Most of us who have been deer hunting for a while realize the moon plays an important role in big game hunting. Moon phases and position affect many game animals’ habits. Some hunters refuse to even go deer hunting when the moon is full, but you can use the moon to your advantage in many cases if you attempt to learn how moon phases and positions tend to affect deer behavior.
The following is some of my recommendations based on my experience and research on how best to hunt whitetail deer during different moon situations. These suggestions seem to work for me most of the time but are not guarantees. There are many things that can affect deer behavior besides the moon such as hunting pressure, other weather conditions, predators in the area, the rut, etc. If you eliminate these other influencing conditions and just consider the moon, the following guidelines should help you. I use the Farmer's Almanac and a moon phase Website to stay current with the moon phases and positions for hunting purposes. You can also acquire a Deer Hunter's Moon Guide from Cabela's for staying on top of the current moon status.
Days like this tend to be slow, with little activity unless you luck up and just happen to be on the receiving end of some abnormal activity such as another hunter in the area, a predator, etc. that might get the deer up and moving. During a full moon at night, the deer will normally leave their beds about dusk and feed through out the night and re-enter their bedding areas just prior to dawn. Mid-day is one of the peak deer activity periods, however on days such as this, they may rise from their beds for a short time without ever leaving the immediate bedding area. If you are able to strategically set up to hunt near these bedding areas, without disrupting their activity, you might get lucky.
During the rut, hunting the does is normally always a good idea but especially on days such as this. The younger does will tend to feed closer to the food sources and if you’re lucky they just might draw in a good buck, especially if one of the doe is in full estrous. In this case she would be considered a hot doe and very attractive to bucks since she has reached her estrous peak and is now ready to breed. Naturally you should set up in the down wind direction or slightly off to one side of this direction. Bucks will tend to check for an estrous doe from the downwind side so be on the alert at all times.
If there is a thicker area that thins out somewhat before reaching the food plot on the down wind side, try to set up back in the thicker area since this is where the bucks prefer to stay. They will scent check for a hot doe from the cover of the thicker area because it is just naturally safer for them. Try to keep this thick area between you and the food plot. If you determine that a doe is hot and ready to breed, try to stay with her since she will serve as a magnet to any rutting buck in the area. If she leaves the area and you can safely, skirt around without alerting her, in an attempt to stay with her this could be a hugh advantage toward seeing a buck. Bare in mind that an old buck in full rut will make mistakes that he would never make if he wasn't in full rut.
During the rut, you should plan to hunt all day if necessary to see a good buck. This is the only time of year when they are active constantly and could be seen anywhere at anytime. If you plan your vacation around deer hunting, definitely plan your vacation during the rut. Your chance for success at harvesting a nice buck rises expanintionally.
These are very good days to be in the woods hunting. The overcast sky tends to make the deer more comfortable feeding and moving about during the day. Its times like these that I like to hunt food sources and doe activity. Deer seem to move more just prior to and just after a storm front and days such as this normally precede a storm front. I feel the existing moon stage is trumped by the storm front and plays a much smaller role in the deer activity.
Make days like this one of your primary types of conditions to hunt. There’s something about a full moon on a bright sunny day that sparks deer activity, especially during the three peak activity periods. These peak periods are just before dawn until about 9:00am; from about 11:30 am to 1:30 pm; and after 4:30 pm. The only other helpful factor I would desire on a day like this would be for it to fall on a day during peak rut. Days like this could fall at the beginning or end of the season and they are still good days to hunt.
The 2nd full moon after the fall equinox, which is September 23rd, is the Hunter’s Moon or November 5th. Many hunters believe that the Hunter’s Moon is a key factor in prime time buck activity. Mark this date on your calendar for next season and plan a hunt around it.
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator. This happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the sub solar point) on the Earth's equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.
Although the word equinox is often understood to mean "equal day and night," this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night is closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the "equiluxes" to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.
I experienced one of the best and worst days of my hunting career during the same weekend outing, this past deer season, here in my home state of Tennessee. As always, I thoroughly checked the weather forecast for the period I would be hunting and expected rain. The weather forecast was for scattered showers through out the weekend, but most of the time that means a pretty good time to hunt. I belong to a family-hunting club in west Tennessee where we have eight different farms that we hunt. I arrived at one of my cousin’s home late in the afternoon on the Friday before I planed to be on stand the next morning. I had completed my scouting and was actually hunting a specific deer. There was a beautiful piebald doe that had been seen in the area by my cousin and me on two separate occasions. I would be on a new permanent stand that we had built overlooking a rye grass field. The deer had been coming into this field quite often, so I expected to see several deer, but was hoping for the piebald to present herself. I got in my stand early and just after daylight, saw three doe cross the west end of the field but they did not enter the field. I suddenly got a good feeling about the day's potential and what it might yield. This was a very thick farm that had been clear-cut about five years ago and with the exception of this three-acre rye grass field and one approximately six-acre cornfield, there wasn't much else for the deer to eat. This was a bad year for the remaining hardwoods due to the terrible drought we had in Tennessee this year. We knew there was a great deal of deer sign on this farm because of the activity around the automatic feeder and mineral licks we had established here. I felt confident that even if the piebald failed to present herself, I still had a chance to see a nice buck anyway.
