Do you keep hunting your best stand during the rut or keep moving?

The rut can change day by day and even hour by hour. One minute it is dead and the next you got bucks running everywhere. If you have a best stand location for the rut, do you keep hunting it attempting to be in that place when the inevitable occurs? Or do you move around to "lesser" quality rut stands knowing you are not hunting the best location.

 

I stay with a hot stand till sighting decrees....especially during the rut. It some times takes day or two for a mature buck to complete its swing and I have favorable condition for that stand I want my *** planted in it.
For example I hunted a a stand last year in Ohio for 5 1/2 days of 7 days hunting before I arrowed one of the bucks I was looking for....the condition were right and I was seeing plenty of deer on each sit. It was the last hour of the last day I was hunting there....

 

Depends on the wind

 

On our 9 acres I really only change stands if one of my other hunting comrads isn't hunting and their stand is open. There's 3 of us and we each have a good spot on a back ridge. The key to our success is scent elimination.

 

If you are not seeing anything at your "Best" stand what makes you think you will see action at a "lesser" stand?

 

Pretty simple, if our hunting didnt/isnt causing pressure and a decrease in sighting then there would be no reason to move. However we know that isn't always the case based on conditions and access to and from an area.
A lesser stand maybecome more productive if the above has taken place, or the conditions are more favorable for that given stand vs your "better" stand.

What I am getting at is don't let the fear of "burning out" a stand stand in your way.... Stay with it till you killed him or conditions change and the stand isn't as productive for what ever reason. Who cares if the stand is burned out if you have already have a good one hanging....

 

While it's isn't popular in today whitetail hunting, based on the trend of articles and Internet info....I believe being aggressive and persistent will in the long run kill you more bucks...the waiting till it's all perfect crap sounds great...if you have the time and land to plant your *** in other areas that are almost as good while your waiting on perfect....but For most guys they don't have those resources .... For them they are better off getting a sore butt hunting the best they have.
If it doesn't pan out...well then move on to plan B but don't not play your A game because your waiting for the stars to line up.

 

I feel like ever spot I sit is the absolute best spot I could be for that day or I wouldn't be setting there. The wind changes from day to day here, sometime it will do a 180 from morning to evening hunts. So I'm always adapting and changing with it....with that said, I rarely sit the same tree/area twice (50+ hunts) in a season.

 

I've always been a fan of the thought process "don't leave deer to find deer". Meaning if I'm in the deer and a spot is hot I'll continue hunting it until that changes. All too often I think we talk ourselves into bouncing around and going other spots so we can try them out or hunt a "fresh" stand and we end up taking ourselves out of the money spot. At least I know I've done that in the past.

 

During the full swing of the rut I become impatient when I'm not seeing any thing. I'll make several stand changes if I know I'm the only one hunting that day. Sometimes it's just out of a need to sit in a more comfortable set up and get some circulation and stretching in.

I still hunt from stand to stand so it takes quite a bit longer than it normally would and don't even mind bumping a doe or two if it happens.

It paid off last year, wasn't in the new stand but 20 minutes when I shot the buck in my avatar. Logging on the neighboring property and lack of sightings from my favorite stand near that border. Think I made 5 changes that day and it was my second sit in that stand.

 

Agreed. If you are seeing action I would not move either. And Trial said it too, hunt it while it is hot and worry about burning the stand out later while you have a good crack at it instead of waiting only till the perfect moment.

I was more thinking when things are slow. As you are waiting for things to pick up. Do you keep your butt in that "Best" stand and keep hunting it till things pick up or do you keep moving around hoping to find a "hot spot" knowing you are leaving your "Best" stand open.

 

If my "best" stand isn't producing it's probably not my best stand. I'm moving until I find where the deer are at.

 

Typically how long do you wait till you decide a stand isn’t producing? I’m not sure it can be that simple although sometimes it is. One day a stand can be hot and another day not. If you sit all day in your best stand and nothing happens. It could be hot as heck the next day. On your first all day sit and you see little to nothing are you abandoning it based on one day? If you have previous year’s of experience on the same property you often will have a stand that produces more than other stands year in and year out. That is the stand I’m referring to.

 

Really depends on the wind and what the deer are doing .

Like everyone else , I have my favorite stand as the rut is kicking in and am always a little depressed if I can't be there because of the wind direction but I have sat it a couple of seasons and just knew that I needed to be somewhere else . Both of the seasons that I left that stand , I had a hot doe that ran up and down the creek in search of a buck and she never found one . I took it as a sign , if she couldn't find a buck there then my chances were not very good .

I did return to the stand later in the season and never did see much in the way of buck activity either of those years . If there not there , you should defiantly be prepared to move on .

 

If your wanting to kill mature bucks they decide what is best and you do not. I keep rotating thru the rut, but I hunt more.

 

A "rut" hunt would go something like this for me.

5am till 9am down wind of a doe bedding area or primary food source, which are often one and the same here...WIND direction determines where this sit will take place.

10am till 2pm in a funnel with the wind in my favor...not blowing in the direction of deer that will be using said funnel....again, WIND direction will determine where this set takes place.

3pm till dark on an edge up close to a buck bed...wind has to be favorable for the buck to bed there and not blow my scent to the bed or route he leaves the bed on...again, WIND direction will determine where this set takes place.

I have over 200k acres of public land to hunt (all together) within an hour drive from the house. So I already know where 100's of funnel's, doe and buck bedding areas are located.

 

I don't have a "best" stand. I hunt several "good" stands based on the information available to me and my gut feeling for the moment.

 

If it is a hot stand, I will hunt it. I made this very mistake last year and when I was not there a few days, my #2 Buck came through at 11AM less than 20 yards from my stand.

 

Agree. My brother has a stand that he could shoot a book buck out of every year. Its in the perfect "rut" spot that bucks run during the rut. Depends on the wind direction whether he hunts it or not.

 

Will be hunting Central Wisconsin this weekend with my wife. Montello/Oxford area. Time to get her on her first deer (regardless of antler size). Will be hunting hard this weekend to get something down before the rut!