Deer Hunting Strategies

Strategies for hunting trophy deer has become somewhat of a phenomenon for you; today’s deer hunter. All we have to do is pick up a magazine about whitetail deer hunting and it will have several deer hunting stories about strategies used for deer hunting. Some good, some questionable, Guided deer hunts (a hunting strategy) have become popular for those who can afford it.

Deer-Hunting

Contents

Finding Good Deer Hunting Land

One of the first places to start looking for a great spot to hunt is your state’s Department of Natural Resources or Fish and Game web sites. You can actually do a lot of scouting here too by looking at the past year or two harvest reports. In most cases they will tell you whitetail deer populations, buck to doe kill ratios, special permits and the areas for that, number of deer harvested by bow, rifle, and by muzzle loader. A vast amount of information is available on each state’s web site, you just have to click around a while. Some state’s web sites are more user friendly, be patient – their made by government workers and not always hunters.

Once you settle on a specific area, you can look for public land to hunt on if that is the strategy you will employ. If you want to hunt on private land and need to seek permission, look into buying a “County Plat Map”. These can be attained at the county court house and possibly a local bank or a real estate office. With a Plat Map in hand you have the name of the land owner. Now you can create a tactical plan on how to ask permission to hunt it. Here is a tip; look for small Dairy Farms (up to 320 acres) with wooded areas around their agricultural fields. Two reasons for doing this: First off a dairy farmer is likely to be too busy to hunt deer; cattle need to be milked at least twice a day and sometime they will milk them three times. Chores need to be done almost around the clock to support this type of farming activity. A small dairy farmer’s recreational time is limited. The next reason is a small dairy farmer already has “Wildlife Food Plots” that deer and more feed of. Think of it; clover, alfalfa, corn, soybeans, and more.

Perfect whitetail deer food

Your other option for deer hunting land is own your hunting property. Trophy whitetail deer hunting areas are selling for record amounts of money; $2000.00 an acre is not uncommon. If you are in the market to buy some deer hunting property please keep a few things in mind. Here are a few; location – keep it under a 2 hour drive for ease of access if needed. Find a good real estate agent that works and lives in the area who deals in recreational property – ask him/her if they hunt deer. Learn all you can about boarders, easements, and the neighbors. Please read my articles for money saving tips about “Buying Deer Hunting Land” and “Recreational Deer Hunting Properties“.
There is nothing like having a great piece of deer hunting land that consistently produces for you. By owning your own hunting area you can build a cabin for your deer hunting camp. A set of trophy deer antlers on a whitetail deer hunting cabin gives a deer hunter a certain amount of bragging rights.

Various Hunting Strategies And Methods

The method or choice of weapon can be termed a hunting strategy. Rifle hunters far outnumber Bow and Arrow deer hunters. Rifle hunting offers the busiest of us the ability of taking a few days off from work and home duties to go hunting without a lot of preparation or practice. Once rifle shooting skills are mastered, the act of shooting is somewhat natural or automatic. Archery hunting, another strategy, has a large and growing group of devoted, dedicated deer hunters. Many trophy whitetail deer are harvested every year with bow and arrow. Today’s modern archery equipment makes it much easier to master shooting forms. For roughly $500 – $1500, a deer hunter can expand their deer hunting season by months; if they have the time. More time afield means more opportunities to harvest the trophy buck of your dreams. Archery hunting will cause you to learn more about the nature and habits of whitetail deer. The strategy of scouting for trophy deer has become a yearlong passion for even the shortest of deer hunts, some of which will only last 1 or 2 days. Deer hunters are by nature strategic, we study deer and their habits, and we plan every hunt and then adjust when we need too. We create trophy deer food plots and improve deer habitat. Another strategy is that we must appeal to the deer’s senses. The hunting strategy of archery hunting over a well planned wildlife food plot, mineral lick, salt lick, and a decoy can be extremely productive and fulfilling to the trophy deer hunter. As we develop our whitetail deer hunting strategies, we need to be flexible enough to adjust our deer hunting methods.

Deer Hunters Need and Want Good Information

Dedicated whitetail deer hunters seek information about deer hunting almost continuously. We see it in magazines that fill the store shelves. We watch deer hunting programs and TV shows. We buy DVD’s about deer hunting hoping to learn that one new deer hunting technique or trophy deer hunting tip that will gives us the fulfillment we so crave and desire. We keep score with ourselves and others. Yes, it is an obsession. We promise ourselves that going into the next hunting season we will be better prepared and will do everything in our power to learn more about whitetail deer and the best way to hunt them. Deer hunters need to be patient with themselves. Serious deer hunters can hunt a lifetime and still have a lot to learn. I recommend that a hunter try to learn and remember something about each and every day he or she hunts. If you have to write it down, or make a map of your hunting area, do it – in fact I recommend doing just that.

A Strategical Record

A serious trophy deer hunter should have a strategy of recording in some sort of deer hunting journal; everything related to their experiences with whitetail deer and the hunting of them. I would also suggest building a large reference map of your deer hunting land. I enjoy archery hunting, and this is an important piece of my hunting equipment as I refer to it often for strategies in getting close to deer on any given day. The strategy for having a large reference map is to record the topographical features of you hunting area and include; forested areas with types of vegetation, fields and field edges, knolls and hills, water, swamps, other low lands, deer hunting stand sites, deer trails, deer bedding areas, buck rubs and scrapes, deer kill sites and dates of, prevailing wind directions, and other map information you would find useful. After a few years of recording your hunting experiences on a detailed map like this, you will discover what a great aid it is and the usefulness of this great whitetail deer hunting strategy.

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