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11/6/99

Ten Tips for a Successful Gun Deer Season

by Dan Small

Some hunters measure success in terms of camaraderie, seeing game, enjoying the autumn woods, and so on. Those are great yardsticks - for the bow season or bird hunting. When it comes to the nine-day firearms deer season, however, success means a safe hunt and venison hanging by Thanksgiving.

Wisconsin’s gun deer season is so brief a hunter must be ready for anything and must know how to capitalize on every opportunity, as another one might not come along. Here are 10 tips that have served me and my partners well in nearly 30 years of hunting whitetails in Wisconsin. Maybe one or two will work for you this season.

1. Make a check list
Take a 3x5 card and write down everything you’ll need for your hunt. Everything, from gun and ammo to the rope to haul out your deer. Include toilet paper, a knife, compass, license, backtag, string to tie on your carcass tag and anything else you carry with you. Do it now so you can replace what’s missing before the season. Put it all in a small pack and store it where you’ll find it. You don’t want to be rummaging through desk drawers for a backtag just before sunup on opening day or wondering where your ammo clip went as you climb into your stand.

2. Use the wind
Bow hunters always do. Deer do, too. Most gun hunters pay no attention to it. If you sit or hunt from a tree, get downwind or at least crosswind of where you expect to see deer. Still-hunt into the wind. On a windy day you can sometimes walk right up to deer. Drive downwind when possible. If you drive upwind, deer will smell standers and circle back toward drivers. Smart bucks do this even if you drive downwind, but it ups your odds.

3. Control your scent
All but one deer I’ve killed in Wisconsin was shot at 50 yards or less. Some of them were so close I could smell them, so I know they could smell me if they got downwind. Shower before you hunt. Use a scent-free deodorant. Don’t wear aftershave or cologne. Hang your hunting clothes outside, not in a smoky hunting shack. Don’t wear hunting boots and jackets in taverns, garages or wherever they can pick up non-woodsy odors. Walk in cow manure or deer droppings when hunting.

4. Hunt a small area
Most deer live within a square mile or less. Pick 40 to 80 acres and get to know where deer eat, bed and cross on their way elsewhere. Learn every ridge, trail, food plot and escape route. I hunt in big woods in northern Bayfield County, but my son and I have taken 20 deer, missed two and passed up many more from four tree stands that are within sight of each other. Why? We hunt a major bottleneck where deer always cross between oak woods and a swamp. When I wounded a buck several years ago, I was able to follow him and finish him off, even though there was no snow and the blood trail gave out within 100 yards. He made a 90-degree turn but went less than a quarter mile on two ridges I knew well.

5. Hunt the lunch hour
Most hunters walk back to the truck for lunch. They move deer going out and coming back in, so I sit tight. Dress warmly enough and carry a drink and a sandwich. I’ve shot several deer while you were doing lunch.

6. Time/day strategies
On opening weekend and Thanksgiving morning, sit tight as long as you possibly can (see No. 5). This is when the greatest number of hunters are in the woods. Some of them will move around and spook deer. If your stand covers an escape route, you’ll see action. Weekdays, sit until 9 a.m. at least. Then still-hunt if conditions are right and you have an area to yourself. Plan drives between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and get back on stand until sundown. The last weekend is up for grabs. Most hunters are gone. If the Badgers or Packers are playing, tape the game and still-hunt.

7. Farm-country strategies
Once the shooting starts, deer hide in standing corn, tiny swales surrounded by mowed or plowed fields, small woodlots close to town and other places you might not think of looking. Hunt these carefully. A bedded buck will sit as tight as a rabbit if it thinks you might walk by. Deer use fencerows for cover, so stand at field corners when others are driving. A buck can crawl on its belly and hide in a small ditch if there is no cover.

8. Hunt the weather
On a calm, dry day, deer will stay bedded if nothing moves them. Sit if there are other hunters in the woods, drive if yours is the only party. Before or just after a storm, deer move to feed, regardless of time of day. Sit near trails and feeding areas like oaks or farm fields. On windy, snowy days, deer move to sheltered bedding areas and often sit tight. Sit in or near evergreens and other heavy cover or still-hunt into the wind (see. No. 2). On rainy days, wet hunters will move deer. Sit or still-hunt. One warm Thanksgiving morning nearly 20 years ago it poured. I changed into waders, wore a raincoat under my blaze orange and sat in my tree all morning listening to wood frogs. A nice eight-pointer came along about 11 a.m. I am looking at his rack as I write this.

9. Use calls
Deer talk to each other year-round, not just during the rut. We carry grunt, bleat and snort calls and have used all three to advantage over the years. A loud bleat will sometimes stop a running deer. A snort will sometimes confuse a deer that snorts at you first but hasn’t winded you yet. A grunt will often turn a deer that has walked past or bring it out of the brush for a clear shot.

10. Use your eyes, ears, nose
Don’t look for a whole deer. Train your eyes to spot movement and look for an ear, a tail or a nose. In thick pines, stay low and watch for moving legs. About 75 yards from one of my tree stands in a thick oak woods, a lone birch is barely visible. When there is no snow, I check it often as I scan the woods. More than once that patch of white has disappeared for a moment as a deer walked past on its way to my stand. My hearing is not as good as it used to be, but I still hear deer before I see them coming in a dry woods. Learn to distinguish a squirrel’s hop, hop from a deer’s step, step. On rare occasions, you’ll even smell a deer before you see it, especially a musky old buck that’s been rutting (see No. 3). When you down a deer this season, approach it from downwind and notice from how far away you can smell it. You can sometimes sniff out a wounded or dead deer that’s hard to find in thick brush. Those are all the secrets you’ll get from this hunter this season. The rest is up to you! Have a safe hunt.

Previous Columns

October 7, '99: Strategies for Second-Season Gobblers
May 5, '99: Dan on Safari in Africa
March 3, '99: Are You Ready for Y2K?
February 3, '99: Bound for Africa, Camera in Hand
December 9, '98: Didja get yer deer, hey?
November 20, '98: Crow Talk
November 4, '98: Deer Hunt '98
September 22, '98: Tiger in the Woods
July 29, '98: Yo! Stinky?! Is That You?!!
June 9, '98: Father's Day is Payback Time
May 2, '98: Mine Disaster in Spain an Omen?
March 25, '98: Wisconsin Needs More Wardens
January 15, '98: Is it time for a new blaze orange parka?
December 5, '97: How Was Your Deer Season?
November 8, '97: Shining Puts Bad Light on Hunters
October 18, '97: Taking Toms Is Tough In Fall
October 12, '97: Cow pies + nice lawns = algae!
September 16, '97: WCSFO taking a shot in the dark?
September 16, '97: More Online Fun!
September 1, '97: Hunt, Fish, Shoot, Scoot Online!
March '97: Sports Show!
January '97: Award Seeks Good Nominees