

You can add some type of legal attractant such as a mock scrape, small watering hole, mineral lick, no-till food plot, or you can simply spread shelled corn and apples. Now, drop back a safe distance and utilize a hand-saw and rake to create an opening about the size of a large living room. Look for extra-large bedding imprints on the ground and oversized droppings that usually indicate a big buck’s core bedding area. Once you know how deer are entering and exiting these daytime bedding sanctuaries, slide around to the back side of them at their furthest point from the food source and strategically clear out a hunting entry route. The key is to walk the edges of overgrown clear-cuts, densely covered thickets, and the ugliest swamp bottoms you can find that are located near current food sources to pinpoint entry trails. These nine tactics worked for your grandpa, and they will still consistently produce results for you today.

In order to maximize your overall success in the woods, you first need to master the following old-school scouting and patterning techniques. He relied on precise scouting techniques that involved accurately reading sign, understanding whitetail habits, identifying preferred food sources, and adjusting to seasonal pattern and behavioral shifts. Your dear ole granddad sure didn’t need high-tech devices to get it done. The cold hard truth is there’s just no real substitute for old-school wisdom, hard-earned knowledge, and woodsmanship skills when it comes to scouting, patterning, and effectively hunting whitetails. However, at the end of the day, these tools alone will not translate to more meat in the freezer and bucks on the wall. Modern high-tech scouting gear like cellular game cameras, hand-held GPS units, and mobile phone mapping apps have been deer-hunting game changers. Billy Gray has more than 50 years of deer-hunting experience under his belt.
