Still new at hunting

[toyotagirl]

I'm 5 years into hunting and was curious to point me in
A direction to a good region. I still have yet to proceses a buck or doe for my freezer, I still have enjoyed learning and being out in the Bush. I've road hunted and hiked, followed tracks.

Thank you in advance for any information and help muchly appreciated.

[LBM]

What region are you in.

[toyotagirl]

Region 2
But willing to travel

[Nailknot85]

I have nothing constructive to add other than to say I am also a new hunter with multiple seasons of tag soup under my belt. I feel your pain. Persistence pays off eventually... Hopefully

[Fella]

Go to spots you’ve seen sign. If you see does you might see a buck

[ghost]

deer like the edge that is were two different areas come together like grass meets forest or cut blocks and timber.scout those areas and look for sign such as trails and droppings.deer like ridges come in on the down wind side and glass the trees in the distance move slow and stop for breaks and glass some more one step can open up a lot sight lines.keep your scope on low power and be ready things happen when you dont expect it.

[happyhunter]

I’m not an expert but here’s my 2 cents. Generally speaking, a good portion of the hunting season is over but there’s is still time to get a deer if you’ve got time to put in. Your could focus on regions close enough to travel to which still offer good opportunity. Right now I would probably focus on WT in either region 8 or 4. Focus on winter range as the deer should be moving there. Have a plan for the animal (butcher or coolers) if you are successful. Good luck!

[mpotzold]

While a SFU student we did a lot of hunting for deer & grouse in the Birkenhead Lake, Birken, D'Arcy triangle. Also did a lot of fishing & camping in the area.
Haven't hunted in the area for about 40 years.
Most of our hunting nowadays is done just north of the area in the Empire, Gang, Farwell, Big Creek area.

Best time to hunt is early in the morning or late in the evening. Right after a fresh snowfall is great.
The real productive areas have plenty of recent signs such as tracks & tree rubs & are generally close to water.
Try to hike into the wind & on top of ridges & forget about following tracks. Be as quiet as possible!

One of our favourite areas for hunting deer in Reg.2 -see post #3

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?130920-D-Arcy-area-deer&highlight=birkenhead+lake

[Wild one]

Better question where have you tried?

Probably not what you want to hear but odds are the region or management unit is not the problem.

[saskbooknut]

Find a place with lots of fresh tracks.
Pay attention to wind direction.
Get to a vantage point before first light.
More looking, less movement.
Hunt similarly at dusk.

[Harvest the Land]

One tip I found helpful when starting out, was to get out there as soon as there's fresh snow on the ground and go find tracks. You can follow the tracks and see if you can catch up to the deer, or you can back track the tracks and look for his bedding area. How this helped me was for the following year, I knew where all the deer tracks were and was able to start targeting an area that holds deer the following year. Always do you darndest to keep the wind in your favour. Good luck

[BearSupreme]

There are so many tips for each animal, and yes they are all different. Just because you know how to hunt Mule Deer doesnt mean you will know how to have success with Blacktails or Whitetail. My suggestion is to pick an animal and learn the best you can. Youtube will be your best bet. Look up "hunting for geography" because anyone who will give you tips on where to go will probably not give up their best spots online. It takes a while to find good spots and as soon as too many people find out about them its less fun and productive. One blanket tip I can give is to start up high. The mountains are sought after by the biggest animals because the food has more nutrition, the increased wind keeps the bugs away and its easier to escape predators when you arent confined to a valley. Mature bucks and bulls will only spend time with the does and cows during the rut, if its not the rut and I am only finding does and cows I move to a new spot, even if there is lots of sign, you wont find any bulls or bucks other than yearlings.... generally. Bears are everywhere and are most active the last 4 hours of light. More time = more success so keep at it and good luck!

Edit: One more thing, when you are hunting when the animals are not rutting, you will see most of them moving around dawn and dusk. When they are rutting, you can see animals all day so dont take the afternoon off! Half the animals I have gotten during the rut are mid day when you least expect it!

[LBM]

Region 2
But willing to travel
If you ever head to region 4 could give you some spots to check out.

[huntingthecountry]

proguide66, steve isdahl, this guy has lots of helpful video on hunting blacktail in your area

[toyotagirl]

Casche creek, boston bar, merrit, likely, Williams lake

[Fella]

Try sticking to one general area and get to know it well. If you’re hopping all over the place you’re not giving yourself a chance to narrow down areas where deer are bedding or travelling through. Deer are also somewhat migratory, you might be in a spot where they have moved out of or have yet to move into depending on time of year, snow etc

[Wild one]

Casche creek, boston bar, merrit, likely, Williams lake

Williams, Cache creek, and Merritt are all respectable deer hunting areas and mostly a matter of learning the area. Likely is better for moose and bear in my opinion. I would say it is the amount of snow likely gets keeps numbers down. Boston bar is hit hard and has been hit hard for as long as I can remember I would not bother here

2-04, 2-08, 2-19, 3-16, 3-32, 8-01, 8-12, and 8-14 are MUs I took majority of my deer in BC but in all honesty it’s not because they are amazing MUs. I had good success in these MUs because I understand the deer in these areas and the pockets where to hunt them. Feel free to check out any of the MUs I listed but I doubt you will find them true game changers for you.

