“The Hunting Beast” interprets buck rubs. March is a great time for scouting because last fall’s buck behavior is still evident on the landscape. Photo courtesy of Steve Sorensen

Back in the ’60s, my dad expressed a universal principle of deer hunting this way: “The best hunters are the ones who spend the most time in the woods.” Working full time, Dad took advantage of all the overtime he could get. Plus, he moonlighted at a couple of part time jobs. He didn’t have much time to become a good hunter.

That principle was the basis of my deer hunting education, but if time in the woods was important, the short firearms season worked against me. It represented only a tiny percentage of the days of the year–just 2.5%. You can’t learn much in just nine of 365 days, especially if you’re in the woods on only two or three of those days. That’s when I realized that hunting came with a steep learning curve.

As time passed, hunting changed as new technologies offered shortcuts. A trail timer was one of the first innovations. Then hunters began filling the woods with cameras–first film cameras, then digital cameras, and now cameras that send photos to your cell phone. GPS receivers guided us through the woods until replaced by cell phone applications. More and more hunters have topographic maps, property lines, and other digital assets–all readily available on their smart phones.

Hunting shows on television were part of the mix. Hours of video footage were edited down to about 20 minutes plus commercials. Under the theory that no one would watch if they didn’t show the kill, producers fixated on the kill. But the shows were really about the advertising. Most were commercials camouflaged as experience.

Most hunters didn’t care so much about the kill as they did about all that led up to the kill, but television isn’t well suited to showing the less exciting parts. As TV hunting shows declined from their inherently low appeal, a new medium was ramping up.

YouTube was in the right place at the right time. Now that we’re fully in the digital age, ordinary hunters are using it to provide their personal documentary experience without cost but with lots of value.

I’ve long believed that some of the best hunters are guys who aren’t in the spotlight. They’re not on television, they’re not presenting seminars at hunting shows, and they’re not writing magazine articles. These podcasters are not celebrity hunters, but they are establishing a digital presence you can learn from. They are not the only good hunters out there, but they’re proving me right and their experience can become your experience.

You can become a better hunter by following a few YouTubers as they walk through deer habitat and interpret how deer use the property. They point out what they see and explain what it means. Why did a deer choose to bed there? Which way was that bedded buck facing, and why? What are they eating? Why do they choose the trails they travel? How do you tell the difference between the sign left by does, by young bucks and by mature bucks? How do bucks choose their core areas? How do they avoid hunters?

When you watch them, envision yourself in the woods you hunt. You’ll start seeing and understanding more from your own excursions into those woods. Look at it not as a substitute for your own scouting, but as preparation for your own scouting. Nothing beats roaming around the woods through various types of habitat and studying it for yourself, but this is a way to shorten your learning curve and help you maximize the value of the time you spent in the woods.

Also keep in mind that although the YouTube hunters I’ve been watching are very, very good, they’re not always right. I’ve seen them misinterpret some things, but there’s value in that too. Thinking about what they say puts you in the conversation. It turns a one-directional monologue into an internal dialogue. You’ll learn from that, too.

Learning from the experience of others was one way the old-timers shortened their learning curve. Living in the digital age gives us a new path to those same benefits. Get out there now. Start your scouting now because last year’s buck behavior is still visible.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he were hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines, and won the 2015, 2018, and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.