5 Keys to Whitetail Success

Regardless of where you are at in your whitetail deer hunting career, there are a few basic steps that you should know or perhaps review, prior to your hunting endeavors this year. If you are new to this sport, these ideas may be new to you. If you are experienced, perhaps reviewing these will be of benefit to you.

1. Scent Control

While this can be taken to any level of extremes, I guess you really cannot be too careful with regard to this matter. Some basic steps you can take include the following things.
• Do not wear the clothes you will be in while hunting until you are heading into field.
• Consider keeping your clothes in some form of scent proof bags until you get out of your vehicle (or camper, tent, cabin, etc.) and then slip them on just as you are ready to head out. Don’t get up and cook breakfast for example and then wear these clothes to the field.
• Remember this for sure; do not wear the boots you will wear in the field until heading out in the field. On that point, it is pretty well established that rubber boots carry the minimal scent of any other type of boots. If you are not in a cold place, cheap rubber boots are fine. More expensive lined (thinsulate is usually the material) boots may be required in colder climates.
• Scent-Lok materials are available for clothing and boots if you wish. Not required.
• Also, there are laundry detergents, deodorants, and scent-blocks available and these may be advisable, but again, are not absolutely necessary


2. Colors

When I began hunting I did not know very much about this and I really wondered. Here's what I have learned, and perhaps more importantly, have experienced in the field. First, do not wear blue jeans. Blue is the one color I know deer can really see. Second, blaze orange is not a problem. No matter what you wear (as long as not blue), deer will not see you if you remain still.

3. Tree Stands

I hunt exclusively from a climbing stand and almost exclusively on public land. Here are the basics with regard to stand placement.

Wind direction is vital. Know the prevailing wind direction where you will place your stand, whether it is fixed or portable.

Always wear a safety harness...at all times from ground to ground.

Scout the area ahead of time. This is not optional. You can get lucky if you happen to be in an area with lots of deer, but you do not want to rely on luck. I will expand on scouting in a later section so will leave it at that for now.

Height is important, but you do not need to be 30 feet high to be successful. In fact, for the purpose of good shots, the higher you go, the harder it is to adjust for angle of shot. I often hunt between 12 and 20 feet and believe this is adequate in most all cases.

If you are stand hunting, stay in your stand. Many deer are taken mid-day by hunters who have the perseverance to stay in their stand. An unpleasant reality is that you may need to relieve yourself at some point. Bring a container with you for this purpose. I just use a water bottle.

4. Firearms/Bows

I can only be general here because this article is not designed to address in detail the issues of firearm or bow choice. There are too many variations to detail here. But here are a few commonsense items

Be very familiar with your weapon. Know how to fix minor problems that might arise in the field and deal with them in a safe manner. For example, if you are hunting with a firearm, you will eventually get dirt in your barrel. Have the resources to clean your weapon should this happen.

Put in the necessary time practicing at the range prior to hunting. It is unacceptable to hunt with a weapon not properly sighted in. If you are lucky enough to hit anything, you may very well injure a deer with little chance for recovery.

Practice every safety precaution you can. This is especially true in bringing your weapon into your stand. Do it the right way. Never carry any kind of a weapon as you climb the tree.

5. Scouting

This is not something you should just do if you get a chance. It is part of the hunting process and can be a lot of fun. Do it at least a week or so prior to when you will hunt so as not to disturb the area too much just before hunting.

Look for trails and sign. There is much to this as there are a variety of factors that can make an area look great, but then not yield any signs of life at the time of the hunt. One thing to keep in mind is that during the rut, many bucks do not follow their prior behavior. There is some evidence however, that some bucks do.

In regard to potential stand placement, keep wind direction in mind. Once you have chosen a spot, make sure you have adequate vision of trails and shooting lanes.

If you are hunting a deer trail, consider how deer are traveling the trail. Are you trying to catch deer as they enter or exit a food plot or are you trying to catch them as they enter or exit a bedding area?

Have an entry/exit plan to your stand sight planned out. Use reflective tacks you can see with a flashlight or headlamp, or use surveyors tape to mark your route. This part is critical as your approach may be the deciding factor on success or failure.

Use Google Earth as a staring point for your scouting endeavors. This does not in any way replace on the ground scouting, but it gives you a tremendous head start. Especially for those of us who are hunting public ground.

If hunting public ground, try and scout areas at least ¼ mile from any road, trail, or access point. Believe it or not, just this level of effort will separate you from the majority of hunting pressure. Also, try and have a heads up on the pressure level you will experience for the season you will hunt. As an example of this, there are areas that I will hunt in the Missouri antlerless season that I will not venture near during the regular firearms season.

These basic ideas are vitally important to your hunting success. There are clearly planning issues beyond these that are necessary. Knowing what gear to bring for example, is of critical importance. Knowing all pertinent regulations is vital. Most importantly, keep in mind that hunting is a sport that can be fulfilling without regard to whether you harvest a deer. I enjoy immensely that time I spend in the Fall woods. A deer is nothing more than a bonus.

Get more info at Family-Outdoors Hunting

Image via Wikipedia

Life in a Treestand

Originally written Fall 2008
At 4:30 in the morning my inclination is to ignore the alarm and roll over and go back to sleep; and I have on a few occasions. Usually I am with my two sons in a tent somewhere in the state of Missouri and it is cold outside and it is ever so hard to roll out and get the water started for our normal routine of instant oatmeal, juice, coffee for me, and hot chocolate for them. Once I am up and going it all starts to make sense to me as my excitement level always begins to build for what may be in store for me that day.


