RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

Honeslty, you are giving deer too much credit here. I also feel that a lot of what you are referring to is the exact reason to have multiple set-ups. If I get sighted in the tree from a stand, then I won't hunt it for a couple of weeks. I will just hunt one of my other stands in the same general area. This isn't rocket science, and if you spook a doe your season isn't over.

On a related note, over hunting a stand can be damaging even if you are not seen in the tree. The scentsyou leave behind, etc will allow a deer to figure out where you are.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

Also buckeye....

I hunted 46 times last year.....and hunted the same tree, exactly twice. To my recollection.....I had ONE deer spot me and bolt. It happened to be the day Rob/PA was down here hunting....and I have no idea how she did it. She just locked in on me and I was busted.

I shot my best 8-pointer out of that tree 3 weeks later.

I'm not saying your practices aren't of sound strategy. I'm saying a deer's brain is the size of a small pear......and I think we sometimes give them far too much credit. I'm glad MObo's giving another strategy a chance.....but I hunted does, last year, and killed 3 bucks.

In MY WOODS....I know they'll eventually be where the does are. From my limited knowledge....I'd say that'll hold true for anyone's woods. If you blow the does out of your area......then I guess you shoot yourself in the foot. I've got plenty of does, though, and I don't edcuate them as a rule.

GREAT conversation.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

To much credit? If my belief is correct that it is a culmination of pressure over time that educates deer, how is not wanting to spook them as fawns and yearlings giving them to much credit?

I am sure you have heard a hundred times and understand that yearlings in high pressure areas are more cautious than mature deer in lightly pressured areas.... (areas like down south, PA, parts of NY etc etc). So... How is not wanting to start a "culmination" of mistakes on a young deer wrong?
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RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

JMO,
I hunt the first part of archery for a fat doe to eat. Plain and simple.
From then on until about the middle of October I hunt food sources (for bucks and does.)
If I'm buck hunting and the rut is NOT in yet, I'm hunting scrapes and rub lines. (Middle of October til about the 2nd week in November)
If the rut IS in, I'm following the does.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

Huntingson....I tend to agree with this.

Buckeye....the "cookie cutter" reference wasn't derogatory. I just happen to think that all the stuff one reads in the magazines and books "is" sound advice....but that it needs to be modified to fit one's ACTUAL situation. It's far from being "wrong" advice. But....there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Hate to use golf as an example.....but have you ever seen Jim Furyk swing a golf club? NO TEACHER ON EARTH would teach him that. But he's adapted it to his style....and he's a US OPEN champion.

Hope that makes sense.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

Buckeye.....

How long do you think a deer can remember an "occurrence"....be that a dose of extra-strong human scent; sighting of a human; etc...?

I think this is where we're gonna disagree. "I" and others think you give them too much credit. We can agree to disagree.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

She could feel Rob's Pennsylvania aura on you........I tell ya there isn't much more spooky to a whitetail than a keystoner :D

Like I said in my first post....

I'm not saying it is wrong to do so..... just one mans opinion (mine)on it is all.

They eat, sleep, breed and survive, that about sums up their day. They haven't been around all this time by not being smart enough to adapt and survive.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

I am not saying that you are wrong in not wanting to spook them, but I also don't want some new hunter who is reading this to think that if they spook a deer from their stand that the season is over for them and they now have no chance at a mature buck. A yearling, or any deer for that matter,can learn and be cautious adn even learn to look for danger in the trees, but they aren't going to check that tree every time they walk by it forever. After a week or two, that deer is going to have long forgotten about you in that tree.

Edit: With that said, I do believe that you are correct and every precaution should be taken to avoid spooking deer from the stand.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

First question... I don't know.

Second statement...Go up to PA and hunt gamelands with Quicksilver, Rybo or Rob..... Check back with me afterwards.

I agree... Thats why I said it is a culmination of mistakes... Not justone mistake.

RE: OK... How about a little strategy talk....
 

Biggest buck I ever killed saw me twice, I saw him three times.