Category: Hunting Stories

How does the wind affect deer movement?
If you have you been hunting deer more than a few weeks, you probably know that there are dozens of variables that affect how a deer moves and when. Because of the way the deer protects itself, it is critical that a deer is able to see and hear well for it to feel safe. Deer move primarily in the evening/night, especially the older it gets. With that said, finding the rights day time hunting situations is critical to get a good look at that dream buck!!

The short answer to how does the wind affect deer movement is that deer move more in the wind assuming the other factors like cloud cover, and temperature are in alignment. There are some ways to improve your chances of hunting in the wind I’ll talk about those more here in a minute.

To be honest, as I did some research for this write-up my gut told me wind had a negative impact on deer movement. I have seen bigger deer in the wind, but assumed it was dumb luck until I started looking at the research.

Before I get into hunting strategies in the wind, to dig a little bit deeper about the seeing and hearing, I wanted to add a little bit of detail to how that works.

First off, in the woods a deer uses a sense of sight to understand what’s going on around it, and if it should be concerned or potentially in danger. When the wind blows, the trees move, the CRP blows in the wind and the fields have wave-like motion because of the gusts of wind. If the deer is going to be up moving around during the daytime in the wind, it is going to be very cautious. A bush being blown by the wind can often trigger a deer to be nervous and confuse it for an animal/predator or person.

Hearing in the wind…

The more serious concern about deer and the wind is the fact that they can’t hear what’s around them if the wind is blowing. A deer’s sense of hearing is extremely strong and their ability to stay safe is determined by how much they can hear around them. If the wind is blowing, it’s a similar affect to the deer having on earmuffs were the noise is not clear, and danger is not always recognizable. With that said, deer will frequent open areas so they can use their eyes to stay safe if that cant hear or smell.

Scent while hunting in the wind

Something to be aware of in any hunting situation for deer is the fact that the wind can make your scent very volatile, so making sure that you’re not putting yourself or your stand in the way of deer traffic during a windy day hunting is critical to your success. You always want to be facing the wind and facing the area that you think the deer will be coming from. Swirling wind is tough!! No matter how careful you are with scent sprays, clothing and more, the reality is deer can smell you nearly every time the wind blows from you to them.

There are a few things that you can do to improve your chances of hunting deer in the wind. First off you can look for low areas such as creek bottoms or a draw between two hills/a valley. Finding these low areas will take some or all of the wind out of the equation and deer will be more likely to be staying in lower areas for the same reasons that I mentioned above.

In addition to a hunting in low areas it is also helpful to put your standup a little bit higher than you would normally, which can prevent your scent for reaching a deer because you are higher above the ground.

The third and final thing that you could do to improve your chances of hunting deer and the wind is to use a cover scent on your clothing and pending the time of year, using sent wicks with no estrus urine or other cover sense can help mask your scent that may be more noticeable on a windy day.

The research about deer in the wind…How does the wind affect deer movement ?

While doing my homework here, I found an article that talks about a guy who did a study over 20 years and 35,000 days in the field among the participants. They overlapped the hunting days with national weather data and looked at kills and deer sightings based on weather.

The wind in this study was a big surprise. In order below, wind (Ranking Third) has a huge impact on seeing quality deer and the more wind the better.

Actually the study shows that the best deer days were days that included cold temp’s, clear skies, and steady to high winds resulted in the very best days to see big deer. To take it s step closer, the study showed the harder the wind – the more deer!!

To sum things up, hunting deer in the wind is tough but don’t get disappointed and stay at home. Based on the above, wind is worth the effort!! Deer do still move around in the wind, especially during a rut.

For me personally, some of the biggest deer I’ve ever seen in the wild while hunting, were when the wind was above average. Hopefully this helps you decide about when to hunt next. Don’t forget to check your wind vs stand location when you get in the stand. You can do that with a simple powder bottle.

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Thanks for reading and see you in the woods.
November 7, 2020
5 Best Places To Hang A Tree Stand
There’s always a big debate around August or September about where to hang a tree stand. Every Hunter has their opinion and many of their opinions are correct. And this quick rundown I’m going to give you the top 5 best places to hang a tree stand.

