Im 55, been hunting since I was 12 and I have learned more from you guys and Dan Infalt over past 3-4 seasons seasons than any other shows I have ever watched or books read on hunting strategy and deer behavior. Thanks fella's. P.S Finallly sitting in a saddle this coming season. I AM REVVED UP.

I have a pretty wild story over “spooking” a big buck. Last year I lost permission on a property I’ve hunted for over 12 years (leased out) I was upset but was determined to get a buck on public land. Had a few bucks within bow range but it was always to thick or didn’t present a shot I was comfortable taking. I had heard some boys from Michigan had been seeing 3 nice bucks on 20 acres of public land. One of the bucks was a real nice 10 that one of them gave a graze wound on the back. After they went back north I planned to hunt a deep creek bottom in hopes they had them pushed into the thick timber. In the last hour of the last day I had that 10 point 10 yards from me and I botched the shot. I hit the limb of my diy blind and the arrow hit Him in the brisket. I checked my arrow and found a lot of fat on it. I was devastated that I wounded a deer. At this point im standing there bow in one hand and the arrow in another beating myself up for not being more aware and then here comes a tall rack over the brush. The buck was heading right back my way. I dropped to one knee and let out a snort wheeze after I thought he seen me. He bristled up and started walking to the down wind side of me. He stepped out in a small clearing at 21 yards and by the time he realized I wasn’t a deer I had already let another fly. That time it was a perfect hit and he piled up 80 yards away. I was in disbelief. The family and friends heard this story a lot that month lol. I’m still just as stunned how the hunt went as I was that night.

