Overlook the Obvious for Successful Deer Hunting
Other Tactics
 Editor’s
Note: You can scout out the perfect spot for taking
deer, put up your stand and camp out to wait for deer
to come along, but all your work will do you no good
if you’ve picked an obvious place that other hunters
also will choose. The trick to bagging big bucks is
to think like other hunters don’t. Here are some
tricks I’ve learned through years of deer hunting
that have helped me overlook the obvious and take more
bucks.
Lead Them to You:
Like humans, deer will travel the path of least resistance.
Bucks with wide, tall antlers may avoid thick cover
areas. However, if you'll go into the center of any
thicket and cut a 2 foot wide trail that runs in the
same direction as the prevailing wind, the deer generally
will use that trail to move through the thicket. For
instance, to cut a trail into a gallberry thicket, I'll
go 20 to 30 yards into that thicket. I'll cut a trail
that runs from northwest to the southeast, since a northwest
wind usually prevails in  Alabama,
my home state. I can take a stand on the end of that
trail and look down the trail with the wind in my face.
Hunt the Clear-cuts:
Have you ever had a productive hunting area  that
someone has cut as clear and clean as the sidewalk in
front of your house? Study that section of land, and
look for deer trails. Deer often will use the same trails
to go across a property after someone clear cuts it
as they have used before. Map out these trails on paper.
As the young pines and the brush start growing back,
notice that the deer still will follow the same trails.
Once the young trees and brush reach shoulder high,
move into these clear-cuts. Hunt the trails that the
deer will continue to use and the exit points where
these trails come out of or go into the clear-cut or
the windrows.
Tomorrow: Hunt When Other Hunters
Don't
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