So I am curious how many deer the folks on this board see daily. What I mean is, I spent some months scouting deer, finding a ton of deer sign and spotting some. This being my first year I might have some expectations, like I am sure I will see deer on day 1 of the season, a lot of deer. This is would make sense since there is no pressure yet, and there is all this sign, right? Besides I will be there all day so they are bound to come by, right?

Needless to say it hasn't worked out that way and I am wondering if it is typical to go out and not see deer even though there is a ton of sign? Just looking for guidance to set my expectations accordingly, or move if I am in the wrong spots. Thanks.

Thats how it goes sometimes. I had been seeing alot of deer since opening day(sept 22nd here in Ky). I even had a clean miss, I hate to admit it but I used the wrong pin, that is another thread tho so I will continue. I had been seeing plenty of deer, and then ,,,,,nothing. 17 hours on stand with only one measly 4 point buck sighting and zero does. Just as I was contemplating calling it a day, having figured how many consecutive unproductive hours I had spent on stand, I caught movement to my left. To make a long story short, a parade of six does meandered by my stand, the first five at thirty yards and since I am not really that comfortable with that shot being a 100% knockout, I let them walk too. The sixth doe in the parade however passed at twenty yards, a shot I am very confident with, the end result was a deer piling up within sight and my eleventh bow kill. The moral to the story is, if you are sure the deer are using this area, as evident by the sign, stay on the stand a little longer than usual and stick out the drought, you will be rewarded.

BTW, I shot the afore mentioned deer at 9:30. A lot of hunters leave there stand at about his time. Of all the things I have learned about deer over the years, the most important is this. Deer will bed down shortly after daylight, then after a few hours of relaxing and chewing on their chud, they will get up and browse for a while. I believe there is multiple bedding areas a deer using during the day, one immediately after daylight, and one after brunch. Don't give up on your stand sight if the deer sign is there, hunt it harder and try sitting a couple of days until noon, that might reveal something that can resultin a succesful hunt.

I was sitting on a Chute in Eastern Washington where five mulie trails converge. At around 7:00 PM I had 18 does and 3 spikes come down the chute . . . right at me. Had I moved, they would have seen me and spooked so I sat and watched. I figured that if I didn't spook them I might get a shot the following evening. However, I took a large mulie doe the next morning.

We saw at least 10 or more deer each day for a week, and one LARGE boar Griz .

Bowhunter