my advice would be to read alot of books about whitetail if u wanna take a deer with a bow...and of course it takes lots of practice and long hours in the stand to get one with a bow... just my opinion

Geoff welcome to the board, you have gotten a lot of good advice and I will throw my 2 cents worth in.

1. If you are going to bow hunt, start practicing NOW! About 2 weeks before the season opens start shooting broadheads, they tend to fly a little different than field points.

2. Determine where you are going to hunt and scout as much as you can, once you have located some likely spots, put up a temporary blind and see if it is a spot the deer are moving through during shooting hours or at night. If they are coming through during shooting hours put up a stand as far ahead of the season as possible, the longer it is there the more the deer will get used to it.

3. Find every food source for deer you can, if you have white oaks in your area, you need to check them out, deer love white oak acorns more than anything.

4. Scout, Scout, and Scout!!!!!

Ask questions here and of other hunters, but experience will teach you more than anything. You can gain experience scouting and every time you go hunting. Learn from your mistakes, if you spook a deer, you need to figure out why you spooked it and learn how not to repeat the same mistake.

Good luck and welcome to the board again and the world of deer hunting.

The Tazman