Help a Newb with some tips and tactics for kids please (2024)

Well let me start off by saying I’m not a whitetail hunter and a good chance you’ll never see me hunting them but my 11 and 13 year old boys are dead set on trying to kill some whitetail bucks with their bows so I’m trying to get this all figured out and hopefully cut my learning curve down.

To paint the picture I have some family that will only let them hunt so we’re lucky to be hunting deer that aren’t getting any pressure. Main field we are hunting is about 100 acres that’s surrounded by another 200 acres of river bottoms, there’s no trees to hang stands in so that’s out. I bought a couple ground blinds a few weeks ago to set up around the field. Problem is there seems to be about 100 places they like to come into the field.

Week before the season I put pop ups on 3 of the trails that looked like they where getting used the most so they had time to get used to them, trail cameras showed daily activity on all 3 but we hunted it all weekend and nothing popped out within range of the blinds, they all used trails about 60-100 yards from us.

I’ve never messed with scents before, our state laws say I can use synthetic scents, was wondering if that would encourage more activity on the trails we are sitting with mock scrapes or licking branches. Or does that really only work during the rut?

I know that playing the wind is the way to go, and felt we had blinds setup pretty well, to try and help we change at the truck before getting in the blind with clothes we washed in scent killer and we don’t walk any of the trails the deer use. Kinda feel they could sense us in the blinds though and that’s why they used other trails. Ozonics a decent investment to help with that? I feel it’s a sales gimmick but I’ve been proved wrong before and willing to try about anything (that’s legal of course) to help my kids out.

Decided to skip archery elk season this year to try and get them some deer with their bows, if the best bet is to sit the same spot day after day hoping they use the trail we’re sitting they are good with that too, they’ve spent hundreds over hours in antelope blinds over the years so their patience is on point. Here’s a pic of the antelope my younger boy shot 2 weeks ago, this was his first archery kill and that fueled a fire inside of him and he wants to bow hunt more now

Thanks for the reply Rufus, I’m in Idaho, they are coming out to an alpha field so they have plenty of food and there is a river that runs through the property. As you mentioned they have plenty of food water and cover where they are at.

Our archery season is Aug 30- Sept 30, If we make it to October rifle season will be open and I’ll ditch the bows for rifles at that point . Actaully fortunate enough to be able to hunt these deer tell mid Dec where they are at. Both the boys have killed deer right where we are hunting with rifles.

They bed to the west and come out to the field in the evenings. I have the blinds marked, I feel we just need to sit the same spot over and over and hope they choose the spot we are sitting one of the times.

The next two blinds (looking north) also look promising as they look like they have natural pinch points (if I’m seeing things correctly). The second one from the bottom looks to me to be the better of those.

Your statement about just going with what you have and hunting as often as possible is probably a good plan.

They call it a river but I’d consider more like a stream, I bet 90% of it isn’t more than 18” deep, there’s some corners that get a little deeper.

Tried setting up on the pinch points best I could

Of course they come by the blind we aren’t sitting in