Have a small secluded area that is perfect for rut bow hunting and the one time I hunted it this season I had a shooter at 50 yds chasing a doe while I was in my climber. Terrain sets up for an east wind (which doesn't seem prevalent) and possibly a west wind. Thinking of doing some hinge cutting to create some funnels and set a lock on to the east and the west. Is that too much????
How much “stand presence” is too much
- Thread starter Bushape
- Start date
TN Larry
Well-Known Member
Sounds like great planning to me. My only advise would be to not overhunt just because you have a stand in place. You are the only one that can answer the overhunting questions.
I've heard this forca long time that you can over hunt a stand. That might be true in certain circumstances but I can tell you for a fact it's not true for every stand location . A secluded area where there was little traffic except for a old mature buck ....yes I believe you could spook him but an area that had alot of deer traffic I don't think the same rules apply . This one stand in Glies I used to have as long as the wind wasn't totally wrong that's where I hunted and other members when i wasn't there . It was on a saddle and basically the most traveled site coming from the fields on the next property. A traveler route , a pinch point IMO you could hunt those alot but like I said an area you've pinpointed for a mature buck I don't think you should hunt it but maybe a couple times ....the mature buck wouldn't tolerate alot of human scent .
In my experience you can only over hunt a spot when you're getting busted or deer are regularly catching the ground scent of your access/egress. Don't think for a minute those curious critters don't hound dog your trail right to the tree. They figure you out same way you figure them out. But if you're sporadic in timing and routes, and are careful to use routes where deer aren't likely to travel much, you can hunt a stand over and over.
As for creating funnels, be careful not to get carried away. There's a very fine line between influencing deer travel and ending deer travel. If you do too much they'll just start avoiding the area.
As for creating funnels, be careful not to get carried away. There's a very fine line between influencing deer travel and ending deer travel. If you do too much they'll just start avoiding the area.
Kevin Snook
Well-Known Member
I'm no expert but I would consider access to your stands
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
We got more east winds this season then the last 5 combined it seemed like. So that's a tough wind (I hate east winds) for turkeys and deer. But you have to work with what you have. As Ski said there's a fine line. I have spots where I hunt several times a year. Just be access and exits makes or breaks stands more then anything.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I've noticed a window during the rut where bucks are seemingly coming out of the woodworks, and from all directions. It's usually a few days right before I notice the first chasing in my area.
I have no problem "over hunting" a stand during that very brief window. The rest of the time I'm very selective about how often I hunt my stands.
You'll have to figure out by trial and error what works best in your area. By the way, I pray for an east wind for two of my stands during peak cruising. It allows me the best opportunities to sneak in to two of my best spots and not get busted as much.
I have no problem "over hunting" a stand during that very brief window. The rest of the time I'm very selective about how often I hunt my stands.
You'll have to figure out by trial and error what works best in your area. By the way, I pray for an east wind for two of my stands during peak cruising. It allows me the best opportunities to sneak in to two of my best spots and not get busted as much.
The last time I killed two really nice eight points was on a stand you could only hunt with an east wind . You had to be careful because of absolutely no cover and the stand wasn't a high one . Was walking to my preferred stands one morning and knowingly had a east wind so i thought I'm hunting the new place . It turned out great...killed a pretty decent nine point that morning.
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BSK
Well-Known Member
You know, fisherman always talk about how bad the fishing is on an East wind. I've heard hunters say the same thing. Yet my experiences have been that East winds (which usually occur when a Low-Pressure system is approaching) are some of the best hunting and fishing. I think wildlife feel the pressure drop and feed heavily before the stormy weather arrives.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
This could be true...I just tried to set my stands according to and by assuming most travailing winds . Some areas you just couldn't do that as that one stand I was speaking about . That one area on that end of that top was the only place I could put it . A friend that hunted with me on that lease had put a permanent stand close to that area in a small Maple but you'd get caught alot because it wasn't that high off the ground. I have killed a few deer out of it but you'd have to be on high alert . The trees in that area was either too small or too large so I put a ladder stand right close to the property line with a tree kinda in front of the stand to hide just a little . But you had to have an east wind only anything else and you'd not see a thing. That top must have been a house or barn at one time . It was a flat as a flitter up there and was unhuntable when we first leased that property because it was so thick and definitely a bedding area . But over the years the trees got larger and the canopy opened up so we put stands on the southend and on the northeast of that top . You didn't see alot of traffic but what traffic you seen was mostly bucks ....maybe from years past being a thick travel route and bedding area . Deer still bedded there so you had to be very careful and quite approaching a stand if you was hunting there .
Depends on what your harvest goals are. My opinion is stand access is important. Most spots are blown out from accessing the stand than over hunting a stand. If that makes any sense. I mainly target mature bucks and the way I look at it if you're not in the stand when he decides to be on his feet you're not going to kill him.
I hate an East wind for hunting or fishing, heck I can't get laid on an East wind.
Do you have some charts that bear those stats out????
BSK
Well-Known Member
Here's our buck observation rates by wind direction. East winds are tops (first graph). However, this may just be due to data set size. East winds are our least common wind direction (second graph). When you have few events under a certain condition, just one or two really good days could skew the results.
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Have hunted a stand all year long and not had any issues and the next season no sightings. A lot of variables. Had one stand that was a low producer on our lease for me and one summer a lot of timber was cut and bam. That fall I had deer sightings non-stop. I believe we saw 10 different bucks. Mostly 1-1/2 to 2-1/2, but did see a mature 10 and two mature 8's. Hunted that stand non-stop all season and never stopped seeing deer.
I've never put as much stock in "pressure" as a lot of hunters do. So many things are changing in the deer woods that it would be hard to pinpoint exactly how much pressure affects activity. Leaves are changing & falling so cover is in flux, food sources are changing by the minute, it's getting colder, and does are hitting estrus one after another like whack-a-mole. And it's all happening while we are trying to hunt.
If you could eliminate all those other factors and then run a controlled study to contrast multiple seasons of no hunting with multiple seasons of hunting, then maybe you could quantify how much pressure affects activity. Shy of that I'm skeptical. Sure pressure is a factor but I'm really not sure how much of a factor.
Thanks for the input so far guys, but keep in mind I am speaking mostly about multiple stands in a confined area, not so much about hunting out of one tree 7 times with an ideal wind. I do agree with a lot of you about leaving scent with foot traffic and that is obviously gonna increase exponentially if trying to get to multiple spots.
