What tips/tricks did you maybe learn or remember in '09 ?

[Musky Buck]

njpierz, lol, but true enough if you are eating my uncles 5 alarm chili. One for us ladder stand guys, make sure you reset it. Tree's grow and my one stand was 8 inches from the forest floor, kinda high risk scaling that one, will reset it after muzzy, been a few years apparently. It's still solid, but the connector pieces have leeway and make some noise as they can slide some. I have 4 ladder stands out and rarely use 2 of them so I better reset all of them and secure everything good again. 1 other one check your sling and attachments, a friend last year had the top come off and his scope was toast afterwards not to mention his gun you never know could've fired from that bad jolt.

[Wobbler]

We place colored tape on our trails so we know the distance when a deer comes out to an opening or lane how far the deer is. It is nice to know without thinking blue tape is 100 yards pink is 150 yards, Orange is 50 yards. If that big buck is standing there I know where to hold no matter the distance. Blue means my shot will be 3 inches high so aim a tad low. Pink means hold right on, orange anywhere in the vitals. It takes the guess work out and when I see a buck I am programmed to look at the tape. Works great bow hunting too.

[InTheNorthwoods]

HUNT ALL DAY.

[Musky Buck]

Right on Wobbler. In the north if I were in the north I would sit all day and no you can't go wrong doing that during the rut. Because I hunt in a heavily pressured area meaning almost every 10 acres has a stand or 2 on it, our mid day luck is now a thing of the past. First 10 years saw anytime buck movement, the past 10 years nothing but the first or last hour, but sure enough I've given up on the all day sit unless the weather will change that day. If no one is making drives in the area there is very little chance anymore. Now, other parts of MN are totally different and if I were connected to large tracts of land I'd sit all day. I like how you range your area wobbler. 1 last trick to rookies, be prepared to whistle to a deer you want to shoot at, make sure you are ready to fire when the deer stops. Also, a bucks preoccupied mind he might not stop on the first whistle especially if chasing a doe or moving quickly, but it can make for a standing still shot in quite a few situations, you really need to read the deers language and expect an alert deer to run even when hit in the vitals, go for the neck lets say and it's done. We have always tried to be neck shooters for ease of gutting, butchering, etc. Not worried about lead but it's out of the equation for the most part with a neck shot and it's a clean miss or connect. Now if I have a deer I really don't want to screw up on it's a vitals shot.

[InTheNorthwoods]

Because I hunt in a heavily pressured area meaning almost every 10 acres has a stand or 2 on it, our mid day luck is now a thing of the past. First 10 years saw anytime buck movement, the past 10 years nothing but the first or last hour, but sure enough I've given up on the all day sit unless the weather will change that day. If no one is making drives in the area there is very little chance anymore.

This a perfect reason to stay in stand all day. When all those other hunters get up from their stands to go have lunch midday, they might kick a monster to you inadvertantly. I hunt where there is considerable pressure, and it never fails that there is midday movement, especially this year with the full moon.

[luckey]

Putting up a ladder stand in thick brush is a two edge sword. I saw more deer close but could not shoot at most of them. Bounced an arrow off a huge bucks antlers at 12 yds, and had a nice 10 point at less than 10 yds with no shot. But, I did get the 10 point at 22 yds after he got too interested in my scent wicks.

[Arctic]

I learned that your scent stays on your trail much longer when their is moisture in the air and on the ground. I had a ton of problems with deer busting my trail during October when it was constantly wet and rainy. When November hit and it dried out, I had almost no problems. I will be much more careful getting to my stand when the ground is wet. It was amazing, the deer would be down wind of me and not smell me, but as soon as they crossed my path, they were on high alert, often turning and going back. Even with rubber boots that had never seen the inside of anyting but a rubber tote were giving me trouble.

Trigger, you and I are on the same page. I have come to the conclusion that managing scent is the single most important thing you can do on a deer hunt, especially if you are targeting big bucks.

Another very important thing is to STAY OUT OF YOUR HUNTING AREA for at least a week or two before you hunt it!! This is especially important in the big woods where I hunt. Deer are NOT used to human scent in their territory.

[fr0sty]

If you think you missed a close shot and even got down twice an looked for blood, be sure to look far enough. The doe I shot at about 30 yards didn't show any blood at the shot site or 20 yards or so from there.

I thought for sure I missed a close shot. The deer didn't really start gushing blood until about 40 or so yards. There were a couple small drips I missed on my first two looks. She must have been bleeding internal before it started spraying everywhere. Ended up going about 130 yards or so with a pass through shot in the chest and a broken front shoulder.

[zackthehunter]

bring a lite i shot at a deer when it was geten dark. we looked for blood but could not find some cause we coulnt see anything