How to Find New Whitetail Spots Now

Whether it’s a ten-minute or two-hour drive from your house, it always pays to have another hunting spot up your sleeve. But you don’t want to wait until the season opener to scrap a few properties together. Instead of procrastinating, here are a few ways to find new deer hunting spots this spring.

You might have to do some digging, but there are both public and private land hunting spots that might afford you quick access and relatively easy hunting. Start locally. I love hunting public lands. It’s adventurous and fulfilling. However, I also love hunting a few small private properties close to my house where the driving is easy and the pressure is low. I’m not suggesting that these spots grow on trees. You’ll have to work to find these spots, and you’ll never find them if you don’t try.

Talk to coworkers, church members, relatives, or neighbors to see if they own possible hunting spots. These don’t have to be huge tracts of land. Some of the biggest bucks I’ve killed recently have fallen on small, three- or four-acre properties.

For public land, there are a ton of overlooked spots near roads or access points. This makes them easy to scout, especially if you’re limited on time. You can also drop a camera to confirm any hunches about these places or if they deserve a sit. If not, you can quickly check that place off and move to the next one.

This next one can require a long-game approach. That’s why you need to start now. Whether you live in a cul-de-sac or on a dirt road, hopefully, you have established some rapport with your neighbors. Even if they don’t have hunting land, they might mention in passing that one of their friends, relatives, etc., does.

You can’t figure this out if you don’t at least get to know your neighbors. I’m not suggesting that you should only speak with them to get hunting permissions, but I’m sure there are worse reasons to befriend your neighbors. If nothing, you’ll have someone to keep an eye on things while you’re out of town.

If your neighbor does have potential hunting land, it always works better if you ask to bow hunt first. In my personal experience, asking someone to bow hunt usually works better than rifle hunting, especially if they don’t hunt themselves or you’re not sure where they land on firearms.

Hunting leases continue to skyrocket. If you do get permission, at least offer your time or resources to help out around that land, whether it’s a farm or not. Most folks won’t take you up on that offer, but it’s a meaningful gesture that could land you permission for years to come. It’s also just the right thing to do if someone lets you hunt their land for free. If you’re lucky enough to harvest a deer, offer some of the meat. I’ve done this with a particular permission property for several years now. The landowner never takes me up on it, but it’s a simple way to show them you appreciate the opportunity.

If you’re spending a ton of time in the turkey woods this spring, you might as well check out a few potential deer hunting spots, too. The best turkey and deer habitats don’t necessarily overlap, but I’ve found several solid spots during the months of March and April when the gobbling was slow.

Even if you don’t want to cut into your turkey hunting, you can always drop pins or make a note to revisit a spot for a summer scouting session. Like deer, turkeys use edges to navigate the landscape. Just keep this in mind while you chase gobbles this spring.

Whether you hunt private land or the closest national forest, you’ll have to work to find new hunting spots. Get out there this spring and cover as much ground as possible. When the season finally rolls around, you’ll have plenty of options when something inevitably changes.