Do you want to track deer this hunting season? We all know tracking deer requires a great deal of practice and patience.

Learning or even brushing up on the basics of tracking deer can be greatly beneficial to any deer hunter.

This blog post will dig into the basics of tracking deer and will help you prepare for the deer hunting season by providing you with the essential information you need to know about tracking deer.

Understand Deer Behavior And Habits

To be a successful deer hunter you must possess a very good understanding of deer behavior and deer habits, whether it's during the rut or non-rutting season. The best places to find deer is in and around the areas where they feed and bed down.

The more you understand and learn about deer behavior the better the chances you have of successfully tracking a deer during the hunting season. Deer, like all animals, have certain seasonal habits and they generally have structured feed and bedding habits, too. They're often more active during the early morning and late even hours, and during the rutting season which all makes for perfect time to try tracking them.

 


Watch For Deer Sign

Tracking a deer is a skill that takes time and experience to master for many hunters. The difference between successfully tracking a deer and packing out of the deer woods empty-handed depends on how well you, as a hunter, can interpret the deer sign in your hunting area.

To find deer, you need to know the signs that deer leave behind as they pass through an area. Deer tracks in the ground, broken or bent vegetation, and even small traces of deer hair left behind on bushes and trees are just some of the deer sign a hunter should be looking for.

In addition, make sure you don't forget about deer poop when tracking deer and their movement patterns.

Food Sources & Deer Movements

Knowing where the deer are feeding in your hunting area is probably the most helpful of any other signs.

When scouting in late summer you want to look for food sources that have plenty of cover close by for deer to hide in if alerted or scared, drinking water, and a bedding area where the deer can bed down in-between feedings.

You’ll want to keep a close eye out for areas with acorns, or other nut and fruit bearing trees, as these are popular food sources for deer. Other areas of interest include hay fields, corn fields, and clover fields are all popular deer feeding areas.

How Environment & Weather Conditions Impacts Deer

Before you head out for an enjoyable day of deer hunting it’s important to familiarize yourself with the landscape, and local terrain of the land you’ll be deer hunting in, and a good rule of thumb is checking the weather forecast before heading out to the woods.

Whether you’re hunting on public or private land, knowing the lay of the land you are hunting in will greatly increase your deer hunting chances. Be sure to get out of the area you plan to hunt several times before the onset of the hunting season. So, that you can find the best ways to enter and exit your desired hunting area. Make sure map out potential hunting areas and identify prime feeding and bedding locations for the deer, all prior to the deer hunting season start.

Remember These Top 3 Things When Tracking Deer

1. Scout the area: It's important to understand the area you'll be hunting and where the deer travel routes are so that you can plan your hunt accordingly.

2. Study the wind: Smell is a deer’s most powerful sense, so it’s critical to know which direction the wind is blowing on the day of your hunt so that you can plan to be downwind of where the deer will be coming from.

3. Study your hunting area: Scout and then scout your desired hunting area again! Learning as much as you can about your hunting area will save you a great deal of time during the hunting season.

My Final Thoughts On Tracking Deer

To track deer, you need to properly prepare yourself by learning as much as you can to have an increased chance of deer hunting success. Taking the time before the hunting season to scout and learn as much as you can about your selected hunting area and identifying and observing any deer signs that may be in or around your hunting area will greatly increase your odds of bagging a deer.

Using the techniques, we've discussed here will help you to increase your chances of taking down a trophy buck this deer hunting season.

For a related blog about How Big A Deer Is, we have that information too!