Deer Hunting Question

[Kjohnson]

Put up a deer stand near an area where our land owner has seen an 8 pointer, small buck & doe. I think what is happening is the deer are across the road on land that has not been hunted in 5 years. They are crossing the road coming unto our land and going to a bedding area near a creek.  Hoping for action in the morning and evening.  But I don

[Roo]

If it was me, I'd spend most of my time somewhere on the East portion of your land bordering the unhunted  portion you border.

I have a similar layout,  the deer move constantly near the border of my land and the unhunted land west of me. The fact you have pressure on 2 other borders will help as well.  Once the shooting starts, their normal pattern gets all messed up anyway. 

Still hunting is another great way to spend the middle part of the day, my favorite during gun season.

We have always seen and shot the majority of our deer between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00 during gun season.

Good Luck

[jeast]

Deer are diurnal when not pressured.  Most people think deer are nocturnal but that is not normal.  I wouldn't be afraid to sit that stand all day, although your son my have other ideas.  Most younger (<50) hunters can't sit all day on one stand...so, let him walk to your stand whenever he gets bored.  Then you walk back to his stand.  Switch again as needed.  Or if the cold is severe you can also do this switching of stands.  I say walk, but we have a rule...one half hour for every quarter mile minimum.  More of a still hunt than a walk.  We do this exclusively.  We don't drive deer anymore and haven't for several years.  We routinely get deer late in the season still doing their diurnal, normal habitual thing.  Mainly because we don't shoot at anything that moves but rather let the deer move about and never, absolutely no chance of driving.  Let everyone else around you drive their deer into your woods/land where they can move about without hassle so to speak.

Good luck.

[Kjohnson]

If it was me, I'd spend most of my time somewhere on the East portion of your land bordering the unhunted  portion you border.

I have a similar layout,  the deer move constantly near the border of my land and the unhunted land west of me. The fact you have pressure on 2 other borders will help as well.  Once the shooting starts, their normal pattern gets all messed up anyway. 

Still hunting is another great way to spend the middle part of the day, my favorite during gun season.

We have always seen and shot the majority of our deer between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00 during gun season.

Good Luck

A friend always said he like to hunt during the 3 T's......ten, twelve & two.

The problem with the east side of our land is the land is open. No trees just some long brush

[Kjohnson]

Deer are diurnal when not pressured.  Most people think deer are nocturnal but that is not normal.  I wouldn't be afraid to sit that stand all day, although your son my have other ideas.  Most younger (<50) hunters can't sit all day on one stand...so, let him walk to your stand whenever he gets bored.  Then you walk back to his stand.  Switch again as needed.  Or if the cold is severe you can also do this switching of stands.  I say walk, but we have a rule...one half hour for every quarter mile minimum.  More of a still hunt than a walk.  We do this exclusively.  We don't drive deer anymore and haven't for several years.  We routinely get deer late in the season still doing their diurnal, normal habitual thing.  Mainly because we don't shoot at anything that moves but rather let the deer move about and never, absolutely no chance of driving.  Let everyone else around you drive their deer into your woods/land where they can move about without hassle so to speak.

Good luck.

Jeast, What a great idea!!! You are so right, it is hard to sit all day until you get older. What I will have him do is sit until 10 am. Then slowly work his way to my stand. By that time I can switch with him and walk to his stand.  And the other plan would be , before coming to my stand, there is a  stand he could sit in (actually a short tree house) that is near the south end and then come to my stand. I like the idea of switching stands good idea

[ramjet]

This time of year sit bucks are cruising and even bucks that have never been in your area my cruise through looking for receptive does.

The most important thing; DOWN WIND

Sit trails that are between bedding and feeding areas. Understand that bucks that cruise usually go just of main trails down wind to scent check for the girlies.

I hunted and stayed in my blind ALL day today yes it was cooooold but at 3:30 I was treated with the a sighting of a 140 class 8 point unfortunately he was 70 yards away so no archery shot but a treat just the same.

[jeast]

I have three boys and two nephews and a bro-in-law from Illinoisy that I hunt with.  When everyone is out there, which isn't all that often, opening day mostly...we all sit down the night before and lay it all out...every detail of the "standers" and the "still hunter".  Everyone knows where everyone else is, who is going to walk to which stand at which time...etc.  No one leaves their stand until they are "relieved"...then they walk to the next stand in a specific manner and so on.  That way, only one person at a time is moving. We all know who and what time.

We find that this tends to "bump" deer to other standers.  We have really done well with this strategy.  Several nice bucks and always doe...lots of doe moving about.  We don't shoot very many young bucks.  Now that all the boys have taken a deer or two we are pretty selective.  This has increased the number of "shooters" in our area.  We always have a couple of bruisers around now...always.  And then there are numerous "shooters" and a whole lot of "scrub bucks" that we let go till next year or the year after. 

We have several bucks that we have watched grow up to be shooters.  Our only problem is the Amish.  They shoot everything that moves and they border us on two sides.  Kind of frustrating at times but oh well. 

[Handles II]

Jeast has given some great information. The deer will move, but at random times, stick with it and if you move, move slow, stop and sit on a stump or log for 10 minutes, go another 100 yards, etc.
Right now many of the dominant bucks may be locked down with doe, and only moving a little bit. Last Saturday, I watched the biggest buck of my life and a doe stay within a 20 yard area last weekend from 6:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. They were bedded almost the entire time 95 yards away on neighbor's property. That's one that I wish I could have gotten. maybe he will be around this weekend.

