Question about sets you have been saving for the a certain p

[mheichelbech]

I have a couple sets I've been saving for the rut and later in the season. Do you normally check around for sign before or immediately after you have hunted it for the first time? In one case it's a fairly small woodlot (25 acres) so not leaving scent is paramount. However I am getting curious to see if any rub or scrape lines have opened up, etc. The area seems to be extremely sensitive so I am reluctant to even have a camera up.

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[DeerDylan]

If I know it's sensitive or a spot that usually produces at a certain time I won't go in until I'm hunting it.

[ Post made via Android ]

[mauser06]

I have a few spots like that...I've found if I hunt it or go in and pressure the resident doe it's not nearly as good during the rut action...


This year I'm waiting till things start heating up before I even think about going near those spots..

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[mheichelbech]

When would the target dates be? Normal periods like end of October and beginning of November?

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[Matty]

If I know it's sensitive or a spot that usually produces at a certain time I won't go in until I'm hunting it.

[ Post made via Android ]

Same here.

When I do go in to hunt it, I have a plan in place based on prior knowledge but I try to incorporate a way to slowly "scout" my way in. Fortunately things don't seem to change too much around here year to year. The same spots are generally productive over and over.

If I'm not seeing the sign, I might keep moving until I hit what I'm looking for. But that depends on some other factors. You'll hear me say this a million times too, but I go by my gut instinct. If the sign is lacking, but something says setup anyway, I do.

If the hunt doesn't turn out as expected, I might give the area another shot the next time things are right, but focus more on scouting it. Get in around 9 or 10am and sneak around till I find what I was looking for. If I don't, I go home and that spot likely gets re-scouted post season to see if sign ever popped up.

When would the target dates be? Normal periods like end of October and beginning of November?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

For me I try to go off of what I've seen there in the past. I believe mature bucks have kind of a pattern they run during the rut and they know when certain does come into estrous. I observed this the most at my old house where I would see particular bucks show up around the same days every year to breed certain does. I have seen other guys mention similar observations here too. For most of my spots those days are around the 6-9th of November but there are a few early and a few a little later.

The other reason I save spots, besides the rut, is for high pressure. With the introduction of xbows, bow season causes a lot of pressure here, but gun gets even more insane and lasts till the end of our winter season. So the deer have places they hide year after year. I save those for when all the other spots start going dead and stay out until then. Usually around December. It's also likely because of available cover change....there's way less cover by end of Nov early Dec. It starts to concentrate all the deer, mature bucks included.