Caribou Gear Tarp

New Deer Hunter Blues

Wajakeb

New member
Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Messages
13
Location
Missouri
This season was technically my second season deer hunting, and this is my anticlimactic story.

My first time deer hunting was about 3 years ago. I bought a rifle at a gun show and decided to try my hand. I went out to some public land in NE MO, and I sat with my brother-in-law, who is an experienced deer hunter from Wisconsin. We were sitting inside a treeline and a doe ran up on the near side of a small hill. It must have been no more than 50 yards away from us, and we watched. I waited for my brother-in-law's signal, as I was brand new and thought I needed a bit of coaching. After a couple of minutes the doe sprang away and over the hill. I watched in horror as the deer disappeared, and I turned to him saying, "What was that?! I was waiting for your go ahead!" He goes, "Oh, you wanted to shoot that? I thought we were only hunting bucks." He was a seasoned hunter and therefore was only interested in bucks. I, on the other hand, was looking to shoot any decent deer in general, as it would be my first. That day still haunts me.

Fast forward to this season. I spent a significant amount of time preparing my strategy and equipment this time around. I found a place in SE MO, where I now live, and I prepared for opening day. The first weekend, my gf and I went out and sat and didn't see anything all weekend. That was a bit disappointing. The next weekend I went out Saturday morning with a coworker, and he took me to a spot he likes. He walked me out to a clearing about an hour before sunrise, and we saw the eyes of probably 5 or 6 deer glowing back at us from 30 yards or less. I parked my chair in that spot and he walked on a ways in another direction. I was so excited after seeing so many deer in one spot. Unfortunately, by the time there was enough light to see anything, they were all gone. I waited hours and never saw another one pass by. My coworker said that there had been a huge doe headed my way from his vantage point, but a car drove in while we were sitting and shined its lights on the doe for what seemed like ages and scared it away. That's disappointing.

The next day I took my gf out, and we didn't see anything moving. Since the area was empty of any other hunters, we decided to take a stealthy walk through the woods. Being new to hunting, I'm not a great tracker, but my gf seems to have a knack for it. She can spot those deer tracks pretty consistently. We followed some tracks and found some possible bedding areas, but we never did get as far into the woods as I would've liked. Nevertheless, as I was following behind her, she suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. She explained that she saw a huge doe, but it took off when it saw her. I knew there was likely no chance of finding it again, but she wanted to try. So we took off and stalked through the forest for about an hour, seeing nothing. Eventually we decided to call it a day and our season ended without a kill. Again, fairly disappointing, but I'm not gonna let it stop me.

I've purchased a bow and will be practicing with it as much as possible. I will also get out and try some squirrel hunting and probably turkey. I'm going to try to learn as much as I can in the next year to be ready for those pesky whitetails next season.
 
If I'm reading your post correctly, it looks like you only hunted a couple of weekends each season? If I were to give any advice, I'd suggest dramatically increasing your time in the woods. Archery is a good idea to extend your season.

Sometimes, deer just don't move a lot during daylight hours. Last Sunday, I saw 31 deer from my stand. This most recent weekend, I hunted Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and saw one doe and one fawn the entire time.

As you spend more time in the woods, you'll learn more about deer behavior and movement, how to read sign, how to set up for different wind conditions, what bedding looks like, active food sources, how deer and how you should react to hunting pressure, etc.

Just as an example, I've hunted deer for about 20 years now. I probably average about 100 hours in the stand for every one opportunity at a decent buck. I get one most years, but it takes time, and lots of it.

If you have an earnest desire to become an effective deer hunter, you will as long as you put in the effort. Good luck!
 
Thank you for the encouragement. Up to this point I haven't had a lot of vacation time, so I've been limited primarily to weekends. I do plan to do some post-season scouting to learn a bit more about the area and deer patterns.
 
I've been there. I decided to take up deer hunting in 2016 and bought a bow in the spring. I worked on my archery abilities and watched a lot of videos and read several books. I felt I was ready for the deer season and I spent a lot of time hunting. At the end of that first season I had seen 6 deer total. I had shot my bow 5 times at 3 of those deer and missed every single time.

In 2017 I got out to hunt even more, after spending a lot more time practicing my archery and getting myself a tree stand. At the end of the season I had seen 12 deer and had taken 1 shot, failing to harvest a deer.

In 2018 I spent about the same amount of time hunting and I managed to put an arrow through a young buck at about 10-15 yards. At the end of the season I had seen more than a dozen deer and could possibly have filled a second tag, but I waited too long for a perfect shot and missed an opportunity.

This year I have spent a decent amount of time hunting and I have harvested a doe fawn at again at about 10-15 yards. I have seen over a dozen deer so far. I'll get out a few more times in hopes of getting a buck.

Part of my success has been persistence. Part of it was a lucked in to some private access that holds a lot of deer. If I hadn't had that, I would have had to spend a lot of time scouting public land to figure out where to set up in order to get shot opportunities on deer.

Keep at it. Consider bow hunting as it usually offers a longer season with somewhat lower pressure from other hunters. learn when the rut is taking palce in your neck of the woods and make sure you are hunting during that time. You'll get that first deer. And when you do, make sure you post a picture and tell us all the story.
 
Keep at it. The more time you spend out in the woods the more you will learn. Enjoy the hunt and learn from your mistakes. In a year or two you will start filling tags and be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
 
You won’t kill many whitetails following behind another person.
Hunt with the sun at your back and the wind in your face.
Whitetails are edge animals. An edge is where two types of habitat meet. Where three types of habitat meet is even better.
 
I killed my first whitetail my 7th year of hunting them. My first year of shooting at them with a bow I missed 7 straight shots. I'm a slow learner, but I kept at it, learned more about the animals, and eventually the success started rolling in. Today I can look at a property, and whether it's 20 acres or 2000 and I have a very good idea of where I will see deer, what direction they will be moving at what times, how I need to approach the spot and how to set up. Don't be afraid to have lots of failures and ask for help. It's a ton of fun once you learn to think like a deer and anticipate their behavior.
 
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