When you guys move in on a new spot/ stand site. How many sits will you give it if you don't see anything?
I realize funnel/rut stand may be differant. But generally?
Usually 3.... but I leave the stands up in case I see movement when scouting. If other stands are hot, I won't go back to them at all.
Good luck, shoot straight and God bless,
Rodd
I try not to sit the same stand twice a week unless there is a very good reason. I don't absndon the spot, just let them rest. If I saw nothing there, a different time of day or a different part of the season or just a different day can pay off. If it's a good spot I'll visit it throughout the season. I have a few stands that I hunt whenever we have an east wind, even if it's a few sits in a row because there is no way a deer can get downwind of me and entry and exit are extremely low impact. I have shot opportunities there almost every sit, but I'm usually waiting for the right deer. I have hunted spots that looked perfect and never seen a deer from them, no matter what. I usually will pop in once a season but have learned to just give up on them.
So I guess the answer is that it all depends.
I have my own property with about 5 semi-permanent stands, which I typically rotate. That way no one stand is overly hunted.
"Usually 3.... but I leave the stands up in case I see movement when scouting. If other stands are hot, I won't go back to them at all."
X2
I think it all depends on what your hunting. Public land where you're relying on oak trees, then I would let them tell me when to move on. I am trying something different this year and trying to always hunt a hot area. I usually hunt the same place for as many sits as possible, but I want to have more highly effective hunts this year.
this year there is not many acorns. I walked around 10 miles in 3 hunts this past weekend and only found 3 trees that had good action under them and 2 of them were mediocre at best.
Two.
I stopped using tree stands but if I still did I would give it maybe 3 since I wouldnt want to move it.
It's so hard finding a tree in the spots I hunt here in Colorado that I basically never move it, might move once though if I'm not seeing deer at all. Nothing but giant Cottonwoods! I plan on buying a climber to add an option for the one tree out of several hundred that will accept one, 1-several hundred is probably not much of an exaggeration on the ratio of trees that will accept a climber here and it's actually not much better for hangons either! In a perfect world, I'd probably never sit the same place two days in a row unless it was just working that good for whatever reason!
I usually don't hunt the same stand twice in one season..unless..let me explain...
First I have over 6k acres I hunt. private land. it's a hunt club with 30 members and only 5 bowhunters. 2nd. the wind plays a huge role in where I sit. I have over 60 stand sites and many more I have not actually hunted yet. I live an hour away from the land, so i get one day a week to hunt it, and I want to learn every acre and the only way to do it is to hunt a different stand each week. Now, I will hunt a stand more than once if I have a good buck there, or I am seeing lots of deer there and nowhere else. I have been doing this for 5 years and it has worked well for me.
Public land yes.
I always take good stock in poop. Literally if there is not much fresh poo. I don't consider it very good it here no poop. Unless I'm hunting a buck n look for faint trails with rubs
QuoteOriginally posted by old_goat2:
It's so hard finding a tree in the spots I hunt here in Colorado that I basically never move it, might move once though if I'm not seeing deer at all. Nothing but giant Cottonwoods! I plan on buying a climber to add an option for the one tree out of several hundred that will accept one, 1-several hundred is probably not much of an exaggeration on the ratio of trees that will accept a climber here and it's actually not much better for hangons either! In a perfect world, I'd probably never sit the same place two days in a row unless it was just working that good for whatever reason!
I feel ya, only trees you can find where i'm at are in a creek or canyon and then good luck finding a semi straight cottonwood out there.
I never hunt the same tree twice unless its a week or so apart, may only move 50 yds in my climber but never in same tree 2 days in a row.
Twice and I'm outta there
QuoteOriginally posted by Basinboy:
Twice and I'm outta there
Corey,
is that 2 back to back sits or does it matter if there is time between those sits?
