I went out Thursday morning to get a final hunt in before my surgery. Around 8 am a 160" 10 pointer came walking from a setaside field. He was 15 yards from me in the open looking around. He looked up at me and backed up. He hopped a fence and walked 30 yards to the right of me and kept on walking like nothing happened. On my trail camera, I have pictures of him walking right by my stand down into a thicket. He comes back the same way. But since he saw me and changed his path, do you guys think it will stay like that? When he looked up at me he wasn't scared, he just kept on walking. To be honest after he walked by me he set me up for a 20 yard shot, but since I was at college and wasn't planning on hunting i didn't have my lanes cut. Do you guys think this will change his path? Also, I got knee surgery so I can't get into my stand. Do you think putting a blind up will be too big of a change for him? Thank you.
How high are you in the tree? He might have seen you in that stand before without you knowing it. Getting down in the dark or getting in it in the morning. He might look at the stand everytime he goes through who knows. Deer are amazing animals and there survival instincts are top notch. I would maybe try a new tree or hunt the stand again but turn it so you are more concealed. use natural cover some small pines are great to help you blend in.
I was hunting in a tripod that is about 12 feet in the air. I know for a fact all of the deer know it is there. But I've shot a couple deer out of it and have had plenty of deer walk by me while I was hunting. The thing that gets me is he backed up and changed his route after he looked up at me. But he was on a mission and I didn't stop him from going to where he wanted. My tripod has a burlap around the bottom and pampas grass wired to the bars around me. Last night I saw him 30 yards from my tripod chasing three does. So I don't think he necessarily saw me, instead I think he didn't feel comfortable with walking by. As of now I'm hunting out of a blind that is 10 yards from my tripod due to my knee surgery, so hopefully he walks by tonight. A couple of hours after hunting last night, I saw him bedded down with the does two hundred yards from my blind. So he wasn't spooked too badly.