Whether you are hunting to fill the freezer or to put that next big rack on the wall, the location of your tree stand is one of the most critical pieces of your hunting strategy. In short the best five places to hang a tree stand are as follows: transitional areas, food sources such as food plots, water, bedding areas or thickets, and land features.

Let’s talk about these best places in detail for a minute and help you understand why and where to put your next tree stand.

Best Place #1 – Transition Areas

Transition areas for deer hunting is defined as an area in between a deer’s bedding and or feeding area where they travel from one place to the other. Using trail cameras and taking some time in the woods to do observation sets where you are not hunting but just watching, you should be able to identify areas that deer typically travel early in the morning or right before dark as they are coming into or leaving a feeding area and or bedding area.

As you probably know deer are most active in the evening and they typically bed down during the day so you’ll most often find Deer coming from they are bedding areas and headed to seating areas in the evening. In the morning you will see deer that have been up all night getting a last bite to eat at sunrise before they go down to bed for the day.

With that said, identifying with trail cameras and watching deer activity to find where these trails and regularly travel transition areas are our one of the best places to set up a deer stand. If you are planning to set your tree stand up on a transition area it is important to know that sitting your stand directly above a trail unless you have no other choice is not always the best option.

If you’re able, look at typical wind directions and available trees in the area and set your stand 25 yards off of this transition area for both season and maybe 50 Yards off or more from that same transition area during gun season. If you are sitting right on top of that area the chances the deer will smell you is very high and you will ruin your opportunity to harvest a deer.

Best Place #2 – Natural Food Sources

Another great spot in the hanger stand is surrounding a natural food source like acorns or persimmons. If you don’t have many natural food sources on your property, getting out and setting up a food plot in the spring and late summer can really help your chances. You can find out more about food plots on our site here, but for purposes of talking about tree stands, being able to find things like acorns that will be naturally falling throughout deer season will be very helpful as you try to locate a place for a stand.

There’s obviously the opportunity in some states and counties to hunt using corn or bait. If this is something that you plan to do, it’s best to make sure you have proper shooting lanes or open area around where you plan to put out your corn or feed her.

The same goes for food sources like this as do the transition areas. You don’t want to put your tree stand immediately over the food source or right on top of her in the same tree for the acorns are, but set off from the food source by 25 to 50 yards depending on your weapon and allow yourself shooting visibility to the food source that you are hunting towards.

Without sounding repetitive you need to be very careful about wind direction and make sure that you’re facing into the wind and that your stand is not upwind of the food source where the deer will smell you when they do come the food source because you were in a bad position where the wind will be blowing towards a deer from your stand.

Best Place #3 – Water Sources

Depending on your location and the temperament of the deer you’re hunting, water can be a decent place to set up a deer stand. As you go out west, especially for mule deer, dear struggle to find water and watering holes are great places to catch deer coming in and out. For Whitetail deer, water is not a great indicator of deer presence, so I would use this one as a last resort if you can’t find any of the other four options listed in this article.

Best Place #4 – Bedding Areas

A great opportunity to find big deer is if you can locate a consistent bedding area or thick area where deer spend their time during the day to lay down. Similar to a food source, deer will go between his bedding areas and the food sources using a transition area. With that said, The bedding area can be highly valuable as deer will consistently come back to the same area each day to go to bed and once the rut begins you can be sure that bucks will be following does to the bedding areas almost every day.

I would recommend the same strategies of trail cameras and observation watches on your property. Bedding area for deer is pretty consistent across the country. Deer will bed down in bloom down trees, thick areas of briars and thick underbrush, and I typically use either low places near creek bottoms or high ridges where they can see very easily and escape if they need to.

Best Place #5 – Land Features

Which brings me to the fifth and final best place to hang a tree stand. Locating key land features, like pinch points (where land features force a deer to travel in a small or narrow corridor), high ridges, or creek bottoms with the right surroundings, these spots can be perfect!! There’s a true story about a guy I know who was hunting a 170 class buck who went to bed on top of the same ridge for almost 3 years. The ridge was very narrow (30 yards wide) at the top and very long (and about 175 yards long) and there was no way a person could get to the top of this ridge without that deer hearing him or her.

That being said if you came up one side of the ridge the deer will go off the other side every single time. It took about three years for a buddy of mine finally bag him, but these features like a high ridge, or low creek bottom can hold deer consistently. In addition, hanging a stand on a high ridge can give you amazing visibility once the leaves drop from the trees! Creek bottoms can hold large bucks, especially if they are near by thick cover.

