blsjds

I don't have anything to add as there is already a LOT of great advice in this thread, but definitely have to agree with CalHunter on the amount of money that can be spent just trying different equipment, apparel, etc - it can get nuts. It was fun explaining to my wife why I needed to spend hundreds of dollars on fake turkeys ha ha.

MudderChuck

A few things that really helped me out are learning to sit still, I sit for hours with minimum movement. When I turn my head it is in slow motion or with the breeze (when the leaves rustle). Learning to sit still and patience. Deer hear really well, see movement and not shape so well. Really not much you can do about your scent except try to position yourself to minimize the impact.
I hang a feather near where I'm sitting and look into the breeze much more than with the breeze. If you hear a noise or see movement don't jerk your head around, move slowly.
If the Deer spook all isn't lost, I'd say about fifty percent of the time they return after 3/4 of an hour. It depends on how spooked they are.
Where the forest or the thickets meet the open areas are the best place to hunt IMO. Deer are going to be nervous moving into the open, so it is even more important to stay still.
Head down feeding is the best time to shoot. I've let more Deer pass by than I've shot. I pick my shots and almost never snap shoot. I've spooked Deer with the click of a safety or the sound of two open zipper halves brushing together. It is the unnatural sounds that spook them.

Good luck.

Erno86

If you hunt in thick brush...or don't want the deer to run after you shoot him with a firearm --- Just drop the deer in it's tracks (standing broadside), by shooting him at the point of his shoulder with premium bullets...not necessarily Berger bullets.

hardcastonly

increasing your odds of consistently being successful.

Florida Whitetail Experience

Champlain Islander

I had more success when I learned to still hunt with a rifle rather than sitting on stand. It took a lot of failures before I found how to see them before they saw me. In order for this type of hunting to work you need big woods and few other hunters in the area. With 20 acres to hunt on sitting in a good spot would be the best way to get success. Like what was said before learn from what doesn't work and focus on what did work. It is a numbers game and if you spend enough time in the woods lady luck will smile on you. With more experience that luck factor will turn more into a skill learned and refined. Always beready is the best advice I can give a new person to hunting. It often happens fast and if you aren't ready then you lose that chance. The successful hunter doesn't miss many chances..

Oldtimr

Trying to tell someone who never hunted how to hunt and be successful is a fools errand. They have nothing to relate what you tell them to, The best way to teach someone to hunt is to show them, and slowly teach them all the nuances that those of us who have hunted for decades and are successful have learned over the years. There is no instant way to impart lifetimes of experience to a newbie, although sometimes there is dumb luck, which can be worse than failure because it may impart false confidence. Whenever I see these tell me how to hunt (name a species) and be successful I want to shout out, it isn't that easy or simple, it is a process that takes dedication and trial and error and the knowledge that there will be failure before the pieces come together or, and this is the best way, a good mentor to show the way. Hunting is different than baseball and football and other sports where there are written rules and officials that keep you on track, the only rule book is the law,which really has nothing to do with the learned skills of hunting. I guess what I am trying to say is that hunting takes dedication and the ability to learn from your mistakes and use them as a lesson of what not to do and over the years you will find yourself understanding what is going on in the woods and fields and use that knowledge to be successful in what you expect the return to be. For some that is harvesting the species you are hunting and for others it is harvesting an exceptional example of that species. Success means different things to different people. That is why when I see a post on the internet, saying I want to hunt deer, tell me how to do it and be successful I want to say, how many years do you have to take instruction.

CalHunter

Yes and no. Yes, it is a bit of a fool's errand because they will have a lifelong learning curve (we all do) and not all lessons are learned in a book, forum post, YouTube video or even watching a bunch of hunting shows/videos. However, I'd have to say no also because one can learn a lot from reading and watching. Each post above (that also includes yours) has some nuggets of hard learned lessons (some over decades or even a lifetime) that the OP can learn from. It doesn't mean the OP will get it right the first time he tries to apply that knowledge or even the 5th or 10th time. But, if the OP considers the information everybody has posted above and uses that to think through his experiences each time in the woods either hunting, scouting or even just sitting in a chair in his backyard while watching the woods, he will find more of it makes sense and will figure out through trial and error (like the rest of us) how to make that knowledge work better for him and how to adjust it to work for his abilities, preferred hunting style and terrain, etc.

Besides, if your above emboldened premise were correct, most of us would be wasting out time on this board.

Oldtimr

I think you missed my point, trying to tell someone how to be successful is a fools errand, however trying to "teach" someone how to hunt and be successful has a good chance of being productive. Pointing someone in the right direction in the form of finding a mentor or an organization that has lots of experienced members that can help a newbie is the difference, when someone says tell me how to do this or that, they should be saying "teach me! Which was the point of my post.

CalHunter

This sounds like one of those semantics things. We tell people a lot of things and oft times we are trying to teach them or at least pass some wisdom on. It's not always successful or even desired but in this case, the OP did ask for more tips and tactics that he can use. I imagine if he tries everything suggested in this topic, he will be kinda busy for a while and then have a lot more questions. The fact that he's asking makes me think he wants to learn. Maybe he doesn't have a mentor or somebody to show him the ropes where he lives. I believe somebody above even suggested how he might find a mentor. He probably won't do everything perfectly the first time he tries things but he will know what he's doing and why and should be able to adjust as needed. Best of all, he lives on the property so will be able to hunt every single day of deer season and scout every day of the off season. That in itself should be quite an education.

Erno86

A wise old buck or a boss doe has another sense of survivability that most hunters aren't aware of --- Which is a form of mental telepathy that a deer can sense, when a nearby hunter starts to think about that deer that he sees and wants to harvest. It's like the same feeling that some people can sense, when someone is staring at them behind their back and they turn around and find someone is/was staring at them.

I ask a question to a couple of mental telepathics on a radio talk show many years ago...when I called in and asked them how can I prevent a deer from sensing my presence through mental telepathy? They answered that I would have to "think about swirling colors in my mind", when I'm taking a gander at the nearby deer.

Say you're after a trophy buck on your property --- Best bet is to limit your deer scouting drastically, or better yet...none at all. Once you invade his territory, and he sees or smells you...he'll be aware of your traverses and may possibly want to avoid your property in the coming future.