An Excerpt from the New Audiobook

BEFORE YOU START to read this article, allow me to make a few suggestions.

Grab a pen and paper to take down a few of these ideas for a quick reference, so you do not forget any of them and also, empty your bladder now so there are no “accidents” from laughing your head off.

Strange as some of these may sound, they do and have worked for me in the past.

My buddy Tom came up with this one.

He takes some reflective tape and puts it on the back of his arrow between the fletching and the nock. When I first saw this, I thought to myself that this was a wasted effort. Then I helped him track a deer at night.

Whitetails are smart animals and using a few of Marullo’s tricks can help bowhunters bag them on a consistent basis.
(Photo: USFWS)

He shined his hi-powered flashlight ahead in the direction the deer traveled, and there was his arrow on the ground, off the beaten deer path. Had it not been for the reflective tape, we might have walked right past that arrow. We would have missed all the information the blood on that arrow told us.

He told me he lost an arrow while practicing and asked me to help him look for it. I immediately reminded him that it was already very dark outside and we should wait until daylight. He took me outside and shined his light. Viola! There was his arrow shining like the morning sun.

Here is another one that worked like a charm for me. Now, you better sit down for this one. I would hate to have you fall down laughing.

One Halloween, I saw a friend’s spooky display. In that array of horrors was a dummy he had filled with straw. It was sitting in a chair on his front porch.

A light bulb went on in my head. I went home and started my own “Halloween” dummy. The following summer, my masterpiece was ready. I dressed him in camo and took him into the woods to my deer stand. I strapped my new hunting buddy up in the stand and left him there for the deer to see.

The whitetails soon got used to seeing that dummy, and on opening morning, a different dummy was up there. Only this one could draw a bow and harvest a deer. I was amazed at how well this worked.

Pretty cool, huh?

Make sure you tie it in good and tight, so it stays upright. It would be a useless attempt if the original dummy did not look realistic—at least realistic enough to fool the deer.

Here is another tip, Try to think like a deer.

In my hunting classes, I ask my students to listen to a sound and tell me what it is. I then proceed to walk around the room and continue to do so while I ask what are they hearing. If I get no correct answer, I clap my hands to match my footsteps. It is not long before some alert student proclaims that I have created a rhythm to my step.

That’s right!

We are the only animal in the woods who has a rhythm to our walking, and everyone walking with us has the same beat. As a matter of fact, strange as THIS may sound, but it is not unusual to have the person that is following you place his foot in the exact spot yours was. How weird is that?

If you want to fool that big boy, then try walking to your stand with a broken rhythm. Have you ever heard a squirrel when he prances around gathering his food? Three or four fast steps…stop…five or six fast steps…stop… and so on.

Now, I do not expect you to close the car door and then take two or three steps and stop.

But once I get 100 yards or so from my tree stand, I stop and let the other hunters with me continue walking to their spot.

Once the woods have quieted down, which usually only takes about five minutes or so, I then walk like a squirrel that last 100 yards. I know you are saying to yourself, “Come on… isn’t that a bit much?”

I can only tell you that it has worked for me, and it has worked more than once. As a matter of fact, one time I was caught still getting in my stand when a huge buck walked right in on me. My trick worked so well, he had no idea I had invaded his turf.

Here is a little trick for you. Where there are deer, there are also turkeys. Both are extremely wary animals, and along with that comes highly receptive senses, particularly their hearing and sight. Either one is very tough to sneak up on. With that said, it is not uncommon to see the whitetails feeding fairly close to the turkeys.

I tried an experiment one day. I set my portable blind up on the edge of a field one day while hunting turkeys. Early in the predawn, I set up a few turkey decoys near the blind and then climbed into my humble abode and waited for the turkeys.

Although that particular day did not produce any gobblers in the field, it did bring a few deer. As soon as the deer hit the open field, they showed signs of extreme caution as they looked directly at my blind.

After two weeks, at least it seemed like that, (actually only a few long minutes later), they decided they did not like the big bush that was not there yesterday. I took my mouth call and softly yelped a few times, and like magic, the deer decided that all was safe. They paid no attention to the blind at all after that and actually fed much closer to me.

The smile on my face showed that it is true. You really are never too old to learn something new.

Listen Up for More Great Bow Hunting Tips

Marullos’s new audiobook.

TF&G Hunting Editor and Master Bowhunter Education Instructor Lou Marullo has released his first-ever audio book String Theory For Bowhunters. Learn the ins and outs of bowhunting. He covers everything from getting started to high level strategies and tricks to help you bag whitetails, wild turkeys, hogs and more. This fun listen is narrated by Marullo himself and is filled with humor and wild anecdotes. Get the book in the Itunes store, audiobooks.com and other top e-book platforms.

—story by LOU MARULLO