Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine

Don't let deer pattern you!

By Tony Seals

When I started hunting whitetails with a bow, close to 20 years ago, I didn’t really have anyone to show me how to do it properly. I grew up hunting mainly small game animals, such as rabbits and squirrels, but had managed to take a couple of deer while hunting with friends during a few of Ohio’s gun seasons. The gun hunting lit a deer hunting flame so intense that I wanted to spend every free minute trying to learn more about whitetails and how to hunt them. Becoming a “bowhunter” with little more than magazine articles to guide me, it didn’t take long to realize that bowhunting for deer was going to be a whole different ball game.

Since those days, I have made every bowhunting mistake in the book at least once and have learned a valuable lesson from each of them. One lesson that came very quickly was the fact that when you are chasing deer around with a stick-and-string, the deer hold most of the cards. Their keen sense of smell, along with excellent sight and hearing made me of little threat to them in the beginning, but what took the longest for me to realize was that deer have excellent memories when it comes to avoiding danger.

My first bowhunting stands were a couple of permanent stands overlooking deer trails that a friend helped me construct out of 2x4’s. I hunted those stands hard for two seasons with no luck. I saw plenty of deer, and spooked more than a few. Most would be heading down the trail towards my stand as if on a string only to veer out of bow range at the last moment, making a wide loop around my position. A few however preferred to torture me by staring at me from a distance for what seemed like an eternity, before alerting the entire whitetail community to my presence through their stomping feet and loud snorts. Those first two seasons I was hoping that it was simply dumb luck that had kept the deer out of my reach and thought that as long as I hunted as much as I could, the odds would eventually fall in my favor and the deer of my dreams would walk into bow range and practically beg me to shoot it.

Now, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when that third season started with familiar results, I new that it was time for a bowhunting makeover. I began questioning (more like pestering) successful bowhunters that I met about the techniques that they used. I soon found out that although they had gotten better with each passing season, my scent control techniques were lax to say the least. I also found that I had a lot to learn about hunting the wind, even though I had always tried to hunt with the wind in my face. But, my biggest piece of information came from a local bowhunter one day while I was hanging out (loitering) at the local sporting goods store. The man was talking to the owner about “patterning” whitetails.

Within seconds, I was hanging on every word as the man spoke of deer movements between bedding and feeding areas, the use of morning and evening trails, and how hunters could capitalize on these once they figured out the deer’s routines. I asked the man if he could help me with my dilemma and he agreed. He began by asking me how many stands I had, what kind, and how I had them positioned on the property that I hunted. Then he wanted to know how I accessed those stands when I hunted. Once he discovered that I only hunted the two permanent stands and used the same routes to access them during each hunt, he looked at me with a smile and said “son those deer are patterning you.” The confused look on my face must have alerted him to the fact that I needed further explanation. “You are hunting those stands so often that every deer in your hunting area knows to steer clear of them” he added. He advised me to throw the deer a curve ball by staying mobile. He suggested that I create several stands and ground blinds or invest in a climbing stand in attempt to keep the deer guessing. He also suggested varying my routes into and out of the property by walking to my stand sites with the wind in my face, so as not to alert the deer to my presence. “Deer can see or hear something out of the ordinary and run off only to return a while later, but if they smell you in a certain area more than once the game is usually over,” he concluded.

Taking the man’s advice on my next hunt, I crept into my hunting area with the wind in my face and made a ground blind high on a knoll within sight of one of my stands. In the past, I had watched several deer pass below the knoll as they skirted my stand. I hoped that the new strategy would catch any passing deer off guard offering me a shot. It was about an hour before dark when I noticed a heavy-horned seven-pointer walking down the trail. In an attempt to avoid the stand, he chose the faint trail that would lead him to within 10 yards of my position on the knoll. My heart began to race as he slowly closed the distance. Finally, as he stopped below me for a moment to scent check the empty stand, I placed my arrow between his spine and shoulder blade, dropping the large bodied buck in his tracks. Words can’t describe the feeling of pride and achievement that filled me as I admired that first archery buck.

Since that day, I have honed my skills considerably and have harvested countless deer with a bow and arrow, but the lessons taught to me by a stranger in a sporting goods store nearly 20 years ago are still the basis for my bowhunting strategies. By staying mobile, paying attention to how you enter and exit your stand sites, and never being afraid to try something new, you will minimize the chance of deer patterning you.

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Tony Seals, of Lexington, Ohio, is a veteran whitetail hunter with much experience in scouting and food plots.
He is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and Outdoor Writers of Ohio. Seals can be reached at whitetailwriter@earthlink.net.