5 reasons why the white-tailed deer is Canada’s favourite big-game animal

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A whitetail hunter’s education never ends

#5  THE LEARNING

Hunting from ground blinds has become my go-to in recent years, but for a long time I was a dedicated still-hunter. I think it was because of my sense of wanderlust, always eager to see what was around the next corner. I loved nothing better than moving stealthily through the forest or along a field edge on a cool, crisp day, the fresh snow dampening my sound. It’s extremely challenging, but when it all comes together, there’s no more rewarding way to tag a mature whitetail.

Mind you, there are many more disappointments than successes when it comes to still-hunting. When I look back at the biggest bucks I’ve almost taken over the years, in fact, I encountered most of them while still-hunting. Invariably, it was a case of them identifying me before I spotted them, almost always within 50 yards. Despite that, I continue to spend a few days still-hunting each season, constantly looking for that twitch of an ear or swish of a tail that will give away a deer before it knows I’m there. And if I’ve learned anything about still-hunting, it’s that no matter how slowly you walk, you need to slow down even more.

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Getting schooled like that also plays into the obsession with whitetails. They are, to some extent, creatures of habit that can be patterned. Learn your hunting area thoroughly, and it won’t take long to identify those patterns, allowing you to plan your hunt accordingly. Still, just when you think you’ve got the deer figured out, they’ll surprise you and show up at times or in places you never expected them to.

Just when you think you’ve got deer figured out, they’ll surprise you

That’s especially true for mature bucks; their unsurpassed survival instincts render them nearly invulnerable. Have you ever noticed how many really good bucks show up on your trail cam once, never to be seen again? That ghostly trait is the very essence of what makes whitetails so compelling, despite their everyman abundance and distribution. Evolution has done these animals proud.

My education as a whitetail hunter will never be over—there’s more I’ve not learned than the cumulative total of all of the lessons I’ve had to date. So this fall, I’ll be back in the whitetail woods, trying hard to put to use everything I know about fooling mature bucks. They’ll be out there, too, undoubtedly trying to decide what new lessons they’re planning to teach this eternal student.

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