There are many different reasons your deer tags might go unfilled. But don't let it be one of the following.
If you find yourself holding an unfilled tag at the end of deer season, you must ask yourself “why?” Filling an antlerless tag might not be as difficult, but if the bucks continually elude you, consider if any or all the below factors are serving up a bowl of tag soup. Here are 10 reasons you don’t fill your deer tags.
Use the best gear possible, especially when it comes to stands, as they can make your hunt much safer.
1. You’re Using Subpar Hunting Gear
I admit. I kicked off my whitetail bowhunting career with a garage sale bow and no formal training. Don’t be me. Gear up with the best-quality equipment you can afford. Begin with the basics and expand your inventory from there. For starters, put good money toward your weapon, bow or firearm, optics, treestands (for obvious safety) and clothing to combat the elements.
Research proven items that have been vetted over several years instead of purchasing recent technology that might pass the marketing board checklist, but not Mother Nature’s testing grounds. I once was handed a new rifle hyped as “the best” in backcountry technology. It would not cycle a second cartridge after the first shot. So much for that “best” designation.
Stalking and still-hunting can open hunting opportunities, plus give you insight on what is occurring on your hunting property.
2. You Don’t Scout Efficiently
Sometimes you get too comfortable with a hunting property and your scouting lapses. Get back into the game. Whitetail populations rarely stay stable. They fluctuate, sometimes greatly. Dispersion, disease, winter-kill, predation, hunting pressure, agricultural changeups, and more, all can alter whitetail activity on your property. Schedule a couple preseason visits to manage trail cameras, survey land management changes, or even invest in a food plot. On public property, scout the interior for new stand sites and add map objects to HuntStand as you discover water, trails, old rubs, and scrapes.
Find Staging Areas to Find More Deer
Go the extra mile and separate yourself from the hunting competition.
3. You Don’t Have Backup Plans
Every great plan needs a backup and so does your whitetail hunting strategy. If you manage your own property, backup your main hunting stand with at least three more to take care of different wind directions. Then, back that up with at least four more stands to take advantage of locations bucks might use in the pre-rut, rut, and post-rut. Think acorns, rut hideouts, and winter food sources.
On public lands, mark backup sites in case others beat you to your first choice, but don’t stop there. Scout at least one (if not more) additional public areas. Hunting pressure on public lands continues to grow, so seek out small, overlooked properties like those managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, among others. HuntStand’s Property Info aids in discovering those gems. So, consider a subscription upgrade to HuntStand Pro or Pro Whitetail.
Practice with your bow and firearm in the preseason until you are comfortable with it as an extension of your body.
4. You Aren’t Practicing Enough or Correctly
You practice your golf putting and gather with the team to practice softball. Make sure you practice with your hunting weapons, bow or firearm. Hit the range several times prior to season with your firearm and the ammunition you plan to use during hunting season. After several bench sessions and confirmed zeros, move to a long-range setup, or a pasture where you can safely set targets in real-world hunting environments.
Do the same with your archery gear. Shooting at an indoor range aids in perfecting form, but outdoor shooting benefits in battling climatic conditions, especially wind. Practice in varying weather conditions, at extended range, shooting steep angles and with different shooting positions. Your HuntStand hunting app forecast and HuntZone wind graphic can help you plan your sessions with weather events. More practice equals a higher chance of bringing the trophy home.
How to Read Buck Rubs and Associated Patterns
Use key features from HuntStand Pro Whitetail to better time your hunts. For example, the Nationwide Rut Map is great for researching rut dates for specific counties.
5. You Aren’t Timing Hunts Accurately
Whitetail activity varies in the fall. For those of you with limited hunting time, that requires planning for time off, and so, scheduling is essential. Your ability to take time off might not always match up to the rut, but you can discover significant windows of opportunity throughout the fall.
Consider that early-season bucks pattern well on food. Pre-rut bucks run scrape and rub lines. Even after the randomness of the rut, bucks begin to settle into a steady pattern again. HuntStand’s Pro Whitetail subscription has the answers to your hunt timing. Not only do you receive all maps, layers, features, and toolsets that are included in the Pro subscription, but also, Pro Whitetail includes a 7-day Whitetail Activity Forecast, an Annual Rut Map, Whitetail Habitat layers for the United States, and more.
