What am I doing Wrong ??
 

Hello, I have been hunting for 7 years now and I am wondering am I sitting in the wrong spots ??
I look for areas that show large amounts of sign such as droppings and lots of tracks, then I will pick a tree to set a stand, I have sat in oaks, I have sat in thick pines, laurels, tops of ridges, and depsite I am hunting state land I hardly see a deer !!! is it that there's few deer in my area or is it my strategy. as far as my scent control my gear stays on the cloths line all season it never see's the inside of my truck. the few times I have seen deer they were down wind and never bothered them a bit so I am good there, I am just wondering im sitting in a night activity area ? any ideas or advice to find more productive areas to place a stand would be a great help
Thank you for any and all advice
John

Just because a trail shows heavy use, doesn't mean its being used during hunting hours..
Also, deer tend to change their patterns as soon as hunting season starts..
You also have to sit almost perfectly still and quiet unless you're surrounded by something they can't see through.

There could be many things you're doing right and/or wrong. hard to say...

what time are you coming into the stand/spot? What time are you leaving? How close to the trails are you? Are there acorns near? Are you using a bow, rifle or shotgun ? Can you use bait in your state?

Once you find the heavy deer sign try to figure out where they are coming from and move towards that. There might be less sign and less deer but more deer in the daylight.

With most of the deer activity being at night the place with the most sign might not necessarily be the best option during the day.

Just something to try.


Also try some off the wall areas. Places other hunters are likely to over look. Maybe a spot you(and hopefully everybody else) thought wasn't worth checking out or is to hard to get to.

My old favorite was to find an apple tree.. Time tested meat market there...

I've never had much luck with State Land. My suggestion would be to make some friendship with some farmers/private land owners, and get permission to hunt there.

Lot going by the wayside
 

Some just wait for the deer to come with their fixed sites. Some work harder and go where the deer are that day. Every half square mile is not equal. Some want it to be.

Some would ask why I was so lucky fishing. All were fishing in the same easy spot and waiting for the fish. Ones who were serious didn't want to fish the 20 or so spots I had covered.

Sounds like you got some good input already. I run into the same problem at times because I also hunt only public land. It's frustrating when I hear buddies tell me they have seen 20 deer and 12 of them bucks. I have been told that if you have well worn areas chances are those are night trails/activity area. Like someone already said follow those trails and see where they go and come from. In the AM get as close to bedding area as possible. You nearly do the same evenings. This way you "catch" the deer at first/last light. I had a favorite spot I hunted in the AM ... One day I said what te hell and turn my stand around and hunted it in the evening. To my left right at dark it sounded like a heard of cattle coming off the ridge. They were out of range but i finally found where they had moved to so I just adjusted as necessary. Also, keep a good look out in the distance. Deer may be in the area just not walking near your stand. I also like to "take a look around" after AM hunts. Do some late morning scouts. My buddy and I did that one morning and found a nice little area where the deer move through. He ended up shooting a huge six point the following morning. Keep at it and don't get frustrated. Public land is a b/*#h. You have no idea what other people are doing. Good luck!

Few Ideas

1. Most states wildlife commissions will have a stock assessment paper that will give an idea of the deer count per square mile. This will give you an idea if you have a naturally low deer population or a high deer population. Some are broken up by county and such but read the info and see what the biologist have learned.

2. Get out a couple times with an experienced and trusted buddy. I have to admit i been hunting this being my fourth season solo and it has been rough. 0 deer so far solo but I know alot and have been refining what i know and seeing more deer and have gotten more opportunities since. Found out their is a difference in going out with my father as a kid and going out solo as an adult and applying what you know. For example one place i was hunting in the morning had a ton of sign the deer where there, scrapes, new rubs had it all. Father came out to take a look and first thing he said was this spot you should hunt in the evening not morning. Then showed me why, missed details. Not that i was wrong i would most likely see a deer eventually but would waste a lot of days waiting where as in the evening I would probably see more. To prove that point he sat there that evening and tagged a nice doe. This was 3 weeks ago. Old man is still teaching me a thing or two and i am glad for it.

