Most states have seasons for whitetail deer. Depending on the area, these deer can be hunted in many ways. No matter what whitetail deer hunting tactics you pick, whitetails are intoxicating.
Ambush Hunting
Most whitetail hunters ambush the animals on or near farmland. Aside from hunting pressure, whitetail deer are drawn to crops.
According to a conservative estimate, over 50% of whitetail deer killed each year are killed on active farms. Having access to such property doesn't eliminate the necessity for pre-season whitetail reconnaissance to determine how the local deer population uses the habitat you're hunting. You must know where deer eat, sleep, and move between various locations.
Scouting is key.
Finding a deer's preferred eating spot is more challenging than looking for a farm field. Deer swap diets throughout the year. In the fall, deer may eat alfalfa, beechnuts, acorns, apples, and dogwood limbs.
Deer behavior changes require adaptability and awareness. That is, the flexibility to accept that tomorrow's deer won't be in the same area as today's and the observation abilities to predict a deer's nutritional changes based on landscape indications.
In August, you may find deer eating on an irrigated golf course, but in October, you'll want to hunt near a stand of oak trees producing acorns in a nearby state forest. Because whitetail deer habitats are so variable, it's impossible to predict all probable circumstances, but you get the idea. Identifying deer feed requires studying the animals and their environment.
Thickets best describe whitetail sleeping habitats. Whitetails, especially those under heavy hunting pressure, prefer thick vegetation that blocks their predators' vision. Consider marsh edges, briar patches, early succession clear cuts, young Christmas tree plantations, stream bottoms, windrows, abandoned farmsteads, and overgrown fallow fields.
Hilly areas are an exception. Here, deer sometimes bed on finger ridges that allow a wide-angle view of the surrounding area, or they use hillsides to maximize their winter sun exposure. Deer often spend their days in thick cover that requires crawling.
Since deer will continue to bed in the same place while their feeding places shift, you should be careful not to disturb these areas more than necessary. Deer may quit a sleeping place if spooked repeatedly. If you walk into a brushy swale and see six deer, you've made an important discovery. Promise yourself you won't go into that swale again.
Once you know where local deer are sleeping and where they'll be feeding during hunting season, you can figure out their travel paths. Finding a deer trail is often enough. However, deer rarely stick to one path. Travel corridors are locations deer are expected to pass through as they move from one location to another, frequently while grazing.
Setting up in travel corridors
Since hunting deer in their bedding regions is inadvisable, you must decide if you should target them in their eating areas or along their transit routes. This option should be based on your weapon, the feeding area, and the transit corridors.
Your weapon will determine how close you can go to the deer. With a rifle, you may keep 200 yards between you and the deer, reducing the risk of spooking them. Even if you're a good marksman, cut that distance in a shotgun-only zone. Muzzleloaders, too. With a bow, cut that to 30 yards.
Once you know how close you need to get, you can consider the benefits and cons of hunting feeding sites or travel corridors. This can't be determined quickly. First, pretend you're hunting deer with a rifle in a 300-yard-wide cut cornfield.
Multiple travel corridors approach this field from multiple directions. In this case, the smartest move is to set up an elevation blind where you can see the entire cornfield and reach any deer at the end of a travel corridor with a well-placed shot.
Now imagine you're hunting. If your greatest shooting distance is 40 yards, there's no point in ambushing the entire cornfield. You must scout out which of the three travel corridors is more heavily used.
Once that's done, find the optimum spot along the corridor where deer will pass within ambush range. Single game trails make this easier, but wider corridors require pinch points or funnels to direct deer flow.
Deer use an ancient beaver dam to cross a stream, a thin strip of brush connects two larger areas of timber, a slice of dry land lies between two flooded swamps, and two or three deer routes intersect. Consider whitetails' short home range when searching for funnels. Bedding and feeding are generally close together or overlap. Make sure your ambush spot doesn't clutter the bedding area, or you may frighten deer as you hunt.
Another scenario: parallel ridges covered in white oaks, pouring with ripe acorns for two weeks. The ridges are hundreds of yards long, and the understory prohibits you from seeing more than 100 yards in any direction.
A little brook between these peaks falls into a swampy wetland where deer like to bed. Game trails lead out of the swamp and run along either side of the stream, and they get more diffuse as they leave the marsh, presumably because deer are leaving the trails to climb the ridges and eat acorns.
Since it's hard to cover both ridgetop feeding sites with a rifle, bowhunters and rifle hunters will focus on paths that escape the marsh and follow the creek. The rifle hunter should select a spot where he can obtain some height on a hill and then oversee the entire creek bed, especially in a region where the bottom is wide and open enough to allow for many shooting opportunities.
The bowhunter must get into the creek bottom and find a pinch-point or funnel where deer paths intersect. He'll spook deer, and it's possible they'll pass beyond his range, but it's the surest way to capitalize on a brief food source attracting deer.
Choosing the Right Stand
The dictionary should have a whitetail deer next to "skittish." These animals usually flee and then wonder what scared them. Whitetail ambush hunters must stay in their stands for long durations while minimizing their impact on approaching animals. One Wisconsin hunter says to ambush whitetails, "You even have to move your eyeballs gently."
Use a treestand or freestanding ladder stand to escape a whitetail's acute senses. This keeps you out of a deer's sight. It keeps your odor elevated so it can be carried away by the wind and offers you a better view of your surroundings. Don't assume a treestand lets you be sloppy. When using a treestand, you still need to be careful of wind direction and camouflage.
