Study a deer’s body language

Most people know this buck's body language. He's scent-trailing a doe.

Many years ago a book hit the market. It dealt with human body language. Some said that reading it would allow a man or woman to study the opposite sex's body language, and if everything clicked, good things could happen.

The study of body language is of benefit to certain people, and police are good at reading what a person is thinking when stopped for a traffic violation. Employers study the body language of a person being considered for a position with that firm.

Are they nervous, and is it caused by the interview or does it mean something else? People who refuse to look another in the eye seldom get the job because it's thought they are trying to hide something. A person who chatters often is very insecure.

Knowing how to read a deer's body language can mean increased success.

Body language plays another big role with people. Interviewers often stand while the person being interviewed sits, and this position provides greater leverage and an increased sense of superiority in the interviewer. However, the person being interviewed can figure this out pretty easily, and stand up to gain an equal or better leverage.

Sometimes knowing what the interviewer is trying to do, and beating them to the punch, can be an asset. It also can be detrimental in certain cases.

All of this having been said, it's been my practice for many years to study a deer's body language. Reading a deer can help hunters determine when to draw and shoot, and when to wait for a better chance. The clues are there in how the animall behaves.

A calmly feeding deer is at ease and is not suspicious. A deer that constantly looks around senses danger. A doe that stands with her head up, ears swiveling in all directions while sniffing the air, is on red alert. Young bucks follow the lead of a mature doe, and larger bucks often stay far enough behind the does to stay out of trouble.

Body language is easy to read. A doe moves slowly down a trail, and if she has been shot at or has detected human movement in a ground blind or tree stand, she will stop abruptly. Her and her fawns will lower their head, and snap it up to spot movement. if it is late October, and the rut is about to start, and she stops and checks out her back trail, it usually means a buck is trailing behind.

Little things can mean a lot when watching deer react to different stimuli.

Her body language tells you to sit still, don't move or make a sound. This assumes the hunter is downwind of the deer. If the deer can't smell you, and no noise or movement is heard or seen, it's likely the doe will get over her jitters and continue walking. Any buck will follow behind her. It means remaining silent and motionless.

A look from a buck toward another, a hesitation in a step, ears laid back, neck hairs that stand on end, a lowered head and antlers and a certain swaggering and threatening posture can tell hunters which animal is the boss buck of this crew.

Once the head goes down or turns with a hard gaze, smaller and subordinate bucks duck and move away. I've watched slow-thinking smaller bucks get antler tines stuck in their butt, and I've seen them still cowed, wary and limping 60 days later. Slow, dull-witted bucks often are physically injured by larger bucks, and some yearlings die. They learn quick from dominant bucks if they don't pay attention.

So, you ask, how can knowing a whitetail's body language help put venison in your freezer? It's relatively simple. Let's use the above examples.

A few examples of body language and what it means. There are others.

Once a doe decides there is no danger, and quits doing her head fakes, she moves on because she has detected no danger. The unseen buck that has been trailing her saw no movement, heard no sounds and couldn't smell any danger, so he walks down the deer trail past your stand and a quartering-away shot drops him.

A highly agitated deer will flick its tail back and forth while staring intently at a real or imagined threat. Often this tail movement precedes a sudden departure.

A quartet of whitetail bucks move along, and somewhat like young kids, they bump and jostle each other, act like their big brothers and get into mock antler-pushing contests. Hunters may not be interested in the year-and-a-half-old 4-pointers and 6-pointers, but has his eye on a big 8-point with a rack that extends past his ears.

Big bucks usually take casual interest in small bucks. They are more alert than naive basket racks, but if they pass close enough for a shot, and the buck stops, unless the hunter has made a big mistake, the buck may see another animal of comparable size. In every buck of any size, there exists the need to display their dominance. It is what leads to epic battles than can cause the death of another buck during the rut.

Watch that big buck's ears. If they are up and twisting right and left, he is listening to some distant and unheard sound. However, if his ears go back and the neck hairs rise, it usually means another big buck is nearby.

It now becomes a serious decision time. Shoot the buck within range or wait to see if an even larger buck is in the area. If it is the latter, the larger buck may approach for a closer shot or may turn and head the other way as he shags a doe.

The study of deer behavior is a continuous work in progress. It begins when fawns are little, and a doe never seems to lose their innate fear of everything. Studying that fear, and the cautiousness of a big buck or the easy-going attitude of young bucks, can help hunters find a chink in the armor of whitetail deer.

