Destination hunts.....(read destination as an area the deer travel to specifically ex. crops, water, acornsetc)

[/align]While I know destination setups can and do produce big time throughout the whitetails range... I have a couple reservations.... (Again right or wrong just this guys opinion)
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[/align]First off dawn "destination" setups.
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[/align]Ido hunt thewhitetail'sdestination at times but Itry to limit this as much as possible in most cases.Especially if the destination is "hot"on morning hunts.....My reasoning here is with morning hunts you have no idea if the whitetail arealready occupying the areaand risk pushing them off your setup in the pre dawn darkness.
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[/align]I learned the hard way a fewseasons ago with a blazing hot oak tree setup alonga swamp edge..... Big rubs showed up all around it literally overnight.... The area was just smokingwith big buck tracks and I attempted to hunt it two mornings in a row (mistake in hind sightbut it was hot and Ididn't want to miss out) and busted deer off of it both mornings even arriving an hour previous to legal shooting light.I am near certain the big buck was one of the deer I busted off the setup as I could see his fleeing tracks in the damp soil once I climbed down after my hunt.
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[/align]I believe these setups would be dynamite if you have the patience for a couple hours of darkness from stand before shooting light... However I do not..... Well check that, I do not in the early season but do once the magical season heats up..... Funny how rutting bucks can stretch your patience!
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[/align]In realitywhat I am saying is I most prefer to hunt inside breaklines, funnels, travel corridors, inside corners.... basically any terrain feature I feel I can capitalize on. My reasoning for this is in most cases they are just passing thru the area and not loitering around leaving less a chance ofan animal you wish to pass on or shoot to pick you off for some reason or another.
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Let's hearyourviews as well...........
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Great question Scott. Evening hunts i havent had near as much sucess as morning hunts. With that being said I still like to hunt acorns in the early season and the hot trees are easy to find. The biggest thing i do wrong is set up too close to the actual hotspot and get to many eyes and ears and noses around before the bigger bucks come by. I think a proper setup will work if i back off a bit and figure out what direction the bucks are coming from. As for morning hunts i have had great success. I like to setup between the hotspot and the bedding area about 45 mins to an hour before first light. Now it is the opposite. The does come later and setting up early closer to the bedding gives that extra time i need to see the deer moving when the sun comes up. Oh and on the morning hunts i place as much emphasis on entry route as i actually do hunting.

I agree for the most part, I really don't like hunting in a bedding area (kinda hard to find a "bedding area" in this area as the woods are pretty much one big bedding area), and I don't really hunt food sources much. I have one spot that we call "the oaks" which looks like somebodies yards in the middle of the woods with big white oaks all through it. This area can/does have a good bit of deer activity but it is so sporadic that it really isn't a reliable area to hunt. I do focus on water sources during the first week or two of season if the temperatures are very hot. This is my "pond stand" and it has been extremely good to me if the temps are warm. This isn't so much the water as it is the location of the water, it is between a bedding area and a major food sourceso there are always deer moving back and fourth.

My personal favorite areas to hunt are stagging areas or to find areas where bucks boundary lines for their core territory. These areas give me the most buck encounters and with enough time in stand, they afford me the best chance at a mature buck.

Not that I have any buck experience, but I can only think of a couple times I've ever hunted destinations, and both times were for water, and both times paid off. Of all the sets I've hunted over the years, I feel confident in saying 98% of them were in travel routes.

The more I hunt, the more I learn, and I'm learning better travel routes than others, and how to hunt them. Last year, I saw more bucks during bow season than my previous 2 combined, so I must be onto something...............................Finally... ..[&o]

Okay now that you've seen one... lets move onto the next step... seeing one that's not in the headlights

HEY!! DOWN IN FRONT BUDDY!! I can't see the movie!!! [&:] Man, I liked it better when you worked 20 hrs/day.......

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Yea I don't hunt mornings at destinations. Always on a travel route or just outside a bedding area. I had debated hunting an oak stand opening morning, but I scrapped that for the very reason that I might bump something going in. I am going to hunt a funnel instead and hunt the oak stand in the evening. All depending on the wind of course.

I have a North wind forecasted for Saturday[8D]Pretty rare for my area.....Luckily I have a few spots a North wind will work out good..... Well that's if the deer cooperate

I don't hunt food sources in the mornings very often for that reason. Don't want bump them there.

But I will set up on an area if I find a lot of sign, like rubs or hot scrapes. I figure these are more than likely near his bedding area or a place he will travel thru checking them before he goes off to bed.