6 Tips to Becoming a Better Deer Hunter

Do you want to kill bigger bucks? Do you want to be the best deer hunter you can possibly be? It doesn’t matter whether you hunt with a gun or a bow, or whether you’re chasing whitetails in Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania or anywhere in between. These six tips work in every state, and putting them to work this season will make you a better deer hunter.

1. Find the best place to hunt

Where you hunt has the biggest impact on your success, whether you’re after a big buck or just want to put meat in the freezer. I’m not talking about the county or region. Every county can produce great bucks. It’s the specific property you hunt that largely decides how successful you’ll be.

Look for ground with good cover where mature bucks feel safe, reliable food, and a way to get in and out without being seen or smelled. Then do whatever it takes to gain access to the best property you can, whether that means knocking on doors, leasing, or improving the land you already have.

Go deeper: Watch Don break down real properties in Hunting Property Designs and learn to build better ground in Whitetail Land Management.

2. Choose tactics that actually work

Take a hard look at your current hunting tactics. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the results you’ve always gotten. A lot of tactics promoted online, in magazines and by so-called experts educate more bucks than they help you kill.

Think back over your past seasons. Which tactics produced encounters with mature bucks, and which never did? Keep what works, cut what doesn’t, and build a simple playbook for your property.

Go deeper: Hunting Tips and Tactics covers the out-of-the-box approaches Don uses to kill mature bucks on public and private land.

3. Hunt the weather fronts

Weather can get big bucks on their feet in daylight. Watch the forecast for approaching fronts, and plan to be in the stand right before a front arrives and right after it passes, especially when temperatures drop sharply.

Most of us only have so many days to hunt. Timing your sits around weather fronts is one of the easiest ways to put more of those days into the stretches when deer are moving most.

4. Learn to hunt the wind

Playing the wind is one of the biggest keys to success. Terrain, timber and fields all change how the wind travels and swirls, and thermals shift air uphill and downhill as the day warms and cools. I don’t think there’s a hunter anywhere who realizes how many bucks he spooks with his scent and never knows it.

• Check the wind before every hunt, and again on the way in.
• Have stand options for different wind directions, and only hunt a stand when the wind is right for it.
• Plan entry and exit routes that keep your scent away from where deer bed and feed.

Go deeper: Tree Stand Strategies walks through Don’s own stand sites: access routes, wind and how bucks use it.

5. Practice shooting before the season

You only get so many chances at big bucks. The last thing you want is to miss, or worse, wound a deer when your opportunity finally comes. Practice with your bow or gun until you’re confident, practice from the stand height and positions you’ll actually hunt from, and know your effective range.

Only take broadside or slightly quartering-away shots. It’s far better to let a deer walk than to make a poor hit.

6. Be patient and keep the pressure low

Don’t get too aggressive. Too much human pressure pushes deer off a property, or into a nocturnal pattern, and ruins your chances. A lot of big bucks have been bumped off great properties by too much intrusion.

Start the season hunting the edges of the property and work your way toward the core gradually. Save your best spots for the best conditions, like the right wind, a fresh front or the peak of the rut.

Go deeper: Own The Rut shows how to time your hunts through every phase of the season.

Put these tips to work this season

There you have it: six deer hunting tips to help you become a better deer hunter, wherever you hunt. Put them to work this season and your odds will improve. Hopefully it ends with your tag on a buck you’ll never forget.

Want to learn more? Inside Whitetail Master Academy we go into much more detail on each of these topics in 600+ videos on hunting strategy, land management and killing mature bucks. You can also read more articles or watch free videos.