When hunting from the ground, either because you can't lawfully hunt from an elevated platform or because the landscape isn't conducive, you must reduce your sound, sight, and odor. This is especially true while hunting with a bow or muzzleloader, which need a close shot.
You can build ground blinds using native resources in your hunting area, but it's hard to beat pop-up blinds.
Pop-ups provide unsurpassed visual coverage and can reduce noise and dispersion. Once in the field, you can quickly relocate them to compensate for wind direction and your quarry's preferred travel paths. They also help you stay in the woods longer and see more deer by protecting you from foul weather.
When to Hunt Whitetails
You should hunt whitetails anytime you can. There are times when you should be on your guard.
First, the gun season opens. Most states harvest 50% or more of their annual whitetail deer on opening day. Deer are usually predictable until opening morning. You have the element of surprise because they haven't adjusted to hunting pressure. Within minutes of permissible shooting hours, deer begin moving in irregular patterns as they are bumped by hunters.
This generally lasts for hours, allowing hunters to sight more deer before noon than they will all season. Once the opening day flurry is gone, around 10 a.m., don't head back to your car.
Instead, stay in your blind and let less-disciplined hunters frighten deer past your stand as they leave their ambush spots. The midmorning silence on opening day is broken by hunters who stuck it out and capitalized on other hunters' sloth.
Don't give up if you don't kill a deer on opening day. Most whitetail hunters spend two days in the field. Within a week of the opener, the woods have quieted enough for deer to emerge from their nocturnal state. Once they return to their normal patterns, you can start hunting deer that act like deer.
The rut is another season to hunt whitetail deer. Whitetail bucks lose their inhibitions to breeding females during this time. Hunters divide the rut into pre-rut, peak-rut, and post-rut.
No two serious hunters will agree on what these terms mean and when they occur. Here's a guide. Pre-rut is when bucks begin establishing hierarchies and exhibiting interest in local does. Pre-rut feeding and bedding are usual, so don't relocate your stand. Expect peaceful days. Many hunters call it "October lull." The Southern pre-rut can start around December.
Peak rut is a 1-to 2-week period when most female deer enter estrus. This usually results in huge deer activity, with bucks on the move all day as they defend their territories from other bucks and harass every doe they can locate. Early to mid-November in the north; late January in the south, bucks lose all prudence and act silly.
Now is the time to be in the woods. Consider relocating your ambush away from food sources and into travel corridors to capitalize on local bucks' wanderlust and diminished appetites. If a doe in your region is submissive, urinating often, or being chased by bucks, pay attention. Her estrus fragrance can attract bucks from kilometers away.
"Post-rut means what it says. As estrus stops, the rut ends. Bucks begin healing themselves after a period of self-neglect that left them famished, weary, and sometimes injured in fights with other bucks. Post-rut, bucks generally hide and rest alone, making hunting difficult. Focus on feeding places now.
Calling Whitetail Deer
The rut is the optimum time for hunters to call whitetail deer. Antler-rattling replicates the sounds of sparring or fighting bucks during the pre-rut. This is best done in places where deer congregate anyway, such as feeding grounds, because you will often attract deer that are merely passively curious about what's going on; they aren't ready to fight themselves, but they like watching others do so.
Products emulate this sound. Rattle bags and "pack racks" are easier to carry than genuine antlers, although most diehards prefer real antlers for their more realistic sound. Some hunters soak their year-old rattling antlers in a five-gallon bucket of water to make them sound "alive."
Try 10- or 15-minute antler-clacking spurts. Bucks can come out of nowhere and quickly, so be ready. Don't wait for the monsters to charge. Bucks of all sizes will skirt your location to watch the action.
During peak rut, when the woods are busy with breeding, try different deer calls. Antler rattling can be beneficial. Grunts work great too. Most typically, bucks grunt when trailing a doe. This is called a tending grunt and sounds like a burp. Nearby bucks may respond to the noise in hopes of displacing their adversary and capturing the doe. Grunt tubes mimic these sounds.
Today's market has dozens of grunt tubes. Find one that works and stick with it. Other advertising cries simulate a "snort-wheeze," which dominant bucks make when agitated by invading bucks. This call attracts bucks attempting to assert their authority or satisfy their curiosity.
Many hunters attract rutting bucks by mimicking their doe and fawns' bleating. Such sounds are created with internal reed calls and bleat cans actuated by flipping the can end-for-end. These calls can stop a rut-crazed buck that's too swift for a clean shot. When you make the commotion, the deer will likely look in your direction. Have your bow or pistol ready. It'll run if it spots you.
Combine These Techniques
Some whitetail hunters combine calling and still hunting. They rattle or call in one spot, then wait 10 to 15 minutes before moving on. Still-hunters rely on silence to sneak up on whitetails. When the forest floor is soaked from rain or snow, crinkling leaves are quieter.
Still, the toughest hunting issue is spotting deer before they spot you. Whitetails' gray-brown coats blend into deciduous woods, evergreen forests, and desert scrub. Use caution and utilize binoculars when still-hunting whitetails. parts-oriented You're more likely to see a deer ear, nose, or antler.
Finally, drive hunting can be an effective and pleasant way to hunt whitetails if you have a few friends who don't mind hunting together. Establishing a fruitful whitetail drive may take a couple years of trial and error as you learn the optimal routes and stander placements. Once you master whitetail drives, you're golden. A good whitetail drive can yield meat for decades if the habitat remains the same.