By now, virtually every deer in the nation has felt the presence of hunting pressure, some to the point that they adopt special survival tactics. You too should adapt your strategies; with the vast majority of hunters at home watching football, it’s easier to score.
Darren Warner reveals his formula for hunting pressured whitetails in this Whitetail Journal article.
The setup felt perfect. It was a week before the rut, the wind was in my favor and I was sitting in a stand in what I thought was the perfect spot. A month ago I had placed the stand in a red maple overlooking a funnel that connected thick cover to a newly planted alfalfa field; Can’t miss, I thought to myself. And yet, eight hours later, I had seen 15 deer, but nothing with more than pencil-thin tines on its head.
What was I doing wrong? How many times have you experienced a similar scenario? Despite our best efforts to conceal our presence, whitetails just somehow seem to know we are in their woods. And at the end of the day, all we’re left with is questions about how. Read carefully, because this story will explain how many mature bucks just seem to be able to give us the slip, even though trail camera photos and brief sightings tell us they’re there. Not unlike a soldier who’s spent time in a war zone, deer also learn to sense hunting pressure and adjust their behavior accordingly. This is often the reason why, despite having a killer setup and the wind in your face, you see no mature bucks.
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