Father and Son left Frustrated...

[BuckDelux]

Before the summer my family moved from the sticks to the beach. Having the luxary of gameland 20 yards from our backyard for the first time my dad and I had to look for new hunting ground. We started asking around in July and found this sweet spot off of route 40. However it was not until late August that we did any scouting. I'll never forget it, my dad and I walked out there around 4pm and immediatly walked up on a 6 pointer feeding in the field. An hour later I walked up on an 8 pointer and a 10 pointer eating berries together. I definitely creamed my pants, I think. To say the least, my dad and I were excited.

The problem this area presents is it's surrounded with fence and there is only one corner with trees big enough to put up a stand. There are various holes in the fence where the deer are coming through from the woods to feed in the field. For a couple weeks we had ground blinds up with some different kinds of baits covering the holes. I saw one of the bucks but it was too far away to shoot. Other than that, we haven't seen anything. I decided to follow one of the holes back with my loggy and hunt randomly up in a tree. I saw some deer with this method so I put in a permanent stand with steps so I didn't have to sweat my ass off in 80 degree fall weather. Ever since then I haven't seen anything. I bought a couple boxes of rotten apples and pumpkins but am hesitant to put them out because I feel like my bates before spooked the deer. Do you guys have any suggestions? Should we be patient or keep moving around for a new spot? Should I wait for the rut and try to call/smell them out of the woods? My dad and I are pissed!

[Uncle Buck 31]

I had a similar dilemma, I put up a ground blind and began to hunt when the wind was right. In my case there were soy beans in the field which is why the deer kept coming into the field. The strip of woods they were in was not very wide, approx 200 yards wide. Every time you stepped into the woods they knew you were there. Try a blind down wind of where you think they will come out of the woods from. I did not think I would like blind hunting but know I am beginning to do it more often. It also allows me to conceal my 8 and 9 year old easier than a stand.

[onthehunt]

WIND, WIND, WIND, WIND,......Wind. Once a mature deer busts a stand because he smells you it's over. Move your stand. Don't throw bait on the ground out of frustration. I had to bail tonight because of wind direction. Got all set up after work and the wind started to swirl bad. Got down and headed for another stand and found my buddy's truck parked there. Just went home:(. It's not worth ruining a stand because "I just wanna hunt". Be patient, you'll figure them out and once you do it will be sweeeeet:)

[stephenf]

depending on the task ,start patching the fence and force the deer to use the holes you want ,The permanant stand needed to be done in july ,now that it is done wait untill later in the season to use it ,if you built a wooden permanant be careful more guys are killed each year as the trees growing and swaying pull them apart,put a loc on in there, put the bait out in an area you can put a camera on it ,then start moving a camera around the woods to see what trails the bucks are coming to the bait from ,I just killed a 172 lb 8 point 300yds from my bait knew they where coming in 1/2 to 1 hr after dark ,set up on the trail way back and played the acorns , i would patch the fence if at all possible and see where the bucks are coming in ,deer are lazy and if they feel safe they will walk where you want them to

[PhilCVG]

Mistake #1 in my opinion was throwing baits down infront of deer that you already knew had a pattern. That never seems to do anything except change the pattern of the deer. You seem to believe that now also.

If you aren't taking the wind into consideration than that is mistake #2.

Putting up the stand might have been mistake #3 depending on how you did it.

My suggestion would be to hit the "reset" button and start over. Since the deer don't give us the luxury of the reset button, I'd probably let it rest for two weeks and while I'm waiting try to figure out what the deer are doing? Were do they bed? What are they eating today?

The one thing stephen mentions briefly is acorns? Perhaps you didn't make a mistake, the deer might just be on the acorns right now.

But again, I hate to go in and do things as small as trimming shooting lanes and trails once the season has started and I'm hunting deer in an area. So if you went on there and dumped bait, built a stand etc, chances are the deer noticed.

[QuintonZ29]

Biggest mistake I hear people make is tell of awsome deer sign like rubs or scrapes and then say how the threw corn on the ground on that line....

Those deer were coming there before for a reason, the berries and the field...you should have left the bait out of it...I feel that messed them up, at least for a little bit.....They may come back a little later but you changed their pattern....One thing to remember always...when you see good deer movement from a stand or in a field, sit back and think...whats the wind right now, temps, weather conditions and time of year and when those same conditions occur again be there!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chances have it that next year you will have deer on that same field early season but this time hunt the berries and field and leave the bait out of it....

[BuckDelux]

Alright, so it's evident at this point I mixed things up a little. I am an ameteur and so is my dad so we didn't really know any better. I think I'm going to let those stands marinate for a couple weeks. Maybe work the ground blinds we hadn't be sitting in for awhile. On the other side of the section of woods there is a high tension line. Its a long walk but I was thinking of just walking in there to see where their scraping and rubbing and setting up my loggy self-climber randomly one day. If I get up pretty high on a big pine and they might have no idea I'm there. Is that a good idea? Also, our permanent stands are only 15 feet in the air because my dad is a little safety conscious. I joke around and say that the deer have to duck under to get by. Are we too low? We're obviously shotgun/muzzleloader hunters trying to convert and do the right thing here.

[Cape May Ct Hs BuckHunter]

loggy self-climber randomly one day. If I get up pretty high on a big pine :eek: :eek:


NEVER NEVER NEVER use a climber on a pine tree espically in South Jersey where the pine beetle has hit. the bark on the tree can break loose and down you go or worse yet the tree snaps in half. i could look healthy but the heart of the tree is gone. if theres no needles up high on the branches its DEAD!!!!!!!1

[BuckDelux]

Thanks for the advice, I never knew that. They just seemed so sturdy which is why I choose them. I'll look for other stuff from now on. The beauty of buckbarn.

[onthehunt]

I had a stand in a pine this year. Went out before the season to check stands, straps, steps, etc. and everything looked fine with this stand. Go there to hunt last week and as I looked up at the stand I noticed the entire top of this pine broke off about six feet above my stand. Did not want to chance and headed for another stand location. Went there the next day and pulled the stand to relocate. When I finished my buddy walked over and gave the tree a good shoulder shove and the damn thing fell over.:mad: He pulled every stand out of the pine trees that day.