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2004 Whitetail Lessons

Ghost

Ghost

Life Member
Each year I think it is great for everyone to reflect on the past year's deer hunting season and share some of their "lessons learned". When I stop learning something new about hunting deer and the outdoors, I might as well be put in a pine box.
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There is no better place than right here to gain some new knowledge from the experiences of the many members on this site.

The one thing that got pounded in my head this year was the importance of hunting during mid-day hours. I was really impressed with the amount of activity I witnessed between the hours of 10:00 and 2:00 especially in November.

The best deer hunters amoung us all have one thing in common.....their desire to learn more about deer habits and the outdoors is insatiable.
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Any thoughts...
 
Man....I will come back and edit this as I think of more mistakes I made this season

1. Change your habits with the deer's habits or it will leave you a day late and a dollar short
(something I knew not to do but was not aggressive enough to to change my stand location)

2. Get on medication for pnemonia as soon as the first symptoms arise...especially if it is the last 2 weeks of October. (That kept me out of the woods during the week that would have been the best for me)

3. Do not shoot 2 does on October 4th as the 2 years that I have done that, I had a less than productive season on mature bucks?????

4. Get another location to hunt to add to the versatility of the changing winds

5. Hang as many east wind stands as you can because for the last 2 years, these have been the predominat wind directions in my hunting areas........

I will think of more
 
I agree with you totally Ghost. There is no better teacher than plain old experience, and no better student than one who is willing to put in the time on stand. Myself, like many others, learn new things each time I go out, and myself, like others, make mistakes and bonehead decisions at times too. This year was a "new" type of hunting for me. I spent most of my time on stand on fence-rows that contained unpicked corn and beans. Rarely had I ever "bothered" with it before, spending all of my time in larger tracts of timber once the rut rolled around. After spending all that time in the corn, and after putting on countless miles on my boots walking through it, I can say for sure that I've definately been missing some great hunting opportunities in the past years. Not only was the corn a great way to conceal my trips to my stand, but the number of and quality deer that made there way through it was an eye opener for sure. I've definately learned a new aspect of this great sport, and know for sure that I'll be back on the fence-rows next year.
CRITR
 
my number one lesson learned, is make dang sure you muzzleloader will shoot when the time comes. I messed around with a warm truck and cold weather, and condensation got the best of me, that will never happen again
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Also make sure to be prepared to reload fast just in case you mess up
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I learned that there is a lot of deer movement around 11am in Nov. I learned to take plenty of water on all day hunts. I learned how important it is to take the morning and evening sun into consideration when hanging treestands. I also did a little experiment – I intentionally didn’t reactivate my Scentblocker outerwear all season, but just wore it for camo because it’s the 3D leafy cut. I actually got winded less (only twice all season,) I think because reactivating it always brought out a weird chemical smell.
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I learned that shooting sitting down can greatly affect the shot unless you really lean into it to maintain form. Even though I felt perfectly comfortable my shot did not hit where it should have, twice! Also learned that fine tuning, (really fine tuning) your bow can make a world of difference in confidence and performance. Maggs.
 
I have a few. Although my season ended without drawing my bow on an animal. I had a pretty successful season.
Lessons learned:

Not so Great Lessons
1) Hunt Late-Season ML
2) Stick to my game plan-Harvest a bunch of does, then go after a target buck.
3) Need to scout more
4) Lighten up-Don't put so much pressure on myself

Good Lessons Learned
1) Diversity
2) I can hang a stand alot safer to hunt from than OneCam (by my standards) Of course it's only 12' high
3) A better understanding to keeping warm (layering, base layers)
4) Petzel Head Lamps are awesome
5) The Ghost spray/soap works (never winded all season)
6) Doing decals of some great bucks is as close to harvesting them as I will get.
 
Trust your instincts... I missed a whopper because after taking the correct aim I told myself not to shoot low and then adjusted and shot high!! I had it right the first time. Rats!

Be alert to the possibility of changing your stand placement. Try to identify a new spot to sit that is low impact. Some people laugh when they see where some of my stands are because they seem "out of place". But I feel pretty good about my stand placements and have good success to show as a result. I tend to favor stand placements that I can get in and out of well over the very best place for deer movement, but with a high chance of getting busted going to and from.

Where possible, manipulate the habitat on a micro basis to subtly direct deer movement to suit you. This can be as simple as dropping a tree to block or redirect a trail or lowering a fence to cause the deer to favor one trail over the other. You obviously should have the permission of the landowner to do these types of things. Also, build a brushpile to block a trail, etc. I have also built elongated brushpiles on the downwind side of some of my stands to reduce the likelihood that a deer will get downwind of me.

Absolutely know "where the deer are", what they are eating, where they are bedding, how they are getting from place to place. Know that this changes through the Fall due to crops being harvested, leaf fall, hunting pressure, food sources, etc, and adjust with it. I am always amazed to hear other deer hunters talk about hunting "their stand" and the more they talk the more you realize they hung a stand where they found some tracks once and keep pounding it despite conditions being totally different at different times of the season. This would be kind of like always fishing in the same spot no matter what because you caught a fish there once, a long time ago.
 
