I hate to start out my posting with a rant but I cant help but feel defeated everytime I spoke deer on my route to stands and it happens often. Heres my deal, I try and be as stealth and quite as possible walking to my stands and I feel I am being quite as one can be. Alot of my stand locations sit on field borders or a few yards in, and the ONLY way to get to them is walking through the fields. But I spoke deer already out feeding everytime. Im in stand now... TWO HOURS BEFORE SHOOTING LIGHT to try and avoid spooking deer feeding in the fields but nope everytime they are out there.... I feel like im missing something obvious to the average hunter. What am I doing wrong why were they out there at 4:30-5 in the am dont they sleep?? After three years of busting deer on my way to stands im starting to feel defeated and discouraged. Are these night stand locations? How does a location justify being a night or morning setup? I promise I wont make it a habit of asking a lot of questions that im sure have been answered a thousand times over. Thanks ladies and gents.
Bright moon, more night time feeding activity. Deer sleep plenty during the day as well. Also, not sure of your location but if you don't have much in the way of predators that could be a reason as well. If deer feel more secure being nocturnal Can you post an aerial of the land you hunt? Maybe people can help you come up with a better route.
Yes I would definately stop heading to those stands in the mornings. Wait to go in to sit those until you have a good wind and sit those stands in the afternoon. By spooking those deer you are also adding a lot of hunting pressure to those spots and on those deer. If not already, soon they will know your stand locations and start to avoid that area all together, also they will become more and more nocturnal. If you have other stands you could hunt in the morning that doesnt require walking threw their food at night, hunt them. im sure the guys will help you out as much as they can. Got a lot of great experience and knowledge on this site. Dont get discouraged. Its a learning process and trust me its all worth it.
The map is orientated with N on the top. Its hard to tell but you can see a trail through the woods going N-S. I have a stand set up on the N end of trail with lanes to the field and the trail and to the right of me. The stand is facing N.
I would go at night or find a way in around the field. Next year rake a path to your stand so you can get in silent. Is there a way around the feild that has a dirt run way that you can walk instead of going right through it? I cant see the map to well my computer at work wont let me blow it up. Good luck and keep trying.
Some areas are morning stands, some areas are evening stands... and some you just can't hunt due to poor entry or exit. You have to identify those and live with it and work around it.
None of it is dirt anymore. The woods are on top of a ridge, which are all producing oaks. And the field to the north and plus the trail though the woods are in soybeans. To the south east of my stand is swamp. The water is well over my knees. And to the west of the woods is 3 miles of crp land. I guess its just a night stand cause literally the only way to get in is from the north. Kinda stinks but sounds like every stand i have up is a evening stand....
I'm in Aus so feel free to ignore me.. I would definitely argue against the "bright moon, more night time feeding activity".. Here we hate the full/bright moon!! Especially the moon that is still up in the early morning. Our deer (7 species, including the fallow deer which has very similar behaviour to your whitetails) almost always stop feeding and go and bed down as soon as the moon rises at night. This means the deer simply are nowhere to be found until the next afternoon/evening only to disappear again as the moon rises. My theory behind this behaviour is that the moon makes it far easier for predators to see the deer at night so they simply stay hidden. This can be good though in that the deer who haven't been able to feed enough in the morning are driven so strongly by hunger out to feed in the arvo and this is when they often make mistakes. Anyway! Back to the OP. I think you may just have to head in even earlier and if you have to take a far wider route to avoid spooking deer and scenting up you immediate area. I have done tests here where I have found that scenting up an entry point to a feeding area can (if you do your homework) help direct deer traffic to an area that is easier for you to hunt them. As I said, I would head in even earlier or switch to afternoon hunts and catch out those deer when they arrive in the fields where they feed instead of finding them already there and pretty much ready to leave.
Go in earlier for evening hunts. Sounds like they are out feeding already. Need to be in there before that. That is a good problem if deer are all over early.
Deer are nocturnal by nature...walking through the food source under the cover of darkness sould not be plan A, or plan B, C, D and so on for that matter.
Do you know where they bed during the day? If so don't try and hunt them over the food source in the morning, try and cut them off between food and bed. I always try and hunt travel corridors in the morning and food sources in the evening. Hope this helps.
You could be correct, I just know that I bump more deer heading in and see more in the fields driving to the property during a full moon than I do other times. I don't have the luxury of hunting food plots and ag fields, but I like RugerRedbone's strategy.
I try to avoid all field edges for morning hunts during the first 3 weeks of Oct unless there is a way I can walk in the timber to get to the stand and even then before season starts I try to clear a path to it. Once the last week of Oct hits your now in pre-rut time so daytime movement starts to increase so you might have spooked a few deer walking in the morning but with added day time movement your chance of them coming back or new deer coming out are better.
Some of my best stands are only afternoon stands and it sucks cause most of my hunting is in the morning. But I know I will jump deer if I go in during the early morning and that will do more harm than good. Either find a back way in or only sit it in the afternoon. Pattern the deer and find where they are bedding and get near there for morning sits. Generally speaking... edge of a bedding area = good morning spot edge of a feeding area = good afternoon spot.
