5 Tips for Hunting Whitetails in the Northeast

Throughout this article, you will find 5 tips to help you on your next whitetail hunt within the Northeastern Region of the United States. I personally reside in central Pennsylvania and hunt between Clearfield and Centre Counties. I have hunted in these areas my entire life since I was a young boy. I also hunt on a family farm within upstate New York in Ostego County. I say this because I would like you as the reader to be mindful of my perspective in hunting. I am almost exclusively an archery hunter and therefore mostly think like one. However as most know, whether it is archery, rifle, or muzzleloader, a lot of these same tips and principles are going to apply.

1 - Know your terrain

Understanding the terrain of the location, property, or area of where you plan to hunt is critical. To start, hunting in the Northeast traditionally means that you will be within the geographical reigns of the Appalachian Mount Chain. This includes most of the terrain being rolling large hills, steep mountains and ridges, deep mountain hardwoods, and ridged farmland. Where I hunt is routinely farmland, meaning that geography consists of agriculture fields (corn, soybeans, CRP), thick and open hardwoods, creek bottoms, and multiple ridges. These features dictate my hunting. For example, I have morning/evening stands, stands for October, and stands for the rut, all based off these geographical features.

2 - Always hunt where the deer are, not where you think they should be

This tip I have learned myself the hard way. This is not extremely specific to the Northeastern region; however, it is helpful. There have been numerous times throughout my young hunting career where I set up a stand on a spot where in my mind, I believed it would be perfect for deer. But multiple times in these “perfect” spots I had ignored lack of sign and have been completely skunked out of a stand. Another example, I planned a vacation for the entire first week of November last season, thinking that the rut occurs early November like clockwork. However, I did not calculate the weather into my plans. A warm spell reached across the Northeast during the first week of November and to say the least the hunting was not good. The point is do not be ignorant, believe in what you see and make decisions based off that.

3 - Play the wind and conceal your scent

Previously mentioned, the Northeast such as my home state Pennsylvania has very elevated terrain throughout the state. Given the rolling hills and steep ridges, wind conditions within the northeast are hard to predict. The winds can swirl on a dime, making a hunt quite difficult to plan. My advice? I hang multiple stands on my properties, with seasons and wind direction in mind. Always watch the weather and the predictions as closely as possible and keep wind direction in mind when choosing a hunting location. Along with this, I recommend using field scents, lures, or anything of your choosing to conceal your scent in case of these swirling winds.

4 - Pick a stand with good cover

Whenever I chose a location to hang a stand, I always look for decent cover within it. In most of the country, I have noticed easy, clear hardwoods are hard to come by. Ideally, I would like to hang a stand 20 plus feet in an open hardwood oak tree, but I have essentially zero stand options currently with that criteria. Therefore, I had to make do with what I have, which typically means hanging within pine and spruce trees that have good cover, anywhere from 12-20 feet up. Long story short, in the Northeast you are going to have to make do with what you have, and if you cannot be high in a tree, you need optimal cover.

5 - Pressure

The most important tip within this article is this one right here. In the Northeast, especially in Pennsylvania, hunting pressure is extremely evident. During archery seasons the pressure has increased in the past years with new rules and laws about usages of crossbows. When it comes to rifle seasons, the hunting pressure is massive. When evaluating hunting locations, hunting pressure needs to be equated. Ways to help with this pressure can be choosing locations with fewer number of hunters, and keeping you yourself from creating more pressure. Hunting pressure effects deer patterns so greatly that sometimes it pushes deer straight off of a great property.

I thank you for reading this article, and I hope it helps your upcoming hunting seasons!

-Riley Phillips, Fall Obsession Field Staff