It started to rain about 15 minutes after I saw the three doe cross the field. It was a light rain at first so I didn't concern myself with it. It wasn't long, however when the bottom fell out and it began to pour. I immediately had to climb into my rain suit and hope that it wouldn't last long. I made up my mind that I would stay on the stand no matter how long it lasted, because after a rain quits, is one of the best times to be in the woods hunting for whitetail. After a good rain, in most cases, is when they become active and began to move around. If it is during the rut, which this hunt was, bucks want to freshen up their scrapes and doe want to re-apply their scent to these scrape areas as well. They also have been bedded down during these heavy rain periods, so this is another reason they want to get up, move around and stretch their legs so to speak. The only problem was that the rain didn't stop and it got colder and windier, creating a very uncomfortable situation. I toughed it out all day, thinking it would surely quit soon, but this didn’t happen. The rest of the day was a wash out literally. At least, I did see those three doe just after daylight. No other deer showed themselves this day and that was a disappointment but there is always tomorrow if the Good Lord is willing. At this point, all I had on my mind was a large venison sausage casserole that my cousin's wife is so good at making. I couldn't wait to get back to his house for a great hot meal and plan my hunting strategy for the next day.
My cousins and I discussed our hunting strategy for the next morning and I decided to hunt one of the best and most heavily deer populated farms we have. I shot a nice eight point there earlier in the season and was curious to see what buck had assumed the dominance role in the area since I took the previous dominant buck out. The weather forecast was calling for 60% rain and that was very disappointing to hear, based on the present day’s experience. Oh well maybe they would be wrong, so I set my clock for 3:00 AM and went to bed. When finally my alarm clock went off the next morning, I could hear rain on the roof outside, and when I walked out on the porch I saw that it was pouring down rain. I made a quick decision that I would not be sitting in a stand all day long this day in the pouring down rain and went back to bed. I didn't even reset my clock out of discouragement. I awoke about 6:00 am and walked out on the porch and noticed that it had stopped raining. I turned to go back inside and noticed two doe in the front yard, and then looked down through the woods at a food plot we had behind my cousin's house and saw two more in the food plot. I thought to myself that this was going to be a good day and wished that I had gotten in the stand early. I figured that I would go ahead and pack up and casually drive to McDonalds, get a cup of coffee, and casually drive to the farm. I figured I would stroll back to my stand and just see what I could see. Once I arrived at the farm, it would be a 2-mile hike to my stand, so I would hunt my way to the stand, just taking my time. I began to count all the deer that I was seeing on the way until finally I stopped when I noticed they were jumping like jackrabbits everywhere. I must have seen 30 to 40 deer on the way to the stand and then had several watch me climb into the stand. It was very overcast and calm and naturally the woods was very wet from all the rain. One surprising thing I noticed was that out of all the deer I jumped that morning, not one blew or snorted when they saw me, but simply ran off with that white tail flashing. I knew that I would not be able to stay on the stand much past 2:00 PM because of a prior commitment to return home by a certain time. During those several hours on the stand, there was never more than 15 minutes at a time when there were no deer in site. Most of the time I had 8 or 10 deer around me at all times. I saw several small bucks along with all the doe and noticed that it appeared that the dominant buck in the area so far was a pretty good size six point that had moved in to take the place of the one I shot a few weeks earlier. Well, I saw nothing on this day that I wanted to take, however it was one of the absolute most enjoyable days deer hunting I have ever spent in the woods. This was a perfect example of totally enjoying the hunt without actually harvesting a deer.
Prioritize Your Scouting
By: Terry F. Townsend
It makes no difference whether you hunt one parcel of land or several, one deer herd or several, try to focus your primary attention on the best areas first and in the order of their ability to produce a nice buck for you at the time of your hunt. You should be able to determine from the notes you take through out the year and your scouting trips, which areas would likely produce a good buck under a given set of circumstances. Know what these circumstances are, because if things such as wind, weather, hunting pressure, etc. are not right in your area of first choice when you plan to hunt, then you will quickly be able to revert to your back up plan.
A favorite location for me to hunt during the rut on opening morning is on a trail leading to or from a fresh primary scrape or signpost rub. I like to be close enough to see the location off in the distance, in case a buck approaches it from another direction. I prefer to be off to one side or the other of the downwind side. Quite often bucks will tend to check their scrapes from the downwind side without actually coming into the exact area. If you are set up directly in line with the downwind side, he may wind you in the process. Primary scrapes are pawed up areas on the ground about 3 feet in diameter. Normally, there will be a low hanging limb over it called a licking branch, and will often be bitten and chewed and just barely hanging. This is caused by the buck’s effort to leave scent above the scrape for wind to carry to the doe. Often when you find a primary scrape it is in conjunction with some smaller secondary scrapes. You will find these scrapes around field edges, the sides of old logging roads and down off the points of ridges, etc. Bucks, influenced by their testosterone levels attempt to mark their territory in this and other ways. Sometimes they rub trees, fence posts, thrash their rack against bushes, and limbs, etc. Primary signpost rubs are major rubs utilized by different bucks much like primary scrapes are. These are definitely hot spots for hunting during the rut, especially after a good rain. The bucks will tend to come in to freshen them up for the doe after a rain. They want these areas to be pushing their scent at all times. Consider this a good place to hunt but be cautious about it. It’s important as always to keep the wind in your face as much as possible around these areas.
