It is no secret that whitetail deer are the most popular species to hunt in North America. Regardless of where you hunt, chances are you can find whitetail deer only a short drive away. From coast to coast, border to border, whitetail deer have adapted to the habitat and found a way to survive. As different as hunting in Upper Michigan is from Florida, there’s still a common denominator. (Florida does have some weird whitetails though).
No matter where the deer you hunt call home, they’re still deer. Many of us have spent generations pursuing whitetails, while others are picking up a gun or bow for the first time this season. Whether you’re a new hunter or a seasoned vet, we all crave one thing! That craving can only be satisfied by spending time in the treestand or ground blind. However, finding the time to devote to hunting can sometimes be difficult.
Fortunately for us, we live in a day and time where hunting strategies, tips, and tricks are only a click away. Podcasts, TV Shows, Blogs, and Social Media have changed the way many of us hunt. Also, the sudden rise in popularity of hunting public land has increased the desire to learn new techniques and understand how deer travel and survive in pressured areas. The wealth of knowledge a new hunter has access to these days is only limited by how much work you’re willing to put forth.
Below is a list Uncommon Hunting Tips from the Common Deer Hunter.
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Stop hunting so much! If that doesn’t raise some eyebrows, you’re in the wrong place. But I’m serious, stop going hunting just to hunt. Instead, hunt when the time is right. Remember the old boxing quote “precision beats power and timing beats speed!” It translates to hunting just the same.
Strike when the time is right by gathering information from boots on the ground scouting, trail cameras, historical data, and/or glassing. If you can’t stay out of the woods, don’t burn up your best stands before the season heats up. Instead, scout some new ground, spend time glassing from a distance, or try your hand on some nearby public ground.
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Let trail cameras soak for an entire season. This year, devote a few trail cameras to learning about the deer in your area instead of just taking photos of deer. Each season I place a couple of trail cameras in new areas, or areas that I don’t plan on hunting and leave them out for the entire season. Oftentimes, I’ll let trail cameras soak prior to the start of the archery opener through the season and into the winter before pulling the camera. This allows me to view this area for the entire season, helping me learn more about the area and when the best times of year are to hunt this spot. It’s a great way to gather historical data and you’ll learn a lot from adopting this tactic. The lack of human intrusion from staying out of the area ensures that the wildlife that call it home on unbothered and unpressured.
When you finally pull the trail camera, take your time to study the photos and learn from it. Personally, I save every photo of a 2.5-year-old or older buck that walks by the camera so that I can see what times of the season I should be hunting this spot next year! Also, it’s a great way to know if this is a morning spot or evening spot. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it’ll be both! Historical data will help you kill more deer!
Quick Tip: Invest in Lithium batteries and a high-capacity SD card. External battery packs or solar panels work great too!
Confidence kills bucks! Staying confident during the hunting season will help you put more bucks on the ground. Hunting season can be a grind, especially with the emotional highs and lows that often come with hunting. Many of the best hunters I know don’t lack confidence in the whitetail woods and the best ones have a hunting buddy that will hype them up if they feel down on their luck.
Staying confident motivates you to wake up earlier and stay in the stand/blind longer. This practice alone should provide you with more opportunities in the future.
But how do you gain confidence? Confidence is the result of preparation, knowledge, and skill. Ask any 3D archer or golfer and they’ll tell you how important the mental aspect is to their game. We can take that same skill set and apply it to hunting just the same.
Brownie points! Hunting is a selfish sport, so don’t forget about those that love you. We spend 11 months waiting on the whitetail rut to roll around, so be sure to invest in your relationships with your loved ones year-round and find the time for those loved ones during hunting season as well. If the conditions aren’t perfect for a hunt, take the wife to dinner, spend the evening playing with the kids, or wake up early and cook breakfast for the family.
For extra Brownie Points, send your better half flowers while you’re on your next hunting trip to ensure that she knows you’re thinking about her even though you’re probably thinking about big bucks!
Read the story on how I killed this buck.
Practice good scent control. We often hear things like “forget the wind, just hunt” or “you can’t beat a deer’s nose”. Both sound like a good idea but if you take your scent control seriously enough, you might be able to get by with cheating the wind just enough to get a shot at a cruising buck.
