My son has buck fever bad!

[Buckshot Bear]

My son has buck fever bad! He's been out a lot of days now trying to get a deer.

They're feral here and can be shot 365 days a year. He's seen a lot of sign, covered a lot of ground but hasn't seen a deer (seen 'em 

driving home when he's packed up standing in the middle of the dirt road at night, but it's illegal to take them in the State Forests after sundown). 

 

Do you deer hunters walk all the time looking or do you sit and wait and just hope one walks into your view?

 

What's some hints? (cant set up feeding stations on public lands here).

[Texas Joker]

Start up a chainsaw and start a fire, the deer will get curios about the noise and smell and come to see what's up.

 

 

I sit a stand near known movement trails to water

[Rip Snorter]

The best hunters I know scout intensively, including unarmed in hours when they can't shoot.  When they go with rifle, they have usually identified and even photographed the particular animal they want. They stalk and then take a position.  Others will set up temporary elevated stands or blinds on high ground and wait.  The density of deer here is such that on nearly any given day I could take one.  Got a license for the first time in several years so may take one in the Fall.

[Buckshot Bear]

There's six species here (all feral) and they number in their millions -

fallow (Cervus [Dama] dama),

red, wapiti or elk (Cervus elaphus);

hog (Cervus [Axis] porcinus);

chital, axis or spotted deer (Cervus [Axis] axis);

Timor or rusa (Cervus timorensis) and

sambar (Cervus unicolor).

[Rip Snorter]

Luck you! We have Mule Deer / AKA Blacktail and White Tail, and Elk of course, but that is a different ticket.

[Michigan Slim]

Thick cover on a good trail between bedding and food/water. Sit downwind, don't move anything but your head -slowly.

[Michigan Slim]

We don't walk at all. Property is too small. We don't want to muck it all up.

[J-BAR #18287]

Climb a tree and sit still with the feeding area upwind of you.  No talking, no smoking, no fidgeting, no phoning, no texting.  Thirty minutes after sunset is the best time of day to watch a feeding spot.  Did I mention being still and quiet?

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Eastern Whitetail in the Appalachian hill country.

Grew up there and had a child's encyclopedic knowledge of the hills and hollers.

We'd lay ambush near a path, my best luck was frosty cold mornings when I could wear my grey insulated coveralls, set down against a stump and hold reeeeeal still (see Michigan Slim's formula for success above!) -- as long as I didn't move, I looked like I was that stump they were used to seeing every day and every day.

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Climb a tree and sit still with the feeding area upwind of you.  No talking, no smoking, no fidgeting, no phoning, no texting.  Thirty minutes after sunset is the best time of day to watch a feeding spot.  Did I mention being still and quiet?

I don't know how it is in your state, but here in my state once it gets to be 30 minutes after sunset you can't shoot anymore.

[J-BAR #18287]

2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I don't know how it is in your state, but here in my state once it gets to be 30 minutes after sunset you can't shoot anymore.

 

Correct. poorly phrased.  I meant the 30 minutes between sundown and the end of shooting hours.

 

I have no clue what restrictions BB's son faces.

[Buckshot Bear]

Yes that's the same here, 30 minutes after sunset in a State Forest, have to wear something orange like you guys as well.

There isn't any really open areas in the numerous State Forests 5 - 15 minutes' drive from around where we live on the coast, they are all thickly forested areas.

I've got my yearly hunting license as well and been out with him a few times and there's deer sign everywhere.

 

They are all pretty remote areas (we live in a rural area) if he ever gets one, its more than likely going to be a LONG way from his car! He's a grown man,runs his own company and has a wife and children but we've insisted that he bought and wears a GPS epirb that's not kept in a backpack so that its easily reached if he should trip or fall and become injured.

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

Makes it tough if you can't hunt after sundown...my son has shot hundreds at night [ mostly fallow ], you will just have to stake out a well used area & sit 'fer a while.

[Buckshot Bear]

8 minutes ago, Painted Mohawk SASS 77785 said:

Makes it tough if you can't hunt after sundown...my son has shot hundreds at night [ mostly fallow ], you will just have to stake out a well used area & sit 'fer a while.

 

The restriction is for public State Forests PM, you can spotlight and shoot from a car 365 days and nights a year on private property.

 

I think they have also allowed the use of attractants now, but I'm not 100 sure, you can also use a dog (but not to run the deer down).

 

 

[Pat Riot]

Some darn good advice above.
 

I haven’t hunted deer in quite a while. I prefer to still hunt. I didn’t try at all this past season, my first deer season here in West Virginia, because I really didn’t know the area yet. Here there are lots of public lands to hunt. Also hunting is permitted in the State and National Forests. 
I have family that hunt deer in Pennsylvania. It seems they all prefer to hunt from stands. Deer are very plentiful and the success rate is excellent. 
 

