First off new to the site my name is mac I'm from southern Minnesota. So my season has been going slow up tell now (only seeing 1.5 year old bucks and runty fawns). Anyways halloween weekend has always been the kick off for buck movement in my area so I jumped at the chance to get in the stand tonight when I was able to clock out early. About an hour before sundown I heard a grunt to the west and after a couple minutes of squinting I saw an 8 point swaggering my way. First spotted him at around 80 yards, he came in to about 60 yards and stopped right in front of an abandoned ladder stand, looked around a bit made a scrape and then marked it (wish I had the camera). The buck then turned towards me but took the trail that skirts my stand at 45 yards then crossed a berm that forms the property line. I hit the grunt tube once he slipped out of site which drove him nuts he grunted back and destroyed all the brush around him. He started working his way back towards me however a doe jumped out near him and he exited my area in pursuit. I have no idea what the buck would score but i know it would make me happy to get my hands on his rack. So my question is do I sit in the ladder stand over the scrape, freshen it up and see if he comes back to mark his territory. Or is it too early to put out estrus doe urine and try to draw the buck into my stand, I have had success with it in the past but never tried it this early. The ladder stand is abandoned only myself and another guy have permission to hunt the property, we inspected the stand this summer and it is still safe so we left it as an extra stand I just don't like bowhunting in stands with armrests. Well I'm done rambling any advice would be appreciated
Welcome to the site Mac! I'd stick with your stand and try the scent. He's already interested in the ladies according to your observations, and I'm with you, I hate arm rests. I grew up in Rochester, but I keep moving north
X2! I hate ladder stands but if you hunt it I would not sit the entire hunt and stand on the seat! Your silloette is not natural if you sit in the seat or if you get up to take the shot! Looks like a tree trunk in space! They (deer) seem to figure that out! This has been my experience with ladder stands. I will hunt them if conditions are correct though! This would be an early AM hunt & watch that scrape! SilentSling
The tree the ladder stand is strapped to is pretty exposed and the style of ladder stand wouldn't allow me to stand up without feeling like I'm going to faceplant off the front. The stand I set up is in an oak that has five large split trunks coming off the main trunk. It feels like Im sitting in a glove, I have all sorts of cover around me while still having shooting lanes on every trail within my comfortable range. This location gets lots of traffic but its mainly nocturnal. Would getting out early and dragging a urine soaked wick along the trail that crosses his scrape and crosses my stand to the NW be effective this time of year or am I going to spook the buck. I'm hunting the evening tommorrow as I have an 6:30 am appointment with a corn field and some sky carp.
