learning how to hunt

[magicman54494]

I think that hunting today has changed so much from the old days that most people have lost (or never learned) how to hunt.
Baiting, food plots, trail cameras, permanent stands, etc have taken the place of good old fashioned woods skills. We rely so much on other things to replace scouting. We rush into our stands and don't see all the sign on our way in. There is so much information available to the trained eye and most people miss it or don't even know how to recognize it.

I was talking with a hunter this fall who runs tons of cameras along with the rest of his family. They have tons of intel on almost every buck in the area. They spend all fall chasing deer and are very serious about hunting. Here is the funny part. I spend just a few weeks in that area each fall. He was telling me about a particular buck that he was after. He told me where his "home" was and I already knew that (I watched for tracks coming out of that spot everytime I traveled that road). He told me another place where he holes up on occasion. I laughed and told him that I came real close to killing that buck there and knew right where he bedded. I even told him how he enters that bedding spot.

We talked about mature buck densities and though I don't run any cameras I agreed with what he was finding with all the cameras.

How can I know so much when I spend such little time in that area? I have learned to read sign. Tracking is also a huge aid in determining routes, core areas, numbers of good bucks, etc.

I was amazed as to how much of the same info I had on the deer in that area without any special gear and in such little time expended. It really proved to me that good woods skills are all you really need to be successful.

This does not mean that I am bashing any of this extra gear or different techniques. Any tool that helps to fine tune a hunt is a good thing. The point of this is that getting back to old fashioned woods skills and scouting will make you a much better hunter.

[basspro05]

Coming from a non deer hunting family, and living in an urban area I agree. The only thing I had to learn from was hunting tv shows. That's why finding the beast was so valuable!

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[Crazinamatese]

Im with you Magicman. I started to think I was the only one who thought that way. Im starting to get good at identifying fresh sign and focusing on the overlooked stuff without the help of cameras or food plots. I grew up poor, so didn't have the luxuries of gadgets. I still don't own smart phone. lol. Just spending alot of time out in the woods growing up, "stump sitting", has taught me alot and I still do it that way. I like to keep it simple and old school as best as I can.

[mainebowhunter]

I think that hunting today has changed so much from the old days that most people have lost (or never learned) how to hunt.
Baiting, food plots, trail cameras, permanent stands, etc have taken the place of good old fashioned woods skills. We rely so much on other things to replace scouting. We rush into our stands and don't see all the sign on our way in. There is so much information available to the trained eye and most people miss it or don't even know how to recognize it.

I was talking with a hunter this fall who runs tons of cameras along with the rest of his family. They have tons of intel on almost every buck in the area. They spend all fall chasing deer and are very serious about hunting. Here is the funny part. I spend just a few weeks in that area each fall. He was telling me about a particular buck that he was after. He told me where his "home" was and I already knew that (I watched for tracks coming out of that spot everytime I traveled that road). He told me another place where he holes up on occasion. I laughed and told him that I came real close to killing that buck there and knew right where he bedded. I even told him how he enters that bedding spot.

We talked about mature buck densities and though I don't run any cameras I agreed with what he was finding with all the cameras.

How can I know so much when I spend such little time in that area? I have learned to read sign. Tracking is also a huge aid in determining routes, core areas, numbers of good bucks, etc.

I was amazed as to how much of the same info I had on the deer in that area without any special gear and in such little time expended. It really proved to me that good woods skills are all you really need to be successful.

This does not mean that I am bashing any of this extra gear or different techniques. Any tool that helps to fine tune a hunt is a good thing. The point of this is that getting back to old fashioned woods skills and scouting will make you a much better hunter.

AND those are the things you learn when you track deer with a rifle. When your strictly a Bowhunter off season scouting really needs to replace the time spent tracking. Problem is...it does not replace it. What deer are doing now...not necessarily the same next season.

I was in the snow today checking areas. One of which is a natural crossing at the end of a swamp. Sure enough deer tracks right acrossed it. Would guess dynamite cruising spot. But not here during rut...

Kind interesting to. Bumped couple of deer...follow tracks and watch skid marks as they were hitting patches of ice. Deer digging acorns pretty hard right now.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Lockdown]

Great post Magic.

One thing I have been doing the last few years is paying very close attention to fresh sign (mainly tracks) in the vicinity of my trail cameras. I try and figure out what will be on the card before I check it. Often times I know if there's a good buck on it or if there was an abundance/lack of doe activity. Obviously I'm guessing what went on within the last 4-5 days, as the old sign gets covered up.

This summer on my first card pull at Oscar's I saw a 3 finger track when I wasn't expecting a good buck to be in there (yet) and sure enough I had pics of the nice 9 pointer. Last year I knew I had the Hulk on camera 3 or 4 different times because I saw his fresh tracks nearby.

