Here is a little something that I hope will help you out. Seems like deer hunting magazines concentrate their articles about hunting anywhere else but New England, the population of deer elsewhere is why. We are stuck here with about the lowest # of deer per square mile in the country, and you won't see many articles written about deer hunting up here. Its always about agricultural areas, here we have mostly woodland habitat. The biology of the deer is the same in general, but the habitats and thus daily habits of deer up here are different than they are to our south and west.
Pre season deer scouting in whitetail country is an essential part of your hunt. You need to find areas that deer are using as food sources, and areas they are traveling through if you have any hopes of succeeding in your hunt. Finding bedding areas is also important knowledge to have. It is only by pre season scouting-looking around in other words-that you will obtain any of this information. Get out there and start your deer season! It will also help get you in to condition for your hunt.
Deer will eat many kinds of food. If they have corn available, in a nearby field, they will probably be eating a lot of it until it is cut down, but they will also be interested in the mast crop in the forests. This is about scouting the forest, not a corn field, and so I will abandon the cornfield, other than to say that if the corn is still there come opening day, a stand on a trail in or out of the cornfield would not be a bad place to set up, especially early or late in the day. Sometimes deer will bed down right in the corn.
Mast consists of beechnuts, acorns, old apple tree sites, etc. If you find a location of even 1 apple tree, it can be a terrific spot to set up a stand nearby to hunt. Especially if there are still apples dropping on the ground, and the deer will eat apples that are getting soft. Here in New England, feral apple trees, old apple trees around old home sites or pasture land turning back to forest isn’t an uncommon occurrence. White oak will be the acorns of choice, not only for deer but for most inhabitants of the forest. They must taste better, or have more fat content, or both; as in any area that has both white and red oaks the critters will bypass the red oak acorns in favor of the whites. Then later on, if the white oak acorns are all gone, they will then begin to eat the red ones. Red oak leaves have sharp points and terminations on their ends, while the white oak leaves are rounded off and the ends. If you find a white oak grove, or even just a couple of them that are large trees with a lot of acorns on the ground under them, this would be a good spot for a stand. That is, if come opening day, there are still acorns on the ground under them! There may not be in some areas or in some years, as the mast crop varies. Right now where I am, we are experiencing the 2nd of 2 consecutive years of acorn crops like I’ve never seen. There are literally piles of acorns in the forests, often with leftovers from last year still to be seen among them. I was just out this morning and in places stepping was like trying to walk on marbles there are so many acorns. This will make things so that deer won’t have to move far for abundant food, for the 2nd year in a row.
Droppings can tell you some things about the deer in the area. Very generally, small pellet sizes of a half inch or less are from yearlings, spring fawns, smaller sized animals. Slightly bigger pellets, 5/8th or so, are from mature does, or younger bucks of the 2-3 year old age. 3/4ths inch pellets are from bigger bucks, 3-4 year olds, and finally 1 inch sized pellets are from a definite trophy buck. They can be difficult to tell apart from moose pellets, so you should judge by the amount of scat in the pile. The pile left by a trophy buck will be smaller than that left by a moose. You should also note the tapered, “pinched” end of the pellets. If these are absent they scat is likely moose. Moose generally have very rounded, but oblong pellets, while deer are more oblong in nature. It can be tough to tell them apart. During the peak of the actual breeding time of the rut, a sexually excited buck will sometimes leave droppings that are clumped together rather than the classic pellet piles.
Scrapes are made by bucks as territorial markings. Good scrapes will have overhanging branches, where the buck rubs scent on to from glands on his forehead. The scrape he will freshen up, then turn and stand with his back legs in the scrape. He then urinates down his back legs, the urine drips over his tarsal glands and falls in to the scrape. NEVER step in a scrape you find. Try and find a “line” of scrapes, which is a series of them along a trail the buck is using. The scrapes on this trail will sometimes be placed near other scrapes within the same trail, even within sight of nearby scrapes, but can also commonly be 50-150 or more yards apart. There is no magic formula or logic to scrapes, where the buck chooses to place them. Stay away from them, try and make your observations using a pair of binoculars from say, 50 or more feet away. After the wind has been blowing and leaves falling, if it is a hot scrape he will soon be by to clean the leaves out of it. Check any scrapes you find within 24 hours after the wind stops, if they have been freshened up, you have found a hot scrape and setting up a stand nearby is a good bet for your hunt. And yes, sometimes does that are ready for breeding will seek out scrapes, this is good knowledge to have, but it doesn’t really help much in your hunt.