I agree with if you spook a big deer it isn't always over! Year's back I hunted a farm backed by woods. On Halloween my boys asked if they could skip hunting to go to a Halloween party instead. I said sure , but I'm gonna still go. They didn't want me to go without them, but wanted to see their friends so try as they did to talk me into staying home with the ..dad it's to late to go! Who is gonna help if you get one. Lol I said go have fun and if I only get a hour in my stand it's worth it to me! I did arrive a little late with my ladder sticks and bow headed back into the woods. As I got close to my stand a big deer took off about 12 yards from me ! I was not very happy and headed to my tree. My ladder straps were tangled up from taking them out at night and to say the least I wasn't very quite putting my sticks up that evening. As I was getting settled in I noticed being in a hurry I forgot my rattle horns, my flash lights, my water! Again I scolded myself a bit and thought to just take a arrow and try circling it between my quiver and the 2 arrows in it. I did this 3 times with 2 minutes in-between each so called rattles. Carbon arrows don't rattle very loud! Then I knocked my arrow and pulled my mask over my face and waited. In about 5 minutes I hear and see a deer at 11 o'clock headed my way! It was the same direction the deer I spooked ran! I was in mature hardwood so I could see about 75 yards out. This deer was headed straight at my stand! I could see it was a buck and to me it looked like a 6 pt from the distance. I stood up and got myself ready as it continued my way. The closer it came I then rethought it may be a 8 pt? It was around 6:15 pm and still light , but getting hazy. It was still coming straight at my stand and about 35 yards away quartering at me! The wrong way!! I thought if it passes the next tree I will pull back and take a high left shoulder shot almost straight down to hit the important parts! It continued and I did exactly this! I could see my arrow vanes and about 3 inches of my arrow sticking from the shoulder! The deer jumped and spun back the way it came and did another two leaps and the walked back! I knew it was hurt! It went right back to where it came from disappearing into the trees! I was so excited and seeing it was getting darker that I quietly lowered my bow and climbed down slowly. I went over to where I hit it and saw one small drop of blood! I stood by my tree for about 15 minutes and heard nothing! I decided to go back to my truck 15 minutes away to get my flashlights I forgot. I made it back in the dark at 7:20 pm. I searched the grounds for a hour and found nothing but the one drop of blood. I knew where the deer was headed turned into a cut down farm field about 1000 ft from my stand. Not finding my arrow or anything I decided to walk to the corner of that farm field and my woodline I was in and walk down about 600ft or so and cut back into the woods I shot him in. It was pitch dark and when I figured I was far enough down my plan was to walk into the woods 10 yards and cut back and forth combing that whole section hoping to find a trace of my deer! Cutting back into the woods it was super thick as edges usually are! My bow was getting hung up and vines and branches as I tried getting back into the woods to start my mission griding it off. I thought heading down 600 ft or so was far enough to start looking just guessing where to enter. As I got in about 10 yards in this thick mess I tripped and thorns about 3 inches long racked my left arm making 5 evenly spaced cuts bleeding off my arm! I'm face down on the ground and my hat with light flew off my head. My bow was under me. I dropped my other light and now I'm bleeding and it hurt! Angerly I gathered up my hat and lights and bow and stood up pissed off! I was swearing mad! I turned to cuss out the log I tripped over and my light hits what I assumed was a log!!!! My deer!!🤪😁 I had randomly picked this spot to head in and it was exactly where my deer was laying! I shinned my light towards the head and my eyes about popped out of my head!" I started counting 123456689101112!! I completely forgot about my arm bleeding and looked up saying thank you lord for the extra points and sending me right to my deer in the dark! A 12 pt with a one down turn the main beams were more like a moose as it was as wide as my hand! It had 9 inch brow tines that were spaded flat not pointed. One is a double brow ! It was some completely cool antlers with crazy character. Then I back tracked it to see where it went after I shot it. 5ft from where I found it was a massive blood spot. Then 10 more yards another massive one! There was nothing else. I found the lower half of my arrow coming out of the deer and the broadhead was stuck into the back leg hinge! I never found the top of my arrow even looking in the daytime later as I attempted dragging the deer backwards in the field 3 feet at a time! It was well over 200 + lbs! I got it into some tall grass in the woods and I left it to grab my knife. Coming back in dark I couldn't find it again! I know crazy! I marched for over 35 minutes until finally I found it again and said screw it I'll just keep dragging it to my truck. I got to the truck at 11:30pm! I shot it around 6:30ish! I was beat. I lost my face mask that I never found along with the top of my arrow??? I then tried getting the deer in my truck bed! It was so heavy I could only seem to get the head up on the tailgate and a front leg and it was just to heavy even after dressing it out! I sat there puffing and sweating by myself at the back of the truck tring to figure out how I'm getting it up into the bed! I'm pretty strong and that deer was just heavy! After resting I got the head and horns back up on the tailgate again .. for the 7th time!!! I grabbed a back leg and rolled myself over the deer so I'm in the truck bed now hanging on to this pig for my life!!! I said you are getting in this dam truck hell or high water deer! After 10 minutes of pure hell I was able to pull it in! I was so beat it wasn't funny. I sat on my deer panting for air for 15 minutes. Then I headed out to a party store and grabbed one large bottle of Hienikin beer and drove home parking in my garage. I closed it climbed back up into the bed with my trophy takibg a few pictures and cracked that beer celebrating by myself at 12:30am LOL. 😂 My boys did a sleep over and called me in the morning ...12 noon👈 😂.. to ask how my hunt went! I said I will send you pictures! The boys got quiet and said.. DAD! NO WAY! YOU DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME! HOW?? 😂😅 They came right home and were so mad they hadn't went with me. I told my oldest son this deer went past his stand first! That didn't help him out at all! That's my crazy deer story for you. Yes you can get second chances on deer sometimes! I know it was the one I kicked up I'd bet on it! Greg Michigan 😎 🤙

Aiming low cannot be over emphasized. If you divide your arrow fps by 12, that will give you a maximum distance in yards to hit a deer reacting type animal before it can react SIGNIFICANTLY and take the arrow impact out of the kill zone. Aiming at the bottom of the kill zone, a recurve at 160 fps gives you 13 yards. A compound at 260 fps is 21 yards. A crossbow at 360 fps yields 30 yards. This math is based on a deer's mental and physical reaction time before arrow impact at 1/4 of a second. Some deer don't react at all, but my experience, most do.

Greg's tip on where to aim is spot on, It took me years to learn to aim low as well. Good point.

Thanks guys I really appreciate you helping use out with the hundreds of tips every season. It's helped me become a better hunter especially on public and I bagged my personal best last year following your tips

Id love to see you guys do more small game hunting. Rabbit hunting is my favorite and it's rare to see good quality videos

Outstanding video! Best deer hunt video I've seen in a long time. Nice job!

bedding areas are different with every area and type of terrain. i'm up in BC, Canada. i find deer bed on knolls and ridges, wanting high ground for vantage points. something i always pay attention to, is the routes deer take, when jumped. they don't necessarily just run 'away' from what spooked them, but they take a route to their safety area. their woods are their house, they know it like we know ours. they know where to go to give themselves the upper hand. so i always pay attention to 'where' they flee to.