Check out the trail usage near any rub line you find while scouting, that looks fairly fresh when. Is the trail a consistent route of travel? If so and the rubs are fresh, you might be wise to set up overlooking the nucleus of these rubs. If the trail is fairly well used, doe are probably using it also so you might catch the buck trailing the doe down the trail. But another way to play it would be to follow the rubs back toward the direction the buck came from when he made them. The side of the trees that have the most rubbing on them is normally the direction the buck came from. Depending on what time of day or night these rubs were made would tell you whether he was coming from or going to his bedding area. If the line of travel was pretty direct, in all likely-hood he was coming from his bedding area. When a buck is feeding and not over heated with sex on his mind, he will tend to take a direct route to his food source, and then when he leaves it to return to his bedding area, he will stroll around and go back many different routes. You actually have two additional options here to take advantage of this sign. Follow the rubs back toward his bedding area and set up strategically in this area, or follow the sign toward his food source and set up in an attempt to ambush him as he enters his food source. Under normal circumstances, he will be heading to the food source in the evenings and to the bedding areas in the mornings, however there are variables that can alter this pattern, such as weather, available food sources, hunting pressure, and others.
Assume that your first choice for opening morning is a stand facing east on top of a ridge in a particular area, but you have a heavy west wind that would be blowing straight across you into the area you expect to see deer, this would be a bad choice. The deer would very probably pick up your scent. In another area, you have a good stand set up half way down the west side of a ridge over looking a heavily used trail leading into a soybean field at the bottom of the ridge. From this stand you would be facing west into the wind and the wind would be blowing across the deer toward you. This would be the better choice because the deer at the bottom of the ridge probably would not pick up your scent because of the west wind. All the scouting in the world will not help you if you ignore the prevailing wind situation. Your hunting strategy must be based on your scouting, plus what the wind will be doing at the time of your hunt.
To consider another example lets say you pick a stand location where you set up overlooking a giant oak tree at the bottom of a ridge but the only acorns falling are on top of the ridge above you. As a matter of fact, acorns begin to fall from the oaks on top of ridges first and then gradually work their way down the hill and fall from the oaks at the bottom of the ridges last. Deer prefer feeding from the falling acorns area so if you set up at the foot of the hill, you probably won’t be where the deer are. This is where last minute scouting such as the week before you plan to hunt, is important. Place your stand in the most likely area where the oaks are likely to be dropping their acorns when you will be hunting.
Know where all of the stand locations should be for the absolute best possible success at harvesting a nice buck under normal, good weather conditions. Good weather conditions also means low or no wind conditions. The best possible stand locations would include areas between bedding areas and food sources; funnel areas; heavily used trail crossings; downwind and not too close to a primary scrape, or a sign post rub. Signpost rubs may be trees, fence posts, telephone poles, or anywhere that several different bucks choose to rub their antlers.
Rubs that are located on a trail that let the deer know when they are approaching a unique crossing are other types of signpost rubs. Examples of this would be a low place in a fence where they can cross easily or a corner they can dart around to flee from danger, or a variety of other special areas like this.
You must consider the time of season you will be hunting a particular stand location when attempting to prioritize your hunting areas. If you are hunting during bow season in late September or October, this is prior to the rut, so the deer are still concentrating on food to build up their body weight and endurance for the up coming rut. The big old bucks won’t stray far from their bedding areas for food. This time of year, you would probably be better off placing your stand closer to the bedding areas, providing you use a great deal of caution regarding any of your activity in these areas. Do not go near these areas any more than absolutely necessary and only when the wind will conceal your scent and sound from a possible buck in the area. You may need to go a ways out of your way in order to reach this area with out being detected. If you hunt here, you must do everything right, with no, and I do mean no mistakes. It’s very difficult to hunt in a bedding area without alarming the buck at some point. If you do alarm the buck, don’t go back until much later in the season and you may want to wait until the next year if the buck is a real trophy. If you disturb him once and don’t go back until much later, he will more than likely settle back into the area but if you disrupt him twice, he will more than likely be out of there and looking for a new bedding area.
If you are setting up to hunt during the pre-rut (week before the rut), rut or post rut (week following the rut), you will find that the bucks are strictly concentrating on breeding does. During this period, deer are likely to be anywhere at anytime, but a prime target to seek out to hunt would be a primary scrape. We will elaborate on scrapes in a later chapter, but bucks will be checking these scrapes on a regular basis for any visitors, as long as you use caution and keep your scent out of the area. During this pre-rut period, any doe activity is worth checking out as well because where the doe are is also where the bucks are going to be at some point. Any heavily used trails, prime food sources, funnel areas, etc.; displaying recent activity could be a good place to set up to ambush a buck chasing a doe.
