Multiple sits at the same spot

[Assassin73]

Very interesting post. I started realize the same trend last season.

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[dan]

It really goes to show you how important timing is... If you have good bedding areas plotted, or great ambushes, making sure your there on the right day is important because you may only get one chance.

[ihookem]

Ya know Dan if your buddy gets his oldest bucks in stands that are not preset stands, then it is safe to say a deer looks up and knows it's a danger zone. Are De Aquitos preset stands been there for a few years? If so and he is not seeing the oldest bucks on those stands, the old deer know it' means danger. I shot an 8 yr old doe on a preset stand and was amazed how quick it spotted me. This happened several times on that stand. Also, I watched " Marsh Bucks last night. My wife loved it !!! Snicker. Dan mentioned you need to hunt like a wolf. So true now days. I promised myself I would not hunt the same stand twice this year. I actually started hunting the big woods the same way you guys down here hunt marshes. I figured this out to a degree following wolf tracks. ( You can lern a lot from a wolf.) They do not cover an area twice unless it is a travel route like a big river hunting beaver and otters . They hunt an area once and that is it cause for two days after that the deer are on high alert. This is no different than us hunting a spot too often. Wolves know after a few times it is too much to hunt these deer on high alert. Go somewhere else where the element of surprise is to the hunters advantage. This year I scouted till I saw good sign with no fresh wolf or human sign. No buck but it worked on a 4yr old doe in the big woods and spent only 1/2 hour in a tree.

[Edcyclopedia]

This is certainly a good tactic a time or two around known bedding...

Rut stands are a different story, looking for a cruzer you never know what you encounter in a great funnel!

[Mario]

Very cool data, but I am not surprised by the results. I think mature deer are experts on memorizing their surroundings... what they see, what they smell, and what they hear... If something is out of the "norm" the game is up...

That being said I think if you own a large private parcel its possible to use those patterns to your advantage by making certain human pressure more the "norm" with your resident deer, but that is a whole other discussion

[PK_]

"Complete and utter surprise"

[Stanley]

Ya know Dan if your buddy gets his oldest bucks in stands that are not preset stands, then it is safe to say a deer looks up and knows it's a danger zone. Are De Aquitos preset stands been there for a few years? If so and he is not seeing the oldest bucks on those stands, the old deer know it' means danger. I shot an 8 yr old doe on a preset stand and was amazed how quick it spotted me. This happened several times on that stand. Also, I watched " Marsh Bucks last night. My wife loved it !!! Snicker. Dan mentioned you need to hunt like a wolf. So true now days. I promised myself I would not hunt the same stand twice this year. I actually started hunting the big woods the same way you guys down here hunt marshes. I figured this out to a degree following wolf tracks. ( You can lern a lot from a wolf.) They do not cover an area twice unless it is a travel route like a big river hunting beaver and otters . They hunt an area once and that is it cause for two days after that the deer are on high alert. This is no different than us hunting a spot too often. Wolves know after a few times it is too much to hunt these deer on high alert. Go somewhere else where the element of surprise is to the hunters advantage. This year I scouted till I saw good sign with no fresh wolf or human sign. No buck but it worked on a 4yr old doe in the big woods and spent only 1/2 hour in a tree.

That is interesting food for thought.

[dan]

Are De Aquitos preset stands been there for a few years? If so and he is not seeing the oldest bucks on those stands, the old deer know it' means danger

Im sure they associate the human ground scent in these spots with danger and remember human encounters and scent in these spots... As far as how long the stands were there? Some since he bought the property, but every year he adds some. Like the spots he moved to and killed a nice buck. He leaves the stand there afterwords.

[mheichelbech]

I am not sure if this is an answerable question or not but how far away would you typically need to be from your 1st/2nd stand sit to be away from the contaminated stand site and not have it become a place the bucks avoid? Assuming there was more than 1 entry/exit, could I take a different route and setup only 25 yards away, 50? Also, am guessing but what does it take for a site to "refreshen", I think I saw a guy say a month...is that about right?

[Stanley]

I am not sure if this is an answerable question or not but how far away would you typically need to be from your 1st/2nd stand sit to be away from the contaminated stand site and not have it become a place the bucks avoid? Assuming there was more than 1 entry/exit, could I take a different route and setup only 25 yards away, 50? Also, am guessing but what does it take for a site to "refreshen", I think I saw a guy say a month...is that about right?

