Why and how do you hunt deer with a shotgun? This is a beginner’s guide and provides an all-round understanding of the shotgun hunting landscape including different levels of shotgun hunting, types of guns and ammo, slugs vs. buckshot, how to get ready for your first deer hunt with a shotgun and much much more.
How early should you arrive at your deer stand in the morning vs. in the afternoon? The answer is almost never as clear cut as people want it to be. But that is always the reason so many hunters have such limited success. On this episode I talk about several of the factors that impact when deer will be in front of your stand and when you should get there to hunt those deer.
Rain may have little effect on deer movement, or it may have drastic impact. If you can determine how the weather will impact hunting, you can develop a strategy for how and when to hunt whitetails when it’s raining. Can you hunt deer effectively in the rain? The answer is both yes and no, depending on the circumstances.
Deer need to eat, mate, and move, period. They can only sit for so long and do not like to miss meals. So while light to moderate rain may impact their movement briefly, they will eventually shrug it off and begin returning to their normal patterns if it continues for any period of time. Severe weather is another story though.
When the weather turns very bad with heavy rain, thunder, gale force winds, blizzard conditions, they will usually sit and wait it out. This type of weather is rarely sustained for very long and once the weather breaks the deer will be up and moving again, perhaps more so than usual trying to find food to make up for missed meals.
So hunting light to moderate rain can be fruitful, particularly if that weather has continued for a few days and the deer have normalized their routines based on it. But really bad weather is not worth hunting in. EXCEPT for possibly hunting the ending fringe of that weather so you can be in the woods still and ready for when the weather breaks and deer movement ramps up.
The gear that you hunt with and the length of time you spend hunting in the rain are also major factors. If your gear is reasonable, you spend short stints in the woods, and you hunt advantageous times of day or before/after incoming fronts, then you can be very effective hunting whitetails in the rain.
I have had significant success hunting both does and bucks on rainy days. But the story is always the same, even after being in the woods for 12 or more hours, deer move very little during severe weather and are quick to get up when the sky clears.
Oftentimes a hunting blind is both cheaper and more comfortable than quality rain gear and I recommend that option when practical. But you can get away with poor quality rain gear and an umbrella if your plan is to wait for the weather to break in order to take down the umbrella and hunt afterwards.
The biggest issue people tend to have with rain gear is sweating and getting soaked over time because even Gore-Tex does not breathe when one side of it is soaking wet. All of the pores in the fabric become saturated and vapor cannot pass through. So, hunting in the rain for long periods of time with a rainsuit on is not a great idea. This makes using a blind even better because you do not need to worry about getting wet. I tend to keep one or two blinds up all season as options for wet days for this very reason.
The bottom line is if hunting in the rain isn’t fun for you, then don’t do it. If you are not enjoying the hunt, then save it for a day when you can enjoy it. Listen to this entire podcast episode to learn more.
Can you age deer that are walking in front of you while hunting? How do you age deer that are up on the move or down on the ground? On this episode I tackle these questions, but I also address the much larger question of SHOULD YOU try to age deer at all.
Trying to age deer has been picking up speed and gaining momentum as of late. People want to know how old their deer are and use that information to affect their decision to shoot or pass in favor of another opportunity at that deer next year. There are three things that are very wrong with this line of thinking.
First, deer biologists tend to have a less than 20% accuracy rating when it comes to aging deer. If the pros can’t do it well, hunters don’t stand much of a chance. After year two, this becomes very difficult, to the point of it not even being worth trying to get an exact number of years for a deer living or dead.
Second, the age of deer is just one more mostly irrelevant variable that causes hunters to overanalyze a situation, likely causing more missed opportunities due to analysis paralysis. Hunters need to evaluate a very short list of variables before taking a shot, such as, is the deer legal, is it large enough to be worth what it costs to butcher it, is it a deer I would like to shoot, is it close enough and at a feasible angle. Then they need to setup and take a shot before they lose their opportunity.