Be very aware of the direction each of your stands are facing and document this information, so when you get your current weather forecast, including wind direction and speed, you will know which of these stands to avoid if the wind isn’t right. Document as many advantages or characteristics to each stand as possible, in order to help you decide where you’re most promising opportunity to harvest a deer might be. As I mentioned before, the direction the stand faces is extremely important, is it easy or difficult to climb into, is it easy to reach and climb into quietly, does it offer adequate concealment in morning and afternoon or only one or the other. You do not want your silhouette to stand out like a sore thumb and give your position away to the deer. Would the sun be in your eyes, is your stand too near a highway with heavy traffic to restrict your hearing should be considerations when choosing a stand location. Make sure that it is a quiet stand and doesn’t make noise when you move around to change positions. You should be sure it has a pull cord and hanger of some type to hang your bow or gun on. I’m sure that you can think of other factors such as these that all need to be addressed and documented. You should also have a second group of bad weather stand locations that can offer you different advantages under, other than good weather conditions. For rain day hunts, if you don’t wish to tough it out on an open stand, you might have an old barn loft that you could hunt from in a good area, or have a cliff overhang overlooking a good trail, allowing you to stay dry while you hunt. Many hunters will build a permanent stand in a promising area with a modest roof over it to stay dry on rain days or purchase one of several types of camouflage umbrellas.
Do Your Annual Scouting
By: Terry F. Townsend
I can't emphasize enough the importance of doing your annual scouting. This is when you learn all you can about the deer herds in your hunting areas each year. I hunt eight different areas that are far enough apart that I am hunting at least eight different herds. There are, however, certain basic rules-of-thumb that apply to all hunting areas when deer scouting. Within the first month after the previous season ended is perhaps the most valuable time of the year to begin your scouting for the next up-coming season. Soon after the season ends each year and the rut is over, it’s not long before the bucks began to drop their antlers. The best place to locate these dropped tines is near trails between the food sources and the bedding areas. Naturally, they can be found almost anywhere but the best place to start would be in the area where they spend most of their time. By the time the rut ends, they are still affected by all the hunting pressure and as a result hang close to the bedding areas. Because of all the recent rutting activity, they are now concentrating on food sources to regain lost weight and nutrition. These two factors force them to travel back and forth between the bedding areas and food sources when they are most likely to drop their antlers. If you find a good set of antlers from a nice respectable mature buck or one that would probably be a taker in another year, document this in your notes. This buck will probably be back in the same area next year, so you can begin planning your strategy to hunt him. Look for the specific tines of a nice buck, if you are curious as to whether or not he survived the season. If you find his antlers, then he was still alive after the season ended. Occasionally you may stumble across dropped tines in the woods when you aren’t even looking for them. Remember to look for the trail leading to and from the bedding area and food source he was using when you do have this degree of luck. In addition to finding dropped tines, another point in favor of scouting this time of year is that if you jump deer, it won’t affect your actual hunting. The previous season has ended and the next one is several months away from beginning. This time of year the leaves are still off the trees so you can see trails much more clearly and determine their current travel patterns. To a great extent, you can assess the effects of the previous seasons hunting pressure on the herds and how they might have changed from their routines during the season. Make notes of everything you learn from this post season scouting period. It will become invaluable later on in the year. You always want to scout in early spring also, since this is when there is so much new growth. Deer love to feed on the tender tips of new growth and this browsing activity is very obvious. Look for small saplings and other tender sprouts bitten off. Take note of their trails into and out of these areas. You can hang a stand on a tree and check numbers of deer sighted and the times and directions of travel and document this information. If you have soybeans, clover, or other leafy crops planted, place a small utilization cage in the middle of the plot so that you can monitor the feeding activity in this area. This would be nothing more than a four or five foot square wooden frame covered with chicken wire to prevent the deer from getting to it. As they feed on the rest of the plot, you can compare the size of this vegetation they are feeding on to the size in your cage, thus giving you an idea of the degree of feeding activity in the plot. You should scout in late summer when most of the plants are bearing fruit. There will be increased activity in these areas from all the feeding activity. This is a good time to hang a stand and check the numbers of deer sighted, times sighted directions of travel and document everything. Try to check these numbers in early morning and late evening. Now that the temperature is higher, they will be traveling to and from their water sources more, so this would be a good opportunity to check these areas for activity in and out. Early fall is a critical scouting period. This is the time when we begin to see some rubbing and scraping activity. The bucks begin removing the velvet from their antlers, even though they are still running in bachelor groups and sparring with each other in preparation for the up coming rut. This time of year there is a great deal of obvious sign that will be very beneficial to the upcoming season. Hang a stand once more and check numbers of deer sighted, times sighted and directions of travel as well, in the early morning and late afternoon. Begin to seek out the bedding areas, being very careful not to disrupt any deer in the area if possible. These are high priority pre-rut and post-rut hunting areas. During this time when the bucks are still concentrating on food sources, and before the hunting pressure hits, the possibility of harvesting a good buck in route from his bedding area to a food source is best during the pre-rut period of October. Do some light scouting the week before you plan to hunt, but do it either during mid morning or early afternoon, so as to disrupt the