5 Best Places To Hang A Tree Stand Recap

So there you have it. The 5 Best Places to Hang a Tree Stand!! There are other places of course, but these are the best 5 on a consistent basis you can trust to work over and over.

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Enjoy, good luck finding that perfect spot, and happy hunting. See you in the woods.
October 11, 2020
What colors can deer see?
Staying hidden is one of the biggest priorities of a hunter. Those who opt to hunt deer know that deer have a remarkable ability to accurately detect and identify even the most subtle smell and slightest sounds. Given the deer’s sense of smell and hearing, the next question a hunter has is how does a deers eyes work?

So… what colors can deer see?

More importantly, what colors can deer see? Deer perceive colors differently from humans. A study conducted in 1992 found out that deer are actually red-green color blind. Without delving too much into the technicalities of nano meters, rods, and cones, it basically means that they can differentiate red from blue, but not from green or orange. It’s not true that they only see in black and white. They still see in color, it’s just that they have difficulty perceiving colors at the end of the spectrum with the longer wavelength, like the red and orange. Their eyes are only sensitive to colors with shorter wavelength, such as blue. They’re also really perceptive of ultraviolet light, an advantage that we, humans, don’t have.

How deer see vs. humans

To elaborate, humans have a trichromatic vision. We have three different types of cone photopigments or specialized photoreceptor cells in our eyes that enables us to perceive color from different parts of the spectrum, may it be short wavelength light (blue), middle wavelength light (green), or long wavelength light (red). But with deer, this isn’t the case. They only have two cone photopigments, what they lack is the one susceptible to long wavelength light. This is why they have difficulty perceiving reds and oranges. With regards to their receptivity to ultraviolet light, this could be attributed to the fact that unlike humans, they do not have a UV filter which blocks 99% of harmful UV from entering our eyes. Without it, our retinas would be damaged by the UV light. It also helps us see things in finer details. Since deer does not have this filter, they can’t see things with much clarity but they can perceive movement much better.

What NOT to wear/use:

So if you want to have more chances of getting your trophy buck, try and stay away from wearing anything blue or using UV brightening fabric cleaners. However, if you’re out there thinking wearing a blaze orange outfit is all it will take to get you your kill, then you’re wrong. Deer aren’t dubbed as an anti-predation machine for no reason. If anything, their eyes are just an added layer to their innate security system. It’s not all there is to it. They may be colorblind but their killer instincts and practical biological makeup definitely make up for what they’re lacking. Needless to say, they’re not easy kill. If you want this hunting season to be a success, it’s important that you go out there knowing exactly what you’re up against.

Deer Security System

Deer have various capabilities that make them well-equipped to detect even the most experienced hunters.

First, their nighttime vision. Deer are more active during the wee hours of the night. In order to survive, their eyes must be more adapted to seeing things in low light. Retinas of mammals have two light sensitive cells called cones or daytime cells and rods or nighttime cells. Cones are responsible for perceiving light and color. On the other hand, rods function in the absence of the light and can only perceive things that are black and white. A deer’s eye has more rods in it than cones, enabling them to see better during nighttime but poorer in daytime. This also limits their capability of seeing colors. They also have a tape-tum at the back of their eye. A tape-tum is a reflective layer that helps their receptor cells bounce the light that they failed to absorb back across the cells, making it possible for them to use the same light twice. Another reason why they can see better when it’s dark is because their pupils are much more wide-set than ours, allowing them to gather more light in lowlight situations.

Next is their wide field of view. Since their eyes are set wider apart from each other, their peripheral vision is also much higher than humans. Deer have a peripheral vision that ranges from 250 to 270 degrees while human only goes from 160 to 170 degrees. This gives them the ability to pick up the slightest predator movement from their surroundings as long as it’s just below the horizon. So if you want to stay undetected, you’re better off above the ground than on it.