This is not a lesson learned, but more of trying something out and having it work! I had heard long ago that deer liked to move through a small "island" of timber on the way to other larger blocks of timber or to feeding areas, because they feel safer then just walking out in the open. Where my uncle and I hunt there is a small "island" of timber in the middle of a CRP field, and the "island" is between two larger blocks of timber. Well, we hung a stand on this "island" and on the first night it was hunted my uncle shot a mature doe and a monster 10-pointer that scored 175 3/8. The "island" acted like a magnet that attracted deer passing through the area.

Another thing I learned is to find natural funnels and hunt them hard. A natural funnel could be anything from a ditch, a narrow rige, trails coming together between a pond and a ridge, a fallen tree, a bottleneck in the timber, a creek, and so on. I harvested a nice mature doe by hunting a natural ditch funnel. The funnel was in a valley with a ridge above it on three sides. The ditched started at this location and I placed my stand at the start of the ditch. The deer passed through here like crazy on their way to feeding/bedding areas. Naturally, they would all rather go around the ditch then to cross through it.

By using these techniques my uncle and I were able to harvest three mature animals. I cant' wait until October 1st, 2005 to hunt these "hot" locations again.

Best of Luck!

-sureshot1
 
I agree with most of the others with the fact that Buck movement between 10 and 2 is much greater than I ever imagined. Shot my buck at 12:30pm on election day.
 
Don't think just because you have a 300# - 180 class buck broadside at 10 yds ,that he is going directly to your wall!!!
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I learned that unpressured bucks love it out in the open. I watched many bucks either stand or bed, at a high point, waiting to intercept does as they move through. A little cover at these points make it even better and possibly a good place to hang a stand.
 
Re: 2004 Whitetail Lessons, question for Rudd

Rudd
Do you mean you WOULD or WOULDN'T hunt late season muzzleloader again? The harvest statistics from the DNR show it as the weakest season. However, I hunted early muzzleloader without much luck this year. In all fairness though I saw deer almost every time I went out. The only shooter buck that I saw I kicked up in a CRP field at high noon though. I was mostly hunting field edges and I think if I do it again I need to get into the big timber. The bucks in just didn't come out in the open in the daylight though. I like to hunt the muzzleloader season to avoid the shotgun crowds, just need to decide which one.
 
Re: 2004 Whitetail Lessons, question for Rudd

Danno, I am new to ML'ing. This was the second year I hunted the Early Season ML. I guess I am going to try and put more emphasis on my bow season and having the distraction of another weapon season thrown in the mix confuses me. You seen exactly what I did this last year. The deer were still Nocturnal and I just did not see the movement I wanted too. I need to give Late Season a try this year.
 
1. Early muzzy is a tough hunt, even though I was successful the days were long and hot and the bucks are really dormant

2. Stay in the stand as long as possible, have always known this, but this year it paid off in early Nov. during one of those cold windy days.

3. Don't tell another guy on the farm where you are hunting (he will hang a stand 100 yards from yours)

4. The deer can pattern us just like we pattern them. I had posted earlier that the deer on one of my farms seemed to be more alert and less likely to move in the evening when a lot of hunters were out hunting. However, when I hunted the mornings the same time of year I was seeing deer everywhere.

5. Don't let a bad shot discourage you, practice some more to make yourself confident again, then go stick another one.

6. Buy a truck!!!
 
On the bad side I learned that I have to practice with the bow alot more than I did. And I still get way to hot walking into my stands.

On the good side, The Ghost spray really is worth the money. That stuff rocks. 15' is high enough in some situations and when its not I can use ladder stand braces that I welded and live to tell about it. And now that I think about it, the climbing sticks I got from the Moosedoer are easy and quick but I still like ladder stands.

One more thing, it gets easier to let the "little" fellas walk every year.

The 'Bonker
 
I learned how nice it is to pull up on the four wheeler instead of dragging a 120lb doe 400 yards.
 
One thing I've learned...sometimes the best hunting spots simply cannot be hunted, due to lack of cover, ever changing thermals, multiple travel routes on all sides - in which case you always get busted, etc..
 
Since this was my first full year bow hunting, I have a ton of them, but have some higher priority ones.

Do more pre-season scouting. Get to know every inch of the area I'm hunting.

Clear more shooting lanes. I had 2 chances at the same big buck this year at 15 yards and both shots blocked by small brush piles I should of cleared out.

Hang more stands. I only have 1 now, but am about to be a stand collector. I hunted 2 different tree's and moving 1 stand is a pain. More stands = more flexibility in my hunting plan. Next year my lesson learned will probably be to learn how to stay seated and not be thinking about what is going on under my other stands. :)

Get an antlerless tag for bow season. I normally get them for shotgun season, but I need to down a deer with a bow. I passed on several doe's during the year and ended up not shooting anything and now have an empty freezer. I actually have to buy cow this year. :-(

Invest in some higher quality hunting clothes. I did ok in the getting winded dept, but felt I could of done better with some sort of scent blocker suit. Staying warm and scent free will keep me in the stand longer in case that sudden window of opportunity comes up.

Lastly, take time off work the first week in November. MAN!!!
 
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