#2081090 - 09/21/10 10:46 PM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: redcorn]
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156p&y
10 Point
Registered: 10/23/01
Posts: 4097
Loc: Franklin Tn
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99% of the time I'm hunting from my climber in a different location on most hunts with my bow. With my gun I'm almost always hunting from the ground in areas that are really hard to get to. I will focus on certian areas and jump around them with my climber quit a bit. I did hunt one tree about 6 times last year and almost shot the deer I was after on day 3. I finally shot that deer not 100 yards from that tree at the end of the season. It all really depends with me, if I feel like the deer has no idea I'm hunting him then I stay in the area. I just really have to get a feel for the situation.
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#2081280 - 09/22/10 07:36 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Under normal conditions, if unsuccessful, I will hunt a stand setup less than ten times before moving it. I try never to hunt the same stand twice in an entire year. then you either have tons of stands or go far less than i do.....I have been known to go 70 times or more......my record on Chaney one time was well over 70 log ins....that may have been 6-7 years ago.... That's with just three stands. I did move each one a few times each......
I don't get to hunt that much. I average 30-35 times in a season. And yes, I have a lot of stands (40).
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#2081285 - 09/22/10 07:38 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: BSK]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Without question, a climbing stand is the way to stay mobile. I just hate them.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#2081295 - 09/22/10 07:47 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: BSK]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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I think many hunters just don't realize how much scent the human body sheds on a daily basis, nor how long that scent lingers. The human body sheds upwards of half a million dead skin cells per day. Our bodies are also constantly shedding head and body hair. Our clothes are constantly shedding fibers. This is how a bloodhound tracks a person--through shed skin, hair and fibers. A deer has as good as if not a better nose than a bloodhound.
As we sit on a stand, we are shedding scent and that scent settles on the ground around the stand and downwind of the stand. That scent will linger for a long time (days if not weeks). A deer does not have to "bust" us while in stand to know we've been there, and it doesn't take any "reasoning power" to avoid that location. A hunter-wary deer moving through the location of a stand we hunted recently encounters all the human scent in the area (where the rest of the year little to no human scent occurs) and simply avoids that location in the future (or only travels through that area at night). That doesn't take brain power. It's simply a direct response to a direct stimulus.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#2081304 - 09/22/10 07:52 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: redcorn]
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Winchester
Non-Typical
Registered: 12/05/03
Posts: 25246
Loc: TN
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I think finding main and preferred food sources is essentially important, but we don't see many mature bucks during daylight hours at feeding sites, and don't expect to unless that food source is perfectly located very near thick cover or bedding area.
We try to place stands on well established travel routes, as close to cover as possible, and in places where the probability of intercepting a mature buck is greatest. When one finds such a place, I see no reason to move that stand unless a better tree in the immediate area is noticed. Of course it's a good idea to pick and chose the best times to actually hunt out of any particular stand, but as far as stand placement goes, I think land features and other permanent or semi-permanent factors are just as important as food sources when hunting mature deer.
I couldnt agree more, starting in about a month! Right now the mature bucks are not on their feet very much during daylight hours, they are not covering ground and walking through those natural funnels and pinch points created by the terrain very much. They will however move a short distance to a preferred food source, and when the conditions are right they will mess up and leave a littlwe early or stay a little late. This is what gets a few of them killed this time of year! Heres a perfect example, I killed this buck a couple years ago on Sep 28'th. Season had been open for almost a month (KY) and I waited patiently for the first real front of the season to come in, and allow me to hunt this particular stand. I sat in the rain most all of the day on this Thursday with steady dropping temps and a low of 40 forecasted for the night, and when he slipped out of the 50 acre thicket behind me, there was maybe 5 mins of shooting light left and he was the 17'th deer I had saw and the 10'th buck!
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#2081306 - 09/22/10 07:53 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: smstone22]
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TN Deer Slayer
10 Point
Registered: 01/27/08
Posts: 3252
Loc: Morgan County TN
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Deer do the same thing pretty much every year in the mountains so I dont really do alot of moving unless Im hunting a new property and am trying to find the travel routes that will be the same year after year after year.
Same here!
