I'm trying to learn how to hunt. Can you help?

[joshk-k]

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to learn how to hunt big game, like deer and elk. I grew up in a city and did not hunt. I have hunted small game and some upland birds, and unsuccessfully gone for deer before. I have a few basic questions that are probably applicable in most areas.

Game trails: So maybe I'm walking along an old logging road or a foot path into the forest and I see where a game trail crosses it, or I'm in woods where there are no paths to speak of other than game trails. Do you follow the trail? Do you move to a spot overlooking it from a distance? How do you move over terrain and/or make use of that location? What about all the scent you're leaving everywhere, including on trails?

Calling elk: Do you pre-emptively call when you think there ought to be elk in the area? Do you wait until hearing another? Are commercially available elk calls worth using?

Using maps: So, using even as crude and outdated a tool as Google Earth, I can get a quite accurate satellite photo and topographic map of the area I'm hunting in. Using those tools, is it possible to make logical deductions about how to narrow down the area that you want to be covering? I spent a few days there earlier this fall, and so know where I've seen animal sign and how the land is in reality. I'm just wondering whether maps can be useful in that way.

Learning on your own: Obviously having a mentor is better than not having one, in almost every aspect of your life. I don't have a hunting mentor. Is it feasible for a resourceful, adventerous, smart, fit, young man to successfully teach himself how to hunt without directly learning from being with someone else? Any tips for this?

I'll probably have more questions as the answers come, so bear with me. I appreciate any and all help I can recieve.

Yours,
Josh

 

[~z]

All very good questions to which I’m sure you will receive a variety of useful info.
Elk I have no experience with so I’ll leave that on the table for another.
I have no experience in your part of the country however some info will translate across geographic boundaries. As for the game trails, I walk them much prior to the hunt (pre season) and follow them to determine where they come from and where they go. If you can develop an understanding of the animals habits it will help you tremendously. Find a bedding area and the route they take to food/water and you typically have found your goldmine. Then back off that trail and find your ambush point. Take into consideration things like prevailing wind and set up so the wind blows from the trail to you. Additionally the type of hunting will make a big difference here, obviously with a bow or pistol you will need to be much closer. Once you develop this part of the plan stay off the trails.

As for the maps and aerial images, they are priceless. They allow you to find/ see things that are not obvious from the ground.

And yes, a mentor helps but an open and observant mind will go a lot further, it may take a bit longer though. Set realistic goals and strive to achieve them. Like instead of seeking to shoot a monster buck on your first year maybe concentrate on trying find some deer and observe them.
~z

 

[joshk-k]

Yeah I'd be happy even to see an animal this season!

What sort of things should I look for on maps like that? Particular geographic features like...?

Thanks.

 

[~z]

Saddles (ie valley between 2 hills) animals use for ease of travel, points that overlook meadows or fields (for observation points), isolated open areas in the woods or places where the canopy is not closed. Sometimes you can id tree types from Google Earth and can key in on mast producing trees. Also finding small ponds and water holes. Also when weather turns bad you can id places which will be blocked from cold winds and key in on them. Deer are animals of the edge, they like transition points like where a forest meets a field.
~z

 

[308win]

Depending on the type of terrain you are hunting look for isolated islands of good to heavy cover such as a heavy brushy area in a clearcut or a copse of trees and bushes in a large clear area. These will often hold larger solitary bucks. Look for low swampy areas and if they exist concentrate on hummocks of heavy cover in these areas. Lines of cover such a over grown fence rows between larger areas of cover or feeding areas are good ambush sites as deer will use these to move from one area to another.

 

[Wilson2]

In addition to the suggestions above, consider subscribing to a couple of hunting magazines for a year or two. Petersen's Hunting, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and several others provide interesting hunting articles every month.

 

[wyohome]

In the area where you live, you will be hunting Roosevelt Elk, Blacktail Deer, Black Bear, and Turkeys. There aren't many articles in magazines about the first two, many regarding the last two. The reason is the last 2 are simple to hunt and film, while the others are nearly impossible. I lived for a number of years next door to Larry D. Jones (Wilderness Sound Productions) in Marcola, Oregon. He has archery videos for many species of big game and the last I heard he even had one on Blacktails. You might want to check those out. The information is as valuable for rifle hunters.
Think like a deer. Where would you bed down? Where would you eat? How could you gain an advantage over those who are out to eat you?

 

[schlockinz]

Get a topo as well if you can, a topo will do a better job of giving you the true feeling of the lay of the land. Look for areas with the least amount of vertical change between bedding and food, there will usually be activity here.

Animals are generally lazy, like us, and won't do more work than is needed for their survival, keep that in mind.

Personally, with a rifle, I like to hunt where I have large views (logging road if straight in a spot, power lines, fields etc...) and set up where I can see the most and plan on taking longer than normal shots (most of the does I kill are done this way at 150->350 yds).

As for a mentor, if you have a large population of does (I'm not sure that this is an issue with blackies) then you might be able to make friends with someone that would help put you on one, may not be an easy thing to accomplish, but I don't think that it'd be too hard (generally, it seems that most people aren't territorial unless horns or elk are involved, so they might not care as much, especially if you're willing to share the meat in exchange).

Walk the land, all of it, you'll find more little secret secluded areas and beds this way, and may find the deer highways as well.

Lastly, if you plan to hunt spring turkies, get there early and do owl hoots, turkies (rios at least, and probably merriams) will gobble on the roost at this noise, so this will give you a clue as to where to set up (don't get too close though).

