What makes a trophy deer hunter?

Today someone asked me; “What do I have to do to become a trophy hunter”

I answered him; “Besides having access to land with a good deer population you need the following.”

Education. Until and unless you educate yourself on whitetail deer and their ways, you don't have a chance other than blind luck. Learn as much about whitetail deer and their behavior as you can and spend many hours during the spring and summer in the woods studying the deer.

Scout properly. Scouting is the most important aspect of hunting. Scout right after the hunting season closes and trough the spring and summer. In the fall stay out of the woods unless you hunt. Many hunters scout in the fall a few days before the season opens and educate the deer of their presence. If you scout in the fall and during the hunting season do so very cautiously without letting the deer know what you’re up to.

Patience! Most hunters suffer terribly from lack of patience.

Don’t establish a pattern in the woods. Deer pattern hunters so much faster than hunter’s can pattern deer. So vary your pattern. Hunt different times, different places, do the unexpected and the unusual. Be different than the other hunters.

Luck and lots of it. More bucks over 3.5 years old are killed by luck than by skill.

Make the first attempt count. The single best chance you have to kill a mature buck is the very time you hunt him. The longer you hunt one particular stand the less chance you will have to kill a buck from that stand. Example: Pick what you feel, revealed trough proper scouting, to be the very best stand location. Then have the patience to stay the heck away from that spot until the very best conditions exist. This may mean hanging a stand in August and not hunting it until November, not even going near that stand until the conditions are perfect. Then hunt it all day. Have two or three such stand locations and rotate them. Remember don’t have a pattern, keep the deer in the dark!