Too much time in the woods can lead to burnout. Manage that efficiently.
6. You Aren’t Responding Well to Burnout
As both an enthusiastic elk and whitetail hunter, I understand how easy it is to feel burnout during hunting season. Work to keep up the enthusiasm beyond the opening week. In any hunting situation, if I feel overwhelmed, depressed, and ready to hang it up, I take a break. I might skip a morning or evening hunt, take an entire day off, or return to hunt in the late season for a different perspective and opportunity. Even swapping stand locations can provide a new view of your hunting area, a fresh attitude, and possibly a new encounter with deer that changed patterns mid-season. So, change up your hunt if you feel burnout coming on.
Find Public-Land Deer Hotspots on the Fly with HuntStand Pro
Don't follow the crowd. Find your own path.
7. You’re Following the Crowd
This tip has significance with the public-land hunting crowd. Do the opposite of everyone else. Whitetails quickly notice hunting pressure, sometimes even before the opener. GPS research keeps revealing new information and even though it differs from region to region, expect deer to find new hideouts and change behavior. Change your approach accordingly.
If your hunting peers all park at a designated parking lot and access the public property via a main trail, look for a backdoor entrance. If the crowd focuses on publicly planted food plots, hunt the thickest escape cover adjacent to the fields.
Finally, scour your HuntStand app to find steep country, remote corners, and any water sources you could put between you, and the average hunting crowd. Going beyond a mile in most public areas separates you from the 70 percent or more of Americans, especially those who are obese or overweight.
HuntStand’s Pro Whitetail subscription offers a myriad of information to aid you in making sure your tag is filled every season.
8. You Aren’t in Good Enough Shape
To hunt hard and move beyond the normal whitetail hunting crowd, you must be in shape. Visit with your physician and craft a workout program to meet your hunting needs. Being in shape allows you to push farther, hunt longer, and to be capable of packing out a buck from a remote area. One tactic I use routinely—in every hunting situation—is to arrive very early, hike into my hunting areas in the dark, and be in position well before anyone else hits the trail. (Your HuntStand Trace Path feature gives you a lighted way to your hunting destination in the dark.) Being in shape facilitates this strategy of being positioned in advance of morning deer movement. Being in position early also allows you to take advantage of the normal-arriving hunters. As the other hunters depart from designated trailheads, they could move deer your way at shooting light.
How to Shoot Bucks That Circle Downwind
Do not neglect scouting even if you hunt the property all the time. Conditions change and that could change your hunting plan.
9. You Aren’t Adapting to Situations
Stand hunting is by far the most effective method to fill your tag, but sometimes, you need to leave that perch to get in on the action, particularly in the rut. During breeding season, the action could be hot just a short distance from your stand. This occurs throughout the rut, but when the first doe comes into estrus, it is hard to miss as bucks gang together in the chase. If the action is occurring a distance from your stand, leave it and join the playing field.
Bucks immersed in all activities, feeding, rutting, or even escaping hunting pressure, oftentimes place themselves in perfect stalking or still-hunting positions. The best opportunities occur during the rut. Use a buck’s distraction to cloak your stalk and optimize terrain for an invisible approach. Stands are great, but sometimes you must abandon ship for success.
Follow a prepared strategy in the preseason and during your hunt to ensure your tag is filled.
10. You Aren’t Taking the First, Good Shot
When you do finally come face to face with a tag-worthy buck, be prepared to take the first, good shot. This begins with being prepared. Have your bow in hand or next to you on a hanger with an arrow nocked. The same is true of your rifle. Have it loaded and the variable power on the riflescope set to accommodate the likely encounter zone. Hunters who hunt haphazardly often relate tales of putting a riflescope to their eye and the high-power setting creates confusion in finding the target. So, be well-prepared beforehand.
Despite having a rangefinder in hand, range all shooting lanes when you arrive. Finally, when an encounter does happen, take the first ethical, good shot. Mature bucks rarely give you more than a fleeting glimpse. Use the meeting wisely and don’t hope for a better opportunity later. I shot my largest buck to date in an encounter that lasted 15 seconds … if that!
All things considered, there are many other reasons why deer hunters fail to fill deer tags, especially on mature bucks. But these are common ones, and if you can avoid these, odds of success certainly increase this season.
