What Are Some Whitetail Deer Hunting Techniques?
09-29-2010, 02:04 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 1
What Are Some Whitetail Deer Hunting Techniques?
I am 17 years old, new hunter, and I'm going to New York to hunt with a 12 Guage shotgun and deer slugs. I am going to be in a heavily wooded area with some fields every now and then, and It will be cold and snowing. What are some good techniques I should know for hunting Whitetail in Up-State New York?
09-29-2010, 04:58 AM
#2
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 320
First, are you going with any experienced hunters? If not, exercise a little extra caution...make sure other hunters know where you are (ie. wear enough orange) and be careful what you're shooting at. I know they teach you this stuff in hunter's ed, but I still see a lot of guys doing dumb stuff in the woods. You really have to keep an eye out for the other guys if you're on public land...if you're on private land, so much the better but you still have to watch out.
Once you have safety in mind, you can approach it 3 different ways:
1. Drives (need several hunters to help you)
2. Stalking
3. Stand hunting
My preference is stand hunting, but it all depends on your patience and pre-season scouting. If you feel good about knowing where the deer movements are, and can sit still for a few hours on end, this is your best bet. Quick advice is to learn where the deer are bedding down, and where they're eating. Find a funnel location between those two areas, sit, wait, and you'll see deer.
All of the finer details will come with time, talking to other hunters and experience. Good luck and good hunting!
Once you have safety in mind, you can approach it 3 different ways:
1. Drives (need several hunters to help you)
2. Stalking
3. Stand hunting
My preference is stand hunting, but it all depends on your patience and pre-season scouting. If you feel good about knowing where the deer movements are, and can sit still for a few hours on end, this is your best bet. Quick advice is to learn where the deer are bedding down, and where they're eating. Find a funnel location between those two areas, sit, wait, and you'll see deer.
All of the finer details will come with time, talking to other hunters and experience. Good luck and good hunting!
09-29-2010, 05:23 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: NE Kansas
Posts: 1,101
I'll make two assumptions as I respond: 1.) That you're totally inexperienced about deer 2.) that you're goal is simply to take a legal deer--doe, small buck, or whatever.
My advice: Find a trail they use. Set up downwind of it with some concealment if possible. Getting situated in among the limbs and trunk of a downed tree will work, or if you have time, pile some branches. Try to break up your shape if nothing else. If you can get some sort of a rest for your gun as you aim, so much the better. A rest is always good.
As for the deer they will be heading toward their bedding areas from the feeding areas in the morning, and doing just the opposite in the evening. Be observant and you might find those places. That will help you choose a spot. Think of it as setting up an ambush as the deer travel in and out.
Crops are good food sources, as are acorns. They may graze in the meadows. If you come across an oak tree that has fresh acorns dropping and a bunch of the empty caps have triangle-shaped notches, that's a great spot to set up as the deer make the notch as they feed. If you start seeing those caps and there are acorns left on the ground/tree, that's a dead giveaway that this is the hot tree. Again set up downwind.
Now the general rules that make deer hunters successsful
1. Safety. Above all else, safety.
2. Stay downwind or at least keep the wind quartering you.
3. Stay quiet. Try not to make any sound at all.
4. Be still. The harder you hunt, the less you move. Turn your head slowly. Don't be fidgeting. If you raise your gun to shoot, be sure the deer or one of its companions isn't looking at you--they'll bolt.
5. Be thinking about what you are you going to have to do if a deer shows up--First I check for a safe shot, then I take a deep breath and try to get my nerves under control so I don't alert the deer in my excitement. Then I check to be sure a deer isn't looking at me, and I slowly raise the gun. I check again for a safe shot (What's behind the target? Is it absolutely a deer? and so on). I'm sure it's safe, so now I can take aim behind the shoulder. Another look behind the deer tells me there's no one behind the deer and only then does the safety come off. Then I hold the gun steady and slowly squeeze the trigger.
6. If you shoot a deer and it runs, try to pinpoint where it was standing and where it ran as much as possible. WAIT AT LEAST A HALF HOUR as the deer may have to lie down to die. If you start after it too soon, it may run and can go for miles on adrenaline. Believe me, a shot at your first deer will have you as pumped up as you'll ever be in life and you'll want to go running after the deer immediately. Don't do it.
