# Tips and How-to's



## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

So deer season (rifle) is fast approaching, which got me thinking it would be nice to read up on hunting tips. Google yielded mostly outfitters and guides, not at all what i was looking for. What I am looking for, is tips and how-to's, from hunting basics, to advanced stuff. I dont much care for tree stand stuff, and I hunt to put meat in the freezer, not for trophys, but I would like too see any and all information the esteemed members here have on deer hunting. :2thumb:


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## Justaguy987 (Mar 2, 2013)

I'm posting so I can easily follow this topic. This year will be my first time hunting in a very long time so I would like to hear any tips as well.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Taking my son out for the first time so I too will be looking for ideas that I haven't passed on to him yet.

I do take him out regularly to what I expect to be our general hunting area to do some scouting. More evidence of turkey than deer.


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## walter (Jun 5, 2013)

Try to think like a deer. Read up on what deer do during the day. They need to eat and drink. Bucks are looking for does.

The rules for hunting vary from state to state. Some places you can feed. Talk to the locals, they know what works in their area and the local laws.


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## backlash (Nov 11, 2008)

Be vewy vewy quiet. 
No real help sorry.
I quit hunting when the number of road hunters out numbered the game by 10 to 1.
I saw a herd of elk shot on a hillside next to a logging road. 
The game warden was standing beside me watching and said there wasn't a lot he could do. They were shot legally.
He was waiting for his backup and then they were going to go check hunters for tags and license.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

Here are a few that I could think of (but they are all pretty basic).

Deer hate the smells of humans and apparently we smell bad. We wash our hunting clothes in an all natural laundry soap (fragrance free of course) then hang them out to dry for several days before a hunt. Then we bag them up carefully and do not put them on until we get out into the field. There are some scent control products out there that really do work, but we focus more on staying down wind. Check the wind often, it can change several times an hour. By the way if you pee outside, no deer will come near that spot and that drop that hit your boot will send deer running. This is why they invented the large mouth Gatorade bottle.  

Humans are also very noises. A breaking twig or other natural sound is less disconcerting to a deer than a cough is, or worse yet the clanging and banging of gear. There are many ways to silence you equipment but it is probably more important to just learn to be quiet. Deer also see fast motion before they will see slow motion. So move with stealth, which helps with being quiet anyway. But fast or slow if something on you flashes (like the lense of a scope or monocular or a shiny button on a coat) your hunt will go south quickly. Hide that flash. I use a camp wrap / tape that comes off easy and has a rough texture. My monocular has a flash killer and I only hunt deer with open sights.

Hunt natural bottlenecks, trail hubs, natural water / food sources and valleys. Personally, I have always had better luck filling my tag when I find a place to sit where I know the deer are going to travel from point a to point b. I have worked hard for deer (walking) and been successfully, but never as successful as I do staying put and being patient. Sometimes I sit there a long time, sometimes only a few minutes. My Dad, Uncle and I sat on a trail hub once and took 3 Doe in 90 minutes. We noticed a lot of hunters on foot a mile walking trees so we went down wind and sat. 

Because of all of the above, the worse the weather the better. Rain, heavy winds, snow, etc. all reduce the deer's senses. It sucks hunting in poor weather, but then again there will be far less hunters out there and your chances of getting a good deer actually go up. Better yet your chances of being shot by an idiot go way down. 

Since we are primarily muzzleloader hunters, we used to always fire 2-3 caps through an empty gun before we got to our hunting location. Always seemed to make sure the gun was clean and clear. Then when we arrived we loaded up the guns and put a strip of electrical tape over the muzzle (if it was rainy). You can shoot right through the tape without issue. 

If anything else comes to mind I will post it.


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## bugoutbob (Nov 11, 2012)

Sentry18 said:


> Then when we arrived we loaded up the guns and put a strip of electrical tape over the muzzle (if it was rainy). You can shoot right through the tape without issue.
> 
> .


Good tip. We always used a condom for that, never thought about electrical tape.


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## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

Been awhile since I hunted deer but I’ll share a couple of tidbits I learned along the way. 

While sitting and sitting, patiently, quietly, really listen and determine what it is you’re hearing. For instance, this one year I was sitting just off the road (on my acreage) and I heard what sounded like birch trees swaying in the wind rubbing against each other making a soft squeaking sound. At the same time I heard what sounded like a soft blowing sound (like a very very soft hardly audible snoring type of sound) I went for a short walk and sure enough there were a couple of tall birches swaying in a gentle wind against each other. I sat awhile longer until dusk and just as I got up to head out didn’t a big doe pick her plentiful butt up out of the bush, not twenty feet away and leap across the road. Too late for a shot, but I did learn from my dad later that he had a similar experience and the sounds that I described was what he too heard on a hunt...sure enough he turned in the direction of the sounds and saw a buck and a doe mating. He told me that sound of their pelts meshing made that soft squeeking sound (leather on leather) and that deer make that blowing sound when mating. 

I hear you about the stands, but if you are ever in one and using a shot gun be sure to load your slugs first and then the buckshot for first shot. One season I heard a deer sloshing along coming along right in line with my stand, and the thing is when they are clipping along the buckshot gives you a better crack at a hit and time to get a slug off. Leaned not to make that mistake again - lost my deer.

Finally, this one hunt I watched a doe shield herself in one of our fields between a couple of Belgian horses we were boarding (those complicit horses!!). While I watched her ( I was too far away for the little 30/30 I was carrying - dogging that day, pushing for the rest of our party). I waited for her to cross the field and make the ditch so I could get a shot in. This deer hit the ditch and never came up again. Now the ditch was not deep enough to cover her and I just couldn’t figure for the life of me where the heck she’d disappeared to. Found out later that deer do actually crawl, and that was what happened. She must have got wind of me - man they are smart animals especially if their acclimated to hunters. That’s all I have for you, besides get all your ducks lined up for hanging, butchering and preserving your game.


