Books and learning

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Buckhunter
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Books and learning

Unread postby Buckhunter » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:15 am

Im looking to do lots of reading and research during this off-season in preparation for my first year doing it all myself.
Are there any books that any of you would highly recommend reading that maybe you started out with or just consider to be a must read book?
Im hunting the thick swampy jungles of Louisiana, and will be spending the next 9 months scouting and learning as much as i possibly can before next season. SO if you have any book suggestions please let me know!


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Hawthorne
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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:47 am

John eberharts books are good.

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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby fishlips » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:53 am

How to Bag the Biggest Buck of your Life by Larry Benoit.

Not a book, but look back through the history of these threads and there is tons of good stuff on the forum that isn't in any book. I have read a # of hunting books, and nothing compares to this forum for quality of information. I have started going back through the deer hunting and scouting threads and there are some old threads that haven't be resurrected that probably should. Tons of good info in there.
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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby Wapiti » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:14 am

Buckhunter wrote:Im looking to do lots of reading and research during this off-season in preparation for my first year doing it all myself.
Are there any books that any of you would highly recommend reading that maybe you started out with or just consider to be a must read book?
Im hunting the thick swampy jungles of Louisiana, and will be spending the next 9 months scouting and learning as much as i possibly can before next season. SO if you have any book suggestions please let me know!


I'd suggest reading through the all time tactical threads and also searching for specific topics on this site in lieu of any specific book. There's a podcast on swamp hunting with Swinging Bridge that is very good also.

If you're dead-set on books, there have been a couple of recent threads on that very subject, e.g.: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34269&hilit=books
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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby Wlog » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:48 am

Wapiti wrote:
Buckhunter wrote:Im looking to do lots of reading and research during this off-season in preparation for my first year doing it all myself.
Are there any books that any of you would highly recommend reading that maybe you started out with or just consider to be a must read book?
Im hunting the thick swampy jungles of Louisiana, and will be spending the next 9 months scouting and learning as much as i possibly can before next season. SO if you have any book suggestions please let me know!


I'd suggest reading through the all time tactical threads and also searching for specific topics on this site in lieu of any specific book. There's a podcast on swamp hunting with Swinging Bridge that is very good also.

If you're dead-set on books, there have been a couple of recent threads on that very subject, e.g.: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34269&hilit=books


What he said! Read everything you can, that's fine. But I can honestly say I've read a pile of books dedicated to deer and hunting deer and for the most part they pale in comparison to the discussions you read on this site. Plus you can't ask a book questions.

There's plenty of super knowledgable guys on here to bounce ideas off of and to take insight from. What I've found with books is they're often written by guys who've hunted a limited amount of types of terrain and they use the same cliches and preach the same tactics you can find in every magazine.

I was reading an article on another site just today and the author talked about finding buck beds and how other bucks will take over a good buck bed when the current buck moves on. Then he said the same buck beds could be productive year after year. Made me think he was reading Dan's posts from here and copy/pasting them on his site. Outside of the hunting world that's considered plagiarism.

I'm seeing lots of public land articles and buck bedding articles popping up in magazines and books since Dan started to get more recognition. I've had subscriptions to all the major hunting mags in the past and I know there wasn't a whole lot of that stuff before.

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent from the original post. All I'm saying is, if all the other so called experts are just copying Dan, I'll just get my info straight from the source.

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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby tbunao » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:51 am

Get through all the tactical threads first, then go to the other books.
Eberharts are a great start and mapping trophy bucks. Go on the wired to hunt web page they have a list of some good reading.
I myself am on my second time through the tactical threads

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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby PK_ » Sat Feb 06, 2016 1:00 pm

I have read probably 50 or so books on hunting whitetails, maybe 3-5 come anywhere close to the info on this site and Dan's DVDs.

Be sure to read JoeRe's scouting and hunting journal in the hunting journal forum section. It is hands down better than any book I have on my shelf, barring maybe Benoits book because I simply love the nostalgia.
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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby Wlog » Sat Feb 06, 2016 1:34 pm

I should clarify my other post. There are some good books out there. I few I've read that come to mind.

Whitetail Magic-Roger Rothhaar

Year round Trophy Whitetails-Joe Brooks

Mapping Trophy Bucks-Brad Herndon

Come November-Gene Wensel

Taking Trophy Whitetails-Bob Fratzke

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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby gjs4 » Sun Feb 07, 2016 2:44 am

Every book will teach you something. Every thread on here will do the same...including those on "what books you should check out".