Let’s not forget their impeccable sense of smell. They possess no less than 297 million olfactory receptors on their nose while humans only have 5 million. In addition, they also have another scent gland located in their mouth called the vomeronasal organ. To further illustrate their capabilities, let’s compare them to a dog. A dog has only 220 million olfactory receptors on their noses and they can already do pretty great things such as: identifying very small traces of chemicals, detect fear, anxiety or other emotions through smelling the pheromones emitted from a person’s glands, even pick up a human scent from a crime scene that’s a week old! Considering the fact that a deer’s olfactory system is 30% more receptive than that of a dog’s, imagine how much stronger their sense of smell actually is. That’s why when hunting, it’s important to make sure that you don’t smell at all. Not only that, you also have to make sure that your stand is free from your odor since they would also be able to pick up your scent from, say the tree that you’re always on.

Lastly, a deer’s ears are capable of detecting ultra-high-frequency sounds. Human ears can only detect up to 20,000 hertz while deer’s ears can hear frequencies that go from 30,000 hertz and beyond. Their ears are also built in a way that makes it easier to locate a nearby predator. Like tiny satellite dishes, they could rotate their ears towards the origin of the sound. On top of that, they’re also smart enough to distinguish sounds indicating a threat to sounds that doesn’t. They already know what a hunter’s footstep sounds like. To throw them off, try and change the rhythm of your walking. If you feel like they’re noticed you already, stop making any sound or movement for a while.

How to Defeat the Security System

With all that being said, it’s not entirely impossible to outsmart a deer. After all, countless hunters have been doing it for years. Below are a few tips and tricks on how to do just that:
- Sight
When it comes to their sense of sight, you already know its weaknesses: they can’t see well above the horizon; they have horrible visual acuity; and, of course, the color orange. So, aside from dawning blaze orange camos, the best way to remain unsighted is staying on top of trees or investing on a ground blind. A ground blind is a tent that’s designed to blend well with your hunting ground. This could give you the stealth that you need without taking away the advantages of being on ground. However, remember that when you’re using a ground blind, you have to be more mindful of your movements since deer are good at detecting movements on ground. If you must move, make sure to time your movements when the deer is looking away from your direction.
- Sound
As stated earlier, a deer’s ear can rotate towards the direction of a certain movement. So if your quarry has its ears on your direction, it’s over. You’ve been spotted. Your mission is to prevent that from happening. Be more apprehensive of you’re the sounds that you, your gears, or your weapons could be making. If you must make a sound, make sure that you make it when their ears are turned away from you. Avoid gears with metal pieces on it. Since deer are extra sensitive to high frequency sounds, metals clinking against each other might as well be a glaring alarm that screams danger.
- Smell
This might be the biggest challenge yet. Just sniffing off your clothes for any significant odor isn’t going to cut it since a deer’s nose is a hundred times more sensitive. A subtle fragrance might already be a red flag to them. Before going on your stand, make sure that you washed your gear and yourself with an odor-free soap. You can also try some scent eliminating spray or olfactory jamming spray available on the market. Another option is using an ozone machine inside your ground blind to cover and neutralize any of your scent.

A deer might be equipped with state-of-the-art senses. But so are you! A smart hunter is always at an advantage. At the end of the day, it’s not your gear or your blaze orange camo that would fill your tags. It’s your own skills and competency as a hunter. In the woods, you need to use your own head. Your wit and ingenuity would save you. It’s up to you to come up with various techniques and strategies to fill that freezer, or take that next tropy buck!

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February 25, 2019
Do deer antlers get bigger each year?
For centuries, hunters have been greatly fascinated by deer antlers because of their capability to grow quickly. In fact, one common question about deer is, Do deer antlers get bigger each year?

A plain and simple answer to this question is — YES. Antlers continue to grow each year all throughout the deer’s life. In the following we will be discussing all the necessary things that you need to know about deer antler growth. But first, let’s begin with identifying an antler from a horn.

What are antlers?

If you’re not familiar with antlers, these are the horn-like features found on the male members of the deer family which includes the elk, caribou, and the moose to name a few. Most hunters’ desire to capture a deer is primarily driven by the need to get their hands on the antlers.

Though many hunters refer to antlers as horn, they are not actually horn. Antlers are bones which form from the pedicle of a male deer’s frontal skull. The pedicles become noticeable during the first four to five months of a young male fawn’s life. However, these pedicles are not considered antlers.

The male members of the deer family, commonly referred to as bucks, will begin growing true antlers on the first spring after they were born. That is around the first ten to twelve months of their lives. The antlers will start growing around March and April, eventually reaching full growth around the months of August and September.