John
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#2081360 - 09/22/10 08:23 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: Winchester]
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15490
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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I agree that in an ideal world, changing stands every day would be beneficial....however, depending upon how much ground we hunt, moving every day would leave more of our scent over more area....IMO. I guess that if you have a thousand acres to hunt and do not have to worry about stepping on other hunters' toes, then you could do that.
Most times, I try to keep my scent down by NOT going anywhere except my stand sites, direct routes in and out. When possible, I try to not walk across trails or areas with lots of deer sign. Hunting in agricultural areas, I believe that deer will tolerate a certain amount of human scent without changing their habits. They can tell if a scent is recent or not.... recent being that day. As much human activity that takes place during the season while farmers are still in the field and while they are harvesting their crops or clipping stalks or planting wheat, I believe that deer get used to a certain amount of human scent in the area. many times rabbit and squirrel hunters are in the woods as well....
I try to locate my stand downwind of most of the deer activity. Not just deer activity while I'm there but activity, period.
Again, in most areas around here, Humans are in the woods or around the fields a great deal of the time. people cut wood for personal use, they hunt other game, they work for logging companies, and more.
One time during the last segment of a dove season, I was involved with shooting a field during a snow storm. It was really cool to watch the doves swarm the field during the snow.....After about an hour or so of constant shooting, one of my buddies walked into a thicket within 50 yards of where he was shooting to relieve himself. He jumped a couple of deer up......
Being within 100 yards of a house, these deer had grown so used to human activity, they didn't feel the urgancy to bolt simply because of a little shooting .....it took this guy almost stepping on them to get them up.
I've spooked deer plenty of time out of fields and had them come back within 30 minutes.......I've had deer wind me and spook until they got out of the wind and when they couldn't pick my scent up anymore, they calmed back down and went about their way......I've had deer wind me one day and come back later that afternoon......
I believe that deer in ag areas get so used to human activity that they have to FEEL threatened before they will do anything more than "take notice" of human scent.....especially if the scent is not RECENT.
I will let a stand rest for a few days after I have hunted it for a few days in a row......other than that, most guys like me don't have the convenience of hunting a stand one time a year.
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#2081431 - 09/22/10 08:59 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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BH,
Without question deer become accustomed to "normal" human activity. But don't underestimate a deer's ability to differentiate between "normal" activity and hunting activity. I've watched individual deer completely ignore a person's scent in areas where it occurs regularly (like in and around food plots and agricultural fields) but then nearly jump out of it's skin when the same deer encountered the same person's scent where it doesn't normally occur except during hunting season.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#2081473 - 09/22/10 09:20 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: Bone Collector]
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mathews338
10 Point
Registered: 11/05/09
Posts: 3989
Loc: jackson co.
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I hunt public, so I constantly have to adjust. I believe my willingness and ability to do so is a big part of my success. I watch hunter's hunt the same set ups over and over and then usually listen to them tell me how it has been a tough or slow season.
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#2081673 - 09/22/10 11:18 AM
Re: Making adjustments........?
[Re: BSK]
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15490
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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BH,
Without question deer become accustomed to "normal" human activity. But don't underestimate a deer's ability to differentiate between "normal" activity and hunting activity. I've watched individual deer completely ignore a person's scent in areas where it occurs regularly (like in and around food plots and agricultural fields) but then nearly jump out of it's skin when the same deer encountered the same person's scent where it doesn't normally occur except during hunting season.
I agree somewhat, but I don't think that a deer can distinguish between a hunter's scent left while going to a stand and hunting and someone else simply walking through the area...like a farmer or landowner checking on his land or maybe doing some fencing or other activity....
Public land that is rarely used except during hunting season would be different, of course.....
Also...while we're on scent....I have always thought that deer react differently based on how many of it's senses detect danger.......simply smelling human scent may alert a deer but not always spook them. Now, seeing or hearing someone coming in and then catching their scent as well may blow a deer clean out of the area.......
I think that a deer's curiousity sometimes makes it less willing to bolt away and more willing to check into possible danger and maybe be more alert and not simply blowing out of an area....
Also, I think that deer learn from past encounters and educate themselves to react a certain way. Simple age without exposure does not necessarily change a nature deer and make it more wary...IMO.
JMO
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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