I try and put my observation stand as far away from the target area as possible. In my opinion 25 yards is too close. I think 50 yards is too close. I like the 125 yard mark at minimum. The objective for me is to kill the buck and have as many chances as possible if I don't kill him that day. I don't want to stink the whole area up if I can help it. If you are sure the buck is where you think he is/will be then move in for the kill right away.

I hunt small properties so not burning them out means potentially more quality opportunities on the same property as the season progresses. If I can do my observation with binos from afar that is also a great way to go.

As far as an area re freshening, there are many variables. Let say the target area has the wind blowing towards you on entrance and exit. This means you have not let your scent blow into that area. Now the scent you leave on the ground is what needs to wash out. The more scent you leave in the area the longer it takes to wash out. Some would disagree but there is a difference in walking to and from the stand site with clean boots and gutting a doe in the area.

The wind is also a huge factor in washing out scent. A good windy day cleans scent up in an area up better than a light rain. As far as a time frame the windier the faster the scent will disperse. Strong winds are a blessing in disguise for more reasons than one.

[Brad]

Every archery deer I have killed in the past 3 years (6) have all been out of the first hunt in that spot. I've only hunted the same tree more than once a season on 1 occasion and it was a dud.

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[briar]

This big issue is around here there is pressure from other hunters and a lot of it. While you are waiting for you perfect wind and perfect timing your spot is getting burned by another hunter. Its not an excuse its just kinda how it is.

[JoeRE]

I am not sure if this is an answerable question or not but how far away would you typically need to be from your 1st/2nd stand sit to be away from the contaminated stand site and not have it become a place the bucks avoid? Assuming there was more than 1 entry/exit, could I take a different route and setup only 25 yards away, 50? Also, am guessing but what does it take for a site to "refreshen", I think I saw a guy say a month...is that about right?

Yea on those questions you will get a wide variety of "right" answers, because when you get down to it we all have pretty different strategies and styles of hunting. I personally consider a setup "new" if I am at least out of bow range of where a previous setup was - 50 yards or so. It varies a lot though. I see the biggest bucks skirt tight pinch points during the rut all the time because a stand is there/has been there, which is where I originally came up with that "50 yards away is a new stand" where you are essentially hunting using the old stand spot as a secondary funnel. If you are talking about hunting buck bedding, I would look at it as one or two hunts for one bedding area that's it, regardless of where you set up nearby.

I never have had a rule about how long to wait before hunting a spot again. If it seems like the time to hunt a spot I will hunt it, even if its 2 days after a previous hunt. I'm more aggressive than a lot of guys doing that though - I might have spent a month watching a spot, but when the time's right I will hunt it several times in a week, then that's it, no more for the season. For instance my favorite time to do that is the late pre-rut when the first does are just starting to smell right, a few days before coming into heat...the resident big boys will be in the background keeping an eye on things and to me that is when they are their most exposed - a week later who knows where they will be.

Maybe its different in different terrains but in farm and bluff country I have early season spots, pre-rut spots, rut chase/cruising phase spots, and post rut spots and they don't overlap all that often...its generally not worthwhile hunting a spot a month later, not even when the spot is buck bedding. The trick is figuring out when its the "best."

Stan I never thought of how strong wind can clear an area like that, makes sense based on some things I have seen - good point!

[JoeRE]

This big issue is around here there is pressure from other hunters and a lot of it. While you are waiting for you perfect wind and perfect timing your spot is getting burned by another hunter. Its not an excuse its just kinda how it is.

I hear you on that - thats happened to me too. I just try to have twice as many spots as I will likely hunt and hope a decent number work out come deer season - like last season, I had 50+ spots picked out and ended up bow hunting about 30 times...I hunted about 20 different spots all together. I would have stopped at about #15 if I had put an arrow where I should have on a buck.

[dan]

This big issue is around here there is pressure from other hunters and a lot of it. While you are waiting for you perfect wind and perfect timing your spot is getting burned by another hunter. Its not an excuse its just kinda how it is.

Sounds like your hunting the wrong spots... I hunt some pretty heavy pressured public, but its rare I see another guy in one of the spots I hunt. The best spots are the best because no one goes there.