Really pick a deer species, pick an area to hunt it, Slow down, pay attention to sign, get to know the area well and don’t leave good fresh sign to find another area.

Everyone who makes a post like your’s gets told the same thing there is no magic area it’s knowledge of a species and area why most are consistently successful where others fail

[trowt]

wherever you are. slow down and even stop. let the forest recover from your presence from time to time. look through your binos more than you dont.
all regions and areas hold deer. be persistent and never give up or allow your focus to lapse. if you are in the LML, there are deer in your backyard, just gotta solve the puzzle.
yes, blacktail are tricky, but not impossible...
good luck!

[warnniklz]

Looking for a big deer or just a deer?

I'll second wild one on the likely part... but I know others disagree.

[toyotagirl]

Any deer!! Doesn't need to be huge it's just for me

[RyoTHC]

I’m not an expert but here’s my 2 cents. Generally speaking, a good portion of the hunting season is over but there’s is still time to get a deer if you’ve got time to put in. Your could focus on regions close enough to travel to which still offer good opportunity. Right now I would probably focus on WT in either region 8 or 4. Focus on winter range as the deer should be moving there. Have a plan for the animal (butcher or coolers) if you are successful. Good luck!

im going to confidently say you are wrong. The deer hunting is JUST getting started. November 10-Dec 10 is the cats meow!

unless you’re trying to hunt the any buck any WT season but don’t limit yourself, we see substantially more animals in November than October, though a lot of our tags get filled in October just because we enjoy poor mans elk AKA white tail.

[Hugh Mann]

im going to confidently say you are wrong. The deer hunting is JUST getting started. November 10-Dec 10 is the cats meow!

unless you’re trying to hunt the any buck any WT season but don’t limit yourself, we see substantially more animals in November than October, though a lot of our tags get filled in October just because we enjoy poor mans elk AKA white tail.

Can confirm.
And don't stress about getting out first thing, especially now with the rut. The biggest animals I have either witnessed taken or taken myself have all been in the mid morning to late evening. Averaging in the mid afternoon. I'm talking big bodied 4-5 point mulies, 3-4 point whitetails and huge bears.
Following tracks is really only useful in fresh snow.

Other than that, best of luck, and remember, they don't call it "hunting" for nothing!

[hickman]

Time on your feet! First 2 or 3 years I got zero. Get a few cams and set them up in areas where you see signs. If you don't have anyone showing you areas, you have to find them. Sounds vague but the more time you spend hiking and looking, the higher your chances of success.
Hunting is getting better right now with the rut. Find does, the bucks are close, sit, call. Something might show up.
Admittedly, region 2 can be tough depending on where you are.
Patience is key. If you hike in timber, go slower, take longer breaks to look and glass than you think you should. I tried to fill my doe tag last week, hunted hard one day, saw does but could not get a shot. I was moving too fast and not enough patience. Hunted the following day much slower same area, saw signs, moved very slowly. Deer were there but could not see them.... I followed one track that looked fresh. 10 minutes later I was looking at a 4pt.
There is always a little bit of luck involved. You will learn every single time you are out.

[todbartell]

Search Jelvis threads. All you need to know will be in those riddles

[toyotagirl]

I only have a 243

[Rayne]

A .243 is all you need proper shot placement and a good bullet. I’ll be out all weekend in region 2 it’s go time.

[toyotagirl]

Good luck!!!

[J-F]

Time and time.

I was out today, on Skull mountain, west of Barriere. I know the area, the first time I went was 10 years ago. I had days where I counted more than 35-40 deer in a single day. The herd is thinner nowadays...

I saw a doe, first hour. She was followed by another deer... bigger, with antlers! Not a really big one, but not a 2x2. Couldn't tell if that guy was legal.

The doe managed to ditch him (as it happens in all mammals species!!!), and we met again. Couldn't get a good picture of him, but not good enough to take a shot without thinking. You never should shoot and count afterwards anyway... He walked away, not spooked as I tried to close the distance.

I made mental map of where he likely would be for the end of the afternoon. I had the wind in my back, so I was making a long loop and turn to have the wind in my face as I planned to enter where I thought he would be. Of course, as I do the turn, he takes off!!! Had I make that turn 75 metered further I would have walked on him... now I'm playing catch-up hockey with him. I still don't think he was legal, but I still want to make sure! It will be there for the next time.

I'm 50 years old this year. I think I'm good at my profession, I can accomplish a few things. But I have hunted deer for the last 15 years or so, and I still learn stuff everyday I spend afield. Some people have it all, some have to work. And of course, luck is there to level the playing field. Keep courage and don't measure your success by the number of kills you count.