Man I love this tip with the Milkweed. I play the wind a lot and I knew sometimes the wind wasnt blowing the way my phone said it was. Thanks for the tip from NW Missouri!

Looking forward to this season! Going to buy the thp adapt tomorrow 🤘

Thank you for the great insights. My mobile system weighs more that it should and I could dump a few pounds (and some noise) if I switched to a saddle. Additionally, I rarely know where the bucks in the areas I hunt are bedding. This is probably a serious error that I should address. Thank you again.

Thank you for these videos, self learned public land hunter and this all means a lot and has helped me successful hunts!! Even little stuff like this I know will help. Thanks THP

Shot my first Deer with a bow last October (nice big doe). Shot her at 22 yards, had I not watched your guys content I would have never thought to aim low, practices it all summer and become habit for me. Ended up being a heart shot and made for a easy track job. Keep up the great content guys, appreciate it every time!

Very informative!! Thanks a lot and cheers from France!

The Hunting Public is the best You Tube channnel and its not even close.Deer season is right around the corner and it can't get here soon enough!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much! These videos are great

Great video guys. One of your best.

Thanks for putting those stealth strips on the video. Going to come in handy.

Good stuff! Thank you guys!

Great tips for sure. Cattail fluff works for wind gauging as well. I don't get alot of milkweed in my area. I don't have a very big hunting area, but it's private land and me and my neighbor are the only two with permission to hunt it. It's only 34 acres, but it has a diverse habitat. Grasses, water sources, about 10 acres of woods, and 2 tree stands. I also have pop up blinds that I can use.

Great idea Ted!! This could turn into series

As always very helpful tips! Thanks Guys!!

Aaron is my favorite hunter out of this group. Thanks guys y’all are great.

I like the milkweed idea but it's not always easy finding milkweed. I've always just used white sewing string (like the one you pull off of your deer feed bag) and its been very helpful for checking the wind.

Hanging in there and hunting anyways is a great tip. Biggest buck I ever shot in the Shawnee National Forrest in southern IL, about 30 minutes prior I had a group of off trail hikers walk below my stand. I started packing up my gear and getting ready to go. Decided I’d give it a few more minutes, and sure enough out comes the buck 20 yards broadside. Shot him and he crashed about 50 yards away in a creek. No blood trail at all. I was so focused on trying to find my arrow it never dawned on me just to look for the deer instead. Lessons learned.

This is my first year hunting. Thanks for the advice. I will watch more videos. I wish i could hunt with someone.

Great video, thanks y'all for the tips 👍👍

Some great info Guys, hoping to get back in a tree this year using a saddle this year this old man is going lighter this year, keep up the good work

Jumping the string is by far the hardest lesson in bow hunting. Great job describing

I have enjoyed Jim Riser background music for some time. You guys are pretty good too. Good stuff thanks

Excellent Video packed with great tips 👍

The content you should really be putting out right now is "What should you be doing right now for your fall hunts". What levels of scouting to do in June, July, August? How early should you be building new arrow set-ups? When to ramp up shooting frequency (especially since most bow hunters don't touch their bow between January and July)? A lot of October success is built during the summer and that's a whole pile of content to be put out now.

Excellent points I will have to try the milkweed !

Excellent off season tutorial. Thanks

Great reminder video boys!

That visualization of a bedding was awesome!

I'd like to see you guys come to western PA! Our big buck numbers have jumped significantly over the past 10 years

Thanks, good stuff.

Milkweed. So cool! Great tip! Love doing thing naturally. Thanks!

The milkweed is excellent butterfly habitat! Nice work

Thanks for the info.

Great video! Thanks for the tips.

awesome tips, the bedding one was great for me.

Could y’all do a video on how to cut shooting lanes? And proper camouflage or how to use a feeder correctly if y’all use any if not how do y’all bait for deer ?

Up here in Maine bedding areas are way less defined but really are they? Typically in the mts and big ridges you need to look for the benches 1/3 to 1/4 of way down and add some cover and bingo great place to look. Low land and swamps look for knobs a small terrain/elevation changes and you’ve found good spot too. All these areas provide one jump escapability. South and west facing ridges and areas are even more productive. Cover is important during storms but primary bedding will have a mix of cover and terrain. I also agree if I’d gone to a saddle 25yrs ago I believe more opportunities would have been had. Now I use combination of saddles and super light small stands to be completely mobile. Great video!!!

