Unconventional Deer Hunting Tactics?

[dak0ta]

Hi,

This weekend I was able to get two blacktail deer with my shotgun. My other buddies were using rifles. We didn't have much time to fill our tags so I decided to try covering as much ground as possible to find deer. I didn't necessarily stalk or move quietly, or still hunt like my buddies were. I just basically walked through the woods trying to spook up deer or make them lift their heads to look at me so I could spot them. I wanted to find them quickly, close the distance in range for my slugs, and get a shot. This goes against all the deer hunting tips such as spot and stalk, blind hunt, still hunting. I opted for a very "on offence" approach which also seemed to work better as I found more deer than my hunting party combined. Anybody else try this? I find the deer generally stare at you rather than taking off which helps get into range. Of course, the terrain makes a difference, this was dense timber. I used a deep fast flowing river as a far barrier in my field of view and basically walked the ridge line parallel to the river overlooking timber so I could have a good view of anything that moved between the ridge and water. It was cool being able to use the geography to one's advantage.

 

[rabid wombat]

My long deceased father in law described his technique when he learned that I hunted. As a Cajun, he lived a subsistence life style. He had two acres plowed in which he grew his crops. He canned and froze what he had.

He described a nuisance deer going after his garden. He said they stand real still when you shine a light in their eyes.

I never did hunt with him.

Edit: corrected spelling

 

[buck460XVR]

It was cool being able to use the geography to one's advantage.

You also probably used the deer's previous experience with people randomly walking in the woods to your advantage. Deer pattern humans pretty quickly. Many times they have learned that when people walk quickly thru the woods they are not a threat. I have found this to be prevalent in areas that are hunted heavily for birds and small game. Years ago when I used to hunt a large parcel of public land, one of my tactics was not to still hunt deer, but to still hunt deer hunters that were trying to still hunt. Most walk too fast, don't know how/where to look for deer and tend to walk by more deer than they see. I would trail behind hunters still hunting(or driving deer) and watch to the sides and behind them. Some times it was just the flick of a ear or antler as the hunter passed and the deer kept an eye on them, and sometimes the deer would get up and sneak away in the direction the hunter had come from after the hunter had passed......straight into me. Sometimes very early in the season, deer have not yet figured out that humans are after them and make the mistake of standing up and looking at the hunter, especially in areas where pressure is limited. Either way, it seems you found a method that works. I suggest you exploit it till it don't work anymore.

 

[dak0ta]

Thanks for you insight and experience. I agree that it depends on the "human pattern" of movement. Looking for the subtle signs like a deer head silhouette in the sun. Blacktails are very stealthy and don't make much noise at all even when moving through dense brush. I think they overly rely on camouflage and stillness for hunters to pass by, but if you have sharp eyes you can pick them out.

 

[readyeddy]

We do that in Hawaii sometimes, under similar circumstances you describe. We'll walk through the thickets to look for bedded down axis deer when it's too hot for them to move around.

But I'll admit that's rare for me. If it's too hot for the deer, it's usually too hot for me. Good time to take a nap.

 

[22250Rem]

20 - something years ago a guy used to haul firewood out of his woods with his tractor pulling a small wagon load of wood down a small dirt lane. The lane was just high enough to give a nice view down into the woods to his right. Several times he was able to spot bedded deer that just laid there as the tractor passed by. One day he realized that the prevailing wind would be in his face if he slowly & quietly stalked in from the west side. He did so during gun deer season and got a nice buck right in his bed. He still hunted his way in there silently and used a 12 ga. slug gun from less than 50 yards. I guess it sure helps if you know where they are bedding.

 

[Bfh_auto]

One of my friends had an alcoholic father. He always got deer when he went out, so one day I decided to go with him. He would shamble along in a zig-zag pattern. Every little ways he would stop and rest because of the snow.
I tried the same method minus the multiple pints of brandy and never fail to get meat deer. I haven't seen anything bigger than a 6 point this way, so it is a end of season fill my tags sort of thing.

 

[jmorris]

I see lots of deer and other wildlife driving around, most don’t move until you stop.

 

[jmr40]

You weren't acting like a hunter. Deer are accustomed to seeing non-hunters walking around through the woods all the time and aren't alarmed by them.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I see lots of deer and other wildlife driving around, most don’t move until you stop.

You stop and they think you are a poacher.

 

[jmorris]

You stop and they think you are a poacher.

They are just used to me mowing or going from one place to another. They will come watch me bait for hogs and know when feeders go off to the minute.

Ducks will stay in the ponds too becuse they get complacent vs doing a circle and get back in.

The chickens and other bug eating birds will follow a brush hog as sea gulls follow fishing boats.

 

[Bfh_auto]

They are just used to me mowing or going from one place to another. They will come watch me bait for hogs and know when feeders go off to the minute.

Ducks will stay in the ponds too becuse they get complacent vs doing a circle and get back in.

The chickens and other bug eating birds will follow a brush hog as sea gulls follow fishing boats.

Sea gulls follow a disc also. If it stopped, they flew away. I thought you meant while driving a truck down the road.

 

[LoonWulf]

We do that in Hawaii sometimes, under similar circumstances you describe. We'll walk through the thickets to look for bedded down axis deer when it's too hot for them to move around.

But I'll admit that's rare for me. If it's too hot for the deer, it's usually too hot for me. Good time to take a nap.

Heh, was just doing that this evening....
Guess it's sorta like jumping rabbits, from what I've heard about jumping rabbits.