I am told that bucks will tend some of their scrapes year round, but I am not sure of this idea. I do know that some scrapes will be in the same exact spot year after year, even after a buck tending it has been shot. Other bucks in the area will sometimes adopt the scrape as their own once they rule the roost.
There isn’t much to say about deer tracks. We don’t often find (in the forest) a long trail of prints like you would in a cornfield. In general, the larger in diameter the individual hoof, the bigger the deer. Some deer tracks are amazingly big, such as 5 inches long with the dew claw for a trophy buck. In addition, each of the 2 hoof-halves that make 1 track will be an inch or more in diameter. If you see prints like that, they are made by a buck that people like us dream about killing just once.
Finally, a bit about rubs. In general, rubs made on saplings, an inch or so across, are made by smaller deer, while the dominant buck will tend to choose 3 to 6 inch in diameter trees. These are territorial rubs. Usually a larger buck rubbing the velvet off his antlers will use a few saplings to do so, and you will likely see a group of 1 to 2 inch trees all that have been extensively rubbed/damaged. As you gain experience, you will see a lot of rubs made on smaller trees, what will differ from these is the extent of rubbing done, and wether they are single or occur in groups. If you are hunting trophy, dominant bucks, you want to note these rubs, but what you really want to find are those rubs on the larger trees. Sometimes you will see smaller amounts of damage done to a branch, near the trunk of the tree the buck has rubbed, and in looking this over carefully you can sometimes tell that the antlers that did it have a large spread, and/or a tine that is tall off the main beam. Or both!
By the way, don’t confuse “dominant buck” as meaning the biggest deer present in the woods you hunt. It ain’t so. The dominant buck will be the most aggressive deer, often times this can be a buck a size or 2 smaller than the biggest trophy set of antlers within the same woods.
When you are ready, set your stands up. A machete can be a good addition to your scouting time. Choose your stands carefully, and try to have a few of them with the idea of wind direction being the thought you use for the locations of your stands. In other words, have 2 or more stands set up and ready before opening day, for each possible direction the wind will be blowing from. North/northwest is common in the fall, but so is south and east. In fact its not uncommon to have winds shift direction 1 or more times during the same day. Keep this in mind when you choose your stands. The locations you choose will not be places you can hunt every day, as some of them will be impossible when the wind is in the wrong direction. But, I don’t abandon my stand right away if the wind shifts direction, sometimes I sit tight for a while. You should be in some cover so that you are not easily seen, but not so much that you can’t shoot clearly or raise your gun up without breaking twigs off nearby brush. Have this stuff cleared out of your way before opening day. You should also rake the ground clean of leaves and twigs that might give you away. 4 or 5 feet out from a center point isn’t too much, and the earthy odor will help mask your own. Remove what has blown in to this area when you arrive at your stand on hunting days. I carry a compass, and I bring a machete and a small rake when I set up stands or get older ones ready for the season. Sometimes some twine can come in handy too, but use jute/brown, and not white!
Nothing I have said here should be taken as the word of God. I am not the world’s renown expert on deer and trophy bucks, by any stretch. Instead take this as a summary of the knowledge I have, a guide only. I hunt, sometimes I succeed, and I’ve even managed to bag a few decent bucks over the years. But they are not the only game in town, a matriarch 4 year old, 140 pound field dressed doe is every bit as smart and as every bit a trophy as the classic ‘Ol Swampy trophy buck that most people only dream about (there is a good reason to call wizened old bucks “Old Swampy”, and it has everything to do with the best places to find them). Some people don’t believe in killing any does, but I think it has it’s place in deer management plans. Each to their own I guess. It IS possible for there to be too many does in a given area, IMO.
Deer have eyes that are built quite different than our own. General science: they see blues really well, but not red or orange, which is why hunter orange doesn’t have a profound impact of the ability of a deer to see you. To a deer hunter red or orange is a subdued color. What they see almost supernaturally is movement. Our eyes have pinpoint focus, but a deer’s eyes have an entire horizontal plane/band they focus along, and this entire band, narrow in its top to bottom, vertical height, extends out to something around 260 degrees! Note the angle off the skull their eyes are situated at. A deer can move it’s eyeballs almost not at all, and their pinpoint vision can’t compare to our own-thus the way they stare, trying to figure out what you are. I have read that it is thought they have something like 20/40 vision. But they can see motion all along this long, horizontal band of focus they have, and see it really well, as they have evolved this way, and thus you have to keep your movements to an absolute minimum. If you have a deer within your own sight, don’t try to move except when it is looking away from you, or it’s head is behind a tree or other obstacle. Chances are, they will see you if you push your luck.
