Blend In
Wear your Camo. Try to sit where the sun doesn’t expose your siilouet. If your stand hunting, hug the tree sort of speak. When setting up your stand try to have the sun at your back and in the deer’s eyes. Keep the wind in your face or coming from the direction of travel that you think the deer may be coming from.
Be Famiiar with the area.
If your like me and work alot of hours, then sometimes you may not get boots on the ground as much as you would like. That;s no excuse. there are lot’s of options. Use the cell field camera’s and get the pic directly to your phone. Use google maps or different huntig apps and know every inch of the property you are hunting. Familarize yourself with funnels and draws. Try to identify your bedding and feeding areas. Thier just isnt any good reason for not knowing your hunting property unless your hunting public land for the first time.
Get up and Get Out There
Set that alarm clock and get out of bed. Have your hunting clothes laid out and ready to go. make sure your hunting weapon and pack is ready to go.Have your pack ready and everything where you want it. the last thing you want is to be looking for something and being in a rush. Have a packing list, if you have the time get your gear lined out, just like your going to work. You wouldnt leave for work without your boots and hard hat. Treat your hunting trip just like going to work on friday where you will be getting your paycheck, except when hunting your getting that trophy.
Get Set
Get to you rparking spot and decontaminate your boots and clothes. Get to your stand or blind, but do it quietly or stealthly.even. You may want to clean a trail to your blid. remove the leaves or debris 50-100 yards just beefore your final decent to your hunting stand or blind. Do this a day or so before your hunt, if you can. I can remember going on a public land hunt with my cousin Earl. We were at Pickett State Park. We found a tree and Earl cleaned the debris from around the tree. I asked why and he said that way you can walk all the way around the tree quietly with out making any sound. Don’t drive your truck or atv/utv too close to your hunting site. The smell of gas and oil doesn’t sit well. You want to get lost in the woods sort of speak. The old saying of leave the area better than how you found it. I say you want it to be like you have never been there.Remember, your in the deer’s domain, they live there everyday. They know either by sight or smell when something is either disturbed or anew.
Focus ????
Hopefuly you have done your research and know what or where the deer are in your area. Try to imagine where the deer may come from, which direction of travel they use. Also, during the rut, most patterns will change. don’t concentrate on the buck, look for the doe’s, that’s who the bucks are paying attention too.
Focus, remember the traning of look at the entire area, dont just focus on one spot. Example, your sitting in a room if you stare at the wall you will only concentrate on that wall. Instead look towar the wall but concentrate on everything in the room. Do this without moving your head, just your eyes. Don’t develope tunnel vision. Don’t be moving your head around looking, just move your eyes. Don’t be on the phone, the only time you should be on the phone is when you call your buddies to help you drag out that trophy. Think about this, you have been at work and you finally got some time to yourelf. Focus on relaxing your mind and enjoying nature.
Be Still
Try to stay motionless. Remember how you usually locate a deer. They are moving, you spot or notice movement. The deers eyes are usually better than the hunters, and they will bust you. If your in a blind, you can get away with a little more movement. Sitting in a stand or blind for a extened period of time can be hard on anyone. If your legs get to hurting, try exercisig your toes. Do leg extenions if your in the blind. In the stand, if you have to move, do it very slowly.
Be Patient
Dont worry about all the things back home that need to be done or work that can wait. You get one life here on earth, enjoy it. Hopefully you have scheduled time for the important stuff like deer hunting. If you are in a area where you know there are deer and you are setup, it’s a waiting game. It means who is better at waiting. If your like me, when I walk through the woods I am no where near as quiet or stealhly as a deer. Deer can sneak through and no one sees them. You need to be as still as a mouse and let the woods come to you, or better yet you become the woods. what that means is that your not a distraction or your not out of place,you belong to the woods and all the other creatures of the woods accept the fact that they acknowledge your presence and accept it as normal.
What is your Worst Enemy
Is it the squirrell that keeps raining down cutting from the tree limbs above your head or having a fun game of tag with his girlfriend squirrell by running around the trees near where you are sitting? I hate to tell you but that is normal behavior for the forrest, and if you can’t handle that then you have chosen the wrong hobby. I can promise you though if you attempt to run that squirrell away of get it to stop be so annoying, then mr squirrell is going to go into stranger danger mode and alert everyone for 5 miles that their is some stranger that just dont belong in the trailerhood. He wil bark, switch that tail and everyone will hear it. Remember this is a deer’s backyard, he knows it better than you do. So what is the answer to the question, it is you yourself. You are your worst enemy when it comes to the deer woods. The best thing you can do is get up early, to do that means you have got to get to sleep early. then you have to have your equiment ready, that means laying out your stuff the night before. It means making sure your weapon is ready. Not loaded and ready to fire, but it has been cleaned or checked for any defects that may have happened t it since last year, it also means that you have been to the range. Whether Bow or Gun, you have to spend time practiceing. I can remember once when I went hunting with a new rifle and I forgot how to turn the saftey off. I was standing behind a tree and the buck walks up a trail. I got my shot ready and squeezed the trigger. It wouldnt buge, so I had to wait for the deer to look away and I looked at the gun and the safety was right there, but with al the exitement, I had forgot where it was.
Get to your location and be still and be quiet. If your stalking, then you must be quiet. Remember the stories about Charles Hathcock, the great sniper during the vietnam war. He was so quiest and stealthly that they never knew he was anywhere around. Now deer hunting is not that serious unless your starving but be as quiet as possible. Remember, keep the noise level down, move slowly (head down, eyes up) keep your scent away from the deer and good luck.