You’re not going to beat a deer’s nose every time, but adding a solid scent control regime to your hunting arsenal will improve the quality of your hunt. Oftentimes, I find myself hunting in swirling or changing wind directions, so only “hunting the wind” is not favorable for my hunting style. In fact, the buck pictured was killed after watching appear from my downwind side on a mid-October hunt during 2020.
To learn more about scent control, check out this blog post that will help you fine-tine your scent control game.
Need help w/ digital scouting or reading topo maps? Click the link to learn more.
The more the merrier! When it comes to hunting properties, the more access you have the better. A lot of hunters gain access to a piece of property and they set up shop, never venturing out of their comfort zone, yet they complain about not having more places to hunt.
That’s a bunch of garbage if you ask me. There are millions of acres of public land at your disposal to start with and even more acres of private property around you. During the off-season, spend time talking to your neighbors, knocking on doors, and calling out-of-town property owners in search of hunting permission. Keep a list of contact information for landowners in your area and don’t be afraid of calling them year after year, even if they tell you no the first time.
I strongly encourage you to download OnX Hunt or Hunt Stand. Digital mapping applications like these have greatly increased hunting opportunities for those that are willing to seek them.
Need help w/ digital scouting or reading topo maps? Click the link to learn more.
Be a sponge! There’s a wealth of information at your fingertips that will help you become a better hunter, so go look for it! Podcasts have revolutionized the way we gather information about a topic and you can learn so much during the off-season by investing your time wisely.
Also, don’t forget about books and blogs too. Some of us aren’t a fan of reading but reading about deer hunting is different. Nothing catches my attention more than educational information that helps make me a better deer hunter. Seminars are another great resource to learn from successful hunters, for instance, the Mobile Hunter Roadshow or the Tetherd Teach-N-Train.
Teer Peer – Chasing Giants Podcast
Stay off social media! Stop scrolling on FaceBook and Instagram and put your phone away. Your phone can be a distraction in the stand and each season a lot of big bucks escape unharmed because hunters are playing on their phones.
Social media often leads hunters into comparing their success (or lack of success) with other hunters and it can have a negative influence on your confidence while in the woods. There’s a time and place for social media and the deer stand isn’t one of them.
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Sawyer’s Permethrin is your best friend in protecting yourself from ticks! Ticks carry diseases such as Lyme’s Disease and another disease that makes you allergic to red meat (so no more steaks or burgers).
Treating your clothing, boots, saddle, and backpack with Sawyer’s Permethrin is a must. Reapply it at the start of every season to ensure all of your clothes are protected. This could be the most important tip on this list.
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Ask for help! Sometimes we all need an extra hand sometimes, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. Whether it’s hanging those heavy permanent treestands or it’s scouting a new piece of property, it’s always nice to have a hunting buddy around to help out.
Having an extra set of eyes in the whitetail woods is a great way to see things from different perspectives. I’ve found myself hunting old properties the same way for years because I have history with the area but if my success starts to diminish I’ll bring in a hunting buddy to scout the area from a different perspective and it often sparks debates on set-ups and leads me to try something new. Sometimes it’s an adjustment in access routes or we stumble into fresh sign that I would have otherwise missed.
Eddie Webb – Real Deal Outdoors
The best archers have a local archery pro shop that they support. Anyone can sell you a bow but it takes a trained eye to bring out the best in you and your equipment. An accurate archer is a deadly archer in the whitetail woods and investing the time in finding a local pro shop will help you build confidence as an archer. Also, it’s nice to have the support of your local pro shop when you have an equipment failure or you’re just having some tuning issues that you need help with.
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Add some string wax to the bolts on your archery equipment to ensure they don’t loosen. Archers have been utilizing string was to secure their equipment for decades and I’ve even heard of hunters using Teflon tape to secure bolts into their equipment. You can even apply string wax to the threads on your broadheads or field tips to keep them from loosening. There’s no worse feeling than to let an arrow fly and see it miss its mark due to mechanical failure. Many of these could have been prevented by performing a proper pre-operational check on your equipment before the hunt.
