Winning Ways For Western Whitetail Hunting

Whitetail deer, a remarkable animal, are found in at least 44 U.S. states, and hold the honor of being the most sought-after game in North America. The whitetail’s dominance is clear, with a north-to-south and east-to-west total population north of 30 million. But it’s not just numbers and species dispersion that hold deer so close in the hearts of hunters. One look at a rut-swollen buck standing amidst a sea of hardwoods cloaked in colors of red, yellow and orange, and most get hooked for life. That was the case with me.

Being a western bowhunter from Colorado, my first whitetail exposure was a bowhunt far from home in Illinois. The landscape was beautiful—rolling hardwoods with tiny no-name creeks separating ridgelines with corn and bean fields tucked into every nook and cranny of farmable dirt. It was early November, mature bucks were on their feet, and an hour into the first morning, I cut an Easton arrow loose.

I didn’t move from Colorado to the Midwest after that successful 2012 bowhunt, but it’s been twelve years since I’ve hunted mule deer in my home state. Whitetails have my heart, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. And while I chase these magnificent creatures across the country from September through January, most of my time chasing Odocoileus virginianus happens west of the 100th meridian.

While the whitetail population in my home state stands at less than 200K, and other western states pale compared to Midwest whitetail gems like Iowa, Ohio and others, western whitetail hunting is growing in popularity.

Why?

Many western hunters focus solely on mule deer, which keeps hunting pressure down and makes tag allocation easier. Plus, the West is chuck-full of fantastic whitetail terrain, and plenty of gagger bucks call the sage-dappled plains, cedar-sprinkled canyons, rolling prairies and sparsely timbered river bottoms of the West home.

Western whitetail hunting tactics vary significantly from those commonly used in the eastern half of he U.S. The biggest reason for this is the extreme difference in terrain.

One of my favorite western whitetail locales is a grassy knob overlooking a cottonwood-dotted creek with miles of open CRP in every direction. The first time I climbed the hill, attached my 12-power Leupold binos to a tripod and started glassing, my jaw dropped.

What looked like a sea of barren wasteland turned into a veritable whitetail zoo. Bucks cruised the creek bottom and materialized like apparitions in the CRP. The first morning I hunted the area, I saw 14 bucks—seven were shooters.

Spot-and-stalk was my only option. A saddle or lightweight treestand would’ve worked well in the cottonwoods, but poor e-scouting on my part told me to leave the tree hangers at camp. It didn’t matter. Two hours after sunrise, I watched a heavy, short-tined, thick-necked buck bed a doe along a tumbleweed-infested fence line. My stalk was perfect, and my first Pope and Young whitetail fell to a well-placed 32-yard arrow.

1. Optics Are Your Best Friend

Many western whitetail hotspots are vast and open. Western deer have adapted to and thrive in terrain better suited for pronghorn and mule deer.

Forget extensive hardwoods or agricultural pockets surrounded by dense woods. Those landscapes exist outside of the West. In many western whitetail locations, you’ll need to treat the hunt like you would for pronghorn, mule deer, or elk—optics reign supreme.

Whether scouting or hunting, one of my favorite deer-finding tactics is to access a vantage point overlooking excellent whitetail terrain and let my optics do the work. In many whitetail-rich areas, you’ll be able to see for miles. You’ll be overlooking dry creeks, small coulees, sagebrush, etc., so you’ll want to take your time.

I start with my 10- or 12-power binos attached to my tripod and grid-search the landscape like a mountain basin. No stone is left unturned. When I spot a buck, or what I believe to be a buck, I swap the binos for my spotter and evaluate the deer.

You can’t kill what you can’t see. Many of my western whitetails were harvested after glassing them from a 1/2 mile or more away. Several others came after watching a food-to-bed pattern develop through my optics then moving in and hanging a treestand, deploying a ground blind or building a natural hide.

2. Get A Ground Game

I was hunting with an outfitter in eastern Oklahoma a few years back. The terrain was dense and thick, but on the third morning of the hunt, I watched a buck push a doe out of a wooded bottom into a small plum-thicket at the base of a hill.

I texted the outfitter that I would climb down and stalk the buck. His text read: "Good one." You can’t stalk whitetails. They are too bright. Just stay in the tree. You don’t want to spook him.

I’m not bashing the outfitter. The hunt was excellent. However, this is the mindset of many whitetail hunters who come West for the first time. Throw that mindset out the window. You must have a ground game, and despite what you’ve heard or believe, spotting and stalking whitetails with a gun or bow is very doable.

