Walking on a deers trail..good or bad ???

[burtle]

Okay, so I just listened to podcast #77 Hill Country and hunting the wind with Dan.

I am going to post the picture of my set up.

The yellow is the parking lot. The blue lines are me walking to my deer stand. The solid yellow circles are what I believe are two bucks beds. There's no other beds around those two beds. The next set of beds are along the field edge which I know those are doe beds. There's 3-4 in a circle/row. But the two beds in solid yellow I believe are buck beds based of me walking the area and from hunting it last year and seeing a 100-110" buck in the area several times.

So the yellow is where I park. The blue line is me walking back to my stand during a NORTH WIND only. The white dot is my deer stand. I'm trying to figure out the best route to take to get to my stand. Should I just go ahead and walk on the deer trail to get to my stand? As you can see the trails go out right where I need to go in. Just east of my stand it is insanely thick. There's no way I could come in. The best route in my opinion is coming in right on the deer trail. Based off podcast #77 it sounds like that's the best thing to do? There's no way to come in from the West unless I were to walk 5-6 miles. There's no way coming in from the south unless you use a boat.

What do you guys think? I'm seeking advice and tips. Where else would you hunt or look into hunting based off this picture? All of the area south of this is a lake. Bean fields, corn fields, and CRP is all over. No hills in this area.

I'd appreciate anything you can tell me!

[burtle]

https://imgur.com/a/Io0xhoA


I'm not sure if the picture is working or not.

[matt1336]

Personally I’d avoid the route you’re wanting to take. They’ll see you. Deer are going to set up so they can see the approach of hunters. Do most hunters/humans enter from where you do? Is this public or pressured private land?
I’d try to boat in. If you read a bunch here on the beast, some of the best hunters think outside the box. especially with the approach. Do something that others never thought of or just plain don’t want to do. The deer have the routes pegged that most hunters take. just like it’s easier for us to shoot the younger deer. The young deer are easy to pattern, very similar to most hunters. Patternable.

[matt1336]

Also the potential for a close to the parking lot classic beast overlooked spot is very possible here. Have you looked at or considered hunting there?
The spots near the water could be good too. It’s hard to tell just by the image that posted.

Consider watching the farmland dvd if a lot of your hunting areas are like this one.

[Hunter271995]

As for walking on the deer trail, it depends on if other hunters walk on that trail regularly or not. If they do, go for it, I shot my buck last year working scrapes in an over looked area that many people walk on. The deer won't care about your scent if it isn't abnormal. If no one else or very irregularly someone is walking on that trail, I wouldn't. The deer will soon pick up on the foreign smell, a change to a nearby bedding area.

A bigger thing for me is, I'm not sure North wind is the best to hunt that stand, unless that is the only time they bed there. If they bed in there with any westerly wind (including NNW) based on your google earth pic, your scent from walking in should be no problem with the current path.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck and shoot straight.

[burtle]

Personally I’d avoid the route you’re wanting to take. They’ll see you. Deer are going to set up so they can see the approach of hunters. Do most hunters/humans enter from where you do? Is this public or pressured private land?
I’d try to boat in. If you read a bunch here on the beast, some of the best hunters think outside the box. especially with the approach. Do something that others never thought of or just plain don’t want to do. The deer have the routes pegged that most hunters take. just like it’s easier for us to shoot the younger deer. The young deer are easy to pattern, very similar to most hunters. Patternable.

its more of a secluded area. I've never known for another hunter to be in that area. They usually stay east of that area closer to the parking lot.

I've been trying to figure the best route. Coming in from the south would be extremely tough the more I think about it. Its just so thick. I'll have to keep thinking and put boots on the ground again. I only planned on hunting that area 1-2 times this year on the perfect weather conditions.

Thanks for the reply

[burtle]

Also the potential for a close to the parking lot classic beast overlooked spot is very possible here. Have you looked at or considered hunting there?
The spots near the water could be good too. It’s hard to tell just by the image that posted.

Consider watching the farmland dvd if a lot of your hunting areas are like this one.

All around the parking lot there's stands and it gets hit pretty hard. The area I put my stand in I don't ever see anyone. Unless for some reason things have changed this year.

I understand it being hard to tell just off that image. I'll look into other areas near the water.

[burtle]

As for walking on the deer trail, it depends on if other hunters walk on that trail regularly or not. If they do, go for it, I shot my buck last year working scrapes in an over looked area that many people walk on. The deer won't care about your scent if it isn't abnormal. If no one else or very irregularly someone is walking on that trail, I wouldn't. The deer will soon pick up on the foreign smell, a change to a nearby bedding area.

A bigger thing for me is, I'm not sure North wind is the best to hunt that stand, unless that is the only time they bed there. If they bed in there with any westerly wind (including NNW) based on your google earth pic, your scent from walking in should be no problem with the current path.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck and shoot straight.

I'd say its an area less traveled on by humans. What wind would you hunt that stand IF you were going to hunt it for some reason? I know a lot of guys probably wouldn't of even put a stand in that area. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from you guys. At the least it could be a very good observation stand.

I didn't plan on hunting the stand more than twice this year and I wanted to wait for perfect conditions regardless. I appreciate all the replies guys.

[Hunter271995]

As for walking on the deer trail, it depends on if other hunters walk on that trail regularly or not. If they do, go for it, I shot my buck last year working scrapes in an over looked area that many people walk on. The deer won't care about your scent if it isn't abnormal. If no one else or very irregularly someone is walking on that trail, I wouldn't. The deer will soon pick up on the foreign smell, a change to a nearby bedding area.

A bigger thing for me is, I'm not sure North wind is the best to hunt that stand, unless that is the only time they bed there. If they bed in there with any westerly wind (including NNW) based on your google earth pic, your scent from walking in should be no problem with the current path.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck and shoot straight.

I'd say its an area less traveled on by humans. What wind would you hunt that stand IF you were going to hunt it for some reason? I know a lot of guys probably wouldn't of even put a stand in that area. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from you guys. At the least it could be a very good observation stand.

I didn't plan on hunting the stand more than twice this year and I wanted to wait for perfect conditions regardless. I appreciate all the replies guys.

Okay since less traveled by humans be careful where you are putting your ground scent, so the deer will not notice it coming out of there beds. For your wind question, it first depends on when they bed in that location. Is it any type of wind bedding? West wind? North wind? South wind? Second thing is which direction are the deer working towards currently. If they are going west in the evening and coming back east in the morning, might be better to sit in the morning. If they work north or east in the evening, and work in south or west in the morning, probably a better evening sit. I'd try and figure this intel out, WHICH MAY TAKE MULTIPLE SEASONS. So if I were you, I'd go in there and scout (yes in season scouting is important and may help you shoot a deer there this season or in future seasons), see what the deer are doing, leave it alone for a few days if they are using it, and come back in with the right wind to sit there. Personally, I love sitting spots like that in the AM, so I would try and hunt that with a westerly wind in the morning (if they are working from the North and West back in there to bed). Ultimately, do what you think will work and do it when you will enjoy it the most.