fewest number of deer. The ideal situation is to scout during this period without disrupting any deer. Pick your tree or trees, but don’t hang your portable stand unless absolutely necessary. The ideal situation would be to slip in early before any deer activity, quietly hang your stand, hunt and harvest your buck. If you hang your stand or stands in the area before you are ready to hunt, you will be leaving scent or something that is new and strange in the area. Unless you use a great deal of caution, you might disrupt their activity. It’s a good idea to have a back up plan, depending on the weather conditions, especially the wind direction. Try to make your best choices for two different stand locations so you will have a better chance that the wind will be working with you on one or the other. Last but not least, you are just naturally going to be scouting every time you travel back and forth between your stand and camp or vehicle. I have been very successful over the years, hunting over deer sign that I found while walking to or from my stand, or still hunting. Many of these situations involved finding the deer sign, immediately finding a hunting position or tree to hang my stand on and shooting a nice buck within an hour or two. To recap this chapter, here are the recommended scouting times, in order to gain all the knowledge you should need to be able to say you feel confident about what the deer in your area are doing when opening day arrives. 1) Do some scouting within the first month after the season ends. 2) You should also scout in early spring when all of the new growth is first available to the deer. 3) Scout in late summer and early fall when most of the plants are bearing fruit, and when the deer begin rubbing, and scraping, and changing their summer habits. 4) Do some lite scouting the week before you plan to hunt for any changes, disruptions in the herd, weather damage, etc. 5) Every time you are in the woods or field, or on your way to or from your stand, constantly be on the alert for fresh deer sign. Successful deer hunters scout in a variety of ways and different times of year and each of us have to pick what works best for us. This information is meant to be a guideline and as time goes by and you gain experience, and success, modify it, as you will to what works best for you. What works great for some hunters, won’t necessarily work for others. The bottom line is that no matter how much time you spend scouting each year, or when you do it, you must learn what the deer in your area are doing in order to successfully hunt them when the season arrives. You want to feel content in your heart that when opening morning arrives, you and the deer will be in generally the same place.
"Remember the Must-Do List”
By: Terry F. Townsend
There’s no question that it takes all types of bow hunters to make up the sport of archery hunting just as it takes all types of people to make up the world. There are those among us who do not respect their quarry, the land they hunt on, the land owners who gave them permission to hunt, nor even their fellow hunters. I'm quite sure these would be the same hunters who would shoot at anything, spend little time searching for a wounded animal if it isn't easy to find, and take very few precautions prior to their hunt if an accurate survey were done. Archery Hunting should be looked upon as a maticulate art, with no room for error. All of the must-do components should be learned and strictly observed before ever entering the field with serious intentions of harvesting an animal. You can apply this rule to all types of hunting with a weapon. My must-do list may be part or all of someone else’s list, but the things on my list should strictly be observed by any serious hunter. The list consists of the following: #1 You have to be very familiar and competent with your weapon, in order to deserve the right to take a fatal shot. #2 All of your equipment, especially your weapon and devices used to aid in the harvest of an animal should be in good working order. #3 All of your clothing, every piece of equipment, your weapon, your body, etc., should be totally free of scent. Do a great deal of research in this area. My book listed below provides a great deal of information on this subject as well as Ken Carrier's Video. #4 The necessary license, contracts, permission slips, handshakes, verbal agreements, directives, etc. should be acquired prior to entering a hunting area. Strive to maintain a good relationship with landowners, not only for your sake but our sport in general. Anti-hunters love to hear about a conflict between a hunter and a landowner to further their cause. #5 So you don’t waste your own time, and possibly screw up any other hunting possibilities, always do the proper amount of scouting and know where your possible buck is most likely going to be, so you can set up accordingly. Many hunters will thrash through a potentially good area to get to a bad one simply by not taking the time to look for the proper sign or learning what to look for. #6 Be on your stand in plenty of time to surprise your buck with the least disturbance possible to the area. Let the deer be late, but don't you be. If you’re late, you may as well stay at home unless you depend on luck for your success. #7 Strive to make the first shot hit home by knowing where the vital organs are located on the animal. This requires constant practice and should be a consistent effort all year long. Shoot from different positions, different vantage points, dressed in heavy clothes as well as light clothes, take quick shots and slow carefully aimed shots. Do all this to improve your accuracy, but strive to never take a shot that you don't feel confident about. #8 Turn over every stone and exhaust every effort to find a wounded animal. My book "American Whitetail Deer Hunting Tips and Resources" offers a great deal of information on this subject along with search pattern diagrams. #9 Last but not least, always treat your harvest with dignity. Don’t parade it around on the hood or tailgate of your vehicle for everyone to see. There are many that might be offended at the sight and take your intentions the wrong way. Be proud of your success and the hard work it took to accomplish it, but don’t flaunt it. Whitetail deer hunting, especially with a bow, is one of the most captivating, addictive, and challenging sports an outdoorsman can pursue. If all that pursue it would follow the above rules strictly, it would be a much more rewarding and safe experience for everyone and assist in bridging the gap between the anti-hunters and hunters. Each harvest would be as humane a harvest as possible and therefore not throw up any red flags for the animal rights activist. Lets all have a great, successful, and honorable season. Good Hunting Terry F. Townsend - Outdoor Writer & Author "American Whitetail Deer Hunting Tips and Resources" (One of the most thorough books ever written on whitetail deer hunting) www.awdhr.com.
