Deer Hunting Tips from the MeatEater Crew

Whether you learn from a parent, mentor, mishap, or the deer themselves, there’s always a lesson to be learned if you’re listening. Here are a few deer hunting nuggets from the MeatEater Crew to remember when you hit the woods this fall.

Most hunters don’t try hard enough to truly learn where big bucks like to walk. This might seem simple, but we often hunt deer where we want to hunt them, and not where they want to be. To compensate, we call and use scents to try to convince a buck to orbit into our world. A better bet is to scout deer sign, employ some type of mobile setup, and go to the deer. This is especially true for anyone hunting pressured bucks.

One of the most common traits of consistently successful deer hunters is that they get the details right. They pay attention to the little things that ultimately stack up to something meaningful. It’s the reason why some people almost always fill their tags and why some only do when it’s their lucky day.

At the same time, it’s important not to let this go too far or overthink it. You can become so obsessed with getting every little thing that you sabotage yourself. So keep this balance in mind. Work hard, do as many of the little things right as you can, but remember that deer hunting is supposed to be fun. Sweat the small stuff, but not at the expense of your deer hunting joy.

One of my oldest hunting mentors told me, “move your eyes first, and then your head, when scanning the woods for a deer.” This is an exercise in stillness I still practice today. My advice now is to learn to be a woodsman. Know the tracks and scat of all the animals. Learn how to read and interpret the sign. Listen to all the calls. Identify the plants deer eat. Not only will this make you a better hunter, but your experience in the woods will be so much richer.

My best advice is to hunt when and where others ain’t. The most basic form of that is hiking further than everyone else or crossing a stream that nobody wants to cross. But it can also be hunting on a weekday when the woods are quieter. Or pushing your “rutcation” up to late October instead of early November. Or getting out there when the weather is the bad-kind-of-good, like a 70-degree bluebird day. The deer will still be there, but most hunters won’t.

If you’re not a very good deer hunter or you don’t have great spots, there is a way to beat the odds by sheer will. Just hunt a lot. Spend more time in the stand. Volume hunt the heck out of your hunt days. I learned early on that I wasn’t a better deer hunter than most people, I just hunted more than them. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but all the hunting turned me into a competent whitetail hunter, and spending a ton of time in the woods is never a bad thing.

Everyone loves to hunt whitetails during the rut. It can certainly be one of the most exciting times in the deer woods. But for me, while I love seeing bucks chasing does, the post rut is my favorite. This is the time I feel more confident in being able to pattern a big buck when they ease up their chasing and start feeding again.