I space my sits out to let the area settle, but will not usually abandon the site for lack of activity. Not seeing anything 2, 3, 4 times doesn't discourage me. I've taken a couple nice bucks off stands that I logged a ton of hours in seeing nothing. But I knew it was a good spot and knew it was only a matter of time if I was patient enough to put in the hours.
I have one area,when the wind is right, that I sit in the same spot and watch the surrounding slopes for deer movement. When I see a deer I want to go after, I play the head them off at the pass game. Hunting pressure there makes a continually shifting pattern, an aggressive techique, but it has worked for years.
I do not hunt any stand more than once in a two week period. When I do hunt anything could go wrong much never known to us but a second sit with no sighting and I am gone.
Thats September - October - December - January
November might find me working a particular funnel more often - But I doubt I would hunt more than twice in one week even then - and again if no sightings I cancel that spot
2 times of nothing and I'll never be back...If I haven't had a shot 3 times in a row I move on or move the stand is I think my placement may be a bit off.
QuoteOriginally posted by DanielB89:
QuoteOriginally posted by Basinboy:
Twice and I'm outta there
Corey,
is that 2 back to back sits or does it matter if there is time between those sits? [/b]
Mostly back to back. I'll hunt a morning and evening. If nothing seen I'm moving. I scout continuously so I always have other spots. That way if I see someone parked near a spot I wanted to hunt, I go somewhere else that I have already scouted out.
2-3 times of getting skunked..or the deer aren't in shooting range..Im proly gonna move the setup.
I sat the same stand 9 times in the last two weeks. Have seen the same bucks multiple times from that stand. Have only used three stands total since season came in on September 26th.
I hunt private land. I think we can over complicate this thing. I sit where the deer are traveling, noting the wind direction and try not to overuse one stand. I would say it is over used when the deer start to avoid it.
Two, sometimes three.
Ideally I find a new spot with good sign when going out after a morning hunt. I'll hunt that new spot that evening and the next morning. If I don't see anything I'll move on to another spot.
If I do see something I'll keep hunting it till I don't..then move on and probably come back in a wk or two according to what and how many I saw or if I killed something.
Depends on where I am and what happens. If on Public land and I get people walking through one of the sits, I will give it 4-5. On the private farm I hunt, Its not uncommon to go 1 week without a sighting so I usually will sit it 3-4 times per season before changing the location..
I have a half dozen stand sites on 124 acres. I've killed 6 deer from the same cedar tree over 5 years. Passed up many times that (small bucks). I don't pass up does.
Some times I'll go 3-4 sits and not see a deer.
Last season I finally put a stand in a huge old cedar that I've walked by for years. It is a very nice "edge stand". I hunted it 4-5 times over two months and never even saw a deer. I reluctantly pulled the stand last winter and will simply ignore this tree from now on.
Every time I hunt I walk by a stand in a huge old oak, among four oaks on a 1 acre open knob that I've killed 3-4 deer and my son has killed one from it. I haven't hunted that tree since 2009.
According to all the "experts" I hunt my best stands too much. They are probably right.
I tend to move a lot based on deer sightings or lack there of. Usually when I find a spot I will sit on it and then hang a camera when I leave. What I see on the camera will determine whether or not I hunt it again. I just pulled a card and had a lot of does moving through at night and just a couple sightings during the day (camera was out for a week). I will sit that spot once this week and hang the camera along that trail but further back in hopes of catching more deer during daylight. Hoping that there is a staging area back there so I'll keep leap frogging my camera and my spot back until I find it. I like to put my camera on a spot before I sit it if i think its a good area. This way I can see whats going on without disturbing it. In general I only hunt one spot at maximum two days a week. If its an area that I can get to without laying too much scent down or crossing many deer trails I might sit it an extra day. I have one area that is near some thick bedding cover and I will only hit that spot once a week so I don't push deer out. I have to cross a few trails to get there.
It was my 14th sit in the same stand when I killed the buck in my thread "WV buck down". seen 3 bucks that morning from the same stand. You can "overstay your welcome", but sometimes it takes several sits.