Being a favorite meal of jungle predators, deer tend to grow up as sly, elusive, and secretive creatures in order to survive in that competitive food chain.
As a result, it becomes quite difficult to spot and hunt a deer especially when you are hunting in the woods.
You keep waiting for hours for the right moment to take a perfect shot, but without proper tracking knowledge you might end up roaming around being clueless and frustrated!
So, here comes a question, how to find deer in the woods?
Well, this article is going to answer all of your queries regarding this curiosity and provide you a comprehensive idea about the matter.
Keep going!
Deer Tracking Methods in the Woods
There are few effective methods to track deer around your hunting area. If you follow these procedures the right way, chances are high that you will end up finding one for a successful hunt.
#1. Learn How to Use Maps
To find out the bucks in the woods, knowing about the area well is a prior knowledge a hunter must-have. Go through the map of your hunting area thoroughly before you start your search for the group of stags.
Once you have studied the surrounding places, try to find out the funnels and saddles of that area. So, what does a funnel area look like?
Well, funnels are such areas where deer travel through a path that gets pinched and ends up with a narrow ending.
This literally makes the movement of stags limited to a small, confined area. These narrow funnels are usually created by surrounding wooded covers. If you want to track deer for hunting, it would be a great choice to set up your shooting spot.
Similarly, you can also look for saddles that have funnels like small areas through which deer migrate from one place to another.
These saddle areas provide you enough advantage to find out and take a perfect shot towards your target as there will be the least possibility of resistance from their end.
Whether you want to set up your shooting spot and rifle on saddles or funnels, make sure you have reviewed the area map well for the best outcome.
#2. Look for Heavily Wooded Areas
Woods usually provide a great shelter for deer to survive. If you want to hunt some big stags, start looking for some timber areas.
Big bucks are more experienced in terms of hiding themselves and evading their hunters and predators in most cases. You will find them in highly wooded areas but it takes time to spot one.
They keep themselves hidden behind the thick brush and come out only when it’s the safest time of the day. So, you need to be patient enough to wait for the big bucks to come out of their hidden shelter.
As they are quite elusive and less available, only go for such big ones when you can keep patience and don’t want to compromise hunting only small ones.
#3. Seek Secretive Bedding Areas
Other than funnels, saddles, and highly wooded areas, there is also a great chance to find out mature deer in their bedding areas.
Now, where do you look to find out the bedrooms of the bucks? Well, there are certain characteristics of their resting or secretive shelter place, once you know them you can use that knowledge to find out one.
Typically, the bedding areas are full of greenery, near to the border of wet areas. You will most probably see cedar bushes are grown along with pine and hemlocks peeping around.
Deer are also fond of using hardwood ridges as their daybeds, being another potential place to look for them.
However, once you chase a mature buck, it will try to escape to such hideouts except for hardwood ridges.
So, if you can find out their secretive places where they rest and sleep, you have more chances to have a successful hunt.
#4. Fix Your Place and Wait for the Right Moment
So, when you are done researching your map and comparing probable places to hunt, fix a final location to set up your stand or blind. Whether it is near a stream or south-facing slopes, get ready to focus until the right time comes.
Usually, you have more chances before the sunset or the morning period of the day.
Once you see your target arrives for food, rest, or being chased by any other predator or hunter, make sure you are ready with your gun to shoot.
Being patient is the key here, leaving every place after waiting for a while is not going to benefit you much. When you decide a place to wait for your target, be patient and focus consciously.
#5. Look for Deer Signs
While looking for stags, pay attention to the different signs of deer to find out the right place. Don’t ignore any small clues that can take you closer to your desired target.
You may discover some hooves steps of deer as a sign around the place if they have walked through it a little while ago.
Moreover, you can also find the clues from depression on the leaves, jelly bean shape like droppings as well.
The more you get closer to the bedding area of bucks, the more you will see droppings of them. Other than footprints, droppings, you can also notice if there is any tree with rubbing marks.
Deer tend to rub the antlers of their head on trees, especially small ones as a sign of their territorial area.
So, if you see such marks on trees around your place, get ready to encounter your desired bucks for hunting.
#6. Track Down Deer Food
Deer usually take rest and sleep in areas where they eat their food. On average, a deer consumes almost 4-5 pounds of pasture every day.
So, you can easily assume that they will be eating stuff near edible vegetation. Look for places that are filled with wild grasses, dandelions, and acorns, etc.