Something your son might keep in mind is fluorescent orange appears gray to whitetail deer, but blue denim appears as as a very bright color to them. I used to hear a lot of folks gripe about having to wear orange as they donned their hunting jacket or vest while wearing blue jeans or blue denim jacket. 

https://www.color-meanings.com/what-colors-can-deer-see-vision/

 

https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/what-colors-deer-see

 

https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/game-changers/why-deer-hunters-should-never-wear-blue-jeans-and-other-important-facts-about/
 

 

[Buckshot Bob]

Need to find where they eat and sleep. Sit on the food or the trails between. Most active times are usually right after first light when they are returning to their bedding areas and right before dark when they are going to their feeding areas . You will also see the most activity if you go hunting during the rut “ breeding season” . This is all if they are anything like a North American whitetail. 

[Buckshot Bob]

Also if he is after a buck , look for rubs on trees , if you can follow the rub line you will know his travel route. Also look for scrapes. Scrapes are used year round but rubbing typically starts when they shed their velvet then slows when the rut starts . Scrapes are kind of a social hub they will rub the glands on their face on a branch and scrape the ground below and urinate in it . Doe’s will often work a scrape during breeding season then bed by it during breeding season. Scrape hunting works well pre rut and during the rut . A hot doe is a great “bait pile” if you’re buck hunting during the rut 

[Pat Riot]

I almost forgot this very important piece of information. 
 

A good way to find deer and witness them madly fleeing an area is to forget to turn off the electronic alarm on a watch or cell phone.  Ahem. 
 

[Eyesa Horg]

Or finally give in to the urge to pee! They'll show you their tails in a heart beat!

[Michigan Slim]

19 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Or finally give in to the urge to pee! They'll show you their tails in a heart beat!

If you're not seeing critters, just let out the smallest cough you can. You will find out that there was a nice buck 10 yards away all morning. Let out a fart one time and a buck grunted back from 20 yards behind me. Had no idea he was there. I call them butt grunts now. 

[Rip Snorter]

So much of the technique depends on cover and terrain.  In the Eastern U.S. where I grew up, woods hunting and even Farmland hunting were close and the woods overgrown.  Here in Montana there are considerable distances and a lot of wide open country.  You can see game and they can see you.  Though you only take sporting shots at distances where you are sure of a clean kill, a scope is a must.

[Finagler 6853 Life]

I hunt on private property (mine) and know all the trails they follow, where the ruts are, where the licking sticks are, where the rubs are, their water source, the food source, where they cross the road and have put stands near these to ambush them.  When group hunting, one of us, if there is no action, will take a walk about to see if we can't stir them up and push them to one of the other hunters.  We only get a 10 day season to gun hunt.  I don't have the patience to bow hunt.  Last year a ragged 6 pointer (had some points broken off) made a bed 20 yards from the cabin.  The smoke from the chimney didn't phase him in the least.  We watched him for over 45 minutes.  

I find the best time to bag a deer or turkey for that matter, is get into your stand/blind, snuggle into your chair, read a magazine which will make you sleepy, you nod off, snap your head back up, low and behold a critter will be right there in front of you.  Bang, season complete.

Public land around here has more hunters per square mile than deer.  You'll see people you haven't seen in years.

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Finagler 6853 Life said:

I find the best time to bag a deer or turkey for that matter, is get into your stand/blind, snuggle into your chair, read a magazine which will make you sleepy, you nod off, snap your head back up, low and behold a critter will be right there in front of you. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

I prefer a deer stand 20ish feet above the ground and 50+ feet off the trail, if possible I choose a large tree to break up my silhouette, game trails between food and bedding areas seem to work the best and I try to be in my stand a half hour before its light enough to see, when I used to bow hunt a lot mornings were always more productive

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

ways to increase game sightings 

 

  leave ammo in truck 

 leave gun in truck 

forget to turn off cellphone 

 

  glad to be of help 

    CB 

[Buckshot Bear]

My son and grandson spotted some early this morning feeding on private property just out of the State Forest, they were able to take a photo and watched them for some time heading back to the State Forest and their excitement was growing....... Just before they went through the broken down barbed wire and back into the forest where he could have taken a shot with his brand new Ruger American .308 something startled them and they were gone in an instant.

 

[J-BAR #18287]

I am not an expert hunter, but I am persistent.  If you spend enough time out there, one of those deer is going to make a mistake and give you a shot.  Patience and persistence, along with being quiet, still, hidden, and downwind!

[Alpo]

Is it legal to use a Ruger American in Australia?

 

Actually I thought you were required to use a boomerang or an atl atl.

[Buckshot Bear]

19 hours ago, Alpo said:

Is it legal to use a Ruger American in Australia?

 

Actually I thought you were required to use a boomerang or an atl atl.

 

Boomerangs are dangerous