GMMATs post brought up a good question to myself..
lately, i been questioning my hunting ability..my scouting ability..
last year i hunted pretty dang hard and dont think i broke 20 deer sightings in bow season. 5 were buck. 1 was legal.
i KNOW i overhunted my stands. honestly, i hunted 1 spot here at school and one spot at home..heck id hunt the same stand at home friday evening and saturday morning and leave and come back saturday evening.
that stand got hunted HARD..too hard i know. i didnt hunt it for 3-4 weeks and rifle season came..2 bucks ive never seen before came through. one whopper big nasty mature 11pt(i seen pics after he got killed 2 days later by some kid over a mile away that got lucky![:@]) and another smaller buck..honestly didnt look at him because he didnt compare to the biggun...didnt get a shot..but that proves my thinking.
also got winded pretty much my whole first week till i started practicing scent control...
most of the times when i saw deer it was when i hunted new stands, first time i hunted stands or stands i havent hunted hardly at all.
my question is...what do you consider "overhunting a stand"? i dont have 100 different spots to keep me busy all season long. i could possibly switch trees..move 20 or 30 or 50yds here and there etc...i do have spots to keep me not hunting the same stand for atleast a week, maybe more..being at school helps..but usually weekends(fri evening, all day saturday) im home...during the week i will probably hunt mon and wed evenings..
just curious how often i can hunt a stand and be safe?
also...do you guys hunt different stands for the rut?? i know my one spot doesnt really hold bucks..but it holds a handful of does...its a small finger of woods..i know one day during the rut im sitting there all day. going to try to find other such setups for the rut..and try to hunt food sources for the first month...
im just trying to get the odds in my favor...sometimes it seems impossible..i just dont see too many shooter bucks..
then again....getting a shot at a legal buck here in PA is almost unheard of your first year bowhunting...so im proud of that...even if i did blow it
