tonight i shot a buck and tracked him down got him out of the woods,and by the way it was awesome,my question is this how long do you wait after taking a deer and tracking and all that before you hunt that spot again? ALSO how do you tell if your over hunting an area and PLEASE GIVE YOUR HONEST OPINIONS

My $.2 would be give it at least a day or two... But it really depends on your schedule. If you have a few spots to go give the others a shot. If not then hit it again, but be easy going in. If it was me I'd take a day and enjoy those tasty backstraps wrapped with pepper bacon alongside some red mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus. Congrats on your buck!

If you didn't have to spend a lot of time looking for the deer I don't think it will matter much if you hunt again right away. I've shot deer on successive days from the same stand. The deer don't mind a gutpile in the least. It might even atttract them. They seem to be curious about it.

depends on if you got another spot to hunt.. this year i have two spots to hunt (maybe 3 soon i hope!) .. ill take a deer and then let the property sit and ill hunt the other property for a week or so.. even though my early season scouting shows no promising signs of taking anything on the second property. atleast im out in the woods and giving the 1st spot time to settle and reset.

if your only in 1 spot for the season.. id atleast give it a few days to settle down.. always good to go back out after a good rain too..

I think it really depends on the time of year and weather. Early season when I am hunting specific feeding patterns, I try to give a stand at least 3 or days between hunts, even if I did not kill anything. However, if it was raining, washing my scent away, I may hunt that stand earlier. This time of year, when patterns are being throw off due to the rut and chasing activity, I may hunt a stand back-to-back days. In fact, I have killed a deer from a stand on a evening hunt, only to hunt it again the next morning and kill another.

I agree with kickin_buck here on the early season advice as well as the rut advice. Last year on our public land gun hunt in Missouri, one of our group took a 9 point off his ladder stand he had just put up he day before. The next day my nephew took a 6 point off the same ladder stand, and then the next day I took a doe, again off of the same ladder stand.

I usually give it a couple days-mainly because it takes me that long to recoup from all the work getting them out of the woods at my age. When younger I did the same...2-3 days.

My dad shot a buck last year right before dark and they let him lay, then my uncle shot a buck the next morning in the same spot. So they had to get two deer out of there that morning.

as far as when you know your over-hunting an area...if the deer movement slows down, if the deer act more cautious as they approach your stand, if you start getting more pics (on your trail cams) of nocturnal deer. if you are a weekend warrior like alot of people on here, your really wont over pressure an area...you hunt it saturday and sunday then it has 5 or 6 days to air out...if you start spooking deer every time your in there you can expect for your spot to go to h*ll in a handbasket...watch your scent and wind!

After my hunt yesterday I can agree with this statement 100%. While it seems a gutpile would be a huge warning flag to deer, it is simply another part of nature. Your scent at the site is more likely to spook them.
I was just out doe hunting yesterday (Monday a.m.) and called up a nice big 10 point main frame with 3 big stickers coming off the back of his right G1, and he wandered right up to the kill site and gut pile of the big buck I just shot from the same stand Friday night. Stood there smelling and pawing at the ground for a couple minutes before he passed 15 yards from my tree.
Unfortunately the downside to filling your buck tag early in Iowa and continuing to hunt doe is having to watch helplessly as another big bruiser gives you what would be a chip shot.