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Stand Time??

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I have been raised on the fact you have to put your stand time in to kill a good buck. By what i mean by that is not just hunting the same spot but also hunting all day.In one of my other post several of you guys suggest mixing it up and hunting out of different stands....so my question is how long do you sit the same spot before switching it up???
 
In my personal opinion, and with reams of data to back that opinion up, when it comes to killing older bucks, one of the worst things you can do is hunt the same place over and over. That's not to say some specific stand locations won't produce an older buck even after many days of hunting it, but statistically speaking, that is the least productive move.
 
Hunting all day is great as long as you do not do it from the same stand. The longer you are in a stand, the more scent you disperse and the less alert you are. Also, when I was trophy hunting, I seldom hunted from the same stand more than once every four days and usually not that.

Now, I have six to eight stands that I rotate during the course of a week-10 days. However, if I feel like it, I might also hunt the same stand three or four days in a row cause I have different deer coming through on a regular basis and am not buck hunting.
 
Well
first if depends on what you are after...
a deer
a doe
a buck
a Mature buck

as a landowner I put up stands and leave them
and adjust from there

But some stands are only hunted until MZ season, not before
and then the wind has to be right
we have one of these that is on a 140"+ roll the first evening
its hunted for 3 years...but only hunted in the evening

to see kill a doe I have several, but even then some are
treated like POSER, only once
 
In my opion your odds drop considerably the second your foot hits the ground.
Scent dispersal? I dont believe your scent for one hour is any less than for 8 hours.
Yes rotate to other stands as often as possible.Very seldom do i hunt a stand 2 days in a row.Most of the time i give a stand 2 weeks between hunts.
During the rut i may hunt the same tree many days in a row.Trail cam pics show me the bigger bucks usually make their rounds every 3-4 days.I need to be there as much as possible.

Of course all this changes with the wind.I never hunt a tree when the wind is wrong.Sometimes i only move 50-60 yards but i always have the wind taking my scent out of the woods and into the fields.
 
I'll hunt a stand as long as the wind direction allows it, for days straight if given the chance. A stand, not every stand. I have just a couple of locs that are liable to produce a mature buck at any given day, and to me stand time is critical in catching one moving thru the area, again providing there is a good wind direction. Another thing about where I hunt is it is my private land, and its not a large tract, so I very rarely have a mature buck actually living on the property, that I'm aware of that is, and heavily rely on shifting bucks coming thru during the season. Knowing these travel corridors and hunting with the correct wind direction is half the battle, and the other half would pretty much be putting time in the stand, imo.
 
I rarely hunt the same hunting location (within a few hundred yrds) more than three times in a season... My best spots I only hunt during the best times for a mature buck (once the rut is over if I have a BIG one I'm after, I may give a stand a few more goes as one last try)...

It's tough tho for ppl that only have say less than a couple hundred acres.. There's only room for 5-10 stands and from a scent/disturbance standpoint there is no difference in some of those stands.. No one only wants to hunt 5 times to keep there stands fresh... IMO the best bet for these type areas is to keep human scent in these areas all the time and create as few negative encounters as u possibly can with any and all deer on the property...

I do think during the rut hunting from daylight till 1-2 o'clock is a good idea, I don't like staying all day tho... I'd rather change the scenery... It's probably not the case but I usually tend to have morning or evening stands that I think are better at that given time..
 
I hunt a stand as often as I feel I need to do so. That is why my stands are set in the locations I picked out. I use a climber most of the time, but I am not scared to "overhunt" a stand. I missed the 142" buck I killed last year on opening afternoon. I saw him and he knew I was there 3 more times before I shot him on the 6th afternoon of bow season within 100 yards of where I missed him. Deer are going to bed down and eat where it is most convenient. How and when they get there is the determining factor in killing them. Deer aren't as smart as they are cautious. That gives any human with a brain a good chance of outsmarting them.
 
landman said:
Well
first if depends on what you are after...
a deer
a doe
a buck
a Mature buck
Click to expand...

Excellent point landman. It's a very different story if you are after any deer (or any buck) versus older to mature bucks. I have ladder stands that have been in the same place for over 10 years, yet you can see more deer from those stands than you will from one of our "older buck" stands that are moved frequently. However, you're NOT going to see a mature buck from those stands in place for 10+ years. The mature bucks avoid them like the plague.
 