When I pulled my buck bed cam there wasn't any hot sign in the area. The bed had dry leaves in it that hadn't been laid on, and the trails lacked fresh sign as well. The card showed a decent amount of activity 3-6 weeks prior, but not much doing lately.

Even if its just doe and fawn tracks I try and guess when they were there then verify with the card intel. Doing this has helped my woodsmanship a fair amount.

[BassBoysLLP]

Yep. Cameras are great for weeding out hunting areas but you still need to watch tracks, leaves, and poopies in the end. Woodsmanship is a lost skill. Tough to teach remotely. I was fortunate to be raised by killers. My oldest at 3 is already interested in tracking critters and gathering. He wants to be a "woods ninja" like daddy. I laugh every time he says that.

Woodsmanship is a fundamental life skill that many miss out on including those in retirement (I take old timers under my wing as well). That skill lends itself to intuition and ultimately success. It takes time though and a bit of frustration. I lost a few students that reverted back to the simplicity of bait piles.

I won't talk bad on cameras though. They manage expectations and kept me wasting my time chasing big tracks with 120 racks. I would have done things a lot different if I had cameras earlier.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Hawthorne]

Excellent post! Last summer I found a spot on some highly pressured public where the canopy opened in the woods. I was looking around and found every weed in that open area was freshly browsed. They were all the same weed wish I knew the name of it. Any way hung a cam and got tons of pics in there of does , fawns , and a couple really good bucks. Really my only interest with cams is to see the head gear.
I tracked a big set of tracks couple weeks ago. Followed where he went. He walked by two big sign post rubs, walked along a creek in a thick area for a ways, then crossed a cut corn field into posted private. Big 4 finger tracks. Almost positive he went thru there in the middle of the night. I can just see him traveling that in daylight next year in early November. I have seen big bucks come out of that woods on stand before hunting another woodlot. Pretty sure with those sign post rubs that were really worked over it's their regular travel route.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[magicman54494]

I tracked a big set of tracks couple weeks ago. Followed where he went. He walked by two big sign post rubs, walked along a creek in a thick area for a ways, then crossed a cut corn field into posted private. Big 4 finger tracks. Almost positive he went thru there in the middle of the night. I can just see him traveling that in daylight next year in early November. I have seen big bucks come out of that woods on stand before hunting another woodlot. Pretty sure with those sign post rubs that were really worked over it's their regular travel route.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

That is so cool. This is the stuff I'm talking about. I'd go back and check those rubs again and remember what they look like. If you find more like them you can piece together more of his route.

[briar]

I would find tracking deer very interesting in a large tract area, I bet you could learn a ton. Unfortunately when you hunt 100-200 acre parcels most tracks simply lead you to a place you can't go anyway. I think basspro made a good point, lots of hunters don't come from a hunting background, all they know is what they read/watch on TV and they are doing their best to learn the way they can. We don't all have a mentor or grow up hunting. I know if I had started in my 20's after I didn't have time while in school that it would be very hard to learn on the fly while working full time with real life responsibilities.

Heck my dad started me hunting as a kid, but he was a self starter and the honest to gods truth is that he believed deer tracks went the opposite way they really did until I was 16 or so and a friend of mine brought over a hoof to show him in the mud. Woodsmanship is great but it has to come from somewhere and some people are at a big advantage in development from the word go.

[headgear]

I grew up in a family of hunters, however their idea of hunting and how I operate now are worlds apart. I don't mean this as a slight to them but the way I was taught to hunt deer probably set me back a decade while I set out on my own to learn more. Basically their style is to pick a spot in the woods because no one else was hunting there, build a perm stand and that was kind of your area for life. No scouting, no understanding of the sign, no learning the woods and the animals you are hunting, at least not in detail. Looking back on it now it kind of borders on the insane but they do love to hunt and it was plenty of fun growing up so I wouldn't change a thing.

I also believe many of the hunters from long ago knew more about the woods than modern hunters. They read the sign and scouted and weren't afraid to get off the beaten path. There has been at least a dozen times now I have found old stands way out in remote areas near buck bedding. Those guys did what I am doing now, scouting and reading the area and find beds. They may have not realized they were hunting beds but they were following the sign and focusing on the core areas of these bucks. Sometimes all I find is an old board nailed to a tree but it is amazing how they just zoned right into the bedding areas like we do here.

[csoult]

I'm learning. I've gone through two stages of hunting in my life. When I was younger, I would setup off of a trail and hope a buck would come by. Obviously no one, or very few, used trail cameras back then (the 90's). I saw lots of does, but rarely did I see bucks and if I did they weren't mature bucks.