[J-F]

Oh yeah! I hesitated between the 243 and the 7mm Mauser today. The both work well, shoot good quality ammo and you're fine

[twoSevenO]

The fastest way to turn your luck around is to find a mentor. The fastest way to do that, is to stick around here long enough and contribute and build a few friendships.

Everyone above gives great tips when it comes to hunting but the single most important tip is WHERE to try these tricks out! ;)

But, for now, tell us where (roughly!) You've been hunting and the time of year and style of hunting so that we may offer to make corrections.

[Jagermeister]

A friend was showing me some pictures this evening that are off his game cam in his "backyard". (This is a distance east of Kamloops)
So here it is, swing time in the rut but what do the pictures reveal? Five or 6 bucks hanging around all at the same time, night time of course. There's a monster 4X5 who's bases look to be baseball bat diameter. The others are not throwbacks either. Comes daylight, and these qu eer deer vaporize like farts in a breeze, not to be seen in the light of day. I guess they have been playing circle the hunters since early September so it will have to be a cagey hunter that will bag one of them.

[Tripitaka]

There are 3 key lessons that I picked up some years after I started hunting that instantly changed my success rate and 1 more that changed me as a hunter:

1) Trappers have a saying "set on sign" and I figured that just made total sense. So, I quit hunting everywhere and switched to scouting everywhere, all year. Stuck everything into a GPS (now there is onX which makes it REAL easy) and transferred it into Google Earth. Then is all started to make sense. I started hunting the areas that had patterns to the things I was seeing.
2) Scent control is pointless in 95% of situations. Learn about wind and thermals (especially thermals, how they switch, terrain interference etc) and hunt INTO the wind. Know what the wind is doing all the time.
3) The only things that move quickly in the bush are predators and their prey. Slow down...right down...then slow down some more. Sit for a while. Have a nap.

The one thing that changed me as a hunter was embracing the notion that whatever you harvest is something that happens occasionally while you are busy hunting. If your reason to hunt is to harvest an animal then your success and failure will be based on whether or not you harvest an animal on every trip. Switch things up, get some new metrics; I started out by measuring my success on new things I learnt then added how many different animals I saw and then by how many I could get close to. Now (thanks @proguide66, your 'why do you shoot spikes?' video was the kick in the ass I needed) I measure success by how many shootable animals I let walk each season in the confidence that I can find a better one. Things progress faster when you find good areas and I was fortunate to be able to just decide to move to the Kootenays so good hunting was on my doorstep. You may have to work harder to find your 'good areas' but start by finding where others hunters don't go. Randy Newberg has a great saying "If you want to be more successful than other hunters, you have to be willing to go where they won't and to do the things they won't do."

I agree with @twoSeven0, having a mentor who understands hunting is like turbocharging your education but there is a massive amount of info online that is a great asset if you don't. You can't go wrong with proguide66/howtohunt/blacktail hunter for coastal deer and guys like Randy and Corey Jacobsen for elk and general hunting knowledge. Both Randy and Corey have great material on e-scouting. Whitetail hunting is a bit more tricky as much of the material is based out of the eastern USA and they have, in my view, a different landscape than we have in a lot of BC (but not all).

Finally, appreciate that lot's of people *want* a mentor but aren't committed to being mentored. A mentor wants someone who is willing to bust their ass to be successful. Again, that is where @twoSeven0 is going with the suggestion to stick around and build relationships. Folks will help those that will go above and beyond to help themselves.

Good luck!

[Ajsawden]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly but in reverse order.

The Ugly - No one, and I mean NO ONE, wants to give you their spots. If i've spent 50 days scouting to find where i'm going to focus my hunting this year, the last thing I need is more people hunting in that area.

The Bad - Any answers people are going to give you will be a spot they themselves are probably not willing to spend a ton of time in. I often refer to these as "scapegoat" areas. They're areas that are fairly common knowledge to many, perhaps generalized, and while likely extremely busy, still yield animals.

The Good - Most places are what you make of it. Just because someone else didn't see deer somewhere the one time they were there, doesn't mean there isn't deer there. The biggest blacktail i've been involved in was taken in a "scapegoat" spot. We were hunting a timber patch adjacent one of the busiest mainlines around (because we couldnt get to my usual spot). Two hours into our hike, and only 180m from the road, a beauty 4x4 blacktail appears out of the mist.

I don't have any suggestions for you for specific locations. I have more questions than answers. In 5 years have you... passed on any animals? Seen any bucks? Seen any does? Hunted the same areas repeatedly? Changed areas frequently?

Wherever you end up. Find a nice trail with current activity that runs between a timber patch and some christmas trees, get in before dark and sit on the downwind side of the trail and watch it all day. Deer will walk past you.

[warnniklz]

Still pondering this... I have a not secret spot that you could probably have a deer in 15 minutes... but what fun is that?