Edit: I looked at your post again and realized you'd be hunting in winter. The acorns will likely be gone. Also, what UPHunter08 said was on target. A funnel is always good--anytime you find a ditch, a cliff, e or something that's forces the deer to go through a specific place is a great place. They have to walk right by you.
My advice: Find a trail they use. Set up downwind of it with some concealment if possible. Getting situated in among the limbs and trunk of a downed tree will work, or if you have time, pile some branches. Try to break up your shape if nothing else. If you can get some sort of a rest for your gun as you aim, so much the better. A rest is always good.
As for the deer they will be heading toward their bedding areas from the feeding areas in the morning, and doing just the opposite in the evening. Be observant and you might find those places. That will help you choose a spot. Think of it as setting up an ambush as the deer travel in and out.
Crops are good food sources, as are acorns. They may graze in the meadows. If you come across an oak tree that has fresh acorns dropping and a bunch of the empty caps have triangle-shaped notches, that's a great spot to set up as the deer make the notch as they feed. If you start seeing those caps and there are acorns left on the ground/tree, that's a dead giveaway that this is the hot tree. Again set up downwind.
Now the general rules that make deer hunters successsful
1. Safety. Above all else, safety.
2. Stay downwind or at least keep the wind quartering you.
3. Stay quiet. Try not to make any sound at all.
4. Be still. The harder you hunt, the less you move. Turn your head slowly. Don't be fidgeting. If you raise your gun to shoot, be sure the deer or one of its companions isn't looking at you--they'll bolt.
5. Be thinking about what you are you going to have to do if a deer shows up--First I check for a safe shot, then I take a deep breath and try to get my nerves under control so I don't alert the deer in my excitement. Then I check to be sure a deer isn't looking at me, and I slowly raise the gun. I check again for a safe shot (What's behind the target? Is it absolutely a deer? and so on). I'm sure it's safe, so now I can take aim behind the shoulder. Another look behind the deer tells me there's no one behind the deer and only then does the safety come off. Then I hold the gun steady and slowly squeeze the trigger.
6. If you shoot a deer and it runs, try to pinpoint where it was standing and where it ran as much as possible. WAIT AT LEAST A HALF HOUR as the deer may have to lie down to die. If you start after it too soon, it may run and can go for miles on adrenaline. Believe me, a shot at your first deer will have you as pumped up as you'll ever be in life and you'll want to go running after the deer immediately. Don't do it.
Edit: I looked at your post again and realized you'd be hunting in winter. The acorns will likely be gone. Also, what UPHunter08 said was on target. A funnel is always good--anytime you find a ditch, a cliff, e or something that's forces the deer to go through a specific place is a great place. They have to walk right by you.
Last edited by Father Forkhorn; 09-29-2010 at 05:39 AM.
09-29-2010, 05:37 AM
#4
Banned
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 220
Helenjon - hey buddy and welcome to the forum.
My advice to you is not to get too caught up in what a lot of forum members is saying here other then safety.
Your first year of hunting, you are not going to know anything.
So your best advice is to listen to whom ever is taking you hunting and do exactly what they ask you to do.
Sit where they tell you to sit and don't leave that area or move unless they tell you to move. Don't go back to hunting camp to go to the bathroom or to eat or take a nap unless someone tells you to do it.
Your best chances of getting a deer will be if you remain motionless on your stand as long as possible and if you take your shotgun to a approved range and practice shooting with it often until you know how to shoot it - so as to be able to hit what ever you are aiming at - at any distance that you feel comfortable at.
Limit your shots to 100 yards or less.
Be very careful and have a good time.
While at camp, volunteer to do the dishes and keep your room and areas where you are at as clean as possible at all times. A good host will not say anything about a mess - but you have to put yourself in their shoes and remember you are a guest there - even if it is your own parents hunting camp. Try not to make more work for them then they already have.
If there are leaves on the ground outside of where you are staying, offer to rake them up and offer to do what ever chores needs to be done.
Doing those things will ensure that you will be welcome to come back to hunting camp again next season.
It's not about getting the game that is important in my book, it's about having a good time at deer camp.
Make sure to have some fun and get your mom to bake some goodies when you go there too..
My advice to you is not to get too caught up in what a lot of forum members is saying here other then safety.
Your first year of hunting, you are not going to know anything.
So your best advice is to listen to whom ever is taking you hunting and do exactly what they ask you to do.
Sit where they tell you to sit and don't leave that area or move unless they tell you to move. Don't go back to hunting camp to go to the bathroom or to eat or take a nap unless someone tells you to do it.
