((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, learn, travel, routes, blind, locations, program, deer, don’t, be, programed))

Big bucks  don’t show up often but hunters must learn every stand location.

A friend of mine used to hunt 300 acres. He had a dozen tree stands and ground blinds scattered around in key spots.

He could hunt a different stand each day, and often did the first year of his lease. He then invited one or two others to hunt with he and his wife, and while he and his wife hunted every day, he always felt sorry for his invited guests.

Sometimes there would be six people hunting, and only five stands were right for the prevailing wind. Guess who sat out that day's hunt? You got it. The man that paid the lease fee.

The hunter soon cut down on the number of guest so he could hunt.

Sometimes hunters hunted from stands if the wind was wrong. He told them to not hunt rather than to risk spooking deer, but they hunted anyway and ruined that stand for the rest of the season.

It got to the point where most of the stands were rendered useless because the hunters couldn't sit still, would arrive late and leave early, and the bottom line was the deer had patterned them rather than the other way around.

One man apparently thought deer were deaf, and talked loudly.If he had to pick up his wife, he would talk to her on the way in and out.

My friend finally told them they had only two stands to hunt. It didn't take long for those stands to get burned, and their hunting success fell off.

Which leads, in a somewhat indirect way to tonight's question How often should you hunt a stand?

My buddy, noted above, never spooked a deer when he hunted a different stand each night. He had two or three entrance and exit routes, and if the wind was wrong, he wouldn't hunt. He never spooked deer, and he always saw nice bucks.

So what is the difference? One person is more cautious when approaching a stand, and they do so quietly. He is hunting by himself so there is no need to talk to anyone. He slips in, slips out, and arrives and departs by a different route every time he hunted.

He had a favorite stand, and hunted it only a few times each season. It was his ace in the hole, and it always paid off with a good buck.

Always have at least two ways in and out of a hunting stand.

If he got pinned down by deer at the end of shooting time he would wait until the deer moved off. He would take his arrow off the string when shooting time ended, put the arrow in the quiver and wait out the deer.

A famous writer from many years ago once wrote: One boy is all boy; two boys is half a boy, and three boys is no boy at all. This translates into one person, hunting alone, can be the supreme predator. Two people make twice as much noise, give off twice the scent, and make mistakes. Three people become a crowd and shouldn't be hunting together. One person, hunting alone, is more effective.

So, how often should a stand be hunted? It depends. If a hunter has only one 20-acre spot to hunt, he will probably have to hunt that one location, but it would be best to hunt it only under ideal conditions.

Much depends on the lay of the land, but a 40-acre spot may offer two or even three stands widely spaced apart. If that is the case, hunt them every three days, and sit out one night.

Back to my friend on 300 acres with a dozen stands. His favorite tree stand was seldom hunted, so 11 other stands afforded him a good chance to move around and hunt other areas. Granted, not everyone has 300 acres to play with.

Learn how to hunt each area well & it will make you a better hunter.

He would hunt them all, and start over again, and he always knew which stands had bucks coming to them and when they would appear. If he had someone who really wanted to kill a buck, he would stick them in the stand early, tell them where the buck would come from and when it would arrive, to always be ready and the hunter would shoot it.

The trick is to never overhunt a stand. Move around if possible, and if it's not possible, hunt just three or four days a week. Never hunt the same stand two nights in a row, and always approach a stand from a different direction. Avoid being patterned by deer.

Overhunting a stand will kill it faster than anything else. Always give a stand a day or two break, at a minimum, and use every ounce of skill you possess while approaching, sitting in or leaving a stand. Doing so, time after time, will help make that stand pay off.

Just don't get over-confident, and hunt the same stand all the time. Do so, and the deer will soon program you and hunters won't see as many deer.

TITLE: Learn how to hunt several blinds for various wind directions.

Tags: ((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, learn, travel, routes, blind, locations, program, deer, don’t, be, programed))

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors