Hunting for the first year:what to look for.

[youngbowyer]

I'm all ready for the hunting season. I'll be going for my course October 16th and I turn 14 a week after that so i'll be able to hunt alone. I've got everything i need and lots of practice under my belt. I do have some private property that I can hunt on. I'm planning on hunting a 60,000 acre WMA After gun season closes. What areas should I be looking for. The area has a swamp, runs alongs a river, and has some open field; ill be hunting from the ground and maybe in a blind. I have heard that there is a big 700lbs bear in there as well so I might get a bear tag just in case.

[Ifrit617]

"I turn 14 a week after that so i'll be able to hunt alone."

 
Can't give ya any tips about the hunting aspect, cause I'm a major novice too, bu if your going hunting where there is a 700 pound bear, I definitly wouldn't hunt alone. Good lucks on your hunts.

Jon

[youngbowyer]

Probably will hunt with a my buddy and his dad. Bear has only been spotted in the swamp so i'll stay well clear of that. Mostly hunt that area alone for small game and pheasants, just want to know a few pointer for deer.

[jeffhalfrack]

     Well  if  you  take  hunting like you take  bow building,,,,,you'll  do  just fine!!!!  but  after  gun season I'm guessing the  deer  are  pressured?  and will  be  nocturnal,,try  to  find  where  they bed  during the  day  they'll need food and  water,,,,the  key  is  to  find out the  tween time  activity's   my  guess  is to  study the  so lunar tables to see  when  they  move?  and  be  some where in the  path,,,and  stink free!!! I know it's  not  a  good answer  but  I'll  promise you  this,,,,,,magical   things  happen in the  first  year  or  so.   I  remember my  first  year,,,I  could put  all  my  arrows  in to  a 1 pound coffee can lid at  25 yards,,,,,and an  8 point  comes  11 feet  from  me,,,,,,and  I  shoot  4  feet  over  his  shoulder,,,,!   good  luck,,I  know  you'll  do  great!  Jeffw

[youngbowyer]

gun season ends in november and i will be hunting there during the winter bow season in january so it should be pretty calm and the deer will be moving hopefully.

[hawkbow]

late season (January) deer are pretty easy to pattern... they should be moving from bedding areas to feed and water .... i have done really well hunting late season whitetails by learning their behavior during that time of year and ambushing them along their trails. good luck young brother of the bow .. aim small miss small. Hawk
 

[soy]

I agree, in the late season hunt by the food! Good luck youngbowyer.and it never hurts to have an extra tag in your pocket (bear or otherwise) it is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it

[youngbowyer]

On the private property that ill be hunting there's a river. In the late season it freezes over but one of the big deep pools doesnt. There a big cedar tree where i could set up a stand. Would that be a good spot?

[tattoo dave]

Youngbowyer, On hunts when the sun is up, I like to enter the woods with a turkey call in my mouth. Any noise you make entering the woods will simply sound like turkeys. Read up on turkey calling though, cause you can easily sound of the alarm call turkeys make when they spot danger. that will just send deer running, watched that happen a few times. I've also walked up on a lot of bedded deer using the calls. Good luck Friend!!

Tattoo Dave

[crooketarrow]

   Find the food you'll find the doe's where theres doe's bucks are close by. ALL DEER LIVE BY THERE STOMACHS After you find the food use the wind to get to it when your walking in as well as when your there and even when you leave. So you can come back and your deer never know your there.
 DEER THAT DON'T KNOW THERE BEING HUNTER ARE FAR EASER TO KILL. The less pressure the more you can see the deer.
  THESE 2 THINGS WILL KILL YOU ANY DEER ANYWHERE.

[GregB]

If you're using a selfbow, and I assume you are, you have to get close! You've already heard about getting between the bedding and feeding area's, and that is true. Learn the terrain in the area you plan to hunt. Look for what I call "bottle-necks", which is anything that forces the deers travel  to be funneled into a narrow spot like the neck of an hour glass. It could be a steep sided deep ditch that spans the width of a ridge side. There may be only a couple of places where the deer are crossing that ditch...travel it's length and find those places. It could be where woods narrow, or a bluff that forces the deer high or low to get around it. Could be a large downed tree forcing the deer to go around, anything that force the deer to travel in a narrow area. Bodies of water can come into play in forcing travel corridors. These all involve a deer traveling typically to a food source.

Also look for the food source itself as a potential hunting spot. Individual oak trees that are dropping and look like a hog lot underneath due to the feeding sign are a hot spot if the sign is fresh. Deer may pass by one oak dropping to go to another one that for some reason tastes better to them at that time. Food plots or crop fields are a good source while they last, but are difficult to hunt over sometimes. May sit and watch deer all afternoon and they be out of bow range. I typically back off those spots and try and determine the deer's approach routes to them instead and set up there. I typically hunt from elevated tree stands. Blinds can be substituted but have to be even more careful of scent and movement. Hunting techniques vary in different parts of the country. Tree stand hunting is well suited in a dry woods in the south for hunting white-tailed deer.

[hillbilly61]

Allot of good things have been said and all should be heeded. The one thing that I haven'tseen written about is Patience. Patience. Patience and More Patience. If you practice all the above, use your skills, study your area and use Patience everything will fall into place. Also a good Topographical map would help to study the terrain It will help find funnels, ridges, saddles and allot more that will narrow down the possibilities and save some leg work too

[johnston]

These folks know what they are talking about and I can only add one thing...have fun. Hunting is a lifetime activity that comes close to a spiritual experience. Every time you do it. It is an awakening.

Killing and eating animals aint bad either.

Lane

[Stringman]

Most important trick for deer hunting... Hunt where the deer are!

Sounds like you're on the right path. Don't forget to give God thanks for it all.

[youngbowyer]

well im taking my hunter ed course tomorrow. Need to take a written test and shoot 3 out of 5 into a paper plate or a 3-d deer. I am using my recurve bow for the test though. But i just finished a hickory bow which i am quite accurate with and that will most likely be my hunting bow along with my osage bow. Wish me luck!