I rouse them from their slumber and we begin to proceed in the normal fashion. We eat, make one last check of our gear, and then get in the truck to drive to where we will strike out for our pre-scouted stand locales. That time in the truck is precious because from the time we got out of our sleeping bags we have usually managed to become quite chilly. The heater in the truck raises our body temperatures and it feels oh so good.

We arrive somewhere on a dirt road after squinting at every opening thinking it’s the one we are looking for, or if we were smart, using our GPS to guide us to our starting point. From there, it’s loading fanny packs, tree stands, and rifles for a hike through dark woods for a quarter mile and usually much more. We try so hard to be quiet, no matter how far we are from our stand sites. There are hushed voices, sometimes with a few curse words interspersed, softly shut truck doors, and attempts to keep dangling objects from clanking against the deer stand on your back.

Stumbling through the dark and trying to balance the notion that a headlamp will scare every deer in the county against the reality of bumping into trees and doubting your innate directional ability or the accuracy of your GPS, is a balancing act every stand hunter is familiar with. Occasionally you find that tree you scouted and maybe even decorated with some orange surveyor’s tape. Sometimes you end up in a tree you didn’t really plan on residing in.

A few minutes is spent attaching cables, safety harnesses, and a pull up rope with your gear attached to the ground-end. Up you go, as quietly as you can possibly be, as high as you feel is necessary and is possible. You try your best to get the seat of your stand at an angle where you won’t be pitched forward at a 45 degree angle. You get all safety mechanisms dealt with, and then you pull up your rifle and whatever else is at the end of the line. You get set in your seat and quietly load the magazine and chamber and check your safety. Then it’s time to sit back and wait for “legal” light. For me legal light isn’t always enough to feel like I could take an ethical shot, even with the extra light gathered through the optics of a 2x7 Redfield scope.

This is one of the times where in cold weather I feel the bite most acutely. My heightened senses are in combat with the pain of cold fingers and toes. Occasionally I have remembered to pack my thermos with coffee and a few sips are a luxury with few rivals. Gradually, the squirrels begin to chatter and rustle in the nearby trees and on the ground below. Squirrels are what get me through the times when the deer are scarce. Each movement retunes my senses as my first inclination is that the rustling in the leaves that I hear might in fact be an approaching deer.

Light gradually begins to take hold and I am able to take stock of my surroundings, even in a place I have hunted before. I try to study every feature, taking in how it should look so that the smallest change, which might be the tail or antler of a deer might be noticed. It is always amazing to me how things I see in this early light change as full light makes its presence known. This hypersensitive state is balanced against the numbing fatigue I feel; often we have arrived at our camping site the night before at 8:00 or later, and by the time we were in bed asleep it was pushing midnight.

Still, the thrill of the hunt overwhelms the fatigue of the body and the hope of success keeps me finely attuned to my surroundings. As the morning wears on, sometimes a deer is seen and passed on, or perhaps seen but not in a position for a sure shot. Sometimes the hunt ends early with success, but that is a different story. It’s the days I remain in the stand for the duration that I believe bring me the greatest benefits.

As midmorning arrives and a hunter realizes the “prime time” has passed, is when the thinking on life begins. There’s no better place, save church perhaps, where the mind is in a better environment for putting things in the right perspective. As I sit high in a tree, usually in the Fall with colors at their climax, it is hard for me to contemplate that there is much wrong in the world. My thoughts wander from what is going on in the tops of the trees where my sons reside, sometimes they are in view but usually not, to where the details of my daily life fit into the context of where I am now. I wonder sometimes why I don’t just go climb a tree at any time of the year just to get this feeling back – but I know it would be different.

What usually snaps me out of this fog is the combination of bodily urges brought about from the coffee I hopefully remembered and the fact that the sun is warming me to the point where I must shed some layers. Once these matters are accomplished (usually one water bottle must be consumed in preparation), a bit of trail mix and teriyaki jerky courtesy Wal-mart brings me back to sitting down and starting my mental gyrations once more. I often get a bit antsy as mid-morning progresses to mid-day progresses to mid-afternoon. Around 3:00 my mind begins to re-focus on the hunting aspect of my time in a tree.

When there is a bite to the wind, as afternoon begins to wane, my lower body temperature seems to again heighten my senses. The squirrels and other small mammals as well as flying creatures seem to increase their activities and this raises my senses to an even greater degree. I begin to question my stand placement at this time if I have not observed much in the way of deer activity. I wonder if I should have come down and re-placed my stand somewhere else, but I remember those times where it has been the end of the day that has brought success. I stick it out and keep hoping, watching, and listening to the fullest extent my senses will allow.

The last half hour of legal hunting hours is always the same. I start looking at the time every five minutes. It is a mixture of thoughts balanced between hoping those last moments will bring success and thoughts of a hot fire back at camp and our typical fare of chili over fritos – a true delicacy. It is kind of like when you tell yourself you will take ten more casts on a fishing trip; it rarely ends in success but you always think this time will be different. Just like the morning, I always think at the end that I couldn’t possibly make a shot in this light – I have a hard enough time at any time of the day.

The day ends and it’s time to climb down. Stiff limbs make the process of descent an arduous journey – especially extricating my feet from the straps on the base of the stand. I pack up my stand and other gear and head to the bases of the trees where my sons have spent their day, or to a pre-ordained meeting place. By this time, when we are gathering at a meeting point it is the bobbing of a headlamp or flashlight that signals each arrival at our rendezvous point. From there we swap tales of our day as we make our way back to the truck and ultimately to camp. We might nibble some snacks on the way back, but our minds are on a warm fire, a hot dinner, and sitting afterwards for a time watching stars and perhaps listening to coyotes begin their nightly songs.