As with any animal, unless a buck is casually feeding near approachable cover, I wait for the buck to bed. Whitetails have no trouble bedding in thick, nasty cover, which is a blessing and a curse for the approaching hunter.

Often, when a whitetail beds, you lose sight of it. That’s why I lock my binos or spotting scope on the spot where I believe the deer bedded, get out my digital mapping app (I like HuntStand), and pin the exact location.

Now, I have two references. My optics are set on the spot, and I have a digital marker pinned on my phone. If my binos are locked on the bedded buck, I switch them out for my spotting scope. Next, I use my digital scouting app to plan my approach.

First, look for what I call “hard” landmarks. These landmarks will be visible at some point during the stalk and are distinguishable based on one characteristic or another. As I find landmarks, I drop pins and name each landmark on my digital scouting app. This way, once I start my stalk, I can use my digital scouting app to help me navigate from landmark to landmark. This prevents me from prairie-dogging—poking my head up too often and getting picked off.

Naturally, you want the wind in your face and, if possible, the sun at your back. Shadows are a massive part of the spot-and-stalk success puzzle.

3. Bring Decoys

This is a tip/tactic article, not a gear article, and I don’t want it to turn into one. However, when you come West, you want two decoys—the full-body 3-D buck decoy of your choice and Ultimate Predator Gear’s Whitetail Deer Stalker with Whitetail Deer Stalker Antlers.

UPG’s Whitetail Stalker is a bow-mounted doe decoy that collapses to a 10-inch diameter disc in seconds and weighs less than 10 ounces. The decoy sports a shoot-through window, which means sight, stabilizer and arrow obstruction are never an issue, and because the decoy mounts to the front of the bow, your body is covered. Add the foam antlers and transform the doe decoy into a buck decoy when needed.

Often, when stalking, I use the doe decoy to help me get away with risky moves—getting across open terrain, etc.—and will go after a buck tending a doe with the antlers on the decoy. If you can slip close to the buck’s rut party and grunt, the buck will often get out of bed, thrash the brush, and march at the bow-mounted decoy.

When hunting open terrain during the rut, I use a turkey chair from Alps, obtain some cover (though it doesn’t have to be much), set a 3-D buck decoy where it’s evident bucks are working through open terrain, slap the UPG Whitetail Stalker on my bow, and make a lockdown set.

This is one of the most thrilling and effective ways to bowhunt whitetails. You’re part of the decoy setup. To a cruising buck, the set looks like a buck tending a doe, and this is usually all it takes to kick his testosterone into overdrive and come within archery range.

Decoys are practical gun-hunting tools as well. However, I hunt lots of public land out West, and it’s ill-advised to use a decoy during gun season on public land. Keep it safe!

4. Sit & Wait Works

This past season, I took my biggest whitetail with my Hoyt from an Ameristep ground blind overlooking a water source.

Water wins out West, as it can be challenging to find in many areas. Life revolves around water, and whether it’s a stock tank, natural or artificial pond or a spring, a ground blind (manufactured or natural) overlooking a water source will help you hit whitetail pay dirt.

Water funnels whitetail movement, and often, it takes very little boots-on-the-ground scouting to find a pinch point, funnel, calling tree, etc. There are also occasions when you’ll find creeks, canals and rivers with enough trees lining them to hang a stand or use a saddle. Just know that few western cottonwoods are straight, so you’ll want a small, lightweight stand with plenty of adjustability.

5. Practice At Longer Distances

One thing hunters should expect when hunting whitetails in open country is longer shots.

I’m not promoting long-range shooting, but I will tell you that my average shot distance on western whitetails with archery tackle is 41.2 yards. My average shot distance on whitetails in the Midwest and East is 19.3 yards. Forty-one yards is a very ethical bow shot if you take the time to practice at longer ranges and become proficient. My recommendation is double-distance bow practice. My max shot distance on whitetail deer in open country is 60 yards. Most of my practice sessions leading up to hunting season are from 120 yards. Nothing helps build confidence and shot-to-shot consistency like long-range shooting.

The same holds when chasing whitetails with a rifle. A few years ago, I shot a pair of Texas whitetails. Both deer were a tick over 100 yards, a typical shot distance throughout the whitetail’s range, minus the West.

My oldest son, Hunter, has killed a pair of banger western bucks. Both were over 300 yards away. My 2023 western Oklahoma buck was 421 yards. Pick a fast, flat-shooting caliber that promises energy retention at longer ranges and spend time sending lead downrange.

Friends, the West is whitetail-rich, and though you’ll likely need to abandon typical whitetail tactics, if you heed the advice in this article, I’m confident you’ll consistently find western whitetail success.

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