I hunt the same stands all season on 3 separate pieces of property and use climbers more during bow season. Granted I rotate the properties which helps with pressure, etc. Wind direction most directly influences on where and when im hunting a particular stand. IMO and experience maintaining and hunting stands located in the same spots year after year has not had a negative effect on killing mature bucks. Just knowing when to hunt them is the key. Again, this has been my experience.
 
Several hunters would not agree with my tactics but in my experience on the properties I hunt it takes several days in a row and all days sits. I have always felt that a buck does not come through on a daily bases. So if you only hunt a stand once how do you expect to kill him unless you are lucky. I have been lucky and got him on the first day on the first hour but I have killed several over 3.5 years of age on the 3rd, 4th or even the 5th day. All of my properties are steep hills and hollows, bedding and food is in every direction so no telling which way they can come from. I just try to stay on the uphill side of trails high in stand and I only go straight to and from the stand. I do not get down and walk around just to see if a scrape or new rub has showed up. I never even scout unless I have never been there before. I have been hunting one place for 26 years and a couple others for more than 10. No need to scout places like that because the deer will be there.
 
I have 3 different properties I hunt. None of them are very big so I am limited on stand locations. I pick which property according wind and if the wind is blowing to a bedding area, I hunt that spot in the morning trying to catch the deer going to bed and do the opposite in the afternoon. Most of the time that means changing properties from am hunts to pm hunts.

One place that I have shot mature deer out of is a major travel corridor. If I have the right wind I may stay all day because your never know whats going to come through there, or when. There are big woods to the north (hunting club) and big woods to the south. If a deer want to go to either area they have to cut through our farm to get there, so you never know what will come by.
 
mathews338 said:
Several hunters would not agree with my tactics but in my experience on the properties I hunt it takes several days in a row and all days sits. I have always felt that a buck does not come through on a daily bases. So if you only hunt a stand once how do you expect to kill him unless you are lucky. I have been lucky and got him on the first day on the first hour but I have killed several over 3.5 years of age on the 3rd, 4th or even the 5th day. All of my properties are steep hills and hollows, bedding and food is in every direction so no telling which way they can come from. I just try to stay on the uphill side of trails high in stand and I only go straight to and from the stand. I do not get down and walk around just to see if a scrape or new rub has showed up. I never even scout unless I have never been there before. I have been hunting one place for 26 years and a couple others for more than 10. No need to scout places like that because the deer will be there.
Click to expand...

Almost identical terrain and methods I use m338.
 
I generally don't hunt a stand unless I know what I am interested in is in the area. Texting trail cameras make this easy. Last year I killed 15 deer in 31 sits and had 3 misses (trying to video and hunt is hard!).

I scout/pattern more and hunt when the time is right. If I am going into an area I know a deer that I am interested in is around, on daylight movement and that the particular stand is in the best spot to make the kill. If these aren't the case I don't hunt and work to make them the case soon (move cameras, hang new stands, or stay out in unideal situations).
 
BSK said:
when it comes to killing older bucks, one of the worst things you can do is hunt the same place over and over. That's not to say some specific stand locations won't produce an older buck even after many days of hunting it, but statistically speaking, that is the least productive move.
Click to expand...

In my cases, that has been my most productive move... I have stand sites that have produced mature bucks and sightings in daylight year after year and I hunt the crap out of em.. When the wind is perfect for entry, hunting, and exit that is..
 
mathews338 said:
Several hunters would not agree with my tactics but in my experience on the properties I hunt it takes several days in a row and all days sits. I have always felt that a buck does not come through on a daily bases. So if you only hunt a stand once how do you expect to kill him unless you are lucky.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this. I think a lot of hunters miss out when they only hunt a stand once or twice and never go back.. Why go to the trouble of finding the spot, hanging a stand, or climbing, and then only hunt it once. I don't waste time finding a spot that I'm not gonna put some time in on. I'm just very careful on how I hunt these stands. You can't be careless hunting these stands several times though. i's have to be dotted and t's have to be crossed...
 
I will say from my experience ive seen the biggest bucks of each of my spots during the first two sits in a newly found stand site....my only conclusion is there lacks human scent and bucks are fine with moving during the day....i will be finding at least a half dozen new setups this year across west tn to help spread out my options and to cut down on over hunting
 

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