BTW, all of the above is for deer and turkey. I've never hunted elk and I've never cared enough to chase bear, so I have no worth while information to share on those guys. Also, I've only hunted white tail, blackies seem to be a little harder to get to, if its mulies that your chasing, then I'm not so sure how to pattern them, but water would be a key resource to watch, and good stalking skills would be essential to learn if you want to kill a big ol' fatty

 

[blackops]

I use Google Earth every season and I would recomend it to any hunter. Maps are also excellent source of information. Detailed maps for specific areas will give you most water sources along with the trails throughout the region. All information is to your advantage the game will have every other against you. As for following trails game leave behind that will be dictated on how fresh the track is. I give you credit for learning on your own.

 

[Grizfire]

regarding elk...there are two calls worth having. 1) a bull elk bugle call and 2) a cow call.

the bugle will only help you during the rut which is normally in September depending on your location. You can set up in a spot where you think there may be elk and bugle, then listen of for them to bugle back. Your essentially calling them in for a fight.

After the rut is over, your primary call is the cow call, I generally only use this call to stop an elk that has spooked and is running away so that I can get a shot. Works like a charm, I have seen them take off, then stop right in there tracks when they hear the cow call. Its also nice to use the cow call while tracking elk, as it may slow them down. I have done this successfully while tracking a large herd, in the snow, in heavy timber. You can actually see from there tracks how they peel away from the main herd and look back when they hear the call.

good luck, practice and experience will be your best resource.

 

[joshk-k]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! It's been good, over the last few days, to study maps of the area and get a better plan in mind about setting up, moving, what ground to cover, etc.

Another question: It's almost certainly going to be raining like nobody's business. As far as comfort, movement, silence, etc. goes, what is a good way to prepare for rain like that?

Thanks,
JOsh

 

[Art Eatman]

I'm not going out in "real" rain, but I've hunted in spitty-drizzle. My old army nylon field jacket was adequate for shedding the worst of the wet. I like it when the ground is wet because the dead leaves and grass don't make it sound like you're crushing a handful of Rice Krispies. I even managed to sneak up to within ten feet of a buck, that way, and hit him in the butt with a rock. Hilarity ensued.

Generally, there's no substitute for getting "out there" and finding a good sitting spot with a fair view of the country. Deer and such do most of their visible moving around daylight and again at sundown, so that's the time of day to play spy. I'm lazy, so in the middle of the day I'm a walking hunter playing Sneaky Snake; toward sundown I sit and watch.

Deer in particular will hang around edges of wooded or brushy areas. Most of their food is more in the open, so they watch and wait to see if it's safe before venturing out.

In the woods, don't look for the entire deer. An antler, an eye or nose. Or maybe just legs showing below the brush line. You have to learn to spot and identify just part of a deer. Then, when an ear flicks, WOW! and you see the whole deer.

 

[blackops]

In the woods, don't look for the entire deer. An antler, an eye or nose. Or maybe just legs showing below the brush line. You have to learn to spot and identify just part of a deer. Then, when an ear flicks, WOW! and you see the whole deer.

Exactly. When you spend time in areas that are worthy of hunting you are "training" your eyes. My eye sight is acceptional, but my father and his buddies still can spot certain deer I don't. They have spent more time in the wilderness and have "trained" there eyes for certain movement and spotting those little holes through tree and brush where deer bed in the shade.

 

[schlockinz]

I never got too good at spotting in the woods, but I can smell a rutted buck nearby (smells like the inside of my truck for some reason).

One other note, in one of the latest issues of bowhunter there are a lot of really good ideas, especially from a rag. I kinda remember there being an article about black tails in it, I could be wrong though.

 

[okespe04]

I'm down in Eugene doing the same thing you are. No mentor and pretty much just winging it. Also no luck so far. If your hunting deer keep in mind that western black tail are some of the most difficult deer in the country to hunt so don't feel to bad if you don't fill your tag. My plan is to just go hunting a lot till I bag something. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. One way or another I'm going to bag a buck. Then I will have fun figuring out how to field dress the thing. Keep trying!

 

[schlockinz]

Field dressing is simple

cut around the junk and move it away, make an incision up the midline to the end of the sternum, use a saw to cut through sternum, cut wind pip with knife, start hauling out guts, cut the diaphragm as needed to continue pulling out.

As for the ass, I usually just reach in under the pelvis and push the crap into the intestines with my hand then cut right near the insertion into the butt and pull the rest out. Flip deer over and drain blood.

FWIW, get a doe tag as well, generally easier to find less wary does, and increases the likelihood of just filling a tag (plus, they taste better than an old buck)

 

[okespe04]

Yeah I need a doe tag next year. The only thing I have seen so far was a good size doe I could have easily bagged. It was about 30 yards away nibbling on some branches and it didn't even seem to care that I was there. It looked right at me and went back to munching. I have heard that there is pretty much no such thing as fair weather black tail hunting. Go in the early morning and evening till dusk and hope for rain.

 

[schlockinz]

Hrmm, come to think of it, the only time that I've seen many black tails was when I was leaving Seattle for Idaho early one morning after a storm in the cascades, I nearly toasted 3 of them on the interstate, saw about 20 in the woods during the first hour of light, I'd never seen one before on that drive (maybe cause I did it primarily during the dead of night in the winter)

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Another question: It's almost certainly going to be raining like nobody's business. As far as comfort, movement, silence, etc. goes, what is a good way to prepare for rain like that?

There's lots of good quiet rain gear out there so I won't get into that but don't forget your feet. Few hunting boots will stand up to a all day rain, so if you anticipate those sort of conditions fitted knee high rubber boots are excellent.
And be certain you have a good set of scope caps that can opened/removed quickly.

 

[blackops]

Saddles (ie valley between 2 hills) animals use for ease of travel

During rifle season there is one major center point of my hunt. It is near a saddle where deer constantly make traffic. They use this saddle throughout the night traveling back and fourth from feeding.