Deer Hunting Question

[KahrMan]

How long do you wait to hunt a stand after you have killed a deer from it?

My buddy and I have a piece of property we hunt. His nephew killed a doe Friday morning out of my favorite stand. I hunted out of it today and didn't see a thing. Of course it was warm and windy as hell this morning. Should I have waited an extra day or two or does it matter?

[Rightwinger]

Hunt it immediately! I have watched and photographed deer coming up to sniff the gut pile! The first buck I ever killed, I had three does stand on the hill above me about 25 yards away and watch the proceedings! Not only may you see deer but yotes and other scavenger/predators.

The boy and I went this morning as well and saw nothing but a big red tail hawk. Weather pattern did not help us.

Get out there and hunt!

or do what I did the rest of the day, nap and reload!

[Guest Mugster]

Yeah, deer are pretty dumb. They have food spots and bedding spots, and trails to get there. Unless you blasted the whole herd already, keep hunting. They gotta eat sometime.

[Guest Bronker]

I agree 100% with RightWinger. Recently I saw an actual wildlife biologist study in Wisconsin I believe, where the gut pile was left unattended after a harvest. