By Dave Hurteau

Intercepting deer on natural movement via scouting and careful observation is cool and all. But radical landscape manipulation is where it’s really at these days. As you know, with some farming equipment and a chainsaw, you can readily influence where deer sleep, eat, and drink. But remember that just because you’ve installed bedding areas, food plots, and water hazards, there’s no reason—such as moderation--to stop there.

With some strategic environmental modifications, you can actually steer deer to a stand location that put all the factors—wind, cover, shooting lanes—in your favor. Here are four simple ways to do it:

Block a Trail
When you want deer to use the trail that leads to your stand and not the one that swings downwind or out of range, simply place an obstruction—such as a log, some cut brush, or a tollbooth—that discourages deer from walking on the wrong trail.

By Scott Bestul

It pains me to think of you bumbling around the deer woods with that old light of yours. You know what you need? A new, fancy headlamp to light up your pre-dawn walks to stand, and for those after-dark blood trails. And you can get one, right here, for free.

You know the drill: Write the best caption for this photo, and we’ll have Cabela’s send you an all-new, made-in-America, Alaskan Guide Series headlamp, which comes in two versions--a slimmer model powered by AAA’s, and a beefier, more powerful version with a battery pack (shown). If your caption wins, you can choose which model you want.

Okay, have at it folks.

By Dave Hurteau

This, under normal conditions, would be obvious to everyone. But shooting a deer can cause your adrenal gland to squirt gobs of high-octane, liquid dopiness—or epinephrine—up into your frontal lobe. So instead of staying on a hit deer’s blood trail, way, way too many hunters go bumbling out ahead, muttering things like “I’ll bet he went on this trail” and “He’s probably going to water” and “Are those scuff marks in the leaves up there?”

None of you do this, of course. But you know someone who does. You must, if the fairly shocking number of blood-trail bunglers I’ve run into is any indication. In the understandable excitement and stress of trailing a hit deer, some folks need something very simple to remember. Here’s what I suggest: STAY…ON…THE…BLOOD!

Even when the blood trail seems to end, stay on it. Because when you’re standing over the “last drop” and wondering where the deer went, nine times out of ten the answer lies not somewhere out in front of you, but somewhere near your feet. Look closer. Get on your hands and knees. Be very, very patient. The deer may have taken a hard turn or doubled back a little. Comb the immediate area and take all the time you need to find that next drop. It may lead to another, which may lead to your deer.  

By Scott Bestul

I say it every year, but it bears repeating: If you are not wearing a treestand harness, you’re nuts. Take a look at this picture. The man hanging from the strap is Jim Barta of Hunter’s Safety Systems, makers of one of the original high-quality, hunter-friendly safety harnesses designed to keep you upright if you fall from a tree stand. I shared a camp with Jim on my recent Oklahoma hunt, and during a lull in the action one afternoon, he delivered his popular harness demonstration, wherein he intentionally steps off a tree stand hung 20 feet up. It’s pretty cool. It also gets people’s attention.

Part of Jim’s normal routine is to deliver a portion of his it’s-important-to-wear-a-safety-harness lecture while dangling from the tree. Then he swings himself over to a tree step or ladder stick and climbs back on the stand to finish the speech. But this time, just as he grabbed the stand to help him reach the ladder, the stand—a brand-new model hung by experienced guides—inexplicably collapsed. Now Jim had no platform, just the ladder. Did we help him? No. We took pictures. But this wasn’t Jim’s first rodeo, and he handled it all expertly. After a few more swings, he had his feet safely on the ladder.