The following deer hunting tip will be old news to anyone who has been hunting awhile. But if you're new to the sport--or if you're like me and often ignore what you know to be true--it is one of the best pieces of advice you'll ever read:
STAY IN YOUR STAND!
Roughly 75% of the deer I've harvested have been taken in the afternoon. The reason for that is that I stay in my stand until dark. In the morning though, I have a tendency to go home way too early. I get cold; I get bored; I get frustrated; I think about all the things I need to get done that day.
Since most of the properties I hunt are within a mile of my house, I'm often home empty-handed by 8:30.
But this past Saturday--the final day of Virginia's statewide deer hunting season--I had a different atttitude. It was cold but not bone chilling; I was relaxed and taking in the scenery.
"I can stay out here as long as I want," I told myself.
It helped that I'd seen a herd of about 20 deer just after daybreak. They'd disappeared into the woods a couple hundred yards away, but they kept coming out in pairs all morning--even after the hunter on the property behind me fired a shot at 7:30.
By 9:00 I was getting antsy. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of that same hunter. I'm not sure if he'd been in his stand all that time, if he was looking for his deer or what.
My next instinct was to get out of the stand.
"With him out there moving around the hunt is definitely over," I thought. "But then again, maybe he'll push something out of the wooods."
When I looked back again he was gone, and within 10 minutes two deer from the herd I'd seen earlier bounded across the field at a distance. I thought about leaving again.
I looked down to my right. A doe ran past at top speed. I looked up. The rest of the herd was running now. Right to my stand!
The next two seconds or so were a blur of brown and white. As I thumbed back the hammer a doe stopped at about eight yards. The Thompson Center Impact roared.
Another blur of brown and white, this one shrouded in smoke. When it cleared I saw that the doe was down.
My decision to wait had been a good one. Hunters for the Hungry got another deer. . .
I agree! Most of my deer, perhaps 75%, come in the afternoon. I think of every minute in the stand like an investment to the ultimate goal.
Posted by: trophy hunts | January 15, 2012 at 10:14 AM
I agree also Matt...while the hunters come in and break mid-morning until mid-afternoon the deer are still walking around. :) Have shot a few myself around 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm just staying on the stand. Seems like the deer knows when the hunters take a break. :) A good post and I linked you to my post today on a monster 23-pt. buck taken in Missouri. Congrats on getting a deer for a great organization, Hunters for the Hungry! Happy New Year to you and yours! :)
Posted by: Marian Love Phillips | January 18, 2012 at 10:03 AM