Newbie tips from a newbie

[DannyO]

Many new hunters come here asking for tips or hints on areas to hunt (me included and I’m very grateful for the help I’ve received here from various members here, some have been so so helpful)


I want to share my late season experience trying to find an area to hunt whitetail deer this year with no previous experience, and maybe it’ll be an experience that will help a fellow new hunter asking similar questions.


After another failed black bear hunt I was driving home and saw a whitetail doe and fawn feeding in front of someone’s house... hmm there are whitetail in this area, I’ve heard about them being here, but never seen one and I’ve driven this road a hundred times too and from hunting trips.
Pull the truck over and watch for a few minutes and off they go, open hunt buddy app and Gaia maps...what’s private, what’s crown land, what does the terrain look like, how can I get back up in there... when can I go hunting next?!


So I figure I can drive up behind this area and hike in. Next available days I’m up in there for first light still hunting and going for long looping walks trying to learn this area, tracking myself on my gaia app.
I see plenty of tracks, I get busted by a wt doe , she blows at me and she runs off.. that was a first for me and pretty cool, wt deer are here! That’s a start.


On the next trip up the area had got a little snow, I planned to walk some different loops and check back in to where I saw the doe. In one of my loops I find a rub, open the map app, drop a pin on it, awesome! Another first!
I sit for an hour at a time in several spots and glass the timber. No deer but lots of sign.



Third visit to the area, a day trip after a good dump of snow.. I’m thinking after this snow I’ll get up there briefly to revisit the rub and hopefully find big tracks in the snow and I’ll follow them and see what I can find.. So I’m back at the rub, find some good tracks in the snow which lead me to another rub 20 yards along the trail, open map app, pin it, I set up a camera on the first rub and that’s my day.





I’ve got one more opportunity to go hunting for the year, the conditions aren’t ideal in there...the snow has frozen over so still hunting is a painful task, I purchased a 120$ tree stand off of Craigslist’s with the hope that if there is a buck on the cameras and I can set up over the trail and spend my last two days sitting and hopefully I get lucky! Never used a tree stand before, never sat for a full day before..
Get to the camera and I see two videos, one doe & fawn and the next a nice buck following. Set up the stand, and sit for 2 days...and sadly no deer passed my stand during daylight hours.






Moral of the story, man is it ever fun to get out there and learn how to hunt, putting everything I hear from podcasts and read on this site into action and to get some results. It’s not a buck on the ground but many lessons learned and a lot of fun taking each step!
Safe to say with my hunting season done I’ll be back there in the spring to check my cameras, set up more cameras and try to learn a lot more about that area and the deer it holds.

[Dour]

Congrats. Sounds like you might have found a good spot . I hope to see pics of a early season whitetail buck!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work

[tyreguy]

Good work and good on you for the learning process.
Hunting is learned from your own experience, like when you mention the doe "blowing" at you tells you maybe something you did wrong or she just saw you before you her - and through the processes you will figure out those things and see more than just that white tail bouncing through the bush.
Wind (scent) is very important, as is movement. Sometimes just getting off the beaten path and sitting quietly and watching / listening will teach you a lot.

You're on you way though - found deer and a decent buck at that and you're already planning for next year.
That buck was on the exact trail of that doe 7hrs after she went through..........the rut make bucks make mistakes - next year take in rattling antlers.

[whitlers]

Sounds like you have gained some valuable experience! Nice job. I find whitetails difficult to hunt but thats just me. I don't chase them often as I am more of a mulie guy.

[joshbazz]

Awesome, thanks for sharing - from another newbie! Still no big animal for me in my 3rd season, but I need to get out more.... it’s a rush seeing runs for the first time. Hoping I can run into a scrape next... still haven’t seen one in the wild...

[albravo2]

Nice work! If it was easy there would be a lot more people doing it.

Beauty buck on camera. i bet you nail him next year.

[caddisguy]

That inquisitive mind of yours combined with the desire to "go out and do" has certainly paid off well for you this this year. Quite a jump start to tag a muley, find some bear opportunities and identify a viable whitetail pocket.

Next season I forecast a bear, muley and whitetail (perhaps in that order?)

Avenge that poor little tree, you must!

[twoSevenO]

Just a note, those rubs are older than you. Focus on fresh ones only.

[caddisguy]

Just a note, those rubs are older than you. Focus on fresh ones only.

That is a good point. Fresh rubs will look a lot more, well... fresh and will have fibres hanging off the rub itself and usually on the ground around the tree.

That said if you're seeing deer, especially bucks I wouldn't discount it due to lack of fresh rubs.

[DannyO]

Copy that, I thought that first rub was this years, has hair on it and fibres hanging from it. Will be on the look out for fresh rubs next year.

thanks for the feedback and encouragement guys, It’s an addictive pastime isn’t it!


Caddis- wouldn’t that be nice. A bear is top of my list... I ...am...obsessed with trying to get a bear haha