muzzyman88

Ok guys, I'm by no means a beginner and have been at this long enough. This past weekend, I had a good wind to finally get into my "rut" stand. I usually like to hit this stand once before the rut starts picking up. I've had good luck there in early season before.

I climb into my tree and everything is going as usual. I start seeing deer around 7:30 AM. I was glassing a couple of deer out in the woods and never noticed I had three more coming in from the right. When I pulled my bino's down, the big doe caught me moving and started the usual "stomp and stare" routine for the next 5 minutes or so. I froze and watched. Eventually, she started to creep out of there and than she started the infamous snort, all the way down through the woods until out of sight. So I figured I had blown the set for the day. Nonetheless, I stayed in the tree the remainder of the morning and saw quite a few more deer.

Now the sad part. I watched a small 6 and some does mingling in front of me and one of them went off to my right and layed down. No big deal, they always do this here. She eventually got up about 2 hours later and wandered off. I stayed put for about an hour or so and had to get down. I looked around really good and stood up. Then out of nowhere, more snorting! Evidentally, there were still deer in the area that I couldn't see in the pine thicket to my right.

I'm really bummed here. I haven't had that many deer blow at me in a long time, especially for getting busted moving. This is my "honeyhole" stand and I just fouled it up for a bit.

The problem with the area is, that deer come from every possible direction here. It is sort of a "hub" type spot.

Sorry, had to vent. Anyone else had a day like this? How long should I wait until getting back into that stand?