Editor’s Note: Alex Rutledge of Birchtree, Missouri, a longtime hunter who’s starred in many outdoor videos and been featured on outdoor TV shows, has hunted and taken whitetails for many years. This week, he’ll tell us how to bag a big white-tailed deer successfully.
Deciding when, where, and how to take the shot is critical to success. If you have your tree stand in the right place, find a trophy buck to take and see that buck coming, but you don’t know what to do from the time you see the buck to the time you release the arrow, you still won’t go home with a trophy for your wall and meat for your freezer. Let’s look at the steps for taking the shot.
- Determine the angle at which the deer approaches your stand location when you first see your buck. If you’ve done your scouting and hung your stand correctly, from the angle the deer’s approaching your stand, you can predict approximately where that deer needs to be when you take your shot. Mark four or five trees with your range finder. Then, you’ll know the distance you are from each tree if the buck steps out by one of those trees. Next, once you’ve decided where your killing field is, look for the tree or bush behind which the buck may step so he won’t see you draw your bow or mount your rifle.
- Make a mock scrape earlier so the buck has something to focus on as he approaches your tree stand. Give your buck a visual cue to look at, and then he won’t be looking for you. If a buck’s focused on a mock scrape as he comes in, he’s much less likely to spot you. (Learn how to make a mock scrape at Whitetail Habitat Solutions.)
Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “Why I Wear a Safety Harness” by John E. Phillips.
Expert Guidebooks on BowHunting Deer: Best Sellers
How to Hunt Deer Up Close with Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows
To be more successful as a deer hunter, learn all you can about the animal, the wind, the temperature and the techniques required to get in close.
In this book, you’ll hear about some of the best hunters in the nation who know how to hunt deer close, including one of the greatest archers who ever lived, Howard Hill.
John E. Phillips also shares his own deer stories and hunting tips from 50 years of experience.
VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT
Many deer hunters have told me: “I want a deer-hunting book with regular hunters who are just like me” and “I want a deer-hunting book with the best advice from the best professional deer hunters in the nation”.
Mossy Oak’s Pro Staff is made up of some of the nation’s best deer hunters, professional deer hunters, and TV hosts whose names and advice often are heard in deer camps all over the nation. But many of the more than 1,000 Mossy Oak Pro Staff hunters are everyday, weekend, and vacation deer hunters just like you.
Whether you hunt private or public lands, you’ll find tips and tactics in this book from the Mossy Oak Pro Staff that will increase your odds for locating and taking the bucks of your dreams.
If you’re serious about learning to hunt and take deer with a bow, if you’re looking for a different strategy that will help you identify and harvest big bucks, if you want to learn from your misses as well as from the shots that connect, and if you enjoy being in the great outdoors that the Good Lord has blessed us with, then this book is for you.
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How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties
In this book, you’ll hear from 14 hunters who either have gained permission or leased properties as small as six acres to as much as 250 acres, and how they consistently take older-age-class bucks off these little lands.
VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT
Jim Crumley’s Secrets of Bowhunting Deer
Using a black magic marker and a gray work jumpsuit, Jim Crumley of Buchanan, Virginia, drastically changed the nature and purpose of hunting camouflage when he created the first sportsman’s camouflage – Trebark. Crumley’s love of bowhunting and his desire to be more invisible changed hunting clothing forever.
In this hunting guide, he shares the wisdom that he’s learned throughout his lifetime about how to be a hunter, how to find a deer lease, how to scout for deer, and more.
Special features include how to:
- Have a magic 60 acres to hunt
- Decide the best equipment to use
- Find deer year-round
- Locate land to hunt
- Know the best place to put your tree stand
- Get bucks within bow range
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How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro
How do you know if the land you hunt has a trophy deer on it? Wildlife manager Bob Zaiglin, of Uvalde, Texas and Jim Crumley, the father of modern-day hunting camouflage, tells you how to find out. GPS can make finding and taking that trophy buck easier. This hunting guide will teach you how to hunt big bucks where no one else can find them, how to call deer, and how to become versatile as a deer hunter, so that if one deer tactic doesn’t work, another one will.
In the chapter, “How to find Bucks at Scrape,” Dr. Keith Causey, retired professor of Wildlife Science at Auburn University, describes the best way to hunt a scrape.
Brad Harrison of Neosho, Missouri, is a nationally-known videographer, professional deer hunter and master at calling deer. Another master is Will Primos of Primos Game Calls. These two experts will tell the best deer calls and when to use them in this book.
And for over 20 years, Bo Pitman, lodge manager of White Oak Plantation, has been studying deer movement patterns. He explains what types of conditions are best for predicting deer movement.
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Deer hunting and deer hunters are drastically changing each year. To learn new techniques for hunting deer and have more places to hunt, I’ve interviewed some of the best deer hunters in the nation and share their tactics in How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro: Volume II.
In Chapter 10, Jacob Lamar tells you his tactics for consistently taking older-age-class bucks on public lands in several states. Chapter 11, Bob Walker explains how to find places on public lands where you can hunt that 99 percent of the other hunters never have considered hunting. The Bonus Chapter with David Ramey tells you how, where, when and with what equipment to take big Kansas bucks on public lands by hunting in 100-degree weather when others won’t hunt.
Chapter 13, Mark Drury, his family and his guests take mature bucks every season by having more small places to hunt rather than one large property. Drury explains the strategy of having satellite farms to hunt that only may be 50-150 acres each or less. Chapter 15, Pat Reeve, who hunts far-northern states and Canada, says, “I don’t like hunting for mature bucks until the weather is 20 degrees or less.” Chapter 4, Dr. Larry Marchinton says that funnels are the most-reliable stand sites to hunt for big bucks and tells why.
VERSIONS: AUDIBLE & PRINT
Tomorrow: Call Deer and Take the Show
You may also enjoy:
“A System That Takes Trophy Deer” Day 3: Prepare Yourself to Shoot Deer
“A System That Takes Trophy Deer” Day 2: Notice the Wind’s Direction to Take Deer
“A System That Takes Trophy Deer” Day 1: Pinpoint Where Deer Are
“A System That Takes Trophy Deer” Day 5: Call Deer and Take the Shot
Rattling and Hunting Deer Successfully Day 4: Tree Stands and Scents for Deer Hunting
Rattling and Hunting Deer Successfully Day 2: Ways to Decide How to Call Deer