Your best chances of getting a deer will be if you remain motionless on your stand as long as possible and if you take your shotgun to a approved range and practice shooting with it often until you know how to shoot it - so as to be able to hit what ever you are aiming at - at any distance that you feel comfortable at.
Limit your shots to 100 yards or less.
Be very careful and have a good time.
While at camp, volunteer to do the dishes and keep your room and areas where you are at as clean as possible at all times. A good host will not say anything about a mess - but you have to put yourself in their shoes and remember you are a guest there - even if it is your own parents hunting camp. Try not to make more work for them then they already have.
If there are leaves on the ground outside of where you are staying, offer to rake them up and offer to do what ever chores needs to be done.
Doing those things will ensure that you will be welcome to come back to hunting camp again next season.
It's not about getting the game that is important in my book, it's about having a good time at deer camp.
Make sure to have some fun and get your mom to bake some goodies when you go there too..
09-29-2010, 06:58 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Decatur, IN
Posts: 1,425
He was asking about techniques, not doing dishes. So what UPHunter and Father Forkhorn posted was legit.
Just another post from you that is completely off base. Just stick to accusing women of having babies to trap their husbands...or smooth bore shotguns are better than rifled barrels....or any of the endless worthless posts you've made.
09-29-2010, 07:51 AM
#6
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 489
get in the woods, be safe is utmost importance, find some sign that say's they are here, set up downwind of that sign get camoflaged as much as possible. be quiet, and don't move, don't even blinkmore than needed.
09-29-2010, 08:10 AM
#8
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 320
Does anyone else here find the irony and humor in this:
Followed by 7 paragraphs of advice by the same poster? 
Back to the OP...you'll hear a lot of advice on this forum, some of it is great, some of it very opinionated. Take it all at face value, but IMO if you start simple with the basics (safety, sit still, watch the wind, go where the deer are), you'll pick up on the rest as you gain experience. Don't sweat the details at this stage, and above all have fun with it.
My advice to you is not to get too caught up in what a lot of forum members is saying here
Back to the OP...you'll hear a lot of advice on this forum, some of it is great, some of it very opinionated. Take it all at face value, but IMO if you start simple with the basics (safety, sit still, watch the wind, go where the deer are), you'll pick up on the rest as you gain experience. Don't sweat the details at this stage, and above all have fun with it.
09-29-2010, 08:18 AM
#9
Super Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Trumbull County, Ohio
Posts: 9,520
I remember Mr. Deer Hunter saying he was...46? That was on the hearing loss post under the rifle section. But I've also seen him post in the youth section discouraging an engagement that the rest of us where pretty excited for. Back to the topic.
Just spend time in the woods. Until you learn more, your best bet might be to just sit where you can see a good trail and wait. If it's cold don't be afraid to try walking a little bit. Walk slow, take a few steps then wait and look around. Your goal is to see the deer and get a GOOD shot before the deer sees you. Be silent, try to move as little as possibly, and keep askig questions here. You'll find some good info! Welcome aboard and good luck!
-Jake
Just spend time in the woods. Until you learn more, your best bet might be to just sit where you can see a good trail and wait. If it's cold don't be afraid to try walking a little bit. Walk slow, take a few steps then wait and look around. Your goal is to see the deer and get a GOOD shot before the deer sees you. Be silent, try to move as little as possibly, and keep askig questions here. You'll find some good info! Welcome aboard and good luck!
-Jake
09-29-2010, 12:44 PM
#10
Typical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 616
I am 17 years old, new hunter, and I'm going to New York to hunt with a 12 Guage shotgun and deer slugs. I am going to be in a heavily wooded area with some fields every now and then, and It will be cold and snowing. What are some good techniques I should know for hunting Whitetail in Up-State New York?
First welcome to the forum! Check out this short introduction to hunting.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG6js2FbV1g
Go out and look for fresh sign deer are in the area, Droppings, tracks, rubs, scrapes. Set yourself around these areas. Edges of fields are a good place as well as food and water sources. Always try to keep he wind in your favor, if it's blowing in your face your scent is going behind you. Stay still,and quiet. You will see game.
Good Luck! As others have said stay safe and have fun! BTW if it's cold and snowing I would be hunting from a ground blind they are easy to set up and keep you out of the elements and are portable.
Live it up! Doug
Last edited by kswild; 09-29-2010 at 12:47 PM.