How much “stand presence” is too much

Ski said:
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.
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I'm fairly convinced that it turns them nocturnal. While all those things 100 percent are true. Intrusion especially on places that aren't used to humans and atvs.
 
Short answer is, it depends. As BSK has indicated by his own data and I'm sure there are plenty more data sources, the more you sit in a spot the worse your chances are to encounter and harvest a mature deer. I try to save my best spots for the very best days. Why risk stinking them up when your odds aren't great? I use marginal days to move around, test new areas, learn about how deer use certain terrain or veg features. Many times I find myself planning spots for the next year rather than the current season as I learn. Most of the deer I have on the wall came from the first time I sat a stand that year. A few of them were just a hunch I had about a spot from studying satellite imagery and contour lines and walked in blind and climbed a tree. A couple have been the second time. I rarely hunt a stand 3 times in a season. I have to see something good on camera to make me go back in and sit in the same tree a 3rd time.

There's just something magical about knowing you have that spot and all the anticipation of letting it simmer all season until you get the perfect conditions and slipping in there knowing you have a good chance at a nice deer.
 
A lot also depends on the set-up. How far are the deer from the stand? I wouldn't worry a bit about hunting a stand repeatedly if the shots are going to 150+ yards. But on my place, shots are often going to be 20 yards. Big difference on how much a deer can pick up on your presence long-distance versus right below your tree.
 
A deer's nose is underestimated. They know more than most hunters are aware. With multiple seasons under his belt, he's gained knowledge of how to avoid danger. One of those is not exposing himself in daylight to deer stands. Otherwise he's dead and never makes it to maturity if he's a shooter.

If a tracking dog can find a buck three days after he's been wounded, a buck can track you down to your deer stand days after you hunted there. That's why most bucks are killed on the first or second hunt out of a stand. The exception might be a stand at a good distance to any traveling deer. I hunt one of those and kill a buck almost every year from it, usually at 200 yds or more.

Otherwise I stick and move and keep them guessing. My best buck this past season was out of a stand hunted less than an hour. In spite of that, I'll probably never climb that tree again.
 

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