Editor’s Note:  A brown muzzle eased out of the thick cover as a deer’s eyes appeared. Finally a wide, high rack came into view. Cautiously, nervously, the buck took two steps into the old logging road. A rifle reported. The buck stumbled and fell. The hunter had his trophy. Let’s look at some of the most-productive places where you can take a buck this hunting season.

Automatically, when you hear the term, road hunting, you probably think of a poacher with a spotlight cruising up and down the highways, taking game illegally. However, a system of road hunting has been developed that’s legal and very effective, especially for taking large, monster-sized whitetails. In most hunting areas, you will find woods roads, firebreaks, old logging roads, power-line rights of ways or some other type of paths or clear cuts through the woods. Because these regions are so open, often hunters will not hunt them. However, one of the most-effective ways to consistently bag big whitetails is to learn to hunt these paths through the woods. By driving your ATV or pickup truck on these roads, firebreaks or trails at mid-morning, especially after an all-night rain has softened the ground, you can find tracks where deer have crossed the road during daylight hours. Once you have pinpointed where the deer are crossing, you will understand where to take a stand. When you know from which direction the deer go and come across the road, next you must determine what wind direction you must have to hunt that road crossing properly. Make sure on the day you plan to hunt that spot that the wind is blowing, so it will carry your human odor away from the deer.

“Because hunters often travel up and down woods roads and logging roads, I make sure no other hunter will come down the section of road I choose to hunt, that other hunters know exactly where I am, and that I will be looking for game up and down that road,” a hunting buddy of mine told me.  “Usually I paint the words, ‘DANGER, HUNTER IN ROAD,’ on both sides of two cardboard boxes. I place the boxes on either end of the road I plan to hunt to insure my safety and the safety of any hunter who may come down the road, path, trail or right of way.”

A hunter can employ two effective types of stands – a ground blind or a tree stand – when hunting a road. By setting a portable ground blind up on the side of the road next to the cover, you can see up and down the road and have a greater ability to move-around than if you sit in a tree stand. A ground blind also allows you to sit all day comfortably in one spot. However, ground blinds are solid masses of material and do not have the three-dimensional look of the woods. Often the wind will blow, and the whole side of a blind will move, which will spook deer. But leaning brush and limbs against the side of the blind will give the blind a three-dimensional look and make it less likely to spook deer. I suggest setting-up the blind the day before you plan to hunt. One of the biggest problems associated with hunting roads, right of ways or any other type of cleared path through the wilderness is getting a deer to stop before he crossed the road. Usually a deer will run across a road faster than you can blink your eyes or get a shot. However, if you put a food like C’Mere Deer’s 3 Day Harvest https://www.cmeredeer.com/ on the trail the deer already has shown that he’s using to cross that road and continue to put-out 3 Day Harvest for 3 days, then when the deer reaches the edge of the road, generally he’ll stop to get a mouthful of that 3 Day Harvest before crossing the road, which will give you time to take the shot.

Preparing a tree stand before your hunt is also important to your success. For a tree-stand site to be the most effective, make as little noise as possible putting the stand up and going to or coming away from it. Having a ground blind or a tree stand pre-set the day before you want to hunt a road will minimize the amount of noise you make on hunt day and keep you from spooking deer. Also, don’t forget to put-out deer food and/or attractants on the edge of the road where you want the deer to stop for you to get a shot. Check to see if feeding deer and using attractants are legal products in the state where you hunt.

To learn more about deer hunting, go to John E. Phillips’ books and learn the tactics small property owners have used successfully by checking out John E. Phillips’s book, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties” at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OOC2T0Y#, available in Kindle, print and Audible versions. To receive your free book on “How to Make Venison Jerky,” go to https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/Ece3UZVcOo52cKPJcL

Tomorrow: Hunt Roads, Power and Gas Lines and Right of Ways to Slow Deer and Get a Shot