I have a tree on public land that always produces. I have shot a deer from this tree several years in a row. I live where I can shoot several deer so I find I often go back to this tree to fill doe tags. Just wondered how much "rest" people suggest a stand should have between hunts? Thanks for any input.
Sometimes ill hunt stands 2-3 days in a row. I dont kill big bucks though. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy s4
well if you don't spook any deer or they don't smell you i would only give it a day. If you do spook any deer or worse they smell you i would give it a few days for them to calm down a bit.
Just remember that your scent lingers a little and deer can be spooked after you have exited the woods. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy s4
I give them at least a week until the Rut comes in. If I have the right wind during the Rut, I will hunt that stand as many days as I possibly can until I get the buck I am after.
If you can get In And out without them seeing or smelling you I would say you could hunt it several days in a row then maybe give it a week rest but If I have a stand that I think can produce a buck I generally won't take a doe from that stand because I think you mess up the area for awhile when tracking and dragging out a deer you're leaving your stink all over the place and probably making a lot of noise too.
I use a climber but I have climbed the same tree a couple times in a week pursuing a certain buck. It depends on the wind of course and your scent management.
This is very true. This year is the first year im implementing buck and doe stands. Hopefully ill be done harvesting does by the last week in October. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy s4
If this is public land, how much pressure does it get? Letting the stand rest a few weeks at a time won't do any good if there are a bunch of other guys in the area all the time. (Maybe you have better luck than I do with finding a good spot on public land).
I don't hunt the same stand for three to four days. i hunt one then a nother and then another. Even if I'm not picked off or leave little scent. i try not to leave a pattern going in and out either unless its a spot I'm forced to travel the same because of terrain. during the rut if I'm in a high traffic area ill hunt multiple days in that spot since so many deer are on the move ant try to have another hot spot lined up if needed. during late season I've seen as many as three deer come frome one stand less than a week. deer are more committed to the food sources and conserving energy. but we all watch the wind and descent as much as possible.
I thought the same thing until last season turned this on its head. I shot 2 does in 30min on Saturday morning both ran about 50yds, I got down dragged them both out and went home for the day. Next day I decided not to hunt that stand just for that very reason, this was my top stand for the biggest buck I had on camera on this property. After a week I pulled the camera and I could not believe that the very next day (sunday) the buck walked past at about 8am at the very spot I killed my does. This was the only day picture I had of him during the season. I did kill him about 2 weeks later in a different stand 200yds away
That's interesting my thoughts on it were more of a theory than anything I have been able to prove but let me ask you this, did that buck show more then once on camera? I mean the buck would have to travel through the area at least once to smell that you were there and maybe that morning was the first time he came through. If he came by multiple times after that would tell me he wasn't affected by it and shoots my theory down. Now if you had been on stand that would have been great but what if he had passed by before daylight and smelled you would he have returned at some point to give you an opportunity? Also was this a highly pressured buck? I think that could make a difference also. Anyway it's cool you got the deer I bet you weren't too happy seeing that deer on camera the next day.
We all know you can over hunt a particular stand or area, but beyond that, every stand has it's own set of variables when making this determination. Morning hunts vs evening hunts is also a factor, IMO. I have some stands that I feel I can effectively hunt 3-4 times a week and others maybe only once in a span of 7-10 days. But this is private land where I am the only hunter. On public land...I would probably have to be more aggressive.
The more you visit the stand the more scent you leave..I have stands that i only sit during the rut with the correct wind direction. Typically i sit 2 hunts in a stand and then leave it for a couple days. I also have morning and evening stands. As well as multiple wind directions.
He showed up the next day because he didn't have the chance to smell that you were there yet. But I'll bet that buck didn't show himself near that stand for a while after that day.
I'll hunt a stand until the deer are spooky or circling around it to avoid it, then I'll leave it alone for a week.
I can tell you from my own experience that hunting the same stand multiple times in a week can definitely educate the deer to hunting activity. Last season, I thought I had the perfect stand location for some freezer-filling action, which was the case for a brief period. But then I noticed the deer avoiding the area completely after I had hunted it consecutive days, they never came back. It could have been my travel route, my scent, etc. but I had to abandon that spot completely. Maybe your circumstances are a little different than mine, but if it were me, I'd let the spot rest for quite a while, maybe 2 weeks just to be safe.
After he showed the next day I never got another picture of him at that stand but that was because the cows nocked my camera and it was facing the wrong way, (I made a thread about it last year just after it happened). I guess I will never know if he returned but what I can say is I have him on camera for over 3 min at the spot and to me if he got there and smelled me from the day before and felt threatened he would not have hung around that long. The land I hunt only has me hunting so I would say the pressure is very low. There are a lot of factors that I don't have the answers for which could have played in my favor e.g. I was set bk about 50 yds from the edge of a very large field so was the wind blowing my scent away into the field, leaving very little scent in the woods to worry him?? Did it rain that night??? Did my scent control help keep my scent low?? I guess the main thing for me that season was I went from the worst feeling every and kicking myself for 2 weeks to the best season I have had to date I should be getting my mount bk in the next few weeks