Although antlers naturally grow on male deer members, the caribou species is widely known to have both its males and females grow antlers.

Why Do Deer Antlers Get Bigger Each Year?

Antlers can grow at a rate of ¼ to one inch a day, making them one of the fastest growing tissues in mammals. Antlers will continue to grow each year that the buck lives and will reach its full-size potential until around four years of age.

The growth of antlers is typically regulated by the buck’s testosterone level (male hormone) which, in turn, is controlled by day length called photoperiod. The photoperiod refers to the “brain clock” that measures the length of light and dark, using the information it gathers to control the production of hormones in bucks.

In essence, the longer the bucks are exposed to light, the more testosterone they produce. Tests conducted in recent years by both researchers and hunters revealed that deer kept in constant light grew their antlers faster and lost about three sets of it in just two years. On the other hand, bucks kept in the light for limited hours were unable to shed and grow new antlers.

Bucks usually sport their largest sets of antlers when they’re about five to six years of age. Beyond that, the age of the deer and their health will start affecting the growth of the antlers.

Contrary to the belief that the antlers’ purpose is to protect bucks from predators, biologists believe they are more for social ranking. This is due to the fact that antlers are typically shed during winter when predators pose the greatest threat to any deer.

Antler Shedding

Antler shedding is the process in which the bucks shed off their antlers completely to grow a new set of antlers. Shedding happens every year in between the months of January and April. At times, bucks shed their antlers earlier depending on three factors: age, health, and location of the deer.

Antlers are shed due to the decline of testosterone production following the rut. During summer when the male hormone is at its production peak, the high level of testosterone constricts the veins and arteries surrounding the deer’s velvet. The velvet is the hair-like membrane that covers the antlers and supplies them with blood and nutrients needed as they grow.

Without enough nutrients and blood to sustain it, the velvet will wither and will eventually fall off. To expedite the shedding process, bucks will be often seen rubbing their antlers against trees or other hard surfaces. This process will continue all throughout the deer’s life.

Antler shedding help bucks get rid of damaged or broken antlers since the latter are deemed extremely important in a male’s show of dominance and in acquiring the favor of females. Broken antlers decrease a buck’s breeding privileges.

Researchers also suggest that antler shedding aids in a buck’s capability to re-grow larger and stronger antlers as it lives. The process allegedly allows the antlers to keep pace with the buck’s growing body size as it matures.

Typically, healthy males that live in mild climates and get more supply of food get to keep their antlers longer than bucks in more impoverished conditions and locations. Peak condition bucks can grow stronger tissues which result in an incredible antler-to-head toughness.

Can antlers be used to determine the age of a buck?

If you believe that the size or number of antlers defines the real age of a buck, you’re dead wrong. Regardless of the many stories shared by hunters, antlers are considered unreliable when it comes to determining the age of bucks. The size and number of antlers a buck grows are purely indicative of the animal’s diet, habitat, and heredity; not its age.

Using antlers to determine the age of a deer can be misleading for a number of reasons. For instance, metabolic stress can significantly reduce an antler’s quality, shape, and size. Furthermore, tissue damage can cause abnormal patterns in the antler’s growth cycle.

If you want to make a definitive guess on the age of a deer, you might want to consider looking at these body features instead of the antlers.
- Belly – Normally, the older a deer gets, the more its belly sags. However, it’s still good to remember that belly sagging can also be an indicator of diseases like abdominal fluid build up and ruptures in the deer’s abdominal wall.
- Rump – Like with humans, a buck’s backside gets rounder and more prominent as the animal age. Deer in prime age tend to have angular rumps. However, rumps also tend to be angular when bucks suffer from diseases and old age.
- Side profile – The side profile can provide a better indication of a deer’s age. Typically, the side profile of the antlers resembles a rectangular shape. This becomes more evident as the deer matures.
Technically, there is really no precise way of identifying the age of a deer, especially if you are just looking at the animal while you are hunting. However, observing the abovementioned physical features in conjunction with each other can help you guess it better.

Where are bucks with the largest antler sizes commonly found?