Great video as always hunting public!! 😊

Sometimes I'll use dry cattail it does ok for backup nice vid 🦌🇱🇷

Good video. I'm saving some milkweed pods. That's a great idea.

Thanks guys.

Great video!! Thanks so much, fellas. Its all good info to make better and more confident hunters. Heck yeah The Hunting Public

My first deer last year 4×4 I scared away plus 3 other bucks and does, trying get to the blind than a half hour later he came back out. I made a few more mistakes but still got him.

Great video. Can't wait for the next one

you guys are just the best! thanks for all your hard work! charlie m.

I spooked a buck last season with a missed shot thanks to a small branch I didn’t see in my scope. 10 minutes later he came back into the field I was hunting and I downed him. This was during the rut which I feel had to play a huge part in it. Sometimes when you think it’s over, it isn’t.

Fantastic summer content

Great Hunting Reminders

Terrain can cause local wind variations. The milkweed is essential.

TX5 suspension system for stands works great

Very good info!! Thanks 😊

#3 is a great tip! 30 years of hunting, I still have to tell myself to hold low.

Great information! Thanks!

I never went with the general rule of thumb... and you said on alert that is the key. Deer on alert at distance can jump the shot

Great video guys! Thanks. I gotta get some milkweed.

Thanks for the great video.

The milkweed trick is genius!!

That milkweed tip is genius! Thanks! ✌️

I use to tie a bright thread to the bow to keep eye on the wind.

Awesome. Thanks

Goose down from a old vest or bag works well too

Good info guys!

Hey I was wondering. When u said aim low with a compound. Does this rule still follow for using a crossbow

Bedding areas! Aaron said on his way to Peabody WMA (Ky.), "everything down here is a bedding area". Smartest thing he ever said about deer hunting. Notice he hasn't been back! If anyone is going to apply THP tactics they better be hunting the midwest (or similar) areas. The Southeast is a jungle with huge hardwood hollow area and vast expanses of open woods and thickets.

Ive learned a lot from watching you guys and guys like you over the years. Keep up the excellent work boys

Cattails have the sam effects as milkweed if you cant find or have milkweed

Thank you

Hi Clay Love your podcasts on Meateater… What is the name of the limited edition Bleat/Grunt call you mentioned recently (I think it was from Phelps)? Is there a way I can get my hands on one?

Would love to see y’all do a Ohio big woods public land challenge!!. Love watching you guys, videos that show good hunting, invaluable knowledge, and very amusing. By far my favorite hunting show!!!!

Was just sayin earlier, man I hope the THP boys drop a video this evening!

Excellent job men

Great stuff. I’ve meant to suggest alternative to milkweed. I use cattails because lighter than milkweed and can stuff more in pouch and one head lasts multiple years. Pick ‘em in late winter when marshes are frozen

Good video idea Ted. Your mustache is the greatest!

About time for Warb's permethrin suit demo.

Looks like I’ll be picking some milkweed. Awesome gold nugget right there!

I wish I could figure out the bedding areas in my hunting zone. I feel like I'm just guessing. I find the beds but can't tell whether it's bucks or does

Great tips and video, keep them coming. Pa. Hunter

I prefer comfort over a lighter set-up. Being still is very important and if you're not comfortable it's hard to be still. I can tell which way the air currents are going by falling leaves and floating weed seeds.

Solid video gents

I have started hunting on my grandparents land, no one hunts there except me. I have multiple deer every time I have went. I have seen lots of big typical 12 points or so. I just need some tips for hunting places where the deer are not used to people. I have shot one doe there. I have a double stand setup on a little trail. I am in northern Alabama we’re the rut is in January- February

Both bucks I have on my wall I spooked a few days prior and they both came back exactly where I spooked them

Y’all need to come hunt some SC low country we have hundreds of thousands of public land open to archery only as early as the first week of September

Helpful tips to say the least, well, all but the milkweed...lol 😂😅 Love what ya'll are doing ❤

Great tips fellas. Awesome vid

Great tips, your are making us better hunters!

Great video 👍🏻

Where I live the deer bed in wide open hard woods on top of ridges

Dropped one this morning

Great tips

That milk weed tip is awesome! Nice

Thx!!