Know what the body language tells you, and use those weaknesses to your advantage. Sometimes killing a buck is nothing more than reading their body language, which in many cases, will tell hunters what they can expect next from the deer.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

A Hunting Trick Worth Trying

Hunters can do all the preseason scouting they wish. They can have tree stands conveniently placed, and ground blinds in strategic locations, and make every effort to be scent-free while staying downwind from the hunting location.
Still, there are times when bucks just will not cooperate. We can have a nice buck patterned, arrive early because we know the buck is as spooky as a house cat in a dog kennel, and still our best-laid plans can and do go awry.

Bucks can be very unpredictable

Sometimes the bucks won't show up because of something we've done, and there are other occasions when someone else spooks them unwittingly, but the bottom line is that bucks seldom play by our rules.
They play by their own game plan, and until we learn how to crawl inside a buck's head and determine what makes him tick, and do this or that, we must live with the prospects of being foiled again and again by an animal that doesn't show up as we often predict he will. That's another reason why they call this hunting.
Last year I had a nice buck that had been seen using a specific runway through heavy cover. One of the elevated stands was at the far end of the trail and back in thick cover, and my thought was to sit up on him at that location. I eased into the area, climbed up into the stand, and kicked back to relax.
I knew when he moved, and knew where he moved, and he was as regular as a glass of prune juice. Except for that night ...

He took the trail least travelled

He avoided the area like it was the last place on earth he wanted to be. I saw several does and a couple of small bucks, and some fawns, but the big rascal failed to make an appointment. He took a totally different trail out of the beddinh cover.
The next evening, we went through the same procedure, and again he didn't show up. The rut wasn't on yet, but this flaky buck was breaking his habits. I tried a third night, with equally unsuccessful results, and decided to hunt elsewhere.
My new spot produced the sighting of a nice buck, much too far out of range, but that animal captivated my attention for several days before another hunter took him from a different stand. Where to go now?
My decision seemed easy. I planned to go back and try for the other buck. A friend had seen him moving about in that area, and I slipped into the stand noiselessly. The wind was perfect, and again he didn't show up.
My mind usually tells me the buck is bedded down in the immediate area, and has spotted me going to the stand or leaving it. This, I feel, was the answer but how to solve the problem. This could be a test of wills, mine versus his.

A sneaky way in for a hunter

Other stands were hunted for several days, and I finally decided to have a friend drop me off with his truck. My thought was the buck was probably being spooked by me walking in, so why not let the pickup truck do the spooking.
The friend drove me to the stand, and I was up the ladder like a fox squirrel heading for the tree-tops. He puttered around a little bit until I was in the stand and out of sight, and then he slowly drove off down a nearby two-track and the woods settled down to silence.
As the afternoon turned into early evening there were several does, fawns and two or three small bucks moving through. The big buck still hadn't showed up, and I was beginning to think he had moved out of the area and taken up temporary residence elsewhere.
Thirty minutes before sundown, the slanting muted rays of late sunlight were seen glinting off polished white antlers. The deer stood up, moved forward, and stepped into the tiny clearing near the stand. He looked around, especially where the truck had come from and the direction it had gone, and seemed satisfied it was gone.
The animal had been bedded down just 40 yards from the stand. The buck, completely fooled by my arrival by truck, strode confidently out in front of me.
The bow eased back to full draw, and the buck lowered his head to sniff the scent of one of the does, and my arrow slid in behind the shoulder. The buck humped up slightly, kicked his legs back, and ran off.
It was a good hit, I knew, and moments later I walked up to the fallen buck. During the field dressing, I found the heart with a two-blade wound through the center of it. Being hit in the heart often makes deer hump up and kick, and the animals die quickly.
Hunters must recognize that big bucks often bed down near a stand where they can watch hunters come and go. Having another person drop them off, and stay there with the motor running until the hunter is out of sight in the stand, can pay big dividends.
It's a trick I've since used for many years, and this tactic particularly holds true when hunters use bait after snow covers the ground. Bucks and does often bed near the food source, and being dropped off and picked up with a motorized vehicle can work wonders for hunters.
Deer can't count the number of people in a truck or on a four-wheeler. Sometimes it gives hunters an edge and sometimes it doesn't. Nothing works all the time on whitetails, and that is why whitetail deer are such fascinating animals to hunt.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors