Deer hunting tips

Use the tips listed below to boost your chances for success this fall.

Table of Contents

Where to hunt

Deer are habitat generalists and thrive in a variety of areas in Massachusetts. They are found in every part of the state with the highest densities found east of Interstate 495. They can be found in agricultural lands, in forests, as well as in suburban and urban areas. Places with a mix of habitat types are the most productive for deer because they provide abundant food and cover throughout the year. 

When looking for a place to hunt, focus your attention on areas where different habitat types meet. Some examples include:

  • Swamp edges
  • Edges of logged areas where mature forest meets thick re-growing young forest
  • Edges of agricultural land near forest
  • Wooded areas adjacent to suburban neighborhoods (make sure the area is large enough to allow safe and legal hunting)
deer-habitat-field-woods_troy-gipps

The edge of a field and forest is a good place to find deer. Photo by Troy Gipps.

Wetland edges are also great places to look for deer.

Wetland edges are also great places to look for deer. Photo by Troy Gipps.

Within these areas of converging habitats, search for the specific types of food the deer are focusing on and concentrate your hunting on that one food source within your target area. Click here to find more information about where you can hunt in Massachusetts.

Tip: Ask your friends and family where and when (time of day) they see deer while driving or walking. This can save countless hours of scouting! If you are tipped off to an area with deer, a quick look at an aerial map (using tools like the MassWildlife Lands ViewerOnX, MassMapper (formerly OLIVER), or Massachusetts Interactive Property Map) can reveal an adjacent woodlot, wetland, farm, or forest where you can hunt.

When you find an area to hunt, make sure to:

  • Secure permission from the landowner for private property
  • Identify parking and access locations
  • Check local town bylaws relative to hunting on private or municipal property

Online scouting for deer

Learn how to use online scouting tools like MassMapper and Google Earth to identify areas to hunt deer in Massachusetts. If you aren't familiar with these tools, watch our Basics of Online Scouting in Massachusetts video first before watching the Online Scouting for Deer video below.

What to look for when scouting

Once you get boots on the ground in a potential hunting area, look for deer sign and food sources. Once you locate these signs you may decide to monitor the area with a trail camera.

Deer Sign

Deer sign can tell a hunter a lot about the deer’s habits, travel routes, and the size and sex of the animal.

Deer tracks are the first thing to look for. Deer will often use the same areas and trails repeatedly, leaving deer runs and tracks behind. Tracks can reveal the direction the deer was traveling as well as the approximate size of the animal—the bigger the track, the bigger the deer.

Deer tracks.

Deer tracks. Photo by Troy Gipps.

Deer runs are paths that deer frequent. They will become easier to spot the more time you spend afield looking for them. Try to find muddy or soft areas where deer hoofs will sink in, leaving deep tracks and distinct runs. If deer enter and exit food source areas in different locations, it is likely that deer will be active at the entry point in the evening and active at the exit point in the morning. Other deer runs will have tracks going both directions which could be productive in the morning and evening. In addition to hunting near food sources, you may consider setting up at a place where two or more deer runs intersect.

Deer scat looks like the candy Raisinets (chocolate covered raisins) poured in a pile. Sometimes the individual pellets are stuck together forming a clump. Fresh scat will be wet and shiny for several hours. After a few days it starts to dry out and after a few months it will have started to decompose. An ideal hunting spot contains many tracks and scat of all different ages indicating that deer spend a lot of time in this area. Places with only fresh scat or only old scat means that location is seasonal and may only be productive for a few week a year.

You can learn what deer are eating by examining fresh scat. Scat with a greenish tint means the deer is feeding primarily on green vegetation like grass, clover, or similar leafy greens. Grayish scat indicates that the deer is feeding mostly on acorns or beech nuts. The more commonly occurring brown scat means that the deer is using a wide variety of food sources.

Food Sources

Deer browse on many different things within their habitats, but during certain times of the year deer will key in on essential food sources as they become available.

Acorns and beech nuts are favored by many species when they are available in the fall. Learning a few tree species will help you find these sources. White oak acorns are always preferred and often drop to the ground earlier than other species making a productive white oak tree a good location for the early archery season. Red, pin, scarlet, chestnut, and other oaks drop acorns well into the fall hunting seasons. Beech nuts are another great food source used by deer.

Agricultural fields are a great place to hunt if you get permission from a landowner. Deer frequent fields of grass, hay, clover, soy beans, standing corn, cut corn, and pumpkins, as well as apple orchards. If hunting in these areas, look for deer runs where they enter and exit the fields. It is often better to hunt in the woods adjacent to the field or orchard, than to hunt on the edge of the field itself. Find the entries and exits and follow the deer run away from the food source to find a place to hunt.

Browse is something that is often overlooked. Deer often alter their travel routes to and from a major food source in order to browse along the way. Look along the edges of swamps and the re-growing edges of logged areas for the nibbled and chewed ends of young woody growth and other types of tender vegetative growth.

evidence of deer browse

Signs that deer have been browsing in the area. Photo by Troy Gipps.

Sighting in and practicing with firearm or bow

If you’re hunting with firearms, make sure to practice and sight in your shotgun or muzzleloader prior to the start of every season. Even if your firearm was accurate last year, the sights or scope may have been bumped during the off season.

If you’re hunting with archery equipment, practice and sighting in are also extremely important. Practicing will strengthen the muscles needed to draw the bow and will aid in holding back your draw when the time comes. It is sometimes necessary to hold your draw for up to a full minute when waiting for an ethical shot. It can be helpful to shoot a few pounds lighter than you can comfortably draw to increase the time you are able to hold it. You should be able to take 30 shots from your bow before you get tired and it gets hard to draw. Start practicing with your bow daily beginning in June. You may only be able to take a few shots before getting tired at that time of year. But slowly you will build the muscle strength needed to comfortably get to 30 shots per in a row, thus creating the muscle memory needed to help with accuracy.

Tip: It is essential to practice from a treestand or blind prior to the season. When shooting from a stand, always remember to bend at the waist to aim downwards at your game. When shooting from a blind, remember to sit high enough that your arrow clears the blind window upon release.

Shot placement

For deer and most other big game animals, aim for the heart and lungs. To hit these organs and ensure a quick and ethical kill, aim just behind the front shoulder. A shots should only be taken when the animal is unobstructed and is standing broadside or slightly quartering away.

Archery tip: Even when a deer is broadside or quartering away, a close shot from a steep angle can result in the broadhead hitting only one lung and exiting the bottom of the chest cavity. To avoid this, position your treestand less than 20 feet from the ground and don’t take shots under 10 yards from your stand. Set up your treestand about 15–20 yards from a deer run rather than right next to it.

Using call and scent attractants

Calls can be effective if used during the rut in areas where a buck is active. Grunt calls come in many different forms and depending on pitch, can imitate everything from a fawn to a mature doe or buck.

  • Grunt tubes come in many shapes, sizes, and pitches. Sound is made when air passes over a reed inside of the tube. The longer the reed, the deeper the sound. Many grunt tubes come with a rubber O ring around the reed which can be moved forward or back to adjust the length of the reed and therefore adjust the pitch. Some grunt tube reeds are marked with positions make a fawn, doe, young buck, and mature buck grunts.
  • Can calls are designed to imitate a female deer in heat. These calls are effective during the rut and can sometimes call a buck into shooting range. These calls are used by placing your finger over a hole in the bottom of the can and flipping it over which creates the call as a weight attached to a rubber diaphragm slides down the inside of the can.

Scents are commonly used by hunters to either attract a deer or to cover their own scent. Deer have a superior sense of smell and the wrong scent can deter a deer from an area.

  • Cover scents minimize your human scent. Be sure to bathe with products that have little to no scent and keep your hunting clothes in an area away from any strong smells like the kitchen or near pets. In addition, some hunters also use a cover scent. These products include soap, laundry detergent, and spray put on just prior to walking into the woods. In addition to minimizing your scent, make sure you hunt downwind of the direction of the deer.
  • Scent attractants are commercially available and are meant to either imitate food like corn or apples or another deer using deer urine. Caution: In Massachusetts it is illegal to bait deer during the hunting season. Bait is defined as anything the deer can ingest, so if you spray an apple scent on something deer would eat, it is considered baiting and is illegal.
    Deer urine is the most often used during the rut. These scents can be effective but can also alert a deer of an “intruder” they’ve never smelled before causing them to be alert and wary. The most common scent used is a “doe in heat” scent used during the rut. Due to the risk of introducing Chronic Wasting Disease to Massachusetts, MassWildlife recommends using only synthetic deer urine.