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## zracer7 (Apr 17, 2012)

Some great tips there sentry.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

See, I'm not JUST a ruggedly handsome Christian family man & LEO with a deep seated love of guns and Coke Zero.


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

bugoutbob said:


> Good tip. We always used a condom for that, never thought about electrical tape.


Never shot through a condom but I'm still working on it.. couldn't resist..


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

FT: We need to get together. I can point you to the places I hunted when we lived in Columbia Falls but that was ten years ago and those areas may have changed some since then.

The problem in the Flathead (and NW Montana) is that the normal hunting methods do not work. The feeding and bedding areas are often the same so there's no "migration" between morning and evening. The timber is usually thick and shots must often be taken quickly. The wind is fickle at best, often swirling among the trees. Bowhunting can be a bit frustrating!

The most common method of hunting is to drive back roads in national forest land then shoot the first legal deer you see. It's not considered "sporting" and may not be legal depending upon where you are but it's still the most common way people hunt deer here.

I still hunt, walking quietly and slowly through the woods until I spot a deer then sneak as close as possible to get a shot. 

Another method is to find a clearcut and take a stand along the edge then wait for a deer to appear. They'll usually show up. The times they're most likely to show is the first and last half hour before sunrise and sunset. Shooting light can be pretty poor then so a scope is helpful. 

Another method is to find a power line right-of-way and take a stand where you can see a couple hundred yards. Again, wait for a deer to show up. They may only be in sight a minute or two before entering the forest again so you have to be ready to take your shot.

Opening weekend and the rut are the easiest times to get a deer. The rut is usually best around the last half of November here. I've shot a lot of deer over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The wind here is generally blowing from west to east. On mountain slopes the air currents go up as the sun warms the air then down in the afternoon when the sun gets low. Keep that in mind. You may be able to fool a deer's eyes and/or ears but you'll never fool it's nose and they have a superb sense of smell.

If you like bicycling take your mountain bike out on gated roads and do some riding. You can cover more ground and bikes are pretty quiet. Just remember that you have to get what you kill back to the road so don't shoot something ten miles back in the woods!

A lot of people use a game cart or wheel barrow to get the meat out of the woods over old logging roads.

Get a deer grunt tube and keep it around your neck, close to your mouth. I keep the bottom of mine tucked into the top center of my coat with the mouth end up. That keeps it from rattling around on clothing, gun, etc. and close to my mouth. If you jump a deer or think you're near one put the mouthpiece in your mouth and be ready. When/if the deer takes off blow hard on the grunt tube. 90 percent of the time the deer will stop. You have less than a second to shoot before the deer bolts again and it will only work once for each deer but I've put a few in the freezer using this trick. This works all season. It does not depend on the rut to work. Just one hard grunt then shoot. (Hopefully the deer will stop where you can get a clear shot. I've had a bunch of them stop with half the trees in the forest between me and it!)

Anyway, pm me and I can give you some places to look over. There is one place near Columbia Falls where Susan and I saw several turkeys (couldn't call one in close enough to shoot!), a coyote, five elk, one black bear (I didn't get a shot), dozens of deer and grouse, and I almost got run over by a moose (Susan heard it and pulled me out of the way by grabbing my jacket). He came barreling down the mountainside through the brush to the skid road we were on then spun to face us. It was stand-off for about 30 seconds. He faced me from about ten feet away while I held the 338 WinMag pointed square at his chest. He finally broke and ran away from us. This was on one spring morning when we were hunting turkeys and black bear a couple miles from home.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Hunt? We don't have to go out and find them....we had four whitetails in the hay meadow less than 200 yards from the house yesterday afternoon. 

This is from a rural landowner's perspective. The ever-so-nice message I give the hunting clubs each year who lease commercial land around our ranch is do not shoot over a fence (it's the law) and please do not shoot in the direction of our buildings unless there is a rise between the shooter and us. Some of the clubs have young new members who are new hunters. While we are simply the nicest people in the world, I would get a bit twisted if I found a hole in the wall (only happened one time a long time ago).

They do not have permission to come on our land to hunt or retrieve a shot deer or hog.....they can call us if such an issue arises (hasn't yet). This is all done in a sit-around-the-campfire kind of atmosphere and they know where we're coming from because safety should be first on everyone's list. 

We're lucky the clubs do not allow hunting or personal (pet) dogs at their leases. While I can't stop a dog from running across our land, I can shoot it if I think it's going to harm person or property (including livestock and pets). We simply avoid the whole thing by the clubs having the 'no dogs' rule in place.

We've have a great relationship with the clubs. They know they can come here if they need something or just want to have a cold beer on the porch. Our land line number is available to all their family members in case there is an emergency at one of the camps (cell phone service is lacking out here). 

All of us want the hunting season to be a safe one.


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## Reblazed (Nov 11, 2010)

Sentry18 said:


> See, I'm not JUST a ruggedly handsome Christian family man & LEO with a deep seated love of guns and Coke Zero.


Oh, Be still my heart ... don't know how much more this I can take.


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## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

Thanks for the tips everyone, good stuff!

And 3M, I'll definately take you up on that!!!


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

I don't believe that nobody said find their salt lick, somewhat cheating for trophy hunters, but so is a gun, hunting for meat what ever is legal works.


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