"Scout Sufficiently Every Year"
By: Terry F. Townsend
Learning all you can about the deer herds in your hunting areas each year is extremely important. I hunt eight different areas that are far enough apart that I am hunting at least eight different herds. There are, however, certain basic rules-of-thumb that apply to all hunting areas when deer scouting. Within the first month after the previous season ended is perhaps the most valuable time of the year to begin your scouting for the next up-coming season. Shortly after the season ends each year and the rut is over, it’s not long before the bucks began to drop their antlers. The best place to locate these dropped tines is near trails between the food sources and the bedding areas. Naturally, they can be found almost anywhere but the best place to start would be in the area where they spend most of their time. As soon as the rut ends, they are still affected by all the hunting pressure and as a result hang close to the bedding areas. Because of all the recent rutting activity, they are now concentrating on food sources to regain lost weight and nutrition. These two factors force them to travel back and forth between the bedding areas and food sources when they are most likely to drop their antlers. If you find a good set of antlers from a nice respectable mature buck or one that would probably be a taker in another year, document this in your notes. This buck will probably be back in the same area next year, so you can begin planning your strategy to hunt him. Look for the specific tines of a nice buck, if you are curious as to whether or not he survived the season. If you find his antlers, then he was still alive after the season ended. You might occasionally stumble across dropped tines in the woods when you aren’t even looking for them. Remember to look for the trail leading to and from the bedding area and food source he was using when you do have this degree of luck. In addition to finding dropped tines, another point in favor of scouting this time of year is that if you jump deer, it won’t affect your actual hunting. The previous season has ended and the next one is several months away from beginning. This time of year the leaves are still off the trees so you can see trails much more clearly and determine their current travel patterns. To a great extent, you can assess the effects of the previous seasons hunting pressure on the herds and how they might have changed from their routines during the season. Write down everything you learn from this post season scouting period. It will become invaluable later on in the year.
You always want to scout in early spring also, since this is when there is so much new growth. Deer love to feed on the tender tips of new growth and this browsing activity is very obvious. Look for small saplings and other tender sprouts bitten off. Take note of their trails into and out of these areas. You can hang a stand on a tree and check numbers of deer sighted and the times and directions of travel and document this information. If you have soybeans, clover, or other leafy crops planted, place a small utilization cage in the middle of the plot so that you can monitor the feeding activity in this area. This can be nothing more than a four or five foot square wooden frame covered with chicken wire to prevent the deer from getting to it. As they feed on the rest of the plot, you can compare the size of this vegetation they are feeding on to the size in your cage, thus giving you an idea of the degree of feeding activity in the plot.
You should scout in late summer when most of the plants are bearing fruit. There will be increased activity in these areas from all the feeding activity. This is a good time to hang a stand and check the numbers of deer sighted, times sighted directions of travel and document everything. You should check these numbers in early morning and late evening. Now that the temperature is higher, they will be traveling to and from their water sources more, so this would be a good opportunity to check these areas for activity in and out.
Early fall is a critical scouting period. This is the time when we begin to see some rubbing and scraping activity. The bucks begin removing the velvet from their antlers, even though they are still running in bachelor groups and sparring with each other in preparation for the up coming rut. This time of year there is a great deal of obvious sign that will be very beneficial to the upcoming season. Hang a stand once more and check numbers of deer sighted, times sighted and directions of travel as well, in the early morning and late afternoon. Begin to seek out the bedding areas, being very careful not to disrupt any deer in the area if possible. These are high priority pre-rut and post-rut hunting areas. While the bucks are still concentrating on food sources, and before the hunting pressure hits, the possibility of harvesting a good buck in route from his bedding area to a food source is best during the pre-rut period of late October and early November. The rut period does vary somewhat from the extreme north to the extreme south. The farther south you go the later the rut under normal conditions.
Do some light scouting the week before you plan to hunt, but do it either during mid morning or early afternoon, so as to disrupt the fewest number of deer. The ideal situation is to scout during this period without disrupting any deer. Pick your tree or trees, but don’t hang your portable stand unless absolutely necessary. The ideal situation would be to slip in early before any deer activity, quietly hang your stand, hunt and harvest your buck. If you hang your stand or stands in the area before you are ready to hunt, you will be leaving scent or something that is new and strange in the area. Unless you use a great deal of caution, you might disrupt their activity. It’s a good idea to have a back up plan, depending on the weather conditions, especially the wind direction. Try to make your best choices for two different stand locations so you will have a better chance that the wind will be working with you on one or the other.
Last but not least, you are just naturally going to be scouting every time you travel back and forth between your stand and camp or vehicle. I have had a great deal of success over the years, hunting over deer sign that I found while walking to or from my stand, or still hunting. Many of these situations involved finding the deer sign, immediately finding a hunting position or tree to hang my stand on and shooting a nice buck within an hour or two.