Again, the size of the antlers is dependent on three significant factors: the age, location, and habitat of the deer. Generally speaking, young males that are situated in areas with good weather and have access to vast supplies of food can grow bigger antlers. Below states are home to some of United States’ deer with the most massive racks.
- Texas
- Mississippi
- Iowa
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- Kansas
- Missouri
- Indiana
- Kentucky
As you noticed, these states are mostly known for good weather and vegetation that are both needed for bucks to grow their antlers to its fullest sizes. To date, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas are considered homes to the largest deer in the country when it comes to body mass and antler size.

Key Takeaways

Here are some key takeaways from this article that you should always remember about deer.
- Antlers grow bigger each year as the deer matures.
- An antler is not a horn. Antlers are honeycomb-liked bones that grow from the pedicles of a male deer’s frontal skull.
- Antlers are grown by male members of the deer family with the exception of the caribou or the reindeer. Reindeer males and females are both known to grow antlers. Females can do so because of the high production of testosterone or male hormone in their body. However, their antlers are often found to be shorter or deformed.
- Bucks shed their antlers and grow new one every year. Shedding helps bucks to get rid of broken antlers and develop bigger and stronger ones.
- Healthy male deer living in locations with good weather and habitat can keep their antlers well until spring.
- Antlers can’t be used to identify the age of a deer. The size of antlers can instead be used to determine the type of environment and diet of the animal.
- Looking at a deer’s physical features is not a precise way of identifying the animal’s age.
Reminders

While deer hunting is not banned in the United States, it is highly regulated by state governments. Make sure that you have secured all the necessary permits needed before you go hunting. Since the activity is controlled by state governments, the rules and policies per state may differ from each other.
February 25, 2019
Best time to hunt deer?
A deer’s daily routine isn’t exactly as clear-cut as a human. Unlike our routines that are dictated by the concept of schedules and time, theirs is a routine driven by instinct and needs. Most hunters make their hunting trip in the morning before sunrise. But is this really the best time to hunt a deer?

What is the best time to hunt deer?

The height of legal deer activity happens just after daylight, and just before dark. Morning and evening hunts each have their own pros and cons. Deer are more active during the night time because that’s when they are supposed to get food. Sadly, some states prohibit hunting during night time. The limited light source could also take a toll on your accuracy and precision. Morning hunts give you the good lighting, and it also coincides with your own sleeping schedule. The bad news is deer can be headed to bed as we are getting up.

Many other factors also come into play about the best times to hunt. For you to be a successful hunter, it is important for you to take into consideration each and every single one of them: from their daily activity, their eating habits, their biological condition, the weather, the season, and, heck, even the shape of the moon. All of these things could greatly influence deer behavior. Learning how to analyze all of these and utilize them to your advantage could give you more chances of bringing home the bacon. Well, in this case the venison.

Daily Routine

In order to understand the best time to hunt deer, we need to know their daily routine. Deer don’t exactly follow a timed schedule for their daily routine. Still, their activities unconsciously fall under a certain pattern. This general guideline is usually what hunters go by, to figure out the most viable time of day to catch their prey off guard.

Unlike humans, deer don’t start their day when the sun rises. It’s actually quite the opposite. They’ll only wake up when the sun is already setting, which could be anywhere from 3 pm to 6 pm. This is the reason why many people mistake them for a nocturnal animal. In reality, deer are neither diurnal nor nocturnal. They are considered as crepuscular animals for they are primarily more active during the dusk and dawn. They do this to avoid other animal predators that are active during the peak hours of the day or night.

After waking up in the evening, their biggest priority would be food. This is when they would start to venture their way towards available food sources. Keep in mind that, just like people, they’re also extra cranky during breakfast. This means they would also be more alert and aggressive when eating.

As the night deepens, the deer would start to become more active. They either then start to go around and graze the woods and other food sources or go back to their bedding sites. But since they’re not really nocturnal animals, they don’t have the best night vision. Unfortunately, neither do you. So unless you have other techniques to accurately locate your target without relying on visual signals, you might want to re-evaluate your plan of using this to your advantage. We don’t encourage night hunting unless you are in a rare area that allows some type of night action. It can cause injury, not death to the deer and potentially kill someone that is mistaken for a deer.

A couple of hours later, they would head out again to eat. Eating their last meal for the day would often result to them feeling very sluggish and lethargic. Subsequently, they would go back to their bedding sites in the morning (6 am to 10 am).

