Just for fun, was wonder what your favorite hunting tactics were. Such as what types of areas you like to hunt, calling methods, scents, mock scrapes, stands you use etc.. I'm from Northern Pennsylvania, so I'm used to hunting in wooded areas. I've always had my best luck hunting the edge of thickets, the corner of fields (but normally 30 to 50 yards in the woods off the corner of fields), transition areas, funnels and ridges. I've never been big on or had much luck hunting the edge of fields and the few times I have, I've been skunked so I stick to what works for me. As far as calling, I normally stay pretty quiet during most of October (archery don't start till Oct. 3 in my part of PA this year), other than maybe doing some light rattling to simulate some light sparring and then when the rut gets close or the rut comes in I start to get more aggressive with my calling and do more tending grunts, snort and weezing and more aggressive rattling etc.. During most of Oct. I'll key in more on their feeding areas (especially areas that are dropping a abundance of acorns) and then start to hunt scrape likes as the rut closes in. I also try to set up on natural scrape lines, rather than create mock scrapes and just use what the deer have given me naturally and work off of that. I used to mess with scents, but I found it to be more of a headache than it's worth (normally smelling like deer urine) and have always had my best luck trying to make myself scentless and working with what naturally comes my way. I'm sure other people have had different experiences and I say what works for you and what you feel gives you the best chance of getting a deer are the methods you should use. But with my few years of trial and error this is the style of hunting I've become most comfortable and confident with. As far as stands, I currently have 2 latter stands set up on the area I'll be hunting pretty much exclusively this year, with a Summit Cobra Climber I'll be using when I feel I need to change locations in a pinch. One of my latter stands is just off the corner of a soybean field and it's on a ridge where there's a creek at the bottom of the hollow and a thicket where the deer like to bed just off the side of me.. It also has a good amount of oak trees that are already dropping acorns and last I looked some of trees will be having a great crop this year, so this particular area has just about everything I'm looking for when it comes to a area I feel I'll see a lot of deer. My other latter stand is just the other side of the thicket on the ridge (about 400 yards from the the other spot), this is my more easily accessible area, but will more than likely avoid this stand most the time due to predominant winds, but when the wind is right, I'm confident it will be a awesome spot to sit. Look forward to hearing others opinions and preferences.
my fav is using a canoe to get into remote bedding areas and hunting them right before the breeding stage.
I had a ton of luck grunting in bucks for the entire month of October last fall. I think I called in 6 different bucks before November.
The Mule Deer in my area dont respond to calls. NONE. not even doe to a fawn call. But I always seem to stumble across deer just by scouting. Spot and Stalk.
Tactics, the 3 F's of bow hunting: 1. Food 2. Funnels 3. Females Only way to find these is to scout which I do much more than hunt.
I learned last October if you catch bucks seeking they are very responsive to calling where I hunt now. I haven't called a buck in for a long time. But I blind grunted last year and a buck came in on a string and once he got down wind of the Tinks I put out he went straight to it. I didn't get to kill it but it was a fun encounter.
I havee done well at ratteling bucks in, however it is not full proof. I love to watch them come in all amp up and ready to fight
