It goes without saying that archers need to practice shooting their bow before if they want to bag an animal in the woods. But, what most outdoorsmen don’t know is it isn’t the act of practicing that’s important but when you should start to practice that makes our breaks most hunts.
If your bow season starts in late September, you should be practicing with your bow all year long. Hit the range, tackle a 3D course, or just shoot blocks in the backyard with your buddy. How you practice doesn’t matter, it’s what you learn that matters. The more you practice, the better you’ll be when a buck appears in season.
When a buck peeks out at you from 40 yards away, you need to immediately determine whether you can shoot the deer dead, or make the decision to wait for it to get closer. There’s nothing worse than wounding a deer because you made a bad shot and having to track it or missing it entirely and missing out on meat in the freezer because you weren’t comfortable with your Effective Kill Range (EKR).
Whether your EKR is 10, 25, or 45 yards, you need to know it, be comfortable with it, and more importantly own it. Doing this helps you be confident in the woods when your chance to bag a buck happens.
Start Scouting Pre-SeasonJust like you don’t want to start practicing right before the season starts, you also don’t want to start tracking the whitetail in your hunting area a few days before you plan to hunt. Instead, you should start your scouting well before the season starts. Even if you’ve had the same honey pot for years, you can’t trust that it will produce year after year. The only way to know for sure is to get out there and check it out.
Take time to get to know the whitetails in your hunting area. Hang a trail cam, walk their paths, find where their bedding down, and then choose the location of your tree stand or blind. Once you’re confident, you’ve done all the scouting you need get out of the woods and stay out until opening day.
Plenty of hunters is disappointed on opening day because they’ve been in the woods for days or even weeks before. Whitetail bucks are very intuitive and need a few days to settle down after you’ve left the woods. Disturbing them in the days before the season starts only guarantees that they’ll be on extra alert when you get them in your sights a few days later.
Check out Google Earth
Google Earth has been around for a long time, but few hunters take advantage of its ability to help them choose a sweet spot in the woods. When you zoom in on a location in Google Earth, you can quickly find deer trails. Knowing exactly what’s available will help you narrow down where you need to plant yourself for the season. Choose a Tree Stand Location Near Multiple Deer Paths
It’s impossible to be in more than one spot at a time, so hunters need to pick the best place when hanging tree stands. Any seasoned buck hunter will tell you the perfect place to hang a tree stand is near whitetail deer paths. Scout the area and find the way deer are most likely to take.
If you want to guarantee bucks and does will take a particular path, you can increase your odds by blocking other paths. The best way to do this is to block paths with trees. Make sure you place the trees a few feet off the ground so that deer won’t simply walk over them.
Know you know exactly what you need to do to increase your chances of nailing a whitetail buck this deer season. Being confident, knowing where the deer are traveling, and exactly where you and the bucks need to be for the perfect shot to occur is part of the thrill of the hunt. If you follow all the advice above, when opening day rolls around you should be able to grab your bow and
hunting packand then just hit the woods.About Author:
Brandon Cox is the founder of StayHunting, who is passionate about all things of hunting and fitness. Through his hunting website, he would like to share tips & tricks, finest tech that will excite all of the intricacies of hunting whether you be an amateur or a professional.