Salty dog---- what were the missed details? I'm in my 7th season as an adult. Never hunted as a kid. I just had a buddy take me out a few years back and have been hunting ever since. And I could not agree more. Having someone guide you and getting out solo are two completely different things!

I never got into the creek bottom the day prior when scouting fearing i would jump a deer and possibly ruin the spot for the following day. That one scrape was fresh and so where the rubs and heading parallel to the bottom. Not to and from it but plenty of tracks look like they where going to and from it so thought nothing of it. After the following days sit my father rejoined me at the spot since he was hunting about a quarter mile away in one of his old spots. He took me into the bottom and right then we found rubs leading out of the bottom. Following these rubs deeper in found two more scrapes along the way leading out. So went back out and followed that single scrape and rub line. It ran parallel to the bottom for a few hundred yards and then curved away from the bottom in the opposite direction. My dad pointed out yeah this is another buck marking his territory and though early the small rubs most likely mean its a smaller buck. Not the same one living in the bottom whose rubs where noticeably larger and a few inches longer. So this is a first for me to find two deer with territories intersecting. While I am excited to hopefully see this meeting between the two while out in the woods the detail was i tied the other tracks in the area to that one instance. Adding to it was the fact we have not had rain in a few weeks so i didn't take that into account. 4-8 deer heading one way and 1 or 2 deer heading the opposite will add up to looking like a ton of deer using the same path to and from when in reality its less common to find them returning at that point. Rain allows you to see what is fresh.

After the lesson it made sense when he explained it. Do i hunt the morning in hopes of seeing this buck again (Who may not even be back in the area for another few days as he makes his rounds) or in the evening when i know the bottom buck will come out looking for this new comer. Odds are i will have a better shot at the evening buck being his home turf and near his bedding area. Have no idea if the other buck ever made it home. All this applied at the time though. due to the furlough the whole area has been closed so once it reopens for hunting possibly this weekend I will find out if anything has changed and it may in turn into a spot that should be hunted heavily both morning and evening with rut nearing. At the time it was ideal for an evening sit with increased chance of success.

I hunted a trail for 3 days straight. It was covered with sign. I didn't see a single animal. I put a trail cam out and got tons of pictures of deer including some nice bucks. Every picture was at night. I set a stand up about 200 yards away near some thick stuff that bordered the area. My father shot two bucks from that stand. We hunt pressured public land. What I think is that deer bed in the thick stuff and wait for it to get dark and travel the trails to the feeding area. Try following the trail to the thickest cover around. That's where they will be durring the day.

The best thing you can do right now is get out of your stand and go find the does. Time is running out. If you don't find the does, in a few weeks, you'll not find the bucks either. My dad used to tell me " don't leave fish to go where you think there is fish". Same applies to deer. Go scout and find them. Past performance is a great predictor of future performance. Mix it up a little.

an hour before sun up till dark and i am using bow, and theres always acorns in the areas I sit

Thank you everyone that was some great information. and olsaltydog please let me know how you made out im dying hear the rest, I cant wait for this weekend to get out and do some more scouting, im pretty much self taught unfourtunatly no one in my family hunts or any of my friends a couple of them fish thats about it the couple people i know are so tight lipped its not funny so I read every book and magazine i can get my hands on and thank god for this forum lol
thanks again everyone for taking the time to help me out

what state are you hunting?

One of my strategies for opening day deer season:

Go early enough...so you're the first hunter in the woods, so you can freely pick and choose your favorite hunting spot. Go as far away from the hunting parking area as possible, so you can let the other hunters chase the deer towards you.

im hunting Conn njhunter85

thanks erno

I don't know how much land you are hunting on, but I usually do well on State land. Everybody has a bad year now and then, but just keep at it. Find a really big area if you can and try to get out during the middle of the week. Archery is tough to start out with on State land. Many times there will not be any amount of deer there until the crops are down and the cover around the farms thins out. I rarely bow hunt anymore because of that. By the second week of rifle season I really start to see deer "Back in". Deer staying in a 1 mile radius is nonsense. Deer travel miles for food once the sources dry up.