Third, the idea of getting another shot at the deer in the future is an utter fallacy in all but some fantasy land states and enormous ranches. You must assume the deer will be shot by someone else by the end of the day, and you must be ok with that, knowing you want and can reasonably expect to harvest a deer that is better. If you feel bad when you find out another hunter shot the deer that evening because you hoped to shoot it next year, you are out of touch with reality and are not weighing your opportunities effectively.
So, the bottom line is, there are some ways to judge whether or not a deer is mature and viable for shooting that I discuss in the podcast episode. However, generally speaking, the age of the deer does not matter and should not even be thought about. Instead focus on the more important points and make fast decisive decisions that provide you with the time and confidence to take an action you will be happy about after the fact.
Should you be using a tree saddle? Is it really better than hunting out of a deer stand? On this episode I talk about the pros and cons of tree saddles and address the specific situations where tree saddles are indeed the best option, when they are an equal option, and when they are not the best option.
Tree saddles provide unique flexibility and functionality compared to climbing stands and sometimes hang on stands. They enable people to hunt new locations and single attempt locations easier than any other in-tree option. This is a big benefit to public land hunters and some private land hunters with a lot of acres available. They are both comfortable and light weight, enabling you to cover a lot of distance much easier than with other options.
This has caused tree saddles to gain a lot of popularity and use among celebrity hunters. However, they are not always the best option for hunting in a tree. In fact, usually they are not. Most hunters simply do not hunt like this. Most tree born hunters spend a lot of time scouting, studying how deer use an area, improving the area for deer movement, adding attractions, and picking a very strategic tree that they hope to use for years, maybe even generations to come. Tree saddles do not shine in this situation, in fact they take more work and effort than a long-term dedicated stand.
So, deer hunters with perennial spots and stand locations do not gain anything from tree saddles, generally speaking. The hunters that do benefit are the ones going deep into public land or hard to access private land, those changing spots mid-season, or perhaps just hunting a place once. This is not an insignificant number of hunters, but looking at the big picture, the majority of hunters gain nothing from saddles. But those who do benefit greatly tend to be very vocal and hold some of the loudest microphones in the industry.
So never accept the next hunting fad without evaluating the merits, especially when all the famous people jump quickly on the bandwagon. Yes, saddles are outstanding for some hunters, but for many they are not the best tool for the job. Are they right for you?
Listen to this whole podcast episode to hear about their pros and cons and when they may be a good fit for you and your hunting situation.
How can you start hunting deer from scratch? In this overview episode I take you from wanting to hunt, all the way to how to cook your meat. This is a beginner’s overview of the entire process, but I do point you to all of the in-depth resources you need to be successful!
The first and biggest thing you need to start hunting is a desire to do it. You need to have some level of push to jump in and keep on going until you are successful. Someone else wanting you to hunt isn’t enough. You need to want to do it yourself, at least to some extent. Hopefully that desire will grow the further you get.
Then you need to take your hunters safety course. This will NOT teach you how to hunt whitetail deer or anything else. It will teach you how to be safe in the woods. I recommend doing this live and in person so you can meet people and potentially build relationships and do some networking. This will also help ensure you finish the class, because it can be easy to not finish the online course. After this you need to buy your first hunting license, decide what you are going to hunt first, and get your tags for does or whatever else.
Then comes the expensive part. You need to get a gun, gear, and anything else you will need to hunt deer. I have done lots of podcast episodes on this subject, but in short, I recommend you focus on using whatever you have, can borrow, or buy cheap to get started. You need to hunt a little bit before you are able to determine what kind of gear is a good match for you and your style, and the average weather.
The cheaper you can get started the better it will be financially for you in the long run. Else you may spend a lot of money buying expensive gear that you end up not liking because you didn’t know what you were doing when you bought it.
Then you need to find a place to hunt, either on public or private land, and begin scouting to find a good spot sit and hunt. I recommend you pick out two or three good spots, so you are able to hunt different wind directions, and in case one of the spots has no deer activity come the season, or in case someone else gets there first and takes your spot.
