DannyO
11-30-2020, 08:45 PM
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.
https://i.ibb.co/zXYShbS/294-C7-C4-B-BACB-49-DF-9-D19-B15-A91672-D28.jpg (https://ibb.co/WkwcWFc)
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.
https://i.ibb.co/hMkcf0S/0-F02-FD8-F-731-D-43-A1-BACF-F654624-BB12-E.jpg (https://ibb.co/QcZkd04)
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.
https://i.ibb.co/mcbMBVr/F9-A587-FA-7-DEC-41-EA-A205-C5-FB57-A2850-D.png (https://ibb.co/P6FfYvs)
https://i.ibb.co/DtYqd1N/6-FBA668-F-2617-4-C5-E-B1-F2-576612-EDA752.png (https://ibb.co/JKqhZcN)
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.
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.
https://i.ibb.co/zXYShbS/294-C7-C4-B-BACB-49-DF-9-D19-B15-A91672-D28.jpg (https://ibb.co/WkwcWFc)
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.
https://i.ibb.co/hMkcf0S/0-F02-FD8-F-731-D-43-A1-BACF-F654624-BB12-E.jpg (https://ibb.co/QcZkd04)
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.
https://i.ibb.co/mcbMBVr/F9-A587-FA-7-DEC-41-EA-A205-C5-FB57-A2850-D.png (https://ibb.co/P6FfYvs)
https://i.ibb.co/DtYqd1N/6-FBA668-F-2617-4-C5-E-B1-F2-576612-EDA752.png (https://ibb.co/JKqhZcN)
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.