Deer Hunting Hacks | Game Changing Tips

Deer seasons are still several weeks away, but it’s never too early to start preparing for a successful season! Deer season is often the highlight of a hunter’s fall or winter months and an event to look forward to. So why not spend the off-season preparing for it and picking up a few tips. Whether you’re an experienced deer hunter or just getting started, deer hunting is never as straight-forward as it seems, which is why we’ve compiled a list of deer hunting hacks from our ambassadors and partners to help you make the most of your hunting season this fall! 

Mike Stroff

Host of Savage Outdoors and The One

When hanging your tree stands, it is critical to not just think about what wind direction to hunt that particular stand on. You also have to consider what your approaches to the stand will be. Most people make the mistake of hanging a great stand and having it set perfect for the right wind, but they never consider their wind direction on their approach to the stand or if the deer could possibly see them going to and from the stand location. It is always good to have two or more ways into a location to allow for wind changes so you can always get into your stand without anything knowing you are there. If you blow the bedding area on your approach you may never know you have done so, and you won't be successful!

Follow Mike on Instagram @savageoutdoors_theone. 

Allie Butler

Scouting is key to harvesting deer or any kind of wild game you pursue. One of the most helpful scouting tools to this day is deer/game cameras. This helps you scout 24/7 with “eyes” in areas like food plots or game trails you do not want to enter and spook game. Also glassing with binoculars or spotting scopes from high ridges or knobs overlooking evening feeding areas are great areas to scout from. Keep in mind the wind direction as well because it can be critical when scouting deer particularly.

Follow Allie on Instagram @alliebutler

Ryan Baudhuin

If you have the means available (the carcass is accessible by vehicle and a skinning rack/winch), do not bother with field dressing your deer. Hanging your big buck upside down by the back tendons makes for easy skinning and caping as well as taking out the guts; they fall right out. This also gives you easy access to the inner loins and facilitates removing all four quarters.

Follow Ryan on Instagram @ryanoffthegrid

Sallie Doty

Know your gear. Do not wait until November to sight in your rifle or evaluate the quality of your optics. Start in the late spring or early summer and practice throughout the summer to make that perfect shot in the fall. 

Follow Sallie on Instagram @sallie_doty

Eastmans’ Hunting Journals

Timing is everything in mule deer hunting. In October try to plan your hunting around the first week and/or the last week. The first week, look for bachelor groups of bucks focused on feed. In the last week, bucks will be staging around does preparing for the rut, not mixed right in but not too far away either. Once November hits and the rut begins, find the does and you'll find bucks.

Follow the Eastmans on Instagram @eastmanshuntingjournals

Mike Robinson

Host of Farming the Wild

The key point for meat hygiene is bleeding and field dressing quickly. A good tip is to pull the Deer onto a downslope or to elevate the hindquarters to let gravity assist the bleed. Put the knife in the notch in the base of the throat and wiggle to cut the key blood vessels. Now unzip the side of the necktie allow the max blood to come out. This, if done within a few minutes of death will hugely improve venison quality!

Follow Mike on Instagram @mikerobinsonchef

Buckmasters

When it comes to scouting for whitetails, good places to start include obvious game trails, pinch points or heavy cover. That said, food and water sources are ultimately the best. Deer always need food and water. The key is determining which food and water sources are appealing at a given time of the season. Place game cameras on the current hot food sources, and on food that becomes more appealing throughout the fall. Patterning hotspots of deer activity will help you pinpoint the best stand locations and keep you on the deer throughout the entire season.

Follow Buckmasters on Instagram @buckmastersnation

Kate Small

During spring and early summer water is plentiful, but by fall water tends to dry up. Finding areas that hold water year-round is a great way to find deer during fall hunting seasons. The deer will congregate to these areas.

Follow Kate Small on Instagram @kate_small_outdoors

Doug Duren

Tip 1: Still Hunting

My favorite way to gun hunt deer is slow walking and scanning the terrain looking for bedded or standing deer. Most folks call this “still hunting”.  Still hunting can require a bigger piece of public or private land, but the right smaller parcel can also be hunted this way. It’s important to use the wind to your advantage, understand the terrain, how the deer use it and move slowly. I stop next to big trees or other anything that hides me and use binoculars to scan the area in front of me. I look for horizontal lines in the vertical world of the woods. Yes, I look at a lot of stumps and downed trees, but some time those stumps have ears or antlers! 

