When to leave stand

[4wanderingeyes]

I have always struggled with this. Bow hunting it is more of an issue then gun hunting for me, because most of my bow stands are close to food plots, or community spots for the deer. My gun stands are usually 30+ yards away form those type of spots, but it still spooks them when I leave.

I have just walked out of stand, trying to be very quiet, and still spooking the deer, I have walked out, making lots of noise, to purposely let them know I was there. I have sat in stand and tried to wait them out, sometimes with success, sometimes I just sit longer, with still spooking the deer. I have been trying the wait them out thing more, but I dont always have the extra time.

 

[yoderjac]

For bowhunting, I do a couple things. First, when I'm done hunting, I do a look around using a FLIR (https://habitat-talk.com/threads/flir-otm.15038/) . If don't see anything I get down. If I do, I try to assess if they are just moving through or sticking around and feeding. If they are moving through, I'll just wait them out. If it looks like they are going to stay for a while, I'll use a coyote call That is usually enough to get them to leave the local area long enough for me to climb down.

One thing I also found helpful this year was the ebike (https://habitat-talk.com/threads/electric-bike.14970/) . I've been able to get much closer to my stand sites which means I have a shorter walk to the ebike than I did to ATV or UTV. Once I'm riding the bike, deer seem to perceive me differently. I've had them just look and let me drive by and then go back to feeding. I'm not sure why, but they seem to perceive me as less of a threat.

 

[R C]

I have always struggled with this. Bow hunting it is more of an issue then gun hunting for me, because most of my bow stands are close to food plots, or community spots for the deer. My gun stands are usually 30+ yards away form those type of spots, but it still spooks them when I leave.

I have just walked out of stand, trying to be very quiet, and still spooking the deer, I have walked out, making lots of noise, to purposely let them know I was there. I have sat in stand and tried to wait them out, sometimes with success, sometimes I just sit longer, with still spooking the deer. I have been trying the wait them out thing more, but I dont always have the extra time.

I have always struggled with this. Bow hunting it is more of an issue then gun hunting for me, because most of my bow stands are close to food plots, or community spots for the deer. My gun stands are usually 30+ yards away form those type of spots, but it still spooks them when I leave.

I have just walked out of stand, trying to be very quiet, and still spooking the deer, I have walked out, making lots of noise, to purposely let them know I was there. I have sat in stand and tried to wait them out, sometimes with success, sometimes I just sit longer, with still spooking the deer. I have been trying the wait them out thing more, but I dont always have the extra time.

I was just thinking about this same topic over the weekend. I am just getting started with the bow season and was out four days last week. I hunted the same blind and three of the four times that I hunted, deer blew as I was leaving my blind. The last time that I hunted, Saturday evening, I passed the biggest buck that I have ever let walk on the property so it hasn’t hurt me yet. It may eventually hurt my chances but my current thought is that as long as deer don’t actually see me leaving my blind I should be good as they may hear a sound but hopefully they won’t relate that to the blind and become more cautious around it.

 

[SD51555]

I carry a bluetooth speaker and blow them off with some Firehouse or Metallica.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

As someone who bow hunts exclusively I deal with this all the time. If I told you I had it figured out I would be lying. Some days I get so frustrated and think I’m doing more harm than good but I just can’t park 200 yards off a food source in a box blind and have as much fun so I take the good with the bad. Evenings are hard if you are on a food source. I have had some success coyote howling but one thing I do is get down with the first chance I can during that grey light area. That time where it may still be legal but with a bow it would super tough so why risk it if I have an opening. Mornings I try to get in pretty early where even if I bump something that may not know what it was and the woods has time to settle down. I don’t think there’s a perfect solution so you just kind of have to realize you will break some eggs before you make that omelette

 

[yoderjac]

As someone who bow hunts exclusively I deal with this all the time. If I told you I had it figured out I would be lying. Some days I get so frustrated and think I’m doing more harm than good but I just can’t park 200 yards off a food source in a box blind and have as much fun so I take the good with the bad. Evenings are hard if you are on a food source. I have had some success coyote howling but one thing I do is get down with the first chance I can during that grey light area. That time where it may still be legal but with a bow it would super tough so why risk it if I have an opening. Mornings I try to get in pretty early where even if I bump something that may not know what it was and the woods has time to settle down. I don’t think there’s a perfect solution so you just kind of have to realize you will break some eggs before you make that omelette

Really good point. I do the same when hunting in an oak stand. It is well within legal shooting time but I can no longer take an ethical shot. As soon as I think I lave less than 5 minutes of ethical shooting time, I take that look around with the FLIR. If I see nothing, I'm pretty sure nothing is going to come into range and present a good shot in 5 minutes, so I get down.