There are exceptions to every rule, and every conclusion you could make, and thus it is never a good idea to draw too many absolute conclusions from what you read. No deer hunting article should ever be taken other than what it is, an example of 1 person’s experience and understanding of the hunt and the animal. If you are new at deer hunting, it can’t be said enough: you have to be very patient, and you have to be very quiet. If you sit all day long on your stand, but a deer hasn’t been seen, don’t give up, don’t conclude that it must not be a good spot! Don’t conclude you suck at hunting. In the end, you have to be in the same place a deer is at the same time it is, and when your best strategy is to sit quietly and wait, this will usually take longer than 10 hours to happen. This is especially the case here in New England. The entire estimated statewide population of deer in NH is equal more or less, to the total deer kill in individual counties in many mid Atlantic and southern States. For example Virginia last year had about 250,000 deer killed! In places like that hunting a good stand is all about how many deer you will see in any given day, up here its a LOT more sparse, and you MUST be very patient. When a deer finally appears in front of you, keep your absolute cool until after you shoot, don’t let buck fever ruin the conclusion of all your hard work. Good luck to you all!
These 2 rubs, and another just 20 feet away, are the result of a buck getting the velvet off his antlers. It can tell you much about the deer that did them, but its probably not your best bet to set up near. Being out in the open like these are, in the middle of a 2 year old cut, the buck that made these almost certainly was here during the dark and it is unlikely that he would come back during the day. There were no nearby scrapes, another sure bet these are velvet removing rubs.
A partial buck track in hard packed sand. My boot and my 240 pounds made less than half the indent in to the sand. The 38 Special shell casing is 1.15 inch long, and while the individual hoof depression is only partially there, what IS there is a solid inch across. The remaining part of his hoof that has left no imprint certainly would be wider. This print is that of a very nice buck! I would conclude a dressed weight of about 200-220 lbs. If it is the deer I think it is, which I got in my trail cam last year, he is a very weary and smart buck that is almost entirely noctournal in his habits, like many of them become.
Pre season deer scouting in whitetail country is an essential part of your hunt. You need to find areas that deer are using as food sources, and areas they are traveling through if you have any hopes of succeeding in your hunt. Finding bedding areas is also important knowledge to have. It is only by pre season scouting-looking around in other words-that you will obtain any of this information. Get out there and start your deer season! It will also help get you in to condition for your hunt.
Deer will eat many kinds of food. If they have corn available, in a nearby field, they will probably be eating a lot of it until it is cut down, but they will also be interested in the mast crop in the forests. This is about scouting the forest, not a corn field, and so I will abandon the cornfield, other than to say that if the corn is still there come opening day, a stand on a trail in or out of the cornfield would not be a bad place to set up, especially early or late in the day. Sometimes deer will bed down right in the corn.
Mast consists of beechnuts, acorns, old apple tree sites, etc. If you find a location of even 1 apple tree, it can be a terrific spot to set up a stand nearby to hunt. Especially if there are still apples dropping on the ground, and the deer will eat apples that are getting soft. Here in New England, feral apple trees, old apple trees around old home sites or pasture land turning back to forest isn’t an uncommon occurrence. White oak will be the acorns of choice, not only for deer but for most inhabitants of the forest. They must taste better, or have more fat content, or both; as in any area that has both white and red oaks the critters will bypass the red oak acorns in favor of the whites. Then later on, if the white oak acorns are all gone, they will then begin to eat the red ones. Red oak leaves have sharp points and terminations on their ends, while the white oak leaves are rounded off and the ends. If you find a white oak grove, or even just a couple of them that are large trees with a lot of acorns on the ground under them, this would be a good spot for a stand. That is, if come opening day, there are still acorns on the ground under them! There may not be in some areas or in some years, as the mast crop varies. Right now where I am, we are experiencing the 2nd of 2 consecutive years of acorn crops like I’ve never seen. There are literally piles of acorns in the forests, often with leftovers from last year still to be seen among them. I was just out this morning and in places stepping was like trying to walk on marbles there are so many acorns. This will make things so that deer won’t have to move far for abundant food, for the 2nd year in a row.
