Entrance and Exit?
 

I have read a lot of articles in Petersons Bowhunting magazine and one item they key in on is getting in and out of your stand undetected. they place that I hunt, i feel it is almost impossible to do this because of the wind. 85% of the time, the winds blow from the west and directly along the ridge. Now, I think the deer might get some what use to human scent because the farmers are up there year round, cutting down and timbering trees for their fire places. the trails that i walk on are about wide enough to drive my dodge ram up. here is a pic of the woods where I hunt, i posted it before. my stand where i shot my deer where all the rubs are in the saddle on the right side of the map. Winds from the west. i park down in the center middle where the first trail comes down and walk up that trail to the top. the only way to have the wind in my advantage would be to drive the fields in the afternoon and park further up and then walk up those far right trails. couldn't do it in the morning cause the deer are in the corn fields and make their way from the fields up the mountain and bed on the other side. any and all suggestions will help. thanks

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

I can say I try to get down undetected but it is about impossible. In the evening stand I wait for the herd to move on before coming down. This may cause me to stay up for hours since I have no idea the size of deer around me. I will occasionally spot them with a flash light to see how big they are. I don't want to educate the big ones to which trees I like.

Several times during a morning hunt I had to come down with little deer and Does around. My funniest episode was when I had 2 groups of 6 deer 15 yards in both directions watching me slide down the tree, fold the stand, change my cloths and walk out of the woods. I could have picked up my bow and shot anyone of them. They never moved. They just ate and watched me doing my thing.

I guess I should add I had to let myself out of the petting zoo's gate. Just kidding, they were not penned up. It really happened out in the wild.

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

In my opinion it is impossible to always have the wind in your favor entering or exiting a treestand. No one can predict with total precision where all the deer will be. Maybe once on stand, where hopefully you have a very educated quess based on scouting, sign and observation of activity as to the approach and departure of the deer. But walking to a stand (unless you are parking within a hundred yards) you cross so many travel corridors that deer use that its impossible to know all of them. Some stands that I have are at least a 30 minute walk from where I park to where my stand is located. Even if I knew every deer trail between those two points what could I do about it. The things I try to do is remain as scent free as possible by using proper scent control and not touching anything with my bare hands while trekking to my stand and try to remain unseen once I get to the area my stand is located and for that matter on the way there. I take extra time to glass fields before I cross them (including the wood lines) and then I walk to my stand and hunt. My path is not a straight line because I hunt in hill country and the old logging roads I follow dont go in a straight line. They follow the terrain. They switch back and zig zag as they will. They switch so often that scent eventually has to blow in the wrong direction. Approaching a stand situated below a hillside the deer are bedding on would in my opinion be far worse because every deer on the hillside are watching every thing you do. If they are bedded over the other side where they would not see you approach you could do as you have said and walk through the field to your stand, But my quess is they will be overlooking that field. In the morning with a very quiet and slow approach under the cover of darkeness I think you would be amazed at what you can get away with.

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

You might be suprised if you sneak in their in the morning, or you could bust that spot for a few weeks or even the season. where not talking about fork horns here. the big boys are in touch with their enviroment, they'll know when something isn't right. I would strickly make that an evening hunt, you can't take the chance of spooking a monster out of the field in the early morning. I would hunt the evenings until one of the last days of the season . Resist the urge to go in the morning it's not worth ruining your chances at the big one. Plus early season hunt the fields in the evening and transisition area about 50yrd of to catchem.Best of luck, let me know how it turns out.Lou-lou

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

it did see a 3.5 year old buck in the field the one morning at like 4:45 am. I watched him for about 5 mins and he just walked off. i shot the buck in the morning during the rut about 1.5 weeks later. so i have no idea. its mostly real thick pines everywhere so i will be as scent free as possible, use pine scent wafers and store my clothes in scent lok bags with pine needles in there and i should be fine.

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

Just rotate you spots where you hunt. I like to go to different places on each hunt unless I know I only have a few days to hunt. Don't hunt the ones you expect to see big ones until the rut. When you do hunt them be patient. You will have time after the rut to fill your freezer.

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

The only problem with rotating spots where you hunt based on wind direction is that all too often people are limited to the number of stands they have because they're limited to the size of property they hunt, or other people who hunt it. So then the choice is either hunt when the wind maybe isn't perfect, or don't hunt at all. For most of us, that isn't much of a choice. Sure it sucks, but there's not much else you can do sometimes. Personally, I have a few select stands that I don't hunt when the wind is wrong, a few that I will take a chance on, and then I have my "last resort" stands for those times when there's a really strange wind. Sure they may not be set up in ideal spots, but you never know when you're gonna get lucky and you sure as heck aren't gonna get a shot at a deer from the front seat of your truck. Unless you're a Wisconsin gun hunter that is. :D

As far as coming and going undetected - once again that's something I feel is very limited by stand options and the size of the property you hunt. For example, a place I hunt near my house has only one spot where I can park. I am forced to enter my hunting area at that one spot every time, unless I can find someone to drop me off elsewhere. As that is not always possible, I take extra precations to have several different paths which I use to approach my stand depending on wind direction, and which ones are most often used. If you have to go in and out the same general area each time, at least mix it up a little bit.

And like everyone else said, I try to stay on stand until all the deer are gone from the immediate vicinity but that isn't always an option. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Deer don't play by our rules cuz if they did we'd all have a lot more big boys hanging in our trophy rooms. ;)

RE: Entrance and Exit?
 

The way I read this subject it had nothing to do with wind direction once you were in stand. I would never and I repeat never hunt a stand in the wrong wind direction. If the wind should shift, I'm out and heading to one of the many other stands I set in the early spring and summer just in case this happens. If there is no wind then I only fear the evil thermals. I dont fear them at all