Ken Nordberg scans the snow for footprints that indicate where and when to harvest a buck.

What I’ve been teaching hunters during the past 41 years is basically the same as what had to be known by most North American deer hunters 100 years or more ago. Ironically, such knowledge is as important to deer hunters today as it was back then, but for different reasons. One reason is, we modern whitetail hunters are now finding it difficult to fulfill our obligation to keep whitetail numbers (which can double annually) within the carrying capacities of their ranges, resulting in unnecessary winter die-offs, whitetails overwhelming their natural winter foods and increasing their dependence on farm crops and increasing deer/car accidents. Another reason is that we deer hunters are now facing increasing anti-hunting sentiment.

To counter all this for the sake of our whitetails and one of our country’s oldest family traditions—deer hunting—we need to become better, more successful deer hunters, faultless, conservation- and fair-chase-minded, and humane like our wise deer hunting fathers and grandfathers determined we should when modern hunting regulations were enacted in the 1930s.

Each time I come across fresh deer tracks in snow while scouting or hunting today, I am curious about what kind of deer made those tracks. Via my many years of independent track studies and measurements since 1960, I learned a hoofprint (not including impressions made by dewclaws) that is 2 to 2 3/8 inches long in a northern U.S. state in fall was made by a fawn. If 2 5/8 inches long, it was made by a yearling doe. If 3 inches long, it was made by a mature doe or yearling buck. If alone, it was probably made by a yearling buck. If 3 3/8 inches long, it was made by a 2 1/2-year-old buck. If 3 5/8 to 4 inches long, it was made by a 3 1/2- to 6 1/2-year-old buck. Tracks 4 inches long are made by the largest bucks in your hunting area, generally dominant breeding (boss) bucks.

The next thing I want to know is, was that deer alarmed or not? The reason is, it is generally a waste of time to hunt an alarmed whitetail and its surroundings for four days or more. If that deer’s tracks formed elongated, 4-hoof, C- or J-shaped track formations 15 to 25 feet apart, it was bounding, tail up, and greatly alarmed. It will therefore be extra alert all day, expecting pursuit by you or a wolf, and it could now be a considerable distance away—perhaps having even abandoned its home range for one or more days, or two weeks if it was a big buck. Moreover, as it bounded away, its tarsal glands located on the inner surfaces of its hind legs emitted an ammonia-like odor that warned all downwind deer it was fleeing from something very dangerous. Much of that odor fell to the ground, forming a wide carpet that can be detected by deer up to four days later, meanwhile acting as a deer repellent.

The sounds made by that deer while bounding away—loud thumping hoofbeats, snapping branches and perhaps vocal sounds called snort, also warned other deer far to the left and right of the path it took—temporarily ruining your odds of taking a deer in a sizeable swath of your hunting area.

If the deer’s tracks were roughly 18 inches apart and positioned well on either side of a straight line between them, it was walking and not alarmed. Furthermore, it was engaged in some activity that normally occurs between 4 and 10 a.m. (morning) or between 4 and 8 p.m. (afternoon and evening), most likely heading to or from a feeding area or feeding in a feeding area,

The next thing I want to know is, if the deer was heading to or from a feeding area, where is that feeding area? This is good to know during a hunting season because that feeding area is where that deer will spend more of its time than anywhere else while up and moving about during daylight hours. Your odds of seeing that deer during legal shooting hours will therefore be best at that feeding area. If I found those tracks early in the morning, this deer was likely heading toward its current favorite feeding area, meaning. If I follow these tracks, I will find it.

Upon finding those tracks, you might actually be standing in that deer’s current favorite feeding area. It is therefore good to know how to identify whitetail feeding areas: Graze (greens) areas in fall until the second week in November; Browse (thin stems of woody shrubs) areas after that, and areas full of fallen acorns anytime. If those tracks zigzag into the wind off-trail, the deer was feeding on something. Lots of droppings of various sizes, fresh and old, are also a sign of a feeding area.

If it’s late in the morning when you come across very fresh tracks in snow, the deer that made those tracks was very likely heading back to its bedding area. If the date is between November 3rd and 17th (when whitetails breed) and the deer is a doe, having 3-inch tracks, and its tracks are accompanied by 4-inch-long hooves being dragged in the snow, that doe is in heat (lasting 24 to 26 hours) and that buck is a dominant breeding buck—the largest of bucks in the surrounding square-mile. Your odds of taking that buck while stand hunting downwind or crosswind within sight of that doe’s bedding area will be excellent if you can get there soon without those deer knowing it.

What you have just learned about deer tracks illustrates how track measurements and the knowledge of what deer normally do during hunting seasons can greatly improve your odds of taking mature bucks and other deer. This isn’t all you need to know to become regularly successful at it, however, but it’s a good and very reliable beginning.

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