10 Immutable Truths of Hunting Whitetail Deer by me :-)

[Stinger-Hunter]

1.  If you hear a deer, it's probably a squirrel.  If you hear a squirrel, it's probably a squirrel.  If you don't hear anything, it's because there is nothing there.  When you're 100% sure there are no deer, you'll notice a deer 20 yards away looking at you… and then runs off while snorting and alerting every animal in a half mile of your presence.

2.  Deer hunters need to "fuel up" by eating two or even three times their normal amount of food before during and after a hunt since sitting on your butt absolutely motionless outside burns a lot of calories.

3.  "Is my safety on?"  [checks safety] "yeah, my safety is on."  Repeat every 2-3 minutes for 10 straight hours.

4.  After exhaustive hours and days of scouting, trimming branches, locating trails, rubs and scrapes, identifying food sources, bedding areas and finding the perfect tree to hang your stand; the deer come in on a different route just out of range.

5.  You've waited all year for opening day and you're so excited that you can't sleep the night before so you stay awake with friends talking, drinking, watching hunting videos and re-enacting prior years failures and successes… when it's finally time to go hunting on opening morning, all you want to do is go to sleep.

6.  You brought out all the gadgets to help bring in a big buck.  You bleated, grunted, rattled, growled, waved your rag soaked in doe-in-heat urine, put out a few more tending calls, rattled a  bit more, turned over your "original can" call, a few more grunts, three fawn bleats and another tending grunt just before you rattle one more time and then wonder why the deer aren't coming in.

7.  You see a deer in your neighborhood while driving to your hunting spot 20 minutes away and then don't see a deer all day.  When you get home your wife says, "I saw a deer in the backyard today… did you get anything?"

8.  You hunt all weekend and finally during the last hour on Sunday, you start thinking about the big hassle it will be if you actually got a deer NOW since you'll spend half the night dressing it, dragging it, hanging it and then cleaning out the truck…after all you have to be at work in the morning and then silently hope a deer doesn't come out cause you need to sleep from all this hunting… and of course a deer doesn't come out because you're being negative and then shooting light ends and you drive home.

9.  When two hunters are hunting the same 100 acre area, but arrive separately; their tree stands will inevitably be within sight of each other.

10.  There are two types of deer hunters, those that put the work in and earn their deer and those that rely on others to put the work in and get lucky.  It's nice to be the second guy once in a while, but real hunters would rather be the first guy.

  Hunt Hard Gentlemen.

[wtnhunt]

Good ones.  

Kinda goes along with a couple of them but dunno how many times the wife or i have hunted on our property behind our house and seen nothing while the other watched deer out the back of the house. 

[Strut10]

Good list !!!

11. You can hunt all day, every day.  But the one time you decide to duck out for a few hours mid-day, a shooter buck will pass within range of your stand.  This will either be proven by trailcam pics or when the buck jumps out of his bed as you come back into your stand.

12. When you use the "maaah" method to stop a buck for a bow shot, he will ALWAYS slam the brakes on with his vitals behind a tree or a vine.

13. When you get to your parking spot and assess the wind to make a stand choice....................the wind at the stand you choose will be blowing a complete different direction.  

[fly]

Agree with most. I'll add one.

When bow hunting the big buck is generally just out of range. When gun hunting and a big buck is taken, inevitably the buck was so close it could have been taken with a bow.

[Rhino]

I can relate to some of Stingers, 2 of Strut10's, and certainly a few times to Franks one addition.

[wtnhunt]

On Friday, December 16, 2016 at 11:23 AM, fly said:

Agree with most. I'll add one.

When bow hunting the big buck is generally just out of range. When gun hunting and a big buck is taken, inevitably the buck was so close it could have been taken with a bow.

Many many times this has happened here.  

[Ultradog]

You think you see something off in the brush so you focus on it for a while.
And while you're focused over there a buck non chalantly walks by your stand from another direction and you get no chance at a shot.
You sit there scanning everything all day and know every rock, stump and clump of grass. But when dusk comes and the shadows are long all those things take on a different aspect and look like deer standing there.
If you hunt in the same stand every year and one time a buck walks out from a particular pine tree and you shoot it you will forever after watch that tree for another one. But none will ever come out again.

[fly]

You're second one is spot on Ultradog. Can't count how many times I've looked at a tree or bush in failing light waiting to see if it walks - thinking it's a deer.