Editor’s Note: Paul Butski of Scio, New York, historically has been a turkey-call manufacturer, worked with Walker’s Game Ear, and is currently the sales manager for GSM Outdoors, owns Stealth Cam, Hawk Treestands, NAP Archery Products, American Hunter Feeders, Hunter Specialties, HME products, Birchwood Casey, Muddy and other outdoor brands. 

If you’re hunting public land or a lease with several other hunters, knowing the hunting nature of most of the hunters on the land you hunt can be critically important to your deer-hunting success. For instance, on public lands, most deer hunters won’t hunt more than 200–250 yards from the road for two reasons: the fear of getting lost and the fear of success.

Most public land hunters fear success as much as they fear getting lost. By that, I mean that most hunters are afraid that if they go a mile or two away from where they’ve parked their vehicles and take a really nice, big buck, they don’t want to have to drag or carry that buck the mile or two back to the truck. For that reason, they’ll take a stand, even though it may not be the best stand or even a good stand, closer to their vehicle. Then if they do take really-nice bucks, they won’t have to drag them out, and/or they may be close enough to another hunter to get help dragging the buck out.

However, new technology and hunting aids, like onX, are enabling more and more hunters to go deeper in the woods in the dark, navigate to their tree stands or ground blinds, and be prepared to take a deer when the other hunters start coming into the woods. They’ll also go out of the woods after dark using onX. OnX shows you property lines, the owners of land around the property you’re hunting, shortcuts to reach the areas you’ve chosen to hunt and exit points where you can get your buck quicker and easier to the road where you’ve parked your vehicle.

I’ll start hunting as far back on a piece of property as I possibly can go during gun season, and I always get to my stand site 45 minutes to an hour before daylight for several reasons. I want to: 

• take my time getting to my stand so I can climb safely and/or be quieter if I’m getting into a ground blind

• give the woods time to settle, so the critters will do what they usually do before daylight

• allow the hunters coming into the woods just before or at daylight to let their human odor get out in front of them and move the deer in front of them toward my stand.

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.

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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.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

Tomorrow: Paul Butski’s Deer Hunting Backpack