Then you need to be ready to field dress the deer when you do get one and have a plan to butcher and mount the deer if you want to do that. For your first year or couple of years I recommend you find a good butcher to take the deer to. Learning to process your own deer while also learning all these other things can be a lot of work and it’s not something I think you need to pile on your first year.
Check out all my deer hunting podcast episodes to go deeper in all these areas. You can also find more info in this in-depth article I wrote: How To Start Hunting As An Adult.
Can you hunt with slingshots, air rifles, spears, primitive bows, and other alternative weapons? On this episode I dive into the efficacy of unconventional weapons to talk about what is viable, what is reasonable, and why certain things should never be used from an objective point of view.
Slingshots are an entertaining idea when it comes to hunting weapons. They can certainly be powerful enough to kill small game. However, they have limited accuracy and there is often little margin of error when it comes to power. This weapon could be used to hunt small game in a survival situation, but I would not recommend it for hunting even if legal in your area.
The core reason is it provides limited ability to consistently and ethically kill game with minimal suffering. And that is a big deal. There is a reason we developed more advanced weapons. While possible for hunting, the slingshot is not ethical to use on game when better more ethical options are available.
Air rifles or pellet guns provide more efficacy and accuracy for hunting small game. While some of them are underpowered for anything but target practice, there are many air rifles that are capable weapons for hunting squirrels, rabbits and other small animals. These guns are both viable and reasonable for appropriately sized game at short range. They are not viable for mid-sized game with few exceptions.
There are some high end and large air rifles designed for deer hunting and throw a pellet with enough mass, speed, and expansion to kill a deer. If you happen to have one of these and its legal in your area, then it may indeed be viable for hunting. But take no chances, it is not fair to our wildlife to use underpowered or inappropriate weapons that wound them and increase suffering needlessly. Do careful research and do not use novelties that may inflicting unnecessary suffering on animals.
Some people truly and honestly are interested in using spears for hunting deer or smaller game. The reality is, these weapons can be effective for this job, and were effective for hundreds of years. But the other side of the equation is we invented better weaponry to replace spears because they are not effective enough to consistently and reliably kill game while minimizing suffering. Yes they are much more effective than a slingshot, but they should be avoided for all hunting except in a survival situation due to respect for the game, and the desire to get clean fast kills.
There are many other unconventional weapons that people talk about for hunting, such as lances, knives, and yes even ninja stars. I talk about all of these in this podcast episode.
There are many establishments that promise hunters great prospects if they pay to hunt on their “preserve” or ranch, but much of the time hunters are being lured into exotic animal farms made up to sound like natural open hunting land that is protected by something other than tall fences. In this episode I talk about these kinds of situations in depth and answer a lot of questions.
Alot has been said against hunting preserves, and high fence areas, and not all without cause. But on this podcast episode I break down this type of hunting utilizing an objective framework and what I define as the three main elements of fair chase in an attempt to provide an unbiased overview.
Is there something morally wrong about going to preserve or high fence areas? Of course not! But at the same time, is it still considered legitimate hunting? These are the kinds of questions I tackle in this episode.
Some people leave the impression that if the enclosure is large enough then it is very similar to open land hunting, but usually this really couldn’t be further from the truth. Often times the animals are not living in their native habitat, sometimes they are thousands of miles from anywhere they would choose to live and are simply doing the best they can in the space they have, similar in some ways to the zoo.
But even native animals are not able to establish native patterns and tendencies due to space limitations or if nothing less, artificial population density. Most of time these animals do not have 6,000 acres on which to roam. And even then, 6,000 acres only equates to about 6 square miles. Which while it sounds like a lot, is very limiting for certain types of game.
The bottom line is fair chase is voided in these types of scenarios. Which is part of the reason why the game commission usually considers them farms instead of game lands or even private hunting lands. Which is why you often do not need to buy tags to hunt there. It’s not that much different than going to a farmer and paying them to shoot their cattle. If they animals are owned and considered property, it’s not hunting. Even if you sit and wait in a tree for an hour for the deer or elk to wake up and go to get its breakfast.
