nervous for my first

[dustybeat]

Tomorrow night, a friend and myself(both of us new to hunting) are heading to rock Creek area for our first white tail, bowhunting experience. We are going for five days if all goes acording to plan, unless we are lucky enough to fill our tags early.
Unfortunately neither of us has anyone to mentor us so we are grinding it out together.
If anyone would have any solid advice for a novice hunter , I'm all ears :)
Cheers

[tuner]

Are you hunting out of a tree stand, ground blind or spot and stalk? A game trail leading to a spot with abundant feed is a good place to start this time of the year.

[markomoose]

I'm no bowhunter but I'm thinking ground blind on a well used game trail would be your best bet?Good on you guys for leaning on each other.Good KARMA and post pics of your bounty. Cheers Mark

[Seeker]

With this recent weather you may be in luck in that area. Find a fresh trail and do as another member suggested, set up a ground blind. Wind typically blows south to north in that valley, and the deer migrate north to south(down the valley) making it difficult to find a spot on the trail that does not blow your position. Try to find part of the trail that runs east west or angles to give you a better chance with the wind. Wear quiet clothing, whitetails at this time of year will come unglued at the sound of a rustling jacket. Dress warm and sit for at least a couple hours first light and last light.Try to find a sitting location that will give you sight lines for the moving deer, but provide you cover to draw the bow when they move behind it, and then another shooting lane that they will walk into. Tree stands work well if you have them, same principles apply for both ground blinds or tree stands. The deer don't tend to look up as much as horizontal, so a tree stand may give you a slight edge. The biggest thing is smell, if you think they might be getting your scent, they are getting your scent, trust me. Above all, have fun and learn lots. Good luck.

[walks with deer]

Good luck..
whitey are a hard first target species but enjoy.

[.264winmag]

Just started using ground blind this bow season. Set up off trail 30-40yds with good bush background. Add some natural cover to it. Throw some bait down on trail. Get in it at least 30 min before light and sit all day if you can stand it. If you hear deer moving get set up for shot before the deer walk into view. Worked for me. Good luck and have fun.

[dustybeat]

Thank you all for the advice. We were just passing back and fourth the idea today of a blind. We ended up ordering ASAT 3d camo and bought non camo jackets and pants. I never really took into consideration the rustle of said cheap outer wear. We were going to try a bait and sit tactic unless we don't see any traffic for the first couple of days. Still hunting is what I would prefer to do but with my lack of experience with sneaking about in the snow and the added noise of clothing, I'm not to sure if we would have any luck.

[justachip]

Just get out and follow your nose. Try sitting in your blind for a while, if you see a ridge or meadow that catches your eye go and hunt it. Move around and try to take in the experience dont move faster than your eyes can see. Look for sign and hunt where the game is it sounds simple but it ups your odds.
Good luck have fun and welcome to the club

[HarryToolips]

Just get out and follow your nose. Try sitting in your blind for a while, if you see a ridge or meadow that catches your eye go and hunt it. Move around and try to take in the experience dont move faster than your eyes can see. Look for sign and hunt where the game is it sounds simple but it ups your odds.
Good luck have fun and welcome to the club
This^^^^^^ my favourite part of bow hunting is when I'm sitting there, mind kinda wandering, and then you see one coming, your heart rate goes from 10 to 500 real quick...

[.264winmag]

Absolutely don't think it's impossible to still hunt a wt with an arrow. Been inside 50yds of hundreds of them with plenty of time before they made me. Generally it's because I was stopped and seen them moving first though. I would wander around till I found good spot for blind, set it up and go back wandering and let deer get used to blind for a day/night. Try sitting, no luck go back wandering looking for good sign etc., nothing else you'll find THE spot to move blind to. I did have deer coming into bait/blind same day also. If you have trail cam you could drop bait in another spot and do some surveillance, or just re-bait and hang out there if lots of traffic going to it.

[brian]

Absolutely don't think it's impossible to still hunt a wt with an arrow.
Definitely not impossible to still hunt within bow ranges, but it is more challenging.

[.264winmag]

Definitely not impossible to still hunt within bow ranges, but it is more challenging.
Oh yeah no doubt! Tough enough getting a less than ideal shot off with a rifle in close let alone a bow. The blind is nice as it covers your movement and gives time for that perfect broadside shot. My buddy that was up for the bow hunt this year is very experienced with baiting blacktails for bow, he showed me how to position bait in a 6 ft triangle with piles about 6ft apart. This seems to get the deer milling about changing positions and increasing chance of good broadside shot. It seemed to work well.

[dustybeat]

Thanks everyone for the information. Will post some pictures regardless if we manage to bag anything.
Thank y all
Dustin

[Ozone]

If you need a guide on how to gut, don't be afraid to have a book on how to. Or I guess nowadays you could have a video on your phone.

[HarryToolips]

^^^^^youtube has awesome field dressing vids...

[rides bike to work]

A guy I talked to told me to put out a chunk of alfalfa in 6 or 7 location where there are tracks and plan you stalk into all the locations. The next morning sneak into each spot slowly and find the one with deer on it. He said it works for him every year. If the snow is loud you might have to sit on them.I still struggle mentally to sit in one spot for over 3-4 hours.