Dec 28, 2013 4 min read

Another deer season has come and gone. Success for me came in the form of a small 8-point that made the mistake of stepping in front of me.

After many years of hunting and more than 60 bucks brought home, I have opinions on what breeds success when deer hunting. There is nothing wrong with being opinionated if the person is willing to change his mind when needed.

As I sit watching for that deer of a lifetime, I tend to reflect on past hunts, trophy deer and special hunting partners. I also think of mistakes I have made or seen others make.

A long time ago, I wrote an article for Pennsylvania Game News titled, “Make a Friend for Hunting.” It was about the relationship between hunter and landowner.

Too often, the hunter waits until the last minute before asking permission to hunt. Finding a place to hunt might be the most important part of preseason scouting.

There are also those who never set foot in the thickets or woods until the opening day of deer season. To them, scouting is done from the car. Scrapes and rubs are found by walking and looking – or, these days, trail cameras.

Hunters shower and spray their whole bodies with a substance that masks body odor. Then, they go afield smelling like a turnip, sugar beet or female deer wearing a bikini.

They plunk themselves down at their favorite spot, ignoring the wind direction. After all, with all that odor protection from head to toe, who cares about the wind?

More important than all of those sprays is the wind direction.

The deer’s No. 1 defense is its nose. Overcoming its sense of smell is half the battle. Because of this, you should always check the direction of the wind.

When moving through thick cover or a wood lot, always remember there is no hurry to get to the other end. Slow and careful is the rule when sneaking through cover. Stop and look carefully at every piece of cover. Remember, you seldom see a whole deer posing for you. You just see parts of the deer.

It’s amazing how invisible deer can become. You don’t find deer with your legs. You find them with your eyes. Move slowly and check in all directions, even behind you.

Stumps and tangles can look like deer. That’s why binoculars are an important accessory.

Some hunters sit in an office all day and the only time they are in the woods is during buck season. As the sun moves across the sky, every stump and shadow seems to move. Sitting in an office all day hardly trains your eyes to find an animal in a thicket.

Only time outdoors can train the eyes to identify a buck standing behind a stand of underbrush. Deer hunting requires patience and good vision.

Taking things a bit farther, all too often a buck is found, but when the time to shoot arrives, the hunter simply misses. The gun wobbles to the right and then the left. As it wobbles past the deer, the trigger is pulled and the deer departs the scene.

This is the first time the hunter has touched his rifle since last year. A little practice would have helped.

A baseball player practices before the season and between games. Why wouldn’t a hunter practice with his rifle?

The ability to shoot – or lack thereof – is a big reason for failure. It’s also a problem that can easily be corrected simply by practicing.

I once hunted in West Virginia with a fellow who was using a Ruger mini-14. By the time the first day was over, he had shot seven times at a couple of bucks. As he found out that day as he went home without a deer, there is more space around them than there is on them. It’s easy to miss.

• There will be a gun show at the Washington County Fairground Jan. 4 and 5. While it is nice to look at all of the firearms for sale, gun shows are social events enjoyed by people with like interests.

Need a new stock or an unusual clip? Look at the gun show.

Or, if you just want to talk about guns, go to the gun show.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.