B.T. Roberts – Whitetail Frenzy
Establish and maintain quality mineral sites throughout your hunting area (where legal of course). Minerals are crucial for antler development but also vital for lactating does as well. The goal is to create a healthy deer herd, not just to grow big bucks. Healthy does will lactate more frequently, thus giving fawns a healthy jump-start from birth. It’s never too late to establish a mineral site on your property and you should refreshen them every two to three months throughout the year. Don’t forget to give them a little extra in December to help bucks recover from the stresses of the rut.
Introducing the next generation to the outdoors is one of the most rewarding experiences of a hunter’s life. Introduce them at their own pace and enjoy the process. Don’t wait until hunting season to bring along your future hunting buddy. Instead, bring them along as you prepare for the upcoming season and take a few practice rounds” in the treestand or blind before venturing into your favorite hunting spot.
Nina Rogers – Nina Outdoors
Be sure to take candy bars and other snacks out of the wrapper and place the item in a zip-lock bag. This will reduce the amount of noise you make a speed up the process in the field.
Nina Rogers – Nina Outdoors
To keep from losing your gear in the dark, try installing a small piece of reflective tape on your gear. This works great on items that you frequently drop, such as a phone or archery release. Don’t go overboard though, a little goes a long way in the dark!
Nina Rogers – Nina Outdoors
When trying to stay warm during cold weather hunts, try putting a ThermaCare Heat Wrap on your back. The ThermaCare Heat Wrap warms up your core body temperature, keeping you in the stand or blind longer. Also, don’t forget to bring a couple of Hot Hands too!
When trying to establish food plots in high deer density areas try installing an electric fence to keep the deer away until the food plot is established enough to withstand the expected browse pressure. I like to install a 3D Double Fence, with an inside fence that has two strands and an outside fence that has only one strand. The interior fence will consist of two strands, with the lower strand approximately 18-20 inches from the ground and the upper strand at the top of the pole. Next, install a second fence (the exterior fence). Don’t forget to install a jumper wire between the fence rows. The fence rows should be spaced approximately 3′ to 4′ apart. Deer are capable of jumping the fence but due to the 3D look of the fence, it deters most deer from destroying your food plot.
This system can be utilized in the spring for soybeans or in the fall before hunting season. You’ll need a solar charger, electric fence, and electric fence posts.
When making mock scrapes, add Smokey’s Pre-Orbital gland lure to a flattened or crushed tip of a licking branch. This will absorb the unique attractant contained in Smokey’s Pre-Orbital Gland Lure much better. All you need is one dropper of lure.
How big around should mock scrapes be?
A good rule of thumb for starting mock scrapes is to open up the forest floor and exposing the fresh dirt in a 30″ diameter circle underneath the licking branch.
How far should licking branches be from the ground?
The optimal height for licking branches at mock scrape locations is 48″ to 54″ off the ground.
When should you start making mock scrapes? July or August is the ideal to take inventory of the bucks in your hunting area by utilizing mock scrapes.
For an additional appeal to mock scrapes, create a mock buck rub by scuffing up a nearby tree with a knife or saw. You can do this as early as August and don’t forget to cut notches/shelves in the rub to hold Smokey’s forehead gland lure to attract bucks sooner. By making mock buck rubs in August and adding another buck’s scent to the rub, you’ll entice the bucks in your area and use their rising testosterone levels against them! It’s not uncommon for other bucks to mark the mock rub with their own unique scent. This is done to determine the pecking order within the local deer herd.
Take advantage of a mature buck’s number one desire: To feel SAFE!
Hunt the edges of those “safe” places and manage your property to meet this desire.
How to kill big bucks!
Step 1 – Hunt where big bucks live. Increase your odds by hunting “big buck states” such as Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky Texas, Illinois, Missouri, or Wisconsin. Not all states, regions, and counties are equal when it comes to big bucks so don’t be afraid to test the waters of an out-of-state hunt in search of big bucks!
Amos Medford – Wannabe Hunter Podcast
Prioritize preparation! Confidence grows from proper preparation. Practice with your weapon and know how to use your gear for its designed purpose. Prepare and you will have more opportunities and those opportunities will turn into more encounters, kills, and positive memories in the field.
Are you a common hunter with an uncommon hunting tip that you would like to share? Then send me a DM on Instagram (Hunting Gear Deals) and feel free to tag me in your hunting-related photos. When you finish reading this blog, check out our Opening Day Deer Hunting Tips for Bowhunters.
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