What to pack when hunting

Stay safe and comfortable while hunting by packing the right gear. In addition to your personal gear, make sure to pack the items you need to hunt safely from a blind or treestand.

Deer hunting safety

Review these tips regularly for a fun and safe deer season.

  • 500 square inches of blaze orange clothing are required to be worn by deer hunters during shotgun and primitive firearm seasons.
  • Wear a full body safety harness when entering, exiting, and at all times while hunting from a treestand.
  • Let someone know where you will be hunting. (i.e. Trip Plan)
  • Know your target and what lies beyond.
  • Keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

Visit our Hunt Safely page for more deer hunting safety tips!

Recovering your deer

Immediately after the shot

  • Watch your deer. After the shot, pay close attention to the body language of the deer. What was the shot placement? How did the deer react? Where did the deer settle? Look around for prominent landmarks (big tree, fence post, etc.) near the spot the deer was shot and where you last saw the deer.
  • Wait. Fight the urge to chase the deer. Wait at least 30 minutes if using firearms and 45–60 minutes if using archery equipment. This gives you time to observe the deer and to calm down. The more time you wait, the less likely you are to disturb or push the deer to keep moving.

Tracking and recovering your deer

  • Look for sign. Start tracking your deer from the location it was shot. Look for blood on the ground or on the retrieved arrow. Blood color and consistency can give clues about your shot placement. Bright red or pink foamy blood can indicate a clean heart or lung shot. Darker blood along with bile could indicate a gut shot. A deer that’s been hit in the gut may run further or may bed down and still take several hours to expire. A deer shot with a firearm often leaves less of a blood trail making it more difficult to track. Look for other signs like clumps of hair or broken sticks and branches.
  • Approach with caution. Stop about 10–20 feet from the deer and watch closely for signs of breathing/movement. If there is no movement, approach the deer from it's lower back (away from the legs or head). Use a stick or your hunting implement to touch the deer's rump. If it does not move, tap the eye of the animal to check for a blink reflex. If there is no movement, it is now safe to assume the animal has expired.  
  • Tag and report. After making your hunting implement safe, fill out the paper tag from your license or permit. Place the tag in a plastic bag, license holder, or other waterproof container and attach it to the deer with a safety pin, string, zip tie, or durable tape. Your deer must remain intact (other than field dressing), with the harvest tag attached until it is reported and prepared for food or taxidermy purposes. Learn about how to report your harvested deer.

Field dressing and transporting

 

  • Transporting. You can choose a variety of means to transport your deer out of the woods, some options include two-wheeled carts, sleds, and tarps.
    Note: When transporting the deer, some portion of the carcass must remain visible until it has been reported. The harvest tag with confirmation number must remain attached to the carcass until prepared for food or taxidermy purposes.

Reporting your deer harvest

All deer must be reported within 48 hours. The easiest way to report a harvest is online using MassFishHunt; click here to learn more about reporting online.

During the first week of shotgun season, all deer must be reported in person at an official check station to allow for biological data to be collected.

What to expect when visiting a check station

Harvest tag
Upon harvesting a deer, you must immediately fill out and attach the paper tag from your permit to the carcass. Tip: Make sure the paper tag that you attached to your deer is easy to access, remove, and reattach. Consider carrying a plastic sandwich bag and a safety pin.

Keep your deer visible
Your deer must remain intact (other than field dressing), with the harvest tag attached. Some portion of the carcass must remain visible until it has been reported.

At the check station
When you arrive at a check station, you will be asked for your harvest tag. Staff at the check station will write a confirmation number on your tag. The harvest tag must remain attached 
until your deer is prepared for food or taxidermy. Your deer will then be weighed. Biologists will look at the deer's teeth and determine its age based on the amount of wear on the teeth. If you're reporting a buck, staff will measure the diameter of the base of the antlers. Information collected at check stations is used by MassWildlife biologists to assess the condition of the deer herd in different regions of the state.

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