Is it always your best? I don't know, sometimes, I find an area that I just love the environment, the surroundings, the "feel". But It isnt always the best place to be... You guys have a stand like this?
I had a stand like that several years ago that we called the "Pond Stand". It was a large oak tree on the edge of the woods overlooking a golden rod field with a pond that bordered the woods 20 yards in front of it. To my right about 150 yards was a large corn/alfalfa field. This stand was awsome, I got to watch ducks in the pond, not to mention all of the animals that would come in to get a drink (fox, coyote, raccoon, skunks, deer, ect). The stand was great for deer activity, the only problem was that the deer visited the opposite side of the pond more so shots were pretty few and far between. I did arrow my largest buck from that stand though.
If that Isn't the truth nothing Is. It happens to everyone and usually happens to me every year. I've got an area In my woods (100 yard circle) that's always been damn good year In and year out but this last year It did me nothing during the rut. Sign wasn't there like It usually was but like a dumb ass I hunted It anyway a few times because of It's past history In seeing good mature bucks run this swamp edge.
I've never shot two archery bucks from the same tree. I never realized that until just now. Hmph. Weird.
I have a tree that produces on a regular basis. I taken several deer/bucks from said tree. You can bet it'll hold a stand this year as well.
I have two favorite trees. I have hunted them both for years. One seems like nothing special, execpt it produces year after year. The other, well I just cannot figure it out. All the sign is there for it to be a producer, but I have yet to kill a deer out of it in 7 years of hunting it. I try really hard not to over hunt any tree and always only hunt a spot when the conditons are right for it (temps, winds direction, time of year), but I do have the one tree that I guess I have been trying to force it to happen from and just cannot.
Won't that still be a good place to atleast start for next season? There obviously was a reason for that buck to be there so it's safe to say that it would be a good start to start next season as deer usually will follow the same general routes every year, atleast around here they do. The stand I shot my buck from this year was within 10 yards of where I have killed two other bucks, two of my buddies have both shot a buck from there as well. Every season I know that I can atleast start in that area, they may not be using it at the same time or in the same exact way, but its a pretty safe bet to say that they will be in there.
I have one stand that produces "deer" for me every year... Got my rifle buck from there this year, and my biggest doe, also my first bow buck last year, and I always see deer there. I love setting there, it is on a field edge, and if something steps out you pretty much have good chances of getting a shot off. Im going to inquire the landowner and the guy who Cuts the Hay there this year, and see if he will let me plant a small food plot there, hopefully to funnel them a little tighter and to bring them out a little earlier.... Even so though.... I love sitting there, it just feels good, maybe because it is where Ive had most of my luck...
But come Oct. and Nov. it would wouldn't it? Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you into hunting the terrain now instead of hunting sign? If that is the case, what changes in the terrain from year to year? A saddle between known bedding areas and known feeding areas is going to be that same saddle next year. Unless you learned your last bucks habits intimately enough to know that particular deers seemingly every move, what he wanted is a GREAT indicator of what this years buck in his position will want. I fail to see how the actions of the bucks you killed this year don't relate to the way deer will act next year? (unless you just mean Nov. actions wont work in Sept. and vice versa, and not on a year to year basis)
How differently can two deer act in the exact same scenario? They feed, they bed...and one month out of the year all bets are off as they chase tail. Once you have pegged an areas feeding sites and bedding sites...havent you got it pegged and it becomes a game of being there at the right time? Real questions, I am lost here.. I guess my whole question is, take those maps you were looking at this past season...you picked stands based on terrain features and locations of food sources....how will this change next year, at the same time of year? Crop fields will still be crop fields, and oak stands will still be oak stands...that ridge is the same ridge next year. Fill me in here, maybe I can actually learn something here.
I hunted a spot for 7 years and never shot a deer from there. That spot was one of my favorite places to sit on a crisp sunny morning. It was right on the top corner of the mountain and you got to watch the valley to your left wake up and then the show slowly rolled to your right, it was spectacular. On the flip side of that, this past year I hung in a tree on the last day that I lost my buck out of and I know I will kill out of in the future. There is nothing poetic about it, its just a killing tree.
deff, sometimes i find a spot for the "feel" i have never posted any of my deer taken on this site so yall are prob like, "yeah yeah isaiah!" =-)
Since my dad, brother and I have become engulfed with habitat management we have been constantly manipulating and improving deer habitat so obviously different spots are going to become prevalent and thus more productive. But sill, there are still some spots that produce year in and year out, regardless of conditions.
I have a couple that are just like that. They just have that deery feel to them, but they may not be all that great every year.
I know a certain little funnel in Southern Illinois that is as close to a guarantee as you will get. You spend 5 days in that tree in November and you will kill a P&Y buck.
