunt a spot or you will spook them away. I hope this helps a little. Mike

Your inexperience will often be your best friend. My 1st year deer hunting I didn't knoe spit, but I went out and made all kinds of mistakes. That's how you learn. Also, listen to any and all advice these ppl here give you. Watch a lot of hunting shows as well. If you have a friend that is a little more knowledgable than you about hunting, ask him to go with you to show you some things.

Depends on what you are hunting for. If you are just after meat and want your first bow kill then I would hunt agriculture fields in the evening and 200 yards back from those fields in the morning. As far as funnels, they are anything that causes deer to move through a particular area. Could be fencing (or a gap in fencing) or a narrow wood bottleneck between two larger pieces of woods, a band of thicker saplings in a more open woodlot, anything like that. Other things to look for in hilly country are saddles (low points on a ridge line) and benches (level areas running below a ridge and parallel with ridge). Wooded creek bottoms are great deer habitat too. If a landowner has gone to the trouble of registering with the DNR then they probably would be willing to give you information on where they are seeing all the deer. On agriculture land you'll find obvious areas where heavy traffic of deer are entering the fields. Find these and start following them back until you find an obvious ambush spot or where the trail starts to divide into a bunch of other trails and set up there for the evening. I prefer to be back in the woods just off a field than actually on the field edge for several reasons:

* Even though your field of view while in the woodsis less than ona field being able to see a deer two hundred yards away in a field doesn't help you much when hunting with a bow, it may add to the excitement but it doesn't improve your chances, and often you are more visible to them. The idea is to know where they are going to be and putting yourself within 30 yards of that location.

* Deer tend to move out into the middle of a field, and out of bow range,quickly once they commit to entering the field. Shade from trees tend to stunt plant growth within that critical 20 yard range on the edge of fields and feeding earlierin the season has gotten most of the edge food too,so there's better browse further out and out of range.

* Decent bucks don't enter the field during daylight hours unless the rut is on heavy or it's a really secluded, undisturbed area.

* As deer approach a field their attention is on the field and the surrounding area. If you are back in the woods leading to the field you are less likely to be noticed by deer as they scan the field for predators. If you're on the edge you are more likely to be skylined.

* There's usually less undergrowth and other obstructions inside the woods. Trees on field edges have limbs lower down and they tend to limit shot opportunities.

Other things to look for are old logging roads with rubs/scrapes on them (look for old rubs to give you an idea of travel lanes used year after year),
Isolated oak lots, thickets, andevergreen stands (good bedding areas). If the area is heavily pressured, sometimes it's good to just go where everyone else isn't going. Deer will hold up in the places the hunters never go into (patch of honeysuckle just behind the barn, a small patch of woods next to the driveway and road, the far back corner of a property) sometimes you can hunt these and sometimes you can't. If you can't you may want to think about pushing them out of their spot and hoping to catch them in another area as they look for a new spot to hang out in. That strategy is risky as they may decide the best new spot is in the next county or you may push it by another hunter. It's better to save these types of spots for when you have a friend who will walk those areas while you set up on a possible escape route.

Have fun and take notes. Keep a log of when and where you do or don't see deer and what the weather/wind was like. You may see a pattern emerging.

In SW Ohio, the farms are generally fairly small, especially when you compare them to the monsters in Ill., Kansas and places like that. Some great funnels are created because of this. Follow a fence row and when it is down, there will probably be a lot of deer prints. If it is in a thin wooded strip between two farmers' fields that would be a great place for a stand. Also follow creeks to find where they cross. Look for the think areas where they made bed and set up where a few trails cross between the bedding area and the field. That should get you an early season deer.

I think another big tip is keep it simple.This is not rocket science.Sometimes we make it harder then it needs to be.If you are seeing deer in a certain corner of a field in the evening,odds are that is a good place to hunt.Watch fence crossings,check the oak trees and see if there is nuts or fresh deer droppings on the ground.Just use alittle common sense.