Being from a ridiculously high pressure low mature buck area and having read books like its my job ....beware that odds are no one writing these has hunted your ground. THE BEST BOK EVER WRITTEN FOR YOUR AREA WILL BE YOUR NOTES ON POST SEASON SCOUTING followed by those on in and pre season scouting.

Herndon's, Eberhart's, Dan's, Vale's ....as well as Rothaars, Wensels, Higgins, Bartyllas, Millers, Sheppards ad a litany of others are great. I disagree with a few posted by other beasts but that's not saying I didn't take anything from them or they didn't find more in them than I did. Mind you these are just hunting...then there is management, property, tracking, blood tracking (trout's is one everyone should own) I swear Ive owned 95% of the deer hunting books printed in the past 50 years and feel like scouting more places and more often would've been far more valuable...then again when youre on a beach drinking a beer during family vacation (where you know deer don't live) some printed material is the only way too stay thinking/learning about the game. Don't forget there are lots of online articles and vids out there too.

I will add this note....though there are some stand out books IN GENERAL it seems the newer they are the more stolen info from others that is present...which as a consumer will give you better bang for your buck
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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby DeerDylan » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:35 am

All great responses! I can't really add anything other than make sure you are absorbing the info. Everyone learns differently. I have realized that I'm a visual learner. I also need repetition, I have re-read books and threads on here so many times that it's almost embarrassing.

Another thing, I used to dismiss some information because it "didn't pertain to my exact surroundings" a good example is Maybe a fellow from the Midwest is killing deer on some type of field edge and in general I can't relate to that. That's when you read between the lines, it doesn't have to be a field edge. It can be swamp meeting brush,open woods meeting a thicket, grown up logging roads.

Another little thing that I noticed last week while scouting in hill terrain, every really good buck bed I sat in was pretty much only big enough for one deer (there were other beds in the vicinity) but the really smart beds could hold one deer. Then it hit me,I was seeing something I actually learned in The Marsh Bucks dvd when Dan said a lot of times a mature buck prefers a small spot to bed in/on and does usually prefer a larger thick area. That was info on a totally different type of terrain but went right along with what I was seeing. (Not everything is absolute, just one small example)

Anyway, I think any really good hunter would be called an Open minded skeptic of sorts.

Stick around, I think you'll enjoy the ride. Learning is progress. HAVE FUN!

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Re: Books and learning

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Tue Feb 09, 2016 1:41 am

gjs4 wrote:Every book will teach you something. Every thread on here will do the same...including those on "what books you should check out".

Being from a ridiculously high pressure low mature buck area and having read books like its my job ....beware that odds are no one writing these has hunted your ground. THE BEST BOK EVER WRITTEN FOR YOUR AREA WILL BE YOUR NOTES ON POST SEASON SCOUTING followed by those on in and pre season scouting.

Herndon's, Eberhart's, Dan's, Vale's ....as well as Rothaars, Wensels, Higgins, Bartyllas, Millers, Sheppards ad a litany of others are great. I disagree with a few posted by other beasts but that's not saying I didn't take anything from them or they didn't find more in them than I did. Mind you these are just hunting...then there is management, property, tracking, blood tracking (trout's is one everyone should own) I swear Ive owned 95% of the deer hunting books printed in the past 50 years and feel like scouting more places and more often would've been far more valuable...then again when youre on a beach drinking a beer during family vacation (where you know deer don't live) some printed material is the only way too stay thinking/learning about the game. Don't forget there are lots of online articles and vids out there too.

I will add this note....though there are some stand out books IN GENERAL it seems the newer they are the more stolen info from others that is present...which as a consumer will give you better bang for your buck


Spot on. I know earlier on in my career, I tried to read bunch of books and apply what I learned. But it just did not apply to where I lived and hunted. They made for great reads but really "Rubline Secrets" by Gregg Miller really did not help me 1 bit in the state I lived in. Your also going to find that listening to a bunch of different methods can leave you a bit confused. 1 book will give you 3 chapters on scent control and scent principles. Yet another will say its a waste of time just hunt the wind.

99% of what you read here when it pertains to bucks, its all about bedding. How you find that bedding, how you hunt that bedding, where you find that bedding may differ wherever you hunt. BUT you have to know where the deer bed. I know for myself, my success or lack of success, is mostly related to bedding. If I cannot locate where they bed, I struggle to kill them. I want to know where the does bed duing the rut. I want to know where that buck is bedding duing Sept and Oct.


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