Nothing is more exciting to the addicted whitetail deer hunter than whitetail deer opening day. We have spent the better part of a year waiting, planning and dreaming about this day. Here are some tried and true whitetail deer hunting tips to help hunters have success on opening day of deer season.
Scout for Success
Pre-season scouting is paramount to consistent success. Simply knowing you are in the right area where big whitetail deer reside tremendously increases your chance of success. We all know hunters who seem to get lucky every season, but most likely they are “lucky” because they consistently and intentionally put themselves in locations that hold very large deer. Setting out a few trail cameras prior to the season and checking the cameras every couple of weeks gives you the information you need to understand what deer inhabit your hunting area. Once you combine these photos with sign in the area you plan on hunting, you can choose where to place your deer stands.
Hang Multiple Stands
Yes, we said that correctly. Hang multiple stands in the area where you plan to hunt and where you know the deer are travelling. Why multiple stands? Having multiple stands allows you to hunt regardless of the direction of the wind. We often have stands as close as 75 yards on a field; one stand will work with a wind out of the west and one will be good for when the wind comes from the north. This kind of setup gives us the option to choose our location based on what the wind cone is on the whitetail deer opening day. We use Scoutlook Weather to give us an idea of the direction of the wind for the locations we are going to hunt. If the weather changes after our morning set, we can quickly relocate to a stand close to the area we know holds big deer without disturbing the woods seriously.
Hunt All Day
Whitetail opening day is filled with pressure from hunters and this pressure will get whitetail deer up and moving around all day. A large part of our success on opening day has been between 10 am and 4 pm. The success we have experienced while other hunters are headed in for lunch is no accident. We plan to be in the woods when we know other hunters are coming out of their stands and possibly disturbing the woods. This kind of pressure from other hunters can work to your advantage. How many times have you bumped a deer after coming out of your stand or walking back to your truck? Multiply that tenfold on opening day to account for the number of hunters in the area on opening day and you may see more deer getting up and moving around while you patiently remain in your stand.
Read the other two Whitetail deer hunting tips here.
By Kevin Paulson – HuntingLife.com