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Share deer secrets
- Thread starter squirrelslaying101
- Start date
So, what do you do if you shoot one and it takes off running instead of falling and dying right away? Do you not eat it?
Theres a peanut butter plant or two around here. They will lick the tree you put it on until their tongue bleeds...................
After years of living in rural Nebraska in some of the best deer hunting land in the country I have discovered what it takes to harvest 140-180 class deer year after year. I no longer have a desire to hunt, so I don't really care about sharing "secrets", and in my opinion there aren't any secrets anyway.
Here is what you need to be successful:
1. A diverse ecosystem with plenty of edge habitat (areas where wooded areas meet feeding areas).
2. A relatively diverse gene pool. Deer that travel a bit tend to spread their genetics out more, thus reducing birth defects, and promoting hybrid vigor. Your states georgraphy will dictate this, so there isn't much you can do.
3. Actively scout all year long. Living on the Nebraska/Kansas border on a farm until college offered plenty of opportunity to pattern deer. This is the key to success. You can bait if legal (cheating in my opinion), use lures, estrous whatever. NONE OF THAT MATTERS as much as finding out WHERE the deer WANT to go, and WHY. This is the big secret honestly.
4. Have multiple stands to play the wind, or still hunt using the wind. Deer smell even more acutely than you imagine. I remember calling coyotes on the Nebraska prairie about 7 years ago. It was about 7am, 25 degrees, and the wind was howling at 40mph+. I saw 3 does come out of a draw about 300 yards away. As soon as they got downwind of me they instantly stopped and looked directly in my direction. I was in full camo and in a ground blind. They bolted after maybe 5 seconds.
5. Shoot your deer rifle regularly, and from as many positions as you can. Don't be one of those guys that drags the '06 out once a year to make sure she's still sighted in.
6. That's it. Most hunters are just plain lazy. I'm not bragging either, because I had private land in one of the primo spots to shoot whitetails in the country, but there wasn't a year that I or my cousins didn't harvest a couple deer over 150-160. These were the things that allowed us the consistency to do it. The biggest was a 187 1/2 monster that my dad shot out of our barn while we were skinning another deer. And that reminds me.
7. Better have some good luck.
8. Oh, and one last tip for guys that prefer to "fish" for deer with lures, instead of hunt them. Salt licks are ok, but many deer don't care for licking a salt block. Water softener pellets are much, much better and you can spread them out all around an area.
Here is what you need to be successful:
1. A diverse ecosystem with plenty of edge habitat (areas where wooded areas meet feeding areas).
2. A relatively diverse gene pool. Deer that travel a bit tend to spread their genetics out more, thus reducing birth defects, and promoting hybrid vigor. Your states georgraphy will dictate this, so there isn't much you can do.
3. Actively scout all year long. Living on the Nebraska/Kansas border on a farm until college offered plenty of opportunity to pattern deer. This is the key to success. You can bait if legal (cheating in my opinion), use lures, estrous whatever. NONE OF THAT MATTERS as much as finding out WHERE the deer WANT to go, and WHY. This is the big secret honestly.
4. Have multiple stands to play the wind, or still hunt using the wind. Deer smell even more acutely than you imagine. I remember calling coyotes on the Nebraska prairie about 7 years ago. It was about 7am, 25 degrees, and the wind was howling at 40mph+. I saw 3 does come out of a draw about 300 yards away. As soon as they got downwind of me they instantly stopped and looked directly in my direction. I was in full camo and in a ground blind. They bolted after maybe 5 seconds.
5. Shoot your deer rifle regularly, and from as many positions as you can. Don't be one of those guys that drags the '06 out once a year to make sure she's still sighted in.
6. That's it. Most hunters are just plain lazy. I'm not bragging either, because I had private land in one of the primo spots to shoot whitetails in the country, but there wasn't a year that I or my cousins didn't harvest a couple deer over 150-160. These were the things that allowed us the consistency to do it. The biggest was a 187 1/2 monster that my dad shot out of our barn while we were skinning another deer. And that reminds me.
7. Better have some good luck.
8. Oh, and one last tip for guys that prefer to "fish" for deer with lures, instead of hunt them. Salt licks are ok, but many deer don't care for licking a salt block. Water softener pellets are much, much better and you can spread them out all around an area.
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Our club took an 8 point and I shot 4 point Sunday. Mine was already oozzing on the tarsal glands the 8 point nothing.This is our first year on a new lease in polk county. We are finding them in the thick areas traveling between the hardwoods to eat and into pines to bed down. Basic rock salt and some clover planted in August.They are hitting some areas and not others. Still trying to pin down all the travels areas.
Two best tips on this thread so far in my opinion. Especially the part about what deer WANT, WHERE, and WHY.
I've had very good luck with vanilla. Has a doe lick it off if a branch a couple of years ago.
I like to hunt with my brother. He can only sit still about 2 hrs max before he starts walking around. I like to hunt where I think he will drive the deer trying to avoiding him.