Droppings can tell you some things about the deer in the area. Very generally, small pellet sizes of a half inch or less are from yearlings, spring fawns, smaller sized animals. Slightly bigger pellets, 5/8th or so, are from mature does, or younger bucks of the 2-3 year old age. 3/4ths inch pellets are from bigger bucks, 3-4 year olds, and finally 1 inch sized pellets are from a definite trophy buck. They can be difficult to tell apart from moose pellets, so you should judge by the amount of scat in the pile. The pile left by a trophy buck will be smaller than that left by a moose. You should also note the tapered, “pinched” end of the pellets. If these are absent they scat is likely moose. Moose generally have very rounded, but oblong pellets, while deer are more oblong in nature. It can be tough to tell them apart. During the peak of the actual breeding time of the rut, a sexually excited buck will sometimes leave droppings that are clumped together rather than the classic pellet piles.
Scrapes are made by bucks as territorial markings. Good scrapes will have overhanging branches, where the buck rubs scent on to from glands on his forehead. The scrape he will freshen up, then turn and stand with his back legs in the scrape. He then urinates down his back legs, the urine drips over his tarsal glands and falls in to the scrape. NEVER step in a scrape you find. Try and find a “line” of scrapes, which is a series of them along a trail the buck is using. The scrapes on this trail will sometimes be placed near other scrapes within the same trail, even within sight of nearby scrapes, but can also commonly be 50-150 or more yards apart. There is no magic formula or logic to scrapes, where the buck chooses to place them. Stay away from them, try and make your observations using a pair of binoculars from say, 50 or more feet away. After the wind has been blowing and leaves falling, if it is a hot scrape he will soon be by to clean the leaves out of it. Check any scrapes you find within 24 hours after the wind stops, if they have been freshened up, you have found a hot scrape and setting up a stand nearby is a good bet for your hunt. And yes, sometimes does that are ready for breeding will seek out scrapes, this is good knowledge to have, but it doesn’t really help much in your hunt.
I am told that bucks will tend some of their scrapes year round, but I am not sure of this idea. I do know that some scrapes will be in the same exact spot year after year, even after a buck tending it has been shot. Other bucks in the area will sometimes adopt the scrape as their own once they rule the roost.
There isn’t much to say about deer tracks. We don’t often find (in the forest) a long trail of prints like you would in a cornfield. In general, the larger in diameter the individual hoof, the bigger the deer. Some deer tracks are amazingly big, such as 5 inches long with the dew claw for a trophy buck. In addition, each of the 2 hoof-halves that make 1 track will be an inch or more in diameter. If you see prints like that, they are made by a buck that people like us dream about killing just once.
Finally, a bit about rubs. In general, rubs made on saplings, an inch or so across, are made by smaller deer, while the dominant buck will tend to choose 3 to 6 inch in diameter trees. These are territorial rubs. Usually a larger buck rubbing the velvet off his antlers will use a few saplings to do so, and you will likely see a group of 1 to 2 inch trees all that have been extensively rubbed/damaged. As you gain experience, you will see a lot of rubs made on smaller trees, what will differ from these is the extent of rubbing done, and wether they are single or occur in groups. If you are hunting trophy, dominant bucks, you want to note these rubs, but what you really want to find are those rubs on the larger trees. Sometimes you will see smaller amounts of damage done to a branch, near the trunk of the tree the buck has rubbed, and in looking this over carefully you can sometimes tell that the antlers that did it have a large spread, and/or a tine that is tall off the main beam. Or both!
By the way, don’t confuse “dominant buck” as meaning the biggest deer present in the woods you hunt. It ain’t so. The dominant buck will be the most aggressive deer, often times this can be a buck a size or 2 smaller than the biggest trophy set of antlers within the same woods.
