It’s exciting to be walking through your hunting woods and discover a well used deer trail. You’re first thought is “Wow” and you start looking for a place to put your stand. This may be OK if you’re planning on shooting a doe or yearling buck but if your intention is to shoot something bigger then you will need to keep looking.
Larger bucks don’t use the same trails that does and yearling bucks do. That is one of the reasons they are bigger. Sure, they may use the well worn trail occasionally at certain times of year, but the odds are against it during the times of year that we hunt.
Larger bucks do use trails but they are more difficult to find. Start by looking to the sides of the main trail in ever increasing distances. Sometimes it may only be a few yards and at other times it may 50-70 yards or more. In some cases the dominant bucks simply don’t have trails anywhere near the main trails.
What you are looking for is a trail that looks like a single deer passed through.
There won’t be telltale signs of deer movement but the signs are there if you are looking. The trails will always be in or very near areas of thick cover. Once the trail has been found try to figure where the trail comes from and where it is going. If the trail connects a bedding area to a feeding area you may be in luck.
When you are in the woods keep a lookout for these small insignificant trails. Just the knowledge alone that a deer is or was in the area will make sitting in your stand a whole lot more exciting.
2 comments:
this is a great piece of advice for everyone scouting out their favorite hunting spot and looking for mr. big. Just finding these trails can be a big chore at times but if they look hard enough at the terrain their hunting they should be able to find just what their looking for.
Its true, the bigger the buck the more cautious the buck. Never using the same path twice.
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