Deer Hunting Order of Priority

[Jdw]

I am interested to see which details related to killing a buck you guys think are most significant to be successful.

For me it looks something like this.

1. Locate a buck I am excited about.

2. Find where he is active in daylight.

3. Find out when he is likely to be in the pre scouted location.

4. Find a spot I can get to (without being detected) close to where he is daylight active.

5. Find a good access route to get there.

6. Take as much time as I need to get in and set up quietly.

7. Figure out where the other people on the property are hunting and how they are accessing the area.

8. Put in enough practice time to be able to execute the shot. ( this should probably be higher up the list.)

9. Have my other gear in good working order.

10. Try to get an idea about what the deer are feeding on.

[stash59]

I'd put 7 first. That will aid in finding a shooter in the first place.

[ghoasthunter]

1 locating his beds 2 figuring out how he travels in them 3 figuring entry trails to stand 4 finding his normal travel rout away from bedding and why he's doing it that way 5 practice shooting year round

[tgreeno]

#1 gets the ball rolling!

If you have no mature buck worth hunting in the area, the rest is a mute point.

[alleyyooper]

And it is all almost moot on opening day when the hord go tramping thru the forest and roust your trophy buck and you don't or didn't figure out the escape routes.

For me #1 is to find a chunk of private land to hunt. Then Find out where others on the place hunt and how they get to that area.


Al

[Killtree]

Priority #1 Target acquisition.
#2 Figure out point A.
#3 Entry,exit.

[Jonny]

I'd put 7 first. That will aid in finding a shooter in the first place.

I agree. I can cyber scout the best looking areas, but when you go there and find 3 ladder stands, guess what you won't find there. By knowing when and where everybody else goes, you will find the deer. I say when, because it seems like guys get more gung ho during the rut and gun season and are more willing to go into the wet and nasty than they are when its 85, humid and you need boat anchors to stop the mosquitoes from carrying you away.

Getting to where big bucks can grow old, will help you find the bucks you want. When you are in higher pressure areas, you can eliminate a heck of a lot of woods just by knowing they will get hunted if the walk doesn't involve getting wet.

[Rob loper]

1. Better myself setting up and my equipment
2 learning how to use aireals to figure out where most people are gonna be then confirming on foot
3 looking at spots where people wont go then scout there
Finding mature buck beds and figuring when and why they are using those specific beds
4 Figuring out my entry and exit routes
Setting up quiet
5 getting good film footage
6 when opportunity presents itself. Concentrating on making a good shot and not the bone on its head
7 observe the reaction of the deer and where it goes
8 staying on stand and dont get on trail to early give him time to pass
9 blood trailing
10. When you find him. Relax thank the animal and god for their gift to you bask in the moment think that its here its my turn this is my time and remember all the hard work and time that went into getting to this moment and just sit back observe him his features characteristics and enjoy your accomplishment for you and only you. Then after all that call some poor sap to help you drag this big sucker out of the woods take pics video etc. oh yea dont forget to get stand and sticks out of tree lol.
11. That night at home Go to tbe beast forum and thank dan and all of your beast brothers on teaching you how to get to that moment we all want and bust our hind ends for then tell yourself congrats
This is what i want for 2018

[Jdw]

I'd put 7 first. That will aid in finding a shooter in the first place.

I think you are right on this.

I put finding a buck #1 because it helps me to put in the work, time and effort necessary to do a good job on the rest of the points.

[Sailfish_WC]

1) Get my boy a deer
1a) He has a cousin in MI who has a loser for a dad, the boy is always third fiddle when it comes to deer hunting, subsequently never sees anything decent. I'd like to help him get something in his sights
2) i'll take some public land scraps, as long as its legal and I can eat it

[stash59]

I'd put 7 first. That will aid in finding a shooter in the first place.

I think you are right on this.

I put finding a buck #1 because it helps me to put in the work, time and effort necessary to do a good job on the rest of the points.

It is kinda the whole what came first, the chicken or the egg kinda thing. Sometimes you find a buck first. Like by setting cameras, shining or observations, especially in the late summer.

Other times you don't have an idea a good buck is around until you dig in deep into an overlooked area that others don't go.

[Rich M]

You have to want to shoot the big buck more than anything else and must be willing to give up everything else to achieve this.

[Stanley]

I have said this before. If you take everything else you've learned and throw it out the window. The starting point is the most important thing to being consistently successful. Where the buck spends his daylight hrs. (bed) is the key to the puzzle. It takes along time to really understand this and some never do.

[elk yinzer]

For me it goes something like this:

1) Does the property have what is takes to consistently grow bucks to maturity? Usually I am looking for thick cover, but accessibility, rugged terrain, remoteness, other factors can play in.
2) Scout the property trying to get a good overview, then dive into more detailed areas of interest
3) Find "spots" that largely, are conducive to rut hunting. Not coincidentally this usually means I am hunting in or very near bedding areas.
4) Figure out access, fine tune trees, make adjustments, etc.

This formula has worked pretty well for me. I have never really hunted for a specific buck and bank on the rut to kill deer and I don't really see anything wrong with that. A couple factors play into that: for one, we have a good age structure, so mature bucks aren't the unicorns they are in some areas. Also, low deer density and big woods deer are pretty nomadic, so bedding is a much more broadly applied concept and focusing on the rut is simply a prudent strategy based on the statistics of buck movement.

Now having said all that I have never had much luck early season, so I am trying to apply many concepts I learn here, and that includes going after specific bucks. Results tbd for that, not much to speak of after one season, but certainly playing the long game.

[JoeRE]

I have said this before. If you take everything else you've learned and throw it out the window. The starting point is the most important thing to being consistently successful. Where the buck spends his daylight hrs. (bed) is the key to the puzzle. It takes along time to really understand this and some never do.

I would agree with you Stanley. Hand in hand with that is the fact these areas usually are were other people don't go. Maybe its overlooked or maybe its hard to get to. So figuring out where people don't go, finding target animals and finding their bedding are all lumped together in my mind as #1

Everything after that is usually pretty linear by comparison....find the right spot to set up, hunt it at the right time, make the shot. Sure lots of things can go wrong but its pretty clear what is supposed to happen!

Interesting topic.