If you are paying for each antler point or select your deer in advance from a list of named animals, that should be a fairly big clue that this is not legitimate hunting.
Sometimes guides or outfitters will secretly take hunters to these kinds of areas if public land hunts fail. Unless the hunter is very keen and aware, they may not even know they were driven to a preserve on day 5 of their hunt. The guide may well lie or work to distract the hunter from picking out key details to realize where they are.
All of that said, there are still times and places where preserves do have a legitimate function. Listen to the entire podcast episode in order hear all of the details.
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to cold weather hunting, especially subzero hunting. The word alone invokes powerful images of punishing cold and impossibilities. But the truth is, you can hunt lots of game very effectively when it’s cold, from deer to goose. On this episode I get into debunking some of the lies surrounding late season cold.
Hunting below 0 degrees Fahrenheit comes with numerous challenges and obstacles to overcome. Some are technical, some are physical, and some are simply made up. For some reason mystical qualities are applied to cold weather hunting. The simple truth is that there are people in different parts of the world who live, work, and hunt at temperatures below zero for weeks if not months out of the year. Many people see zero as warmer than usual.
But for those who live in warmer climates, this number is seen as some very important threshold and many myths have crept up around it. But the reality is that nothing magical happens at 0 degrees. The animals keep moving, equipment keeps working, and hunting is very possible. But cold weather hunting is more difficult and requires some special strategies for dealing with the cold across all levels.
You need to make sure your gear is fully operational and winterized. You have to be dressed for the cold, and that means more than just wearing super expensive brands. You also need to be sure you are in proper physical condition or take steps to mitigate your shortcomings, so you are not hindered by the difficulties that come with cold weather hunts.
There are some pros to late season artic weather as well. It simplifies hunting some. Where animals go becomes more focused and predictable. There are fewer options on how and where you can hunt. And while it does become harder, some of it becomes simpler as well. Deer patterns change, goose patterns become more predictable, and small game is easier to spot much of the time.
What you wear matters a lot, but it is more about finding the right types of layers than the right brands. Different materials and garments serve different roles and as long as you have those roles covered, you can hunt very effectively even in cold weather, snow, and powerful wind chills.
In this podcast episode I dive into examine five lies about subzero hunting and how you can overcome all of the legitimate challenges to be successful in the woods.
Is it really even worth your time and energy to hunt deer in the late season? The most direct answer I can give is, sometimes. But it depends more on your willingness to learn and adapt than any particular hunting skill. On this episode I talk about the differences of late season hunting and how you need to change your strategy in order to find consistent success. Anyone can do it, if you have the drive to do it right.
The biggest problem with hunting in the late season is people have less drive and motivation to put in the effort needed to hunt successfully. They don’t realize the late season is different than the early season or the rut. They don’t realize the deer behave differently, use the land differently, and move to different locations.
If you want to be successful in the late season you need to scout for the late season, prepare for it, and establish hunting spots for it. You almost need to treat it like a unique game/season altogether. The same spots, tactics, and timing of the early season rarely works here. And the only time you can effectively scout for the late season is during the late season. So very few people have the best hunt they can have at this time of year because do not go to the ends needed to make it work well. But you absolutely can.
People tend to get busier with holidays, family, and work. Also, the excitement of early season and rut hunting wears off, so it becomes doubly hard to muster the motivation to scout and prepare. Weather and gear become an obstacle too. But you can extend the capabilities of your gear with a few tricks and tips I mention in this episode.
The biggest thing hunters must have is the will to hunt this season. If you can muster that, you can be very successful. There also some significant advantages to hunting in the late season as well. In fact, you can accomplish a lot with minimal time hunting, if you put in all the work needed up front.
The single best piece of advice I can give you is to scout the late season on years when you are not hunting it. When you learn how deer use the land one year, they will very likely use it in similar ways the following years. So scouting when your tags are full is a great way to help you prepare for hunting next year. Time invested now can pay off in future seasons.
Listen to this whole podcast episode to hear all the details strategies about late season deer hunting.