New Deer Hunter Question

Hoggin · Oct 26, 2017

I'm progressing from hog murderer to deer bow hunter. I've never killed anything with my Matthews compound bow (found a deal on eBay) but it's not for lack of trying. I'm learning as I go in my first bow season. So I've got a question re: which morning would be best to hunt this coming weekend Oct. 28-29.

Saturday Oct 28 AM looks nice because we have a cold front moving through Friday night. Temps will from from a high of 80* Friday to a low of 45* Saturday morning with rain all night. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks to be a nice situation because the deer should bed down Friday night in the thunderstorm and as temps drop to the lowest temps since this past winter. So I'm thinking a morning hunt would be nice as the deer should come out cold and hungry when the sun comes up. Winds predicted to be NW 7-10 mph.

Sunday Oct 29 AM looks nice because temps Saturday night will drop to a new low of 37* before the sun comes up. So the deer, having not much fat on them yet, should be chilly and bed down at night even more so than the previous night. They should wake up hungry and looking for the sun on their back to warm them up. Winds predicted to be NW 3-7 mph.

The stand I want to hunt is set up perfectly for a NW wind with a 20-35 yard shot which is my max comfortable shooting distance so far.

I'm new to the finesse of white tail deer hunting, rather than slopping through the mud chasing down hogs. So I'm looking for some advice.
Is my logic wrong for either morning?
Is there something else to consider?
If you could only hunt one of these mornings which would you pick to bag your first deer with a bow?

wcweir3 · Oct 26, 2017

I would pick Sunday as the deer may not move much Saturday because of the rain, that is if you cold only pick one day, but Saturday evening may see some movement.
Just my 2
Wingate

Bigchillin83 · Oct 26, 2017

careful with that bow hunting, once you stick one.... your hooked!!!! In my area the trees are loaded with acorns... they got plenty food, and after a good wind/rain there should be a good bit of acorns on the ground and with how hot it is in south LA. when it gets into the 30's I don't see the deer here bedding up, usually the opposite they love the cool weather so much they move more for me. Not trying to discourage you and I hope you have better luck, but I bow hunted prob 15-20 times before I was ever able to sling an arrow, a combination of hunting deer with a lot of pressure on them many many mistakes made my me that unless you have ever bow hunted getting a MATURE doe or BUCK to come in within 20yrds or so takes a lot, exspecially like I said hunting in a high pressure area they are already almost nocturnal, deff makes for a challenge

Ijaw · Oct 26, 2017

soy bean attracts their attention :beer:

Bigchillin83 · Oct 26, 2017

that's funny how that is, by my house they will let that rot on the ground but now if I put a 50lb sac of rice brand down it will be gone in 2 days..

Ijaw said:
soy bean attracts their attention

Hoggin · Oct 31, 2017

Wasn't able to go Sat AM or Sun AM, but saw a friend at the hardware store Sun AM who said he got a nice 8-point that morning. Grrr! So I went Sun PM and Mon AM and didn't see a thing. Those are probably my 9th and 10th bow trips this season, so I only have 10 more to go until I get something!

I just don't have the skills yet for bow, but am not giving up on it. It's nice time in the woods -- but my knives are still clean and sharp.

Heading to the range tomorrow to make sure my .444 primitive and .444 lever action are sighted in properly. It'll be nice to be 100 yards away and be able to scratch my ass without wondering if I'm scaring the deer away.

shrxfn · Oct 31, 2017

Not so much advice on when to hunt but if you are hunting from a tree stnd then make sure you practice shooting from one at tragets that are in your comfort zone range. Shooting from a tree stand is very different than shooting from the ground. You didn't really state if you had practiced that way.

tallwalker · Oct 31, 2017

Goes without saying, but just in case... if from a tree stand ALWAYS use a safety harness!

Hoggin · Oct 31, 2017

Yup... and bend from the hip to shoot at a downward angle. And picture the entry and, maybe more important, the arrow's exit wound of the downward angle shot. Penetrating both lungs from a downward angle requires a higher aim point than a horizontal shot.

I hear a lot of people state to shoot low because the deer will duck the shot once they hear the string release noise, The noise will travel at about 1100 ft/sec whereas the arrow will travel at roughly 300 ft/sec, so the noise is heard before the shot hits. A standard response to being spooked is to duck. In the YouTube videos I've seen it looks like there is roughly a 6-8 inch duck on the deer that actually ducked. But most of those ducking instances seem to happen when the hunter makes a noise first to get the deer to stop... the deer is alerted by the noise, stops and is on guard, then hears the string release noise and ducks. In most of the videos I've seen where the deer is not alerted by a hunter's noise, they don't duck. And distance matters. The farther the bow shot the greater time the deer has to react and duck. Most of my shots from tree stands are 20-30 yards, so I'm not planning to aim low to predict a duck because I won't alert the deer first with a noise and my distance is relatively close.

But I'm new to this so if I've misunderstood something please let me know.

tallwalker · Oct 31, 2017

Don't over complicate it too much. All that logical thinking and calculated think all goes out the window when the deer is standing there giving you a shot. Just stick him somewhere in the boiler and give yourself a chance to get your heart rate back down before you start figuring what you could have done better. That will come in time!

Blue Diamond · Oct 31, 2017

Hoggin said:
I'm progressing from hog murderer to deer bow hunter. I've never killed anything with my Matthews compound bow (found a deal on eBay) but it's not for lack of trying. I'm learning as I go in my first bow season. So I've got a question re: which morning would be best to hunt this coming weekend Oct. 28-29.

Saturday Oct 28 AM looks nice because we have a cold front moving through Friday night. Temps will from from a high of 80* Friday to a low of 45* Saturday morning with rain all night. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks to be a nice situation because the deer should bed down Friday night in the thunderstorm and as temps drop to the lowest temps since this past winter. So I'm thinking a morning hunt would be nice as the deer should come out cold and hungry when the sun comes up. Winds predicted to be NW 7-10 mph.

Sunday Oct 29 AM looks nice because temps Saturday night will drop to a new low of 37* before the sun comes up. So the deer, having not much fat on them yet, should be chilly and bed down at night even more so than the previous night. They should wake up hungry and looking for the sun on their back to warm them up. Winds predicted to be NW 3-7 mph.

The stand I want to hunt is set up perfectly for a NW wind with a 20-35 yard shot which is my max comfortable shooting distance so far.

I'm new to the finesse of white tail deer hunting, rather than slopping through the mud chasing down hogs. So I'm looking for some advice.
Is my logic wrong for either morning?
Is there something else to consider?
If you could only hunt one of these mornings which would you pick to bag your first deer with a bow?

If u are new to deer hunting on public property give yourself 5+ years to learn how to hunt deer. You just dont decide to go deer hunting and knock out a whopper on your first attempt unless you were born with a silver spoon up your rectum. And to answer your question: Saturday was the day. I was at RedDirt NWR and Saturday was the day. Sunday was poor.

Stonehenge · Nov 1, 2017

You've learned the first lesson of hunting, the best time to be out there is when you aren't. Best way I found to fix that is be out there as much as you possibly can! And don't be afraid of mid-day, I've had most of my best luck at mid-day. I find my deer at least keep a twelve hour schedule, if they move out at 5 am they will be back around 5pm, when the shooting starts they go nocturnal and won't leave their bedding until night, and won't be back until mid day when it's quiet again. Or vice versa. Kind of depends on how active the area is with hunting.

But the answer is to be out there every possible second you can.

New Deer Hunter Question

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