Today I went out and did a little more of an in-depth scouting mission on a spot I hunted this year. We had about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground and it had been there for 4 days. I began scouting on the northern part of a long point for about two hours. I knew I would not find much because of the current wind conditions and it being winter and deer generally do not like to bed on the northern slopes in the cold. I walked for a good 1/2 mile-3/4th of a mile through some real thick stuff/blow downs on the northern side and did not find a single deer track. I was satisfied that I learned the lay of the land on the northern slopes and shot over to the southern side full of hope that I would find some deer tracks/beds. As soon as I hit the southern side of the point I immediately began to pick up deer tracks in the snow. What is the point? You cannot kill what is not there in any hunting environment. I used to hunt without regard to the wind and I would go for days and sometimes weeks without seeing a deer. Even though some times I could attribute my lack of success to my scent educating the deer/me simply sucking as a hunter, many times I was unsuccesful because I was hunting in spots that deer were simply not using at all for whatever reason. The spots "looked good" but did not produce. How can this observation help you? If you are not seeing deer, analyze all of the factors that cause you to place your stand in a specific location. If something doesn't add up, then change your stand location with most of your focus based on what the wind is telling you do. Seems like a simple concept but I think it is forgotten when we get too fancy.
Good Post! I always try to keep things basic. It is easy to over analyze everything. I truly believe we as hunters can do our best when we just follow our gut feelings, and never forget the basics. We have our eyes in the front of our head and that makes us a Predator. If you learn to just follow those gut feelings, sixth sense whatever you wanna call it. You will be successful more times than not and in lots of different situations. I killed one of my biggest Bucks on a little patch of woods that I had never set foot on til that morning. I had a hunch about the place, and I knew I needed an east wind to hunt it. I told my partner if he woke up and the wind was blowing out of the East I would not be to work on time. When I woke up to an east wind I was there before daylight trying to skylight trees and terrain enough to figure out just where to throw up a stand. Two hours later I killed a 9 point that was 26" around the neck up under the jaw and field dressed 245# Maybe it was Luck? Maybe there was something to that hunch? Dan
Good point, just make sure you don't weed out the places that you didn't find sign when conditions are different
Oh I won't. The side that didn't have any tracks needs a south/western wind. I scouted the same spot last year after it had those winds for a period of time and found tracks all over the place. The blowdowns and cover make it an ideal place for deer to bed without ever being seen.
We ran into this problem last year. I found a "perfect" tree to hunt near a corn field. It was a huge oak that could hold me and a camera guy easy. They only problem was it wasn't in a good spot. Hunting a marginal tree is better than a marginal spot in my book.
