Editor’s Note: Hunters can use much of the equipment they have at their homes already to make hunting deer easier on their lands, including leaf blowers, shovels, backpacks, trail cameras, rakes, atvs and flagging tape to name some. They also need to understand how to find and take big deer on small lands near their homes. 

“My grandmother had a problem in Alabama’s warm weather that often lasts until after Thanksgiving,” Jamie Jensen of Warrior, Alabama, reports. “Deer on our family’s land were eating her garden, primarily the peas and the beans, but also the corn and the late-season tomatoes and bell peppers. I set-up a trail camera along a deer trail leading from a briar and honeysuckle thicket about 20 yards into the woodline. I felt sure the deer were bedding near there. After my trail camera had been out for about a week, I’d spotted two does and one huge buck leaving the thicket and coming to the edge of the woodline to walk down the trail to my grandmother’s garden. But there was only one good place to set-up a tree stand, and it wasn’t on that trail. Because Grandmother had nearby neighbors, I’d have to hunt and take this buck with my bow, so the report of the rifle wouldn’t freak them out.”

To have a shot at the buck of his dreams, Jensen knew he would have to get those deer to abandon the trail they’d always walked down and create a new trail that the deer could switch over to that still would provide access to the garden as well as funnel the deer by that one lone tree big enough where he could place his tree stand and shoot his bow.

“I used my grandmother’s lawnmower and weed eater to cut down the weeds from the garden to the edge of the woods, creating a trail before bow season was set to start,” Jensen reports. “I also piled-up brush for about 5-6 yards from where the old deer trail left the woods and went out into the field.  I used the brush to funnel the deer off the old trail and onto the new lawnmower path I’d cut and set-up my trail camera.

“I stayed out of this region for about 2 weeks before returning to check the trail camera after using Scent-A-Way (https://www.hunterspec.com/product-category/scent-control/) products to do-away with my scent, to see if my plan had worked. I saw photos of the does, the big buck and also two younger bucks using my lawnmower-cut path when I pulled the card from my camera. I stayed away from this stand site until opening day of bow deer season. However, I did cut a smaller trail with my weed eater to enable me to reach my tree stand on days with a northwest wind, the dominant wind in Alabama most of the time, without my being seen or heard.”

About 3:00 pm on deer season’s opening bowhunting day, Jensen sprayed down his body, his clothes and his boots on the soles and the uppers with Scent A-Way and then climbed into his stand. “Finally, 5 minutes before dark, the does walked past my tree stand,” Jensen recalls. “Next the two small bucks came in, and finally the big buck. Once he was 25-yards away, I drew my bow. At 20 yards, I grunted, he stopped, and I released my arrow. The buck only ran back to the edge of the woods before piling-up.”

John E. Phillips’ latest deer book “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro: Volume II,” just was published on Amazon in print at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGSP3QPB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p4_i4

The Audible version should be available by mid-November. Since deer hunting and deer hunters are drastically changing each year, John interviewed some top deer hunters like Mark Drury, Dr. Larry Marchinton, Dr. Bob Sheppard, Pat Reeve, Gene Wensel, Cody Robbins, Ernie Calandrelli, Brian Murphy and Luke Brewster, who took the world’s largest whitetail, to learn their up-to-date techniques for successfully hunting deer and having more places to hunt. Also, John’s first book in that series “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro” at http://amzn.to/YpoQHA in Kindle, print and Audible, includes other outstanding deer hunters. Also, learn more of the tactics small property owners have used successfully by checking out John’s book, “How to Hunt and Take Big Deer on Small Properties” at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OOC2T0Y, available in Kindle, print and Audible versions. You may have to copy and paste these links into your browser. When you click on these books, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read and hear 10% of the Audible books for free. On the right side of the pages and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book.

Tomorrow: Learn about Deer on Close-By Lands