However, if they have eaten just a while ago and left the place, you can guess it from torn stems, half-eaten fruits like raspberries, apples, etc.
Moreover, you may also discover stropped leaves and broken stalks around the place. When you see such signs of deer food, understand that they are not far away from you.
Once you track down deer food, get ready to encounter some of the big bucks that might help you find out the perfect target.
#7. Setting Up Trail Cameras
A good way to spend your precious time in the woods would be setting up trail cameras so that you can have multiple eyes to locate your target easily.
So, in this way, you can keep an eye on different places at the same time without being physically present over there.
It will help you to track down deer activity around the woods and this is what is pretty much needed for newbie hunters.
The best places where you should set up the trail cameras would be near probable feeding areas and connecting routes between feeding and bedding areas.
However, you shouldn’t set up cameras where you wouldn’t be able to hunt. So, you better place them where it’s quite easier for you to set up your hunting rifle and aim with the best rifle scope.
Rather than roaming around physically here and there, it’s more advantageous to find out your probable targets through this technological help.
#8. Make Deer Sounds
Mimicking the vocals of deer and making battle like sounds are something you can try to attract the deers around you.
Rattling and calling could work like an adrenaline rush for them if things are done the right way, under the right circumstances. For a rattling, you can use an average size antler shed.
However, this is all about making an illusion of a deer following an opposite gender in heat. While making sounds, doe bleats, buck grunts must follow a sequence and should be repeated with a pattern.
To be specific, each time you can continue making the sounds for 10 to 15 seconds before you change to the next one.
The more you can make your bout sound realistic, the more you have chances to encounter a big mature buck for your hunting operation.
However, if you find it difficult to make deer sounds even after practicing, then this strategy might not be helpful enough for you. But, you can learn it with repetitive practice gradually.
#9. Look for Watery Hideouts
When hunters keep chasing deer, they try to hide in places where it’s quite difficult to reach such as watery places. As water helps to eliminate the smell trail, it works like a security measure against jungle predators.
Deer understand the fact that not only wolves but also human hunters won’t be taking the risk to cross watery surfaces.
And, this is where big, mature bucks will be hiding when they feel overexposed by any hunter or predator.
So, if you want to hunt a big buck, try to set up your shooting stuff around such watery hideouts.
#10. Use Doe Decoys
Another tricky way to attract deer to make a successful hunt is to place decoys on your hunting area. It can make the deer feel comfortable to approach as it would probably take it as a realistic-looking doe decoy or buck.
Bucks that are highly charged with testosterone will be easily fooled due to the attraction for the opposite gender.
If you want to apply this technique, then you better place decoys in highly visible places around your hunting area.
Once a deer crosses through the path and notices that decoy, would love to come closer, and thus you will have your chance to make the perfect shot.
However, try to place the decoys crosswind or upwind direction from your shooting position. Because bucks have a tendency to circle almost twenty to thirty yards downwind.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to stake down your decoys firmly on the ground, so that they don’t get toppled down with the wind.
#11. Sail During the Off-Season
To ensure your hunting season investment and time is not wasted, you better scout during the off-season.
Because, the more there will be hunters, the fewer chances you will have to find out your desired target.
If you can’t manage to go in the woods for hunting deer during the off-season, then at least find out any property where you are the only one who is hunting.
Once you find out your own secret hunting area, this increases the possibilities of shooting the right target every time you go for it.
If you can’t avoid sharing your hunting place with some other hunters, then at least try to find a big property or more than one substantial property where the whole area combines almost 500 acres of land.
#12. Keep Quiet and Keep Searching
Wherever you place your shooting elements, you need to make sure that you maintain silence from your end.
As deer have very sharp senses of sound and sight, they can run away all of a sudden just by hearing the noises made by any hunter or predator.
Imagine waiting for hours and then losing a target as soon as it arrives due to your incautiousness! It takes a great level of patience and a good amount of time to spot a deer.
Even if you follow all the mentioned techniques, there will be times when you will have no other choice than to just waiting for the right moment being silent.
Final Words
Hunting is a game of patience and sharp consciousness. And when it comes to finding out a deer for a successful hunt, it’s more complicated and requires a good level of knowledge about the whole thing.
We hope our article, ‘how to find out deer in the woods’ helped you in this case with a comprehensive idea about the matter.
So, get ready to hunt down a big, mature buck in your next hunting trip in the woods with confidence.