To recap this chapter, here are the recommended scouting times, in order to gain all the knowledge you should need to be able to say you feel confident about what the deer in your area are doing when opening day arrives. 1) Scout within the first month after the season ends. 2) Scout in early spring when all of the new growth is first available to the deer. 3) Scout in late summer and early fall when most of the plants are bearing fruit, and when the deer begin rubbing, and scraping, and changing their summer habits. 4) Scout lightly the week before you plan to hunt for any changes, disruptions in the herd, weather damage, etc. 5) Scout every time you are in the woods or field, or on your way to or from your stand. Successful deer hunters scout in a variety of ways and different times of year and each of us have to pick what works best for us. This information is meant to be a guideline and as time goes by and you gain experience, and success, modify it, as you will to what works best for you. What works great for some hunters, won’t necessarily work for others. The bottom line is that no matter how much time you spend scouting each year, or when you do it, you must learn what the deer in your area are doing in order to successfully hunt them when the season arrives. You want to feel content in your heart that when opening morning arrives, you know where the deer are going to be.
"Spotting Hidden Deer"
By Terry Townsend
To the untrained eye, spotting deer under many circumstances can be difficult at best, but next to impossible when they are partially hidden back in the woods or brush. Often times, they are hard to spot even for the trained eye of a veteran deer hunter. This is why deer are so often referred to as illusive creatures. They blend in so well with their surroundings that they actually become part of the landscape. Deer are basically fringe type animals and most of the time, are uncomfortable in open areas. There are exceptions to this rule depending on the geographical location and such things as hunting and predator pressure, available food sources, and whether or not the rut is going on.
When only a portion of the deer's anatomy is visible, your eyes have to be trained to look for only parts of a deer in order to spot one. You should be totally familiar with the deer's anatomy and body language, as well as their vocal sounds. Quite often you may hear a deer before you actually see him, if you know their vocal sounds and what to listen for. Understanding when, where, and why they do certain things is key, such as twitch their ears or tail; stomp their foot out of fear of danger; or when and where they are likely to be bedded down or enter food or water sources. During the rut, deer are likely to be seen anywhere at any time. Since this is when the bucks are chasing doe and have reproduction foremost on the brain, doe tend to lead the bucks around, literally by the nose. Even during the rut, doe will still frequent food sources and since the bucks will normally be where the doe are during this period, food sources are a good place to see deer. More specifically, look for activity around food sources located in a close proximity to bedding areas. Deer will travel back and forth between the food sources and the bedding areas. Normally they tend to leave the bedding areas late in the evening for the food sources and when they leave the food sources in the morning, they will generally work their way back to the bedding areas. The route from the bedding area to the food source is normally a more direct route than from the food source back to the bedding area. A good analogy would be, when your spouse or mother calls you to the dinner table, you will normally drop what you are doing and go straight to the table. After dinner, you may not go directly back to what you were doing but instead go watch a little TV, walk the dog, or any number of other things. Deer are much like this in that they may leave the food source and head to another food source, a water hole, or just follow other deer for a while.
Naturally a good thorough knowledge of the typical scouting deer sign will help place you in a favorable area to see deer. This type of sign would include deer trails, tracks, rubs, scrapes, bedding areas, feces, sheds, available food sources, water holes, and others. All these things are important because this knowledge offers you a better chance of being in areas where the deer are most likely to be. Once you feel confident that you are in a favorable area to see deer, you need to be able to spot them. To allow yourself an even greater chance of spotting a deer, you must consider the wind direction and all other scent factors that are all so critical. These things would include being totally free of any foreign scent yourself and making sure that all your gear and clothing are scent free as well. Use a good cover scent common to the area, and always concentrate most of your efforts upwind from your location. A good set of binoculars or spotting scope is extremely valuable for spotting deer. Crank the power up and look ever so intently into all the areas around you, but especially upwind. Look for any movement among all the still vegetation and if you don't see anything, begin looking for physical shapes that seem out of place or the wrong color. Since horizontal lines are not common in the woods, look for anything that could be the horizontal back of a deer or a portion of the deer's torso. Three or four similar vertical lines in close proximity could be the legs of a deer and should be worthy of your attention. Whenever you spot something that appears to be out of place focus in on it and concentrate on that spot for several minutes. A deer that has spotted you first will most likely stay frozen, just watching you until it has satisfied its curiosity that you do not represent danger. This period of scrutiny will, in many cases take several minutes and you must remain frozen yourself to prevent alarming him into retreat. Keep in mind that if one deer spotted you, there may be others looking in your direction as well. If you spook one deer you have spooked them all in most cases. A vocal sound such as a snort or blow by a deer will alarm nearby deer in all directions from your position, so you are suddenly on the hot seat. You must give the deer the next move and accept that it may take a while for them to relax again if they are going to without running off. Often, you can use a casual deer call to defuse the situation and help relax the deer or even a turkey call, since they are familiar with these sounds.
