Dr. Ken Nordberg has a couple of proven methods for you to try when hunting whitetail deer that, due to warmer temperatures, have become largely nocturnal.

I’ve been studying the effects of warm temperatures on our northern Minnesota deer during the past three years. This year’s research begins soon with a trip north to my 32-year-old deer/wolf study area to find out how our deer and wolves fared this past winter, and to begin getting things ready to test several new hunting methods designed for hunting nocturnal deer.

One of these methods needs little testing. It was concocted by my brother Bob and I in the 1960s for taking deer in a dense, 30-acre spruce bog. This method was designed to take advantage of a newly discovered characteristic of older whitetails, especially older bucks: They refuse to be driven far in any one direction, especially downwind, by wolves or human hunters, acting as if they realize they are being chased toward an ambush. Probably rightfully so. Drives made by humans to obtain meat are as old as history, and my more recent studies of gray wolves suggest they have been doing this as well.

Being a member of a large family/neighbor group of hunters that only made drives during my first 15 years of deer hunting, my chief disappointment about drives was, though we often “filled out,” we only took one trophy buck during all those years. Also, because there were few if any deer in an area driven during the following 1 to 2 weeks, it was necessary for us to hunt farther and farther from home when making drives.

With the above in mind, Bob and I decided to try something akin to a two-man drive, but with three major differences: 1) no standers, 2) the two of us (Bob on my right) proceeding slowly into the wind about 75 yards apart along parallel deer trails, and 3) both halting every half hour for a half hour, figuring this would keep deer ahead from becoming alarmed enough to abandon the area. What we most hoped would happen was, rather than continually moving straight away ahead of us, deer would move left or right, out of our paths, toward Bob or me.

While stopped one hour into our first attempt at doing this, I heard something pushing (swishing) through the dense spruce trees ahead from Bob’s direction, figuring it had to be a deer. After crossing my trail unseen, it turned toward me, stepping on softly snapping twigs along a deer trail parallel to the one I was on. A few steps back was a narrow opening in that direction. Keeping my rifle up and ready, the moment that deer appeared in that opening, I fired and it dropped from sight. Bob and I were so pleased with our new hunting method that we used it several times during following years to take deer in that bog.

During our past three years (2019–2021), my sons and I spent considerable time trying to figure out how restore our 30 years of great buck hunting in Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region, ruined by: 1) overabundant gray wolves finally reducing our deer numbers to three per square-mile and, 2) global warming, contributing by making our remaining deer nocturnal (active during nighttime hours only). One thought that kept nagging me during this period was something my uncle Jack, who organized our family drives back in the 1940s and ‘50s, occasionally said, “It doesn’t matter how weather may be affecting deer, because we can always make deer move about, and therefore take deer.”

While this was true much of the time, two facts eventually convinced me to become a stand hunter: 1) Our drives were not very effective for taking mature bucks, and 2) deer that survived a drive abandoned the area until the hunting season ended. I did not want this happening in our hunting area. Then one day it occurred to me that a drive like the kind Bob and I used might be the answer, because it did not alarm deer enough to make them bound away and abandon their home ranges. Even better, what then occurred to me was a similar hunting method I concocted in the 1990s called “Mile-a-Day Stand Hunting.” I originally intended it to by used by a single hunter, moving into the wind along connecting deer trails, and using a succession of ground-level stand sites, about 200 yards apart, one hour each.

After discovering it commonly takes whitetails up to 30 minutes to finally resume whatever they were doing after no longer hearing or glimpsing something they could not positively identify that was approaching or passing them, I decided the hunter should sit silently and without discernable movements at least one hour at each stand site. Sometimes this hunting method was simply a welcome break from sitting at unproductive stand sites for several days; sometimes it was a means of visiting a number of stand sites late in a hunting season that I had been meaning to try; and sometimes, a lack of fresh deer signs where I intended to stand hunt got me started doing this, often providing an opportunity to take an unsuspecting buck.

Having recently determined whitetails made nocturnal by unseasonably warm temperatures commonly bed and feed (on browse) midday in dense (shady) areas within 100 to 200 yards of favorite (much tracked) sources of water; and having discovered several sizable areas in my study area with multiple sources of water that will be perfect for multi-hunter mile-a-day stand hunts, my hunting partners and I can’t wait to use this large-group, stand-hunting method in these areas next November: Four or more hunters about 75 yards apart advancing on the hour, into the wind, to stand sites 100 to 200 yards (long silent steps) apart, and sitting at each for one hour. We would do this for five stand sites in the morning, beginning at first light, and three in the afternoon (following lunch), beginning about 2 p.m.

For this hunting method to work as intended, negotiating the distances between stand sites must be done in a way that does not seriously alarm deer. As silently as possible—lifting your feet clear of the ground and putting them down lightly—proceed nonstop into the wind (using a compass or GPS to maintain distances between hunters) along an existing (marked) deer trail. Preferably use one that was selected and cleared of dead twigs and branches for this purpose, two or more weeks before the hunting season began. Using the wolf ruse, walk nonstop at a moderate pace with your head pointed straight, ahead all the way to your next stand site.

The minute you are tempted stop to scan ahead and listen, all mature whitetails within sight or hearing will identify you as a dangerously hunting human and will quickly depart from the area, so don’t stop except to fire at an acceptable quarry. This ultra-slow drive technique greatly increases the likelihood deer ahead will be seen moving left or right along the line of advancing stand hunters.

Even seasoned hunters can learn new methods to make their hunts more successful. Find more in the fall issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.