65 Deer Hunting Tips for Fall 2022

Follow these whitetail hunting tips and tactics and have more success this deer season.

By: Josh Honeycutt

Those who hunt whitetails understand it’s a year-round effort. Even when you aren’t hunting, you’re getting ready for deer season. Regardless of how committed you are though, here are 65 deer hunting tips for fall that you just might benefit from.

Glassing in the fields for Montana Deer Hunting

Timeline: Pre-Season Work

The pre-season is a time for prep work. Getting ready for fall is a great way to improve your odds once the season opens.

• Purchase the correct hunting licenses, permits, tags, stamps, etc.
• Practice with your weapon of choice.
• Complete hunter education courses such as iLearntoHunt or HunterEd.com.
• Scout to find the food sources on a given property. Look for agricultural sources, soft mast, hard mast, browse, etc.
• Become familiar with the land you plan to hunt. Learn how deer use the property.
• If trail cameras are allowed, take pre-season inventory with trail cameras.
• Glass from afar to learn general travel routes and pattern a specific buck for the season opener.

Game cam from Walnut Creek Encounters in Rush Center, KS.

Timeline: All Season 

Some deer hunting tips are seasonal, and work best at one time of the year or another. Others are pertinent all season long. These are those.

• Always wear a safety harness when hunting from elevated positions.
• Ensure your clothes and gear are as scent-free as possible.
• Be very aware of the wind direction. Know how wind flows throughout a property. Wind flows much like water does.
• Recognize the impacts of thermals, and how air columns rise and fall throughout the day.
• Talk to the landowner to learn where they see deer at.
• Scout for sign, including tracks, trails, scat, beds, rubs, scrapes, and more.
• Park in areas where deer can’t see, hear, or smell you.
• Use good entry and exit routes.
• Hunt between bedding areas and food sources.
• Deer are edge animals. Focus on that type of habitat.
• Know where deer bed down, which is generally thick cover that hunters avoid.
• Know what food sources deer shift to as they do so. Agricultural sources, soft mast, hard mast, browse, and other options are good things to watch for.
• Plant food plots in strategic locations to intercept deer as they use travel routes.
• Don’t overlook quality early successional habitat, such as CRP and other native grasses.
• Hang trail cameras to monitor deer movements.
• Check trail cameras frequently enough to benefit your plans, but not so often that you pressure deer.
• Where permitted, use cellular trail cameras with long battery life to reduce pressure.
• Use mock scrapes for trail cameras and hunting purposes.
• Take ethical shots.
• Know your target and what lies beyond it.
• Maximize your range by using the weapon that’s in season.
• Wear blaze orange as directed.
• Follow all hunting regulations.

Timeline: Early Season

The early season is a time when deer aren’t as pressured and are on consistent bed-to-feed patterns. It’s time to benefit from these two factors.

• Hunt from observation stands to determine deer patterns.
• Set up near agricultural food sources.
• Hang stands along field edges, especially inside corners.
• Hunt freshly picked cornfields. 
• Hunt the last remaining green soybeans.
• Key in on soft mast, such as persimmons.
• Try a still hunt.

Deer hunting in North Platte, NE - roaming about the fields at JC Enterprises North Canyon.

Timeline: Pre-Rut

The rut isn’t here yet. Still, testosterone levels are rising, and bucks are starting to move more and farther during daylight hours.

• Forget about the October lull. It isn’t real. Daylight deer movement gradually increases throughout fall, and peaks during the rut.
• Find the best hard mast, such as chestnuts and white oak acorns.
• Try some light calling and rattling.
• Deploy a buck decoy.
• Plant a scrape tree.
• Position a rubbing post.
• Where legal, try using a scent lure, such as some of Tink’s offerings.

Timeline: Rut

The rut is on, and deer are running like crazy. It’s time to pull out all the stops to fill that deer tag.

• Focus on good rut stand locations, such as pinch points, funnels, benches, downwind sides of doe bedding areas, and more.
• Hunt the edges of thick cover where bucks and does tend to go.
• Use your nose. Sometimes, you can smell rutting deer before you see them.
• Get aggressive with your calling and rattling efforts.

Timeline: Late Season

The rut is over. The late season is here. Deer are beaten, bruised, and pressured. It’s time to rethink your strategies and take a different approach.

• Deer have been pressured all season long. Be extra cautious in your approach.
• Safely hang additional cover around your treestands. 
• Find the last remaining food sources.
• Focus on grains and hard mast when it’s cold, and green food sources when it’s warm.
• Focus on south-facing slopes where deer receive the most sunlight.
• Find thermal cover in the form of cedars and other conifers.
• Hunt in overlooked areas that haven’t received as much pressure.
• Use subtle calling efforts, if you call at all. Leave the rattling antlers at home.
• Try tracking a deer in the snow.
• Conduct a (safe) deer drive.

Deer in southeast Kansas spotted at Brackett Ranch in Pittsburg, KS.

Timeline: Post-Season Work

Deer season is over, but there’s much work to be done. Spend time tidying up and prepping for next year.

• Pull all treestands and ground blinds and check them for safety and maintenance.
• Pull all trail cameras. Clean them up and repair (or replace) as needed.
• Conduct post-season scouting on all properties.
• Shed hunt all properties.

Always put safety first. Follow rules and regulations. Tell someone when and where you’ll be hunting. Do everything else necessary to stay within the lines. Have a good attitude. Hunting is just as much a mental game as anything. Stay mentally strong when the season gets difficult.

And remember, if you need hunting land access, you just might find the property of your dreams right here on LandTrust.

A successful deer hunt at Elkhorn River Hunting in Ewing, NE.

As you explore these deer hunting tips for 2022 we hope you might consider to book a hunt on private land. LandTrust offers private hunting land for deer hunting in Kansas, deer hunting in Nebraska, deer hunting and elk hunting in Montana as well as many other options across 38 states. We are looking forward to a busy and exciting fall deer season. 

About the author: Josh Honeycutt has been an outdoor communicator since 2010. Since then, he's been blessed with a full-time career in the outdoors, and has worked for most of the major hunting magazines and websites. Altogether, he's contributed content to more than 80 brands in the outdoor industry. As a hunter, he spends time outdoors doing all things adventure-related, but focuses on conservation, deer, turkey, predator, small game, and even waterfowl hunting. He was also named the 2022 NDA Signpost Communicator of the Year. He has even appeared on numerous hunting podcasts and hunting shows, including Midwest Whitetail and Realtree's Monster Bucks. He is also a certified NDA Deer Steward.

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