But that’s not all! Just like how some humans crave a midnight snack in the middle of their slumber, deer usually wake up in the middle of the day (11 am to 1 pm) to go for a nibble. Afterwards, they would go back to sleep during 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm to prepare for the big night ahead.

However, keep in mind that although this guideline is already pretty accurate, there are still certain elements that might completely throw all these off kilter.

Season

The current season is also another factor that plays a vital role in determining a deer’s behavior. The condition of their environment and their habitat would obviously affect their actions throughout the whole period.

Their activity during the early spring depends on how well they fared the previous winter. If they barely made it, they would be more cerseless. Their daily routine would start much earlier than expected and their slumber would have to come much later. Their peak hours would be sometime between early morning to late afternoon. Once the initial exuberance subsides, they would then start to prioritize resources and would stick to areas with the most abundant food sources. There is often very little to no movement during the day but a lot during bedtime to find other bedding sites.

In the summer, deer are often in a slump due to the hot weather. This means that they’ll be more active when the sun’s not up and burning. However, some fawns become agitated during bedtime due to the intense heat. This triggers them to wonder around during the late afternoon or early evening.

Now, their activity during the fall is a bit complex compared to the other seasons. In the early fall, they like to eat sumptuously. They’d be willing to go through extreme lengths just to find a bountiful food resource. Most hunters usually strike in the middle of this season, when the deer have finally settled down into some kind of routine. At this point, the deer would go through three cycles of eating and resting in just one day: one during the dusk, one during the dawn, and one during noon. Another reason why this season is more complicated than others is because it is also the rut or the breeding season. This is when the bucks become more erratic and restless because their hormones are at a height to potentially attract does and create new fawns. Their movements and activities become less and less predictable during this period. Expect some unusual activity even during the day.

Eventually, the rut will end and winter would set in. The cold weather may prompt deer to be active during mid-afternoon to take advantage of the heat during those times. Deer also prefer grazing an open field during this time.

Other factors

On top of all that, several aspects determine the best time to hunt deer such as temperature, weather, availability of resources, and moon position could also affect your chance of getting a trophy buck.

Temperature

Along with knowing the best time to hunt deer, temperature and weather also come into play. If you’re wondering which temperature is better: hot or cold, the answer is the latter, cool climate is much more ideal for deer since too much heat would just cause them to sleep more during daytime.

Nevertheless, a dormant temperature, even if it’s high or low, is bad news if you want your prey to be active during your hunt. A sudden change in temperature is what a deer needs to snap out of a slump. You need to watch out for a 10 to 15-degree drop or rise in the temperature for it is a signal that your quarries are probably going to be up and about in no time.

Weather

A little rain never killed a hunter, but it might get him his kill. As stated earlier, a sudden change in temperature gets the buck moving. And what changes the temperature more effectively than a changing weather? Most animals have very keen senses, enabling them to sense an upcoming weather event. An unexpected rainfall or snowfall would definitely get a deer on its feet.

Availability of Resources

Just like any other living being, deer also value survival. So if your location isn’t exactly ideal, then you’re also probably going to go home empty-handed. Try and scout for areas with quality food and water sources and optimal bedding settings. Any places with an abundance on those things are probably a good place to start hunting.

Phase of the Moon

Many dismiss this one as nothing but a superstition. But is it? Believe it or not, the current phase of the moon can greatly influence the feeding activity of the deer. They are more likely to eat more and seek beddings earlier during a full moon while they are more likely to spend more time in their beddings during the new moon. This is due to the fact that, as mentioned earlier, deer don’t have an adequate night vision, that’s why they try to utilize the bright light of the moon to their advantage as much as they can.

Hunting Pressure

Areas that received the brunt of previous hunting season would be less likely to experience that much daylight activity on the current season. There’ll be more chances of you getting your catch in an area that’s still not yet discovered by other hunters. Asides from the fact that there would be lesser competition, the animals there would probably not be as guarded and on edge.

There’s no such thing as a silver bullet when it comes to hunting. Being able to make a 300 yard kill shot isn’t the only thing that it takes to become a good hunter. A good hunter is someone who truly knows and understands its game. You can sit in front of your computer for several hours, searching for an article that could help you do so. But, in reality, the only way to do that is to go outside, and observe. You won’t be able to find deer from the comforts of your own bedroom! Go forth, and take a shot.

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February 25, 2019