One more thing: Before I go out still hunting in the hilly terrain of the Driftless Area, I’ll look to see where in the pasture our cattle are laying. Then as I plan my walk, I think about areas I’ll be moving through similar to where the cattle lay. On cold days that usually means in the sun and out of the wind. 

Tip 2: Mooching

Mooching combines still hunting and stand hunting. To set up a mooch, we send people out to stands out early where they can stay for a few hours comfortably. Enclosed blinds are great for this. The “moocher” or still hunter, at an agreed upon time, begins his slow walk through the deer habitat knowing where the hunters in the blinds are located, trying to see deer before they see him and doing his best to get a clean shot. As often happens, the deer detect the still hunter before he sees them, but rather than running off with tails flying, they may sneak away slowly. If planned well, some of those deer will move towards the hunters waiting in blinds who have been hidden for a while. The deer move slowly and often provide a good shot. We’ve killed a lot of deer this way on the Duren farm. 

Tip 3: Stay Warm and Stay Out

One of the biggest factors in successfully harvesting a deer is simply putting in the time and staying out there. During gun season where I hunt in Wisconsin, the cold often drives hunters in during the best times of the day. Especially on Opening Weekend, when there are a lot of hunters in the woods, if you can stay out when other hunters retreat from the cold, you’ll increase your chances dramatically. I wear high quality underwear, socks, clothing, boots, gloves, and hats. I often take a small backpack with me to carry warmer clothes with me to the stand so I’m not all sweated up when I get there. My not-so-secret weapon to stay warm? The packaged one-use toe and hand warmers make all the difference for me. I put them in my pants and jacket pockets too. 

If you can stay out there when other hunters are going in, they often move deer and you’ll be there to intercept them!

Follow Doug Duren on Instagram @dougduren

Kyle Green

Host of The Green Way Outdoors

If you hunt long enough, you know that not every shot is perfectly placed. If you feel you have made a gut shot, the best practice is to back out of your hunting area quietly. Try to wait at least 8 hours or overnight before returning, If you jump the animal they will feel pressured and run as far as they can before dying. If the animal isn't pressured after the gun shot, they will typically go less than 150 yards and lay down, and then expire. When searching after the wait time, I recommend you carry the Savage Scout in .308 or .450 Bushmaster. It has iron sights, points quickly, and if you should jump the injured animal you can make a quick shot to finish the job.  

Follow The Green Way Outdoors on Instagram @thegreenwayoutdoors 

Lee & Tiffany Lakosky

Hosts of The Crush with Lee & Tiffany

If you are in a Redneck blind and have marginal wind or the deer are directly down wind of you, spray Wildlife Research Golden Doe or Estrus in the open vents, corners, and window troughs around the holes. Also, open the windows and spray all around the inside of window frames and then shut the window so now, all this scent that you have sprayed is projecting outside. We’ll get deer directly down wind of us and by utilizing this scent control hack, the deer won’t even look at you or know you are there – guaranteed.

Follow Lee and Tiffany on Instagram @thecrushtv

Joshua Sunberg

I’ve been fortunate to hunt all five subspecies of deer. Whitetail, Mule, Colombian Blacktail, Sitka Blacktail, and Coues Deer. My favorite subspecies was Kodiak Alaska, they’re the least studied of the subspecies. If I had any advice for hunters going after Sitka Blacktail on Kodiak Island I’d be prepared to glass through the thick alders ridges and just like any subspecies good glass is an important tool for success in the field. 

Follow Joshua on Instagram @joshuasunberg.

Jacob Landry

If there’s anything that I’ve learned through my years of hunting big bucks, it’s that you have to beat their noses and that’s tough to do so stay out of areas if the wind isn’t correct. Even if it’s to go check cameras or put feed. Stay out if it’s not correct! And of course when it all comes together SQUEEZE off that Accu Trigger slowly! Choot Em!!!

Follow Jacob on Facebook.