 

[RedlegRick]

I once got a nice four-point merely by being too hungover to go out the next morning. Instead, I slept in and ended up stationing myself about a hundred feet (not yards)from camp.
Not just the hangover, was still recovering from a broken leg and wasn't up for much else. Found a nice sunny spot, sat my rifle across a log, and leaned back and took a nap.
When I woke up, there was a young buck snuffling the grass about twenty feet from me, so I eased onto my rifle and took him.
Another trick I learned was when I got suckered into taking one of my friend's grandpa out shooting coyote. This gent was nearly 90 but sharp as a tack. Had me stop at KFC for a bucket and we had lunch up at his blind. He told me they could smell if you were hunting, so if you acted like you weren't and had tasty aromatic foods, it would bring them in and he was right.
He also told me one other trick he used to bait them in, but it's a little risque to put in a public forum.

 

[Glockula]

Bait all you want in ENC. Nothing risque about it . I have had great luck when it's early rifle here and in the mid 80s temp wise. Sure the skeeters will eat you alive and sweating while deer hunting seems unnatural but I have killed some big bucks when local experts have proclaimed its too hot for deer to move .

 

[SoonerMedic]

The 11 pointer I shot last weekend was done do by walking around the property with my wife. We nearly bumped into the damn thing head on. He stepped out of the thick woods sniffing around as we were walking toward him. We stop and she hands me the rifle and I put it right on the money. Was so strange that he didn't have a clue we were there. He must've had other things on his mind lol.
Later on we went back to the same spot and found where a buck had made a nice rub on a sapling and I imagine he was on his way to sniff it or add to the smell.

 

[Captcurt]

I wouldn't call it hunting, but on one farm that I hunted the owner was driving ATV's or Tractors all day. The deer were so used to the vehicles that they didn't pay much attention to them. You could ride a ATV within 30 yards of them and they would just watch you. Not my cup of Tea, but it worked.

 

[redneck2]

The car thing works for antelope. You can drive along slowly, and bail out the side away from them, keeping the vehicle moving slowly but never come to a dead stop. Jump out and hunker down behind the brush. The antelope will stand there watching the vehicle go off.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've found that on property that is public land, with lots of hunters...., two things work well.....
You hunt on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday..., and you hunt all day. At about 11:00, all the guys who only got a half-day off from work get up and leave. Now all of us moving in before dawn, caused the deer to hunker down, and they didn't get a dawn feeding, since they heard the humans moving in. THEN they heard almost all of the hunters leave between 11:00 and noon, and scent gets reduced, and noise drops down too....so I get really alert between 12:00 and 15:00 in public areas....since the deer might be really hungry and might think it ok to move. This has worked several times.

Another technique is to be near the roadway, especially if there is a field that borders the roadway, with brush along the fence and roadside, along the access road and/or the parking spot of the public lands. "Too close to the road; no deer in there so close to the parking lot" most guys think. So they roll in before dawn, then move out, going deep into the public woods, and....push the deer from the deep areas toward the parking area and access road, and the adjacent meadow. Sure some deer bolt when spooked, but some are crafty, and try to creep away.....I've gotten a couple of deer over the years, moving along the tree line adjacent to the access road, creeping along, exiting the area due to the arrival of the hunters. Sure is a lot easier to load up that fat doe or young buck when he's litterally been dropped just inside the fenceline on the access road.

LD

 

[WestKentucky]

I’m asthmatic and a lot of the smells and such in the woods get me wheezing slightly. I have on multiple occasion carried something to the field simply to be an attention grabber. My favorite is a coyote hunting flappy ball of fur. It flops around and makes just enough noise to get a deers attention. They focus on that and try to slip around the edge of the field while maintaining a heavy focus on it, I have had good success with this. I once used a Walmart bag tied to a tree limb. It’s so small that it doesn’t spook them, it just makes them nervous enough to focus on it.

 

[Patocazador]

Deer pattern humans pretty quickly. Many times they have learned that when people walk quickly thru the woods they are not a threat.

I had a lease for 22 years. The hunters would all ride ATV's and hunt daylight and dark. We never killed really big deer but some of our guests did because they would hunt all day. they saw the big deer between 11:00 and 2:00. Some of the guests would walk to their stands instead of riding a 4-wheeler. They said there were deer everywhere but when the deer would hear an ATV, they would take off.

Those deer had us pegged for sure.

 

[Stew0576]

Deer are smarter than people think, they pattern us just like we pattern them, being different and unpredictable helps

 

[dak0ta]

This has turned out to be an interesting thread, keep em coming!

 

[Captcurt]

While scouting a new place I started putting waypoints in my GPS every time I found a scrap on a couple of ridges. When I got home I pulled up a topo map of the place and marked the locations of the scrapes. The scrape lines were headed towards a saddle where the ridges intersected. On the second trip I checked out the saddle. There was a major concentration of rubs and scrapes there. Opening day of muzzleloading season I passed up 3 small bucks and shot a nice 16" 8 point. Three more bucks fell in that saddle before the place sold and we lost access to the property.

 

[Iroquois]

Back in the early 80’s ( when I was young) I used to hunt in West Virginia on a buddy’s property. We didn’t use tree stands, we just sat on the ground and overlooked the flats and hollows. That was ok and semi productive. After reading an article in camp, I decided I was going to try still hunting. I got up a little earlier than usual and hiked up to the last bench before the ridge. I would take 8 to 10 steps then stop, look and listen. After about 2 hours I had seen a few does and a spike buck, I was surprised how close I could get and how little they spooked. A short while later I jumped a nice 8 point. He wasn’t expecting me to be there and he jumped straight to his feet and looked right at me at around 30 yards. I placed the cross hairs right behind his front shoulder and squeezed. After the shot he just stood there, I thought I missed. I lowered the rifle and chambered another round and placed it on his shoulder again. Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger he fell over. Still hunting remains one of my favorite ways to hunt mountain deer.