I also agree with RC that protecting a stand location is more important than spooking deer in general. In remote access areas, spooking deer will let them know they are being hunted and they will become more cautious, but in a farm context, there is enough human scent throughout the year so that occasional spooking is less important. Giving away a stand location can be critical. I've hunted with a climber in places and watched deer walk through and stop and stare at either a permanent stand for 15 minutes before walking right under it. I think this is a learned behavior with permanent stands. I've also seen them do it with hang-on stands. I think this is more a function of a hunter that has been using the stand got busted. They don't seem to do this season after season like they do with permanent stands.

This has changed how I hunt permanent box blinds. I keep them dark inside have push-out solid windows that shade sun further as well as curtains. I see most folks want to sit out where they can see as much as possible. I sit in the back corner. If I can't see them, they can't see me. I try to minimize the chance a deer staring at my blind for a long period will see movement. Once they are convinced the blind is unmanned, they completely ignore a permanent blind. I've had them walk underneath me. When I do see deer, I actually sneak to the window for a shot. Once I've identified the deer, I can control my movement based on the deer just like in an open treestand.

I've been using these permanent box blinds more as I'm getting older. I can only sit in a ladder stand for so long before I have to stretch my legs to keep them form cramping up. In a blind I can do this below the window level. This lets me get in much earlier, hunt more hours. Most of those hours are not really hunting, they are waiting. But, there is much less chance of deer being on the move and catching me entering the stand earlier in the afternoon.

Ok, I'm rambling....

 

[bueller]

I guess this is one advantage of not having many deer around. On the occasion this does happen filling a tag seems like the best solution .

 

[swat1018]

The best solution is to consider this paramount when placing blinds/stands and plots. I design my spots/plots around easy ingress/egress. Many of my spots for blinds on the edge of a plot, I climb down the ladder right into a deep ditch or the river and am instantly below grade. Not everyone can do this, but if you're creative you can improve your situation.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have an apple orchard about 100 yards from my house, and I do hunt it. I can kinda sneak in and out of the deer shack I have for gun, but they know.

My bow stand is like 20 feet off the apple orchard, there is no sneaking out.

I have other areas I hunt, but there is something about hunting a food plot, orchard, and see deer most of the day, compared to hunting a trail, where you see a deer or 2 all day.

 

[Barndog56]

I'm with Bueller, shoot a doe and they all clear out. Six doe tags for me between bow and rifle.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm with Bueller, shoot a doe and they all clear out. Six doe tags for me between bow and rifle.

Does are limited here by my desire/ability to kill them, not tags.

 

[Booner21]

It was posted on here but I have had pretty good success bumping deer with a blue laser pointer. My box blinds I have screened with miscanthis and can get out with deer within 50 yards usually if I go slow.


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[SwampCat]

When I get done hunting, I walk over to my ranger and drive off so they can finish eating the corn the feeder slung underneath the SxS

 

[Tree Spud]

I will usually replicate a doe snorting & wheezing.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

It was posted on here but I have had pretty good success bumping deer with a blue laser pointer. My box blinds I have screened with miscanthis and can get out with deer within 50 yards usually if I go slow.


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I posted a video of me using one when clearing an ag field after a late season hunt. Since then, I have had spotty luck with my green lazer pointer. If it doesn't work, I just howl like a coyote and that has worked.

 

[sandbur]

I have had my wife drive by with the car, radio blaring, even stop the car and get out and slam doors.

Perhaps we should be looking at how to better stand access and not forget leaving the stand.

For bow hunting, I often stop hunting 45 minutes before quitting time as I hate tracking and gutting deer in the dark. With rifle, I will stay later and take only great shots.

I am at the point where I don’t want to kill a deer with the bow anyway.


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[4wanderingeyes]

I had considered having my wife hop on the atv and drive out. But past experiences of me driving the deer watch the 4 wheeler and just hop in the edge of the woods until it passes.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I had considered having my wife hop on the atv and drive out. But past experiences of me driving the deer watch the 4 wheeler and just hop in the edge of the woods until it passes.

We do this every time we can in the evenings. Have your wife drive past the tree stand area allowing you to get down. And then she picks you up on her way back. We have trail camera photos or videos of mature bucks in the area just a few minutes after the disruption. There are a couple of threads on this on the forum.

 

[Catscratch]

Stopped hunting near food long ago and have since added only entering and exiting when I can see good enough to glass and not spook deer. I may miss some grey light chances but overall my sightings of deer and older bucks specifically has gone way up.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

"Mature bucks" dont mature around me. I am in the middle of some 40, 80, and a bunch of 5 acre lots to my south. Then state land 1/4 mile to the east. I am also in big forest area, with lots of bear, and wolves, very little crops. Not to many trophys around here. But I get what you are saying.

I am a little limited on stands this year, we had a couple big wind storms, and it blew down a quite a few trees, and there are a lot going over the main deer trails, that I am planning on getting to this year, it was also on last years list, but never got to it. But the trees have pushed the deer around my best stands, and now they go around them.