Does anyone have any tips to share for stalking deer? I have been doing this for two season and have had some exciting trips, but none have ended with much success. He saw plenty of deer, about 2 dozen, with the closest being 50 yards away. We have looked at topographically maps of the area and try to head toward areas that seem like good dense areas of forest, but seem to almost stumble upon the deer. I have gotten really good at using tracks to help guide us to the right spot and last year stumbled upon two bucks scavanging for food, but were not able to get a shot off fast enough. We are hoping that this year by going earlier in the season we might get a better chance, we normally go in December. If you can over us any tips it would be great. Thanks in advance.
keep your head up. don't spend the whole time your walking looking at your feet. if you only see deer when it's too late that's most likely what you are doing. (very common)
i haven't done it in a while, but a really thourough knowledge of your hunting area really helps....if a deer was on a particular path i would circle around, making sure to play the wind and try to cut them off using as much natural cover as possible. i always tried to stay close enough to know where the deer was, but if the cover was too thick i'd use my best guess. for this reason i practiced shooting my bow after holding if for over two minutes, and as mentioned above, scent control is huge because it's tough to play the wind the whole time
I will admit that I do spend some time looking at might feet, mostely because I'm owrried I might step on a branch and cause it to crack spooking all the deer in range. We are pretty good about scent control as we both spray down with scent eliminator before we move into an area and use cover scent wafers to help cover our scent. I know the are pretty well, and its doesnt offer much flat land, which give the deer lots of place to hide from view. Do most of you walk with an arrow motched already or do you only notch it after you have spotted a deer?
i dont do alot of stalking, but i would assume that you nock an arrow for sure, if not , you'll most likely never get a shot.
I did this last weekend and got 5 yards from a buck before he got up and walked towards me? Ya weird. He was in reaching distance at one point. As for walking, I spent 45 minutes waking 30 yards to wher I knew he was. I took 1 step every time a bit of wind picked up. also you want to be down wind from the deer. And when you take your steps, make sure you dont put all your weight on your foot at a time, ease it down. Walk as smooth as possible while walking through high grass like crp and pick up your feet. If you do it right you will just sound like wind blowing through the crp. The best thing you can do is not rush it. Rushing it will never work out. One last thing.....Make sure you dont smell.