I then quit hunting for quite a while after my daughter was born. Since I have picked it up again (about 3 years) I have completely changed my tactics and become more of a "woodsman". Learning why deer do what they do, paying attention to completely different things (tracks included) then I used to, has led me down a much more productive path. I don't use trail cameras to determine a bucks core area. I have used them more for inventory. But I am starting to use it to determine an exact bedding area. I've just started that this year, and plan to expand on that in the future.

A deer can do anything once, and that could throw you off if you're not careful, but if he does it more then once then it's a tendency (not a pattern) and those are really the things we are looking for. And even more so, we are looking for daylight tendencies. This is where I believe the biggest niche for trail cameras lies. I look at tracks more than most anything else, but tracks can only tell you that the buck was there, not when he was there.

I think the best solution is a mixture of new technology and old school woodsmanship.

[mheichelbech]

I agree that tracking is a critical thing to know or that that knowledge could really up the odds of success. However, it is not the easiest thing due to lack of snow and wet ground coupled with broken up properties. I don't think it is something people don't want to learn, it just doesn't fit well with how things flow in this area. I have earnestly tried tracking and everything always just seems to Peter out into an expanse of area where I can't find which way the buck went....on a consistent basis anyhow.

I do think Magic hit on something hat I would love to seem a post and more info on, and that is interpreting the sign that is found. What it means or may mean or what t doesn't mean. I have a lot of trouble with this.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Horizontal Hunter]

Scouting/tracking is what separates the serious deer hunters from the rest of the pack.

Basic woodsmanship is becoming a lost art in many ways as hunters become more dependent on electronic gadgetry. I am all for electronics and anything that makes the unit more enjoyable. During the last season I even carry a small backpacking stove.

95% of the hunters talk a great game about how they are going to scout during the off season but never do until the week before the season opens. Then they crab and gripe about how bad the hunting is; and yes I fall into that category some years.

Woodsmanship and scouting it is what separates the average hunter form the big buck hunter that scores consistently.

Bob

[ Post made via iPad ]

[JoeRE]

Great topic Magic.

It took you very little time to decipher what the buck in your example was doing through reading sign - but don't forget how much time it took to learn how to read that sign....years, DECADES, of time looking at sign.

That's what so many newer hunters get hung up on. They search frantically for a shortcut, unable to accept that a hunter has to be a novice for probably 10 or 20 years before you start to feel in control of your destiny out there and are not so intimidated to get outside your comfort zone. I have a news flash for you: for the first decade maybe a lot longer sure you might get lucky a few times but overall you are gonna suck at hunting!!!

Technology does offer some shortcuts to success no doubt about it, but a lot can be lost by shortening the journey at the same time. Depends how you define success too.

Then there are the sleazy snake oil salesmen that prey on hunters, just slowing their attempts to gain any real hunting skills.

Woodsmanship is not quite dead yet but its probably gonna die in the next generation of modern hunters...buried under great piles of "gear"

I love using trail cameras now but I am very glad that the first 10 years as a hunter they didn't exist - then when they did they were too expensive for me to afford for quite a few years. They are a great tool to supplement scouting but absolutely do not replace it.

[mainebowhunter]

Great topic Magic.

It took you very little time to decipher what the buck in your example was doing through reading sign - but don't forget how much time it took to learn how to read that sign....years, DECADES, of time looking at sign.

That's what so many newer hunters get hung up on. They search frantically for a shortcut, unable to accept that a hunter has to be a novice for probably 10 or 20 years before you start to feel in control of your destiny out there and are not so intimidated to get outside your comfort zone. I have a news flash for you: for the first decade maybe a lot longer sure you might get lucky a few times but overall you are gonna suck at hunting!!!

Technology does offer some shortcuts to success no doubt about it, but a lot can be lost by shortening the journey at the same time. Depends how you define success too.

Then there are the sleazy snake oil salesmen that prey on hunters, just slowing their attempts to gain any real hunting skills.

Woodsmanship is not quite dead yet but its probably gonna die in the next generation of modern hunters...buried under great piles of "gear"

I love using trail cameras now but I am very glad that the first 10 years as a hunter they didn't exist - then when they did they were too expensive for me to afford for quite a few years. They are a great tool to supplement scouting but absolutely do not replace it.

Here in the bigger timber, I think it takes 10-15 years just to build up ones knowledge of the ground they are hunting, knowing how the deer move in and out of the pieces, how the deer use the pieces during what times of the year. If your not a rifle tracker, you have to make up the difference off season to learn the same amount of ground. Lots and lots of boot leather thats for sure.

Its totally understandable why tracking / still hunting is such a huge part of the way hunting is done around here.