When you are ready, set your stands up. A machete can be a good addition to your scouting time. Choose your stands carefully, and try to have a few of them with the idea of wind direction being the thought you use for the locations of your stands. In other words, have 2 or more stands set up and ready before opening day, for each possible direction the wind will be blowing from. North/northwest is common in the fall, but so is south and east. In fact its not uncommon to have winds shift direction 1 or more times during the same day. Keep this in mind when you choose your stands. The locations you choose will not be places you can hunt every day, as some of them will be impossible when the wind is in the wrong direction. But, I don’t abandon my stand right away if the wind shifts direction, sometimes I sit tight for a while. You should be in some cover so that you are not easily seen, but not so much that you can’t shoot clearly or raise your gun up without breaking twigs off nearby brush. Have this stuff cleared out of your way before opening day. You should also rake the ground clean of leaves and twigs that might give you away. 4 or 5 feet out from a center point isn’t too much, and the earthy odor will help mask your own. Remove what has blown in to this area when you arrive at your stand on hunting days. I carry a compass, and I bring a machete and a small rake when I set up stands or get older ones ready for the season. Sometimes some twine can come in handy too, but use jute/brown, and not white!
Nothing I have said here should be taken as the word of God. I am not the world’s renown expert on deer and trophy bucks, by any stretch. Instead take this as a summary of the knowledge I have, a guide only. I hunt, sometimes I succeed, and I’ve even managed to bag a few decent bucks over the years. But they are not the only game in town, a matriarch 4 year old, 140 pound field dressed doe is every bit as smart and as every bit a trophy as the classic ‘Ol Swampy trophy buck that most people only dream about (there is a good reason to call wizened old bucks “Old Swampy”, and it has everything to do with the best places to find them). Some people don’t believe in killing any does, but I think it has it’s place in deer management plans. Each to their own I guess. It IS possible for there to be too many does in a given area, IMO.
Deer have eyes that are built quite different than our own. General science: they see blues really well, but not red or orange, which is why hunter orange doesn’t have a profound impact of the ability of a deer to see you. To a deer hunter red or orange is a subdued color. What they see almost supernaturally is movement. Our eyes have pinpoint focus, but a deer’s eyes have an entire horizontal plane/band they focus along, and this entire band, narrow in its top to bottom, vertical height, extends out to something around 260 degrees! Note the angle off the skull their eyes are situated at. A deer can move it’s eyeballs almost not at all, and their pinpoint vision can’t compare to our own-thus the way they stare, trying to figure out what you are. I have read that it is thought they have something like 20/40 vision. But they can see motion all along this long, horizontal band of focus they have, and see it really well, as they have evolved this way, and thus you have to keep your movements to an absolute minimum. If you have a deer within your own sight, don’t try to move except when it is looking away from you, or it’s head is behind a tree or other obstacle. Chances are, they will see you if you push your luck.
There are exceptions to every rule, and every conclusion you could make, and thus it is never a good idea to draw too many absolute conclusions from what you read. No deer hunting article should ever be taken other than what it is, an example of 1 person’s experience and understanding of the hunt and the animal. If you are new at deer hunting, it can’t be said enough: you have to be very patient, and you have to be very quiet. If you sit all day long on your stand, but a deer hasn’t been seen, don’t give up, don’t conclude that it must not be a good spot! Don’t conclude you suck at hunting. In the end, you have to be in the same place a deer is at the same time it is, and when your best strategy is to sit quietly and wait, this will usually take longer than 10 hours to happen. This is especially the case here in New England. The entire estimated statewide population of deer in NH is equal more or less, to the total deer kill in individual counties in many mid Atlantic and southern States. For example Virginia last year had about 250,000 deer killed! In places like that hunting a good stand is all about how many deer you will see in any given day, up here its a LOT more sparse, and you MUST be very patient. When a deer finally appears in front of you, keep your absolute cool until after you shoot, don’t let buck fever ruin the conclusion of all your hard work. Good luck to you all!
These 2 rubs, and another just 20 feet away, are the result of a buck getting the velvet off his antlers. It can tell you much about the deer that did them, but its probably not your best bet to set up near. Being out in the open like these are, in the middle of a 2 year old cut, the buck that made these almost certainly was here during the dark and it is unlikely that he would come back during the day. There were no nearby scrapes, another sure bet these are velvet removing rubs.
A partial buck track in hard packed sand. My boot and my 240 pounds made less than half the indent in to the sand. The 38 Special shell casing is 1.15 inch long, and while the individual hoof depression is only partially there, what IS there is a solid inch across. The remaining part of his hoof that has left no imprint certainly would be wider. This print is that of a very nice buck! I would conclude a dressed weight of about 200-220 lbs. If it is the deer I think it is, which I got in my trail cam last year, he is a very weary and smart buck that is almost entirely noctournal in his habits, like many of them become.
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