This is my first year hunting on private land. I have worked so hard scouting, setting up cameras, creating areas, mock scrapes, setting up stands, moving stands, etc. For the first month or so of bow season, i had only gotten a handful of pictures of bucks. I have one picture of a monster. You could barely even make out the deer in the picture but you could clearly see his rack. I was so excited. But this was the only time i saw him. I didn't see another picture of him. Then just recently as we've been having some pre rut activity, he starts showing up on camera and now i am getting good quality pictures of him but i've got him on camera at my dad's girlfriends spot which i am not allowed to hunt. The earliest i've got him on camera though is 7:30 pm and it gets too dark to soot at 6:30pm. Well i've got this new spot where i set up a camera where i think he's coming from but i don't have a stand there. I was hoping he would eventually show up at another one of my stands where i never had him on camera. Yesterday we had a W wind and i went to go sit in my stand and even though he had never been there i hoped that he would eventually pass through. On my way to my stand i passed the new spot and decided to check the cameras. OH BOY! There was lot's of action. This buck had been there and was sparring with many new bucks. None the likes of him though. Last minute i decided to move my stand there. So i go grab my stand from the other location. I checked the camera while there too and only saw a couple does. I get set up in this new location at about 4pm and at 6pm the buck i've been after comes out of the NW. He looked up at my stand right away. I never moved or made a sound but he kept looking up at me. He went around my shooting lane where i had him on camera and kind of did a half circle around the front of me. When he got directly in front of me at about 10yrds, there was a gust of wind and he bolted. I'm guessing he smelled me as he was directly down wind of me when he circled me. By this time it was 6:15pm and it was about to get dark. I waited about 10 minutes and i tried to sneak out of my stand. But i'm also nervous he heard me leave on the 4wheeler that was parked 60 yards away. Will he be back? Do i keep hunting this stand? What do i do now?
That's bow hunting bud. Are you using a ladder stand, by chance? The reason i ask is they stick out pretty badly. Regardless, it hard to move a stand during the season and not have deer notice them. it is their home. if you were just there cutting lanes, then he likely picked up some of your scent from that. In my opinion he knew you were there and circled around you to be 100%. The good news is that it's the rut and bucks are completely unpredictable and you can move as much as you wish but it's really on where the does are at now. there's still a good chance he could return to that stand location, but it can be extremely difficult to get a shot off if he knows that stand is there. I'm suggesting picking a stand location and sticking to it at this point. I wouldn't put much trust in the trail cameras, because all bucks are on the move and don't just hang out at one location this time of year. find a location with a ton of tracks and set up about 20 yards from those tracks. the bucks will be passing through those points looking for does in heat. Good luck bud.
well, he will likely change up a bit, especially that he saw and smelled you..they don't usually tolerate that. Hopefully he will frequent another stand location, the only thing that will make him come back to that stand would be a hot doe..
First things first... let’s see some pics of this Beast! Secondly. I would let your stand cool down a bit. If you have a cell cam hang it and wait till you get pics of him again. Leave the ladder stand and sneak in when you go to hunt and hang a hang on or climber that you will be well hidden in maybe 30 or 40 yds away. If he comes back he will check that stand he knows about every time. To be honest it probably depends on if that’s his Core area. If not he will have an easier time avoiding it all together. If it is then he lives there for a reason and he will eventually be back. Good luck. Remember not to hunt a bad wind and try not to leave ground scent where he may come from. They are like Buddhist monks. Very in tune with their surroundings.