During the day as a rule, look for bedded deer. Deer tend to bed down near a good food source, on the edge of a thicket, power line clearing, or possibly a clear cut area. They like to be where they can see danger approaching and where they have a good escape route. With the exception of the full rut period, which would include the pre, peak, and post rut periods, as I mentioned above deer will be bedded down largely during the day light hours depending on a few other factors such as hunting pressure, weather, etc. Naturally if the deer are bedded down you would be looking for parts of deer closer to the ground. Look for the sun's reflection off of a bucks horns, the white portions of the body such as the inside of the ear, tail, around the nose, chin, neck and belly, or the twitching of an ear or tail. Look for any head movement, or a deer rising from its bed at the sound of your approach. If you spook deer and they appear to run off, watch them closely because they may only run a few feet and stop for a better look at what alarmed them in the first place. If you remain perfectly still, they may settle down and assume that no danger exists, resuming their original composure. Quite often if a deer can see only a part of you, if you stay perfectly still they will be unable to perceive you as a threat unless they get your scent. Remember that if a deer is able to detect you with more than one of its senses they will most likely be gone. If they see you, but see no movement, hear no movement, and can't smell you they will probably stay around.
Tips For Deer Hunting
The Moon Phases & Positions
Most of us who have been deer hunting for a while realize the moon plays an important role in big game hunting. Moon phases and position affect many game animals’ habits. Some hunters refuse to even go deer hunting when the moon is full, but you can use the moon to your advantage in many cases if you attempt to learn how moon phases and positions tend to affect deer behavior.
The following is some of my recommendations based on my experience and research on how best to hunt whitetail deer during different moon situations. These suggestions seem to work for me most of the time but are not guarantees. There are many things that can affect deer behavior besides the moon such as hunting pressure, other weather conditions, predators in the area, the rut, etc. If you eliminate these other influencing conditions and just consider the moon, the following guidelines should help you. I use the Farmer's Almanac and a moon phase Website to stay current with the moon phases and positions for hunting purposes. You can also acquire a Deer Hunter's Moon Guide from Cabela's for staying on top of the current moon status.
Clear Days & Full Moon At Night - - No Rut
Days like this tend to be slow, with little activity unless you luck up and just happen to be on the receiving end of some abnormal activity such as another hunter in the area, a predator, etc. that might get the deer up and moving. During a full moon at night, the deer will normally leave their beds about dusk and feed through out the night and re-enter their bedding areas just prior to dawn. Mid-day is one of the peak deer activity periods, however on days such as this, they may rise from their beds for a short time without ever leaving the immediate bedding area. If you are able to strategically set up to hunt near these bedding areas, without disrupting their activity, you might get lucky.
Clear Skies During the Day & Full Moon At Night - - Rut
During the rut, hunting the does is normally always a good idea but especially on days such as this. The younger does will tend to feed closer to the food sources and if you’re lucky they just might draw in a good buck, especially if one of the doe is in full estrous. In this case she would be considered a hot doe and very attractive to bucks since she has reached her estrous peak and is now ready to breed. Naturally you should set up in the down wind direction or slightly off to one side of this direction. Bucks will tend to check for an estrous doe from the downwind side so be on the alert at all times.
If there is a thicker area that thins out somewhat before reaching the food plot on the down wind side, try to set up back in the thicker area since this is where the bucks prefer to stay. They will scent check for a hot doe from the cover of the thicker area because it is just naturally safer for them. Try to keep this thick area between you and the food plot. If you determine that a doe is hot and ready to breed, try to stay with her since she will serve as a magnet to any rutting buck in the area. If she leaves the area and you can safely, skirt around without alerting her, in an attempt to stay with her this could be a hugh advantage toward seeing a buck. Bare in mind that an old buck in full rut will make mistakes that he would never make if he wasn't in full rut.
During the rut, you should plan to hunt all day if necessary to see a good buck. This is the only time of year when they are active constantly and could be seen anywhere at anytime. If you plan your vacation around deer hunting, definitely plan your vacation during the rut. Your chance for success at harvesting a nice buck rises expanintionally.
Overcast Days & Full Moon at Night--No Rut
These are very good days to be in the woods hunting. The overcast sky tends to make the deer more comfortable feeding and moving about during the day. Its times like these that I like to hunt food sources and doe activity. Deer seem to move more just prior to and just after a storm front and days such as this normally precede a storm front. I feel the existing moon stage is trumped by the storm front and plays a much smaller role in the deer activity.
Full Moon During the Day - Bright Skies
Make days like this one of your primary types of conditions to hunt. There’s something about a full moon on a bright sunny day that sparks deer activity, especially during the three peak activity periods. These peak periods are just before dawn until about 9:00am; from about 11:30 am to 1:30 pm; and after 4:30 pm. The only other helpful factor I would desire on a day like this would be for it to fall on a day during peak rut. Days like this could fall at the beginning or end of the season and they are still good days to hunt.
The Hunter's Moon
The 2nd full moon after the fall equinox, which is September 23rd, is the Hunter’s Moon or November 5th. Many hunters believe that the Hunter’s Moon is a key factor in prime time buck activity. Mark this date on your calendar for next season and plan a hunt around it.
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator. This happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the sub solar point) on the Earth's equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.
Although the word equinox is often understood to mean "equal day and night," this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night is closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the "equiluxes" to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.
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