Ten Secrets of Hunting Close

EDITOR'S NOTE: Will Primos, the founder and president of Primos Hunting Calls, lives in Jackson, Mississippi. His company, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2001, has produced "The Truth Video Series" since 1986.

Question: Can you give us 10 secrets of hunting close?
Answer: No. 1, the wind has the most importance. Get the wind in your favor. No. 2, don't hunt a stand if you have a wrong or a marginal wind. No. 3, approach your stand site with stealth. Don't make any noise - not any noise walking, not any noise climbing a tree, etc. If you've done your job and hung a stand in the right place, a buck may bed only 100 yards from you, and you don't want to make any noise.

As an example, a couple of years ago, Brad Farris, the guy who heads up our video department, and I hunted in Illinois. To get to our stand, we had to go down a big hill covered with leaves. A week before our hunt, we went in and raked a 2-foot-wide path so we wouldn't make any noise walking down the hill. We killed two bucks out of that stand, which made that stand very effective for us. No. 4, try to use some type of terrain feature wherever you have your stand -- a treetop, a cane thicket, a creek bottom -- something near you so that a deer has to hunt you. No. 5, remember not to hunt deer where they are now. Hunt them where they'll move. If you try to hunt them where they are, you'll end up spooking too many of them. No. 6, plan your calling according to the time of year. Know the language of the deer in October, and as October moves into November and December. No. 7, know the phases of the rut in your area because every part of the country has a different rut.

No. 8, pinpoint the deer's food sources for different times of the year. Many times, people overlook things like dewberry, certain grasses and specific wild clovers. For instance, deer don't normally feed on cocklebur in October. But if water stands on a certain field and provides fresh, green and small cocklebur in October, the deer will feed on it like they will soybeans. They love little, fresh cocklebur. During that time of year, the deer's whole life involves hiding, sleeping, eating and just surviving. So knowing the various food sources important to deer during early season hunting, whether it's acorns, persimmons or honey-locust trees, is important.

No. 9, keep your scent off the ground. When you walk to the stand, don't grab limbs with your hands, don't touch anything, and don't let things hang from your backpack or let your clothes drag. Wear high-top rubber boots when you go to and from your stand. No. 10, if you hunt from a tree stand, try to select a tree that affords you some type of cover -- leaves or limbs -- to help break up your outline.