Early A.M.
 

I am thinking of going out early tomorrow morning an need a little advice. The property I am going on is setup completely differrent than any other I've been on. Pretty much it is a gravel drive going up hill about 75-80 yards to an opening about half the size of a football field. All the surroundings is heavily wooded going up to and all around the top. Their are brush piles here and there at top. I know the bedding areas are about 30-40 yards back on the right and they feed in that area and directly across to the left. What do you think my chances are getting up there (either walking up a gravel/rock or through leaves/sticks) and not spooking them on the way? This is my first year bow hunting so I haven't had to be close like this in the past and always had much more room to work with. I walked up there about 5p.m. this evening and ran into 1 buck and 2 does. This was 2 hours after I had my quad in the same area (practicing).
Brandon

RE: Early A.M.
 

The thing to do is to get on the quad with another person, drive up the trail / drive , get off the quad and let the other person leave on the quad. The deer will not know how many people came up there, they will just know something came and left. Mean while you are up there hiding in wait.

RE: Early A.M.
 

Just out of curiosity, is this something you/anyone else has tried? Don't sound like a bad idea seeing they will come back after a quad was around but I only have till 8:00 a.m. Thanks,
Brandon

RE: Early A.M.
 

I've also heard ofthat being done before. Of course 75-80 yards isn't very far to walk either! Are you hunting from a treestand or a ground blind?

RE: Early A.M.
 

Mofireman, I am not worried about the walk up there, its more of them hearing me coming up to them.I will also be in a ground blind.
Brandon

RE: Early A.M.
 

I really don't think that your walking up the gravel road/drive is going to affect what the deer are going to do that morning. The other morning I was making all sorts of noise walking through the dark wood lot on the way to my stand, and I hadjust reached the platform and before I could even pull my bow up, there were deer walking right towards me from within the same wood lot!

The key is to arrive in the dark and walk up the drive as quiet as possible and get settled in before any sign of daylight. That's why I did not spook the deer the other morning. They could not see me...it's just that simple!!

RE: Early A.M.
 

Hunt the previous evening and spend the night in the ground blind. Take a folding lawn chair and a warm sleeping bag. I set the alarm on my pager (on vibrate of course) to wake me up 30 minutes before dawn. I'd take some snacks and water too if I were you.

RE: Early A.M.
 

I would recommend this also, just make sure that you dont snore, or else that buck might come over and elbow you so he can get a little shut eye. ;)

RE: Early A.M.
 

Sheesh... I would never even *consider* sleeping in the woods, lol, but I tend to be somewhat of a GIRL. LOL

In my opinion, if it's still dark out, and they can't see you, they aren't going to spook nearly as easy. I got to my stand while it was still pitch dark on Monday morning, my buddy was standing at the bottom with a flashlight to make sure I got up okay and we heard some rustling behind us, not very far back. Well, he shines the flashlight back there and I had one about 10 yards behind my stand. We made a TON of noise getting into the woods. I had just put my stand up the morning before and hadn't gotten a feel for where I needed to enter the woods to get to it, so we were crashing through this that and the other trying to find our opening and once we got there, we were standing at the bottom of the stand talking for a minute... he/she never spooked until he shined that flashlight on 'em.

Walking up gravel isn't gonna alarm them, especially in the dark, but that's JMO.

RE: Early A.M.
 

We do almost the same when we hunt in the U.P., two people walk into thearea of the blind and one walks out, so far we have figured that the deer can't count. Seems to work and we have taken some mature does and bucks. One doe we took was aged at 9.5 + years old. She had to be as cautious as any 3.5 year old buck and we have done this in daylight hours also. If the deer are used to traffic the two man idea should work out well.

RE: Early A.M.
 

I have never tried it for deer but when we have a stubborn black bear we will use the 2 in 1 out and it works very well. I can't remember when it didn't work. I would have someone drop you off with the 4 wheeler if at all possible.

RE: Early A.M.
 

Holy cow! (or deer) 9.5 years old!!! Wowza! I know the UP is different, but my husband and father in law told me that the average age of a deer in Michigan is 1.5-2. I guess because there are soooo many hunters in Michigan and their deer harvests are huge. I haven't seen the facts on it, but my father in law has lived in Michigan his entire life, and my husband lived there most of his, so I tend to believe they know what they are talking about.

That is one smart deer you took there!

RE: Early A.M.
 

Yes 9.5 yrs. old, we had her aged at the check station by the DNR. We have taken several does off from this property that have aged 6.5 yrs. or better. This is private property so they don't get the hunting pressure that State land deer would get it's also tough for poachers in this area do to no open fields by the roads. This doe at 9.5 yrs. still had milk when we field dressed her.