[ramjet]

If you are going to still hunt I will suggest a top grade of compact binos at least 10 power see them before they see you that is the key. Move stop and glass move slow into the wind stop and glass, look for anything an ear an eye even a leg or rump or horns move a little into the wind then stop and glass this is tedious but it works. I have taken several hundred deer in my lifetime in 8 different states most of them waiting them out and some still hunting but all the elk I have taken have been still hunting just as described above. Good luck and above all enjoy what nature has to offer it is a wonderful thing.

[Handles II]

If you are going to still hunt I will suggest a top grade of compact binos at least 10 power see them before they see you that is the key. Move stop and glass move slow into the wind stop and glass, look for anything an ear an eye even a leg or rump or horns move a little into the wind then stop and glass this is tedious but it works. I have taken several hundred deer in my lifetime in 8 different states most of them waiting them out and some still hunting but all the elk I have taken have been still hunting just as described above. Good luck and above all enjoy what nature has to offer it is a wonderful thing.

So guessing that you have hunted..40 years, you average more than 10 deer a year? Start attaching the pictures man, we want to see too.

[maggie]

rammy that's a lot, but don't tell anybody... ...Jeast, great stuff!..still hunting is a great way to hunt! early cold mornings when ya just don't feel like sitting....i caught more than one nice buck sleeping, it was real strange, almost as if it were already dead, one never had a clue i was even there next to him..Kaboom!..never heard it.. ...it was about a week after the rut and all i could figured both times, is that they must have been completely wore out. I have several  friends who have also shot bucks in there beds while sleeping,...both were on very windy mornings, got "down wind" of a large Tall Grass field and started going back and forth at a very slow almost crawling pace. most of The fields i still hint are taller grass types that can get as high as 6-7' but i also have a few shorter one to walk also.  while walking you get to higher ground ever so offer and can see a lot better , i have found as i am sure rammy and Jeast will also tell you, deer are very aware of there surroundings, after all, it's there house and are just as curious, that why while still hunting, I will sometimes stand in a spot for up to 20 mins or more just looking for the smallest movement of an ear or an antler, the wind swirls a lot in grass fields and sooner or later they'll get that smalls whiff of your sent and stand  up real fast to see what the heck is going on. deer hate the wind as much as we do, it makes real skittish and puts them on high alert, but when there in that high grass and have been safe for a long time, they seem to get comfortable and that's a great time to take advantage of them... ...the last 2 day i have seen only 2 little buck. but the 7 day before we seen a lot of bigger buck...like rammy mentioned, the time has come and the does are standing...if this is the case, and i believe it is down this way, the next week might not be the best hunting... 

[maggie]

 

[ramjet]

If you are going to still hunt I will suggest a top grade of compact binos at least 10 power see them before they see you that is the key. Move stop and glass move slow into the wind stop and glass, look for anything an ear an eye even a leg or rump or horns move a little into the wind then stop and glass this is tedious but it works. I have taken several hundred deer in my lifetime in 8 different states most of them waiting them out and some still hunting but all the elk I have taken have been still hunting just as described above. Good luck and above all enjoy what nature has to offer it is a wonderful thing.

So guessing that you have hunted..40 years, you average more than 10 deer a year? Start attaching the pictures man, we want to see too.

I have been hunting for over that actually I am 56 hunted from age 12 you are a teacher do the math. In that time especially over the last several,years I hunted Wisconsin Iowa, Ga, Montana, MN and Michigan for white tail deer many of the western states for Elk and mulies and of course speed goats,  at one time in my life I klived and breathed hunting and if you remember there were many years where you could get unlimited tags in  Wisconsin but in many of top deer states like Wisconsin you can get an archery tag a rifle tag and an either sex tag not to mention herd control tags in some farm areas and landowner tags. Then of course within legal means you can fill the party tags of people within your group. Although I do not group hunt anymore. Again you claim to be a teacher do the math. You are an incredible, you have no idea so please keep your comments to yourself when I say that is the number of deer I have taken you can go to the bank with that. Sorry your life has not afforded you the hunting opportunities that I have had. Oh and will continue to have still got to get that grizzly and a Alaskan Moose. Bucket list totems and well within reach.

[maggie]

got to love that life, I miss it... ..i have no doubt he's done that many in, i don't tell to many people, because its more of an embarrassment than anything, but a few yrs back, i would say12 yrs.. the 4 others that I Bow hunted with had Lost all conception of hunting in general. There were so many deer running around and so many free tags that between the 4 of them, with bow along, they killed 102 deer...ya, that's crazy, but so sadly true. I shot one doe that yr., it was the last doe i ever shot with my bow or gun. All this happen where deer were very abundant, so much so, that a night or morning in the stand, one could see well over 50 deer on any given day...when word got back to the older heads and land owners of the gun hunting group i hunt with, things got ugly real fast. Needless to say, 3 of them Idiots were run out and now I'm the only one left who hunts there along with the owner and his 14 yr old grandson. the owner by the way was also in our hunting group, but in the last 15 yrs he heads up to Hayward area, (ham lake) to hunt where he owns another home and a lot of good hunting land. so now during Gun season i hunt along, well, when i say alone, i mean on his land along, it is joined to the other 500 acres we hunt and where we have the hunting shack, so there are guy hunting within 500 yds of me sometimes, my 2 bros have access if they like, but they still have a hard spot for the owner who let then idiots in to hunt that yr, and i don't believe they will ever forget it nor will the rest of my gun hunting group. and there related ..lol lol  ...but back to the point, to kill that many deer is just plain stupid!  it's killing, not hunting, not how i was taught anyways..and yes, it did some damage to the population alright, it took a lot of yrs. to bring it back to a more manageable number. I was just thinking, maybe this should have gone under the sad story tread...

[Kjohnson]

Lets get back on task, Please tell me about your hunting tactics.