• Don’t be afraid to use a ground blind for sikas. Normal precautions must be taken however. Make sure they’re scent free and you place it downwind. Unlike with turkey hunting, it helps to have shoot- through netting covering the openings. It also helps to brush it up to blend in with existing vegetation and/or tuck it in some existing shrubs, needle rush or common reed.
• Practice shooting a lot as these are small animals with small kill zones. The smallest whitetail target will make a large sika stag target.
• The jury is out concerning scents and lures as I don’t think enough hunters have experimented enough with them to give a definitive thumbs up or down. If they have- no one is talking. One good sika hunter I know told me he once had sikas licking the leaves that he had sprayed an apple flavored foam on. Marketed and sold currently is The Sika Bomb and Downwind Scents Foam.
• Knee or hip boots are advised depending on the water levels in your hunting area.
• Concerning the proper camo; if you’re hunting from the ground then its good to match the habitat. Otherwise being still, scent free and playing the wind is much more important
• The peak of the rut occurs around the third week in October. I like to hunt late September and early October best as stag movement and bugling really increases then.
Good luck this season. Get out there and have fun.