Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

Well, I have run into a bit of a dilema. It works out that I am working the Midnight shift at work this week. I get off a little after 6:00 AM. With an hour drive from downtown Pittsburgh to home, That puts me in the driveway around 7:00Am (Just getting light). Then I would have to shower, get dressed and head out the door to my stand. This will be about 7:30ish out the door. I got about 35/40 minute walk to my stand.

So, my question is... Should I risk walking to my stand during this critical time, after it' s already gotten light?

I usually consider this stand to be prime within the first 2 hours of light and also the last 2 hours of light. However, pre-season scouting showed me that the deer are not working their regular schedules and are coming in the area at all different times of the day.

I can get to the stand fairly easy, I' m just afraid i' m going to disrupt things a bit too much.

What do you suggest? Take a quick nap and try to go out for a late morning hunt or just wait and hunt the evening?

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

Guess I' ll just have to try it... we' ll see what happens.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

I' d go ahed and try it. Down here deer do not stick to a time schedule of first and last 2 hours of light...but move at all times of day. Sure down here most deer are shot in the morning before 9am but then again ya gotta realize probably 90 percent of hunters leave the woods around 9 or 9:30. The second most deer are taken between 10 and 1. hardly any hunters are in the woods at that time, so percentage wise, I think the odds are better when you are in the woods at midday.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

Don' t worry too much about disrupting the area around your stand too much. You might scare a few deer out of the area on your trek to the deer stand but from my experience, deer generally don' t remember things very long after it happens. As an example, I was squirrel hunting the other day using my trusty 12-guage. I had just shot 2 squirrels back-to-back so two blasts from my shotgun in under 1 minute. 5 minutes later a doe just casually walks up to about 20 yds from me and just stared me down while she tried to figure out what I was. Yesterday I had cut down a large red oak tree and was dragging the excess limbs down into the woods. My father and my 10 year old son were with me and we talked on the trip down and on the trip back, all the while dragging several large branches through the leaves. As we were leaving, another doe comes up from behind and passes us at about 70 yds. The wind blowing probably helped hide most of the noise, but it just goes to show you that the deer will still be out there moving around.

You won' t scare the deer out of the area permanently, maybe just on your way to the deer stand. I' d head down anyhow and stay a few hours in the morning for a chance at a kill. I have just as much fun just sitting in the woods hunting and waiting as I do making the kill anyhow :)

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

Thunderdogg,

Thanks for the post. Let me be the first to welcome you to the board. You will find many, many skilled hunters here and all offer great advice. From your post, looks like you' ll be a good asset to us all.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

PAHUNTER if you have showers at work you may be able to trim some time off and get into the woods earlier by taking a shower and work and changing there. You say it is a 35/40 minute walk in to your stand, is there a possibility of setting a stand closer to the house? I am not saying don' t hunt, but the quicker you can get on stand the better.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

In the early season you may not see as much activity, but as this month progresses, so should your sightings. If you' re back on midnights in early to mid November, don' t miss any chance to get out there.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

PAHUNTER21,

Thanks for the warm welcome. I' ve been a lurker here for a few weeks and felt it was time to register. I' m not a bow hunter (yet), I' ve been lurking in the bow hunting forums to try and get a good idea of what I need to get set up. I' ve been gun-hunting/muzzle-loading for 20+ years now and I' m looking to expand my hunting season to include bow-hunting.

Again, thanks for the welcome, there seems to be a great bunch of people here. Looking forward to being a part of this community. ;)

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

Tazman,
Unfortunatly there are no showers where I work. Our network security comany doesn' t really need showers when all we do is sit on our @$$ all day and look at computer screens :D Maybe I' ll bring one of those camp showers in, stand on the bathroom sink, and do what i gotta do! [:o] Can you imagine if any of these computer geeks walked in on that! Not to mention the excess water on the floor! LOL! Heck I don' t think these guys have ever seen Camo except for on the ARMY commercials on TV!

Thunderdogg,
Don' t worry buddy, these guys will get you pointed in the right direction. Once you start bowhunting, you' ll never want to stop. I' m sure if you made a post asking how many of these guys plan on getting burried in their Camo, holding their bow of choice, you' ll get an overwhelming response. [X(]

Thanks for the posts guys.

RE: Need Advice: Entering the woods.
 

PAHUNTER I caused quite a stir at my job when I went hunting on a piece of property right next to where I work. I work inside the beltway in No. Va., tons of office folks and computor weenies (I am a systems analyst), there are actually some fellow hunters and gun nuts where I work. When I changed into my camo and went out to my truck and grabbed my bow some folks freaked, they actually called security (I had already cleared it with them) and it caused such a fuss that our customer liason asked me to please park over on the property I was hunting on to where these folks wouldn' t freak out anymore. He thought it was funny, but he said that if they went over his head and didn' t do something he would be called out on the carpet. We have showers here for the folks that exercise and run during lunch.