Me either not that I haven't had success but hunting alot alone that thrill turns into dang its almost dark and I have to deal with this deer . It's even worse if he didn't die in sight . Finding , field dressing and dragging a buck out is not my ideal good night outing. Younger days it didn't matter but now don't hunt much in the evening and if I do I'm down before dusk.
The variables for morning vs. evening productivity can vary alot, but food sources available and hunting style plays huge roles. for example, in row cropping scenarios, typically a hunter would hunt travel corridors coming from a corn field, which the deer may have a dozen trails coming from/to the corn. In the evening, he likely will hunt on the field edge with a dozen trails feeding into the corn field. In this instance, the evening hunt gives you much better odds to see more deer than the morning sit. It all depends on the food source and hunting tactics. A farm just down the road may not have crops, therefore much different hunting tactics will be required, as well as different sighting results as the deer will likely be less congregated on a non ag hunting location. MY farm is very similar to what BSK describes his farm to be, while my hunting buddy 3 miles from me has ag bottoms wrapped in steep ridges on his farm. Different tactics must be deployed to be consistently successful. If I hunt his farm the same way I hunt mine, I will not be utilizing the draw that his ag fields have and I will not see great results.
I understand what you are saying, but there is no way to say, if you hadn't seen those deer on the the first, second or third day - would you have seen them on the 10th time you hunted? We will never know! There's just too many variables, imo, to draw any genuine conclusions.
That's why, when hunters ask me how far they need to move a stand to counteract over-hunting, I tell them just out of visual range of the last stand location. Depending upon habitat, that might be only 40 yards in thick stuff to 125 yards in open hardwoods.
GREAT post!
I do agree there are lots of variables to consider. I know several hunters who don't take 1/3 of my precautions. They don't give much thought to their entry and exit and therefore bump their deer every trip to their stand...don't give much thought to prevailing wind directions when picking their locations...hunt on the ground or 10 ft up in a tree, which isn't much difference...wash their hunting clothes with regular detergent...and so on. These hunters had better get their buck in the first few hunts or no doubt their probability plummets! Hunters who take every precaution, even to the extent of having a dedicated washer and dryer for hunting clothes, or even raking their walk-in trail to their stand to help sneak in and out without bumping their deer, those hunters could very well push the limits of numerous visits to the same stand before taking a mature buck. Logic would imply their chances still diminish, but when comparing those two types of hunters, those variables and more determine your particular "scale of diminishing returns".
Absolutely true that many variables exist. For instance, my data does not factor in how long it was between hunts in a single stand. Could it be that the longer the timeframe between hunts from that stand "resets" the area back to being less pressured? No idea. And it would take some complicated statistics to weed this information out of the data.
Adaptation. Agreed - We must change tactics dependent on the areas we hunt, and also to that years food crop, as it is different every year. They adapt, we adapt. The game depends on who can intercept first
BSK,my place is all woods located in mountains. I created a couple 1 acre food plots on each side of the property, as well as so much habitat work. I cleared around hundreds of oaks to allow full sun, girdled numerous hickories, and cut down and hinge cut numerous maples for the new sprouts to grow. I have to access this property on ATV. It's a mile ride up in the mountains just to the property line.I walk from there.I started realizing from camera data that they are actively feeding when I go in and I was consistently bumping them.I started going in around 9 to 10a.m and hunting the rest of the day and it's like everything changed.I am noticing that the bucks show up a lot more in daylight, and I learn a lot more about the bucks
Really interesting situation.
I'm 42 and can't make myself put my climber down. Ladder stand placement can be hit or miss, but even with a "hit" you're still educating the deer with every sit. Plenty of data here I'm sure to say my thinking is flawed as well but I'm just stubborn I guessExactly why I used to take my climber even though we had stands everywhere. Be surprised how moving a mere 100 yards will increase your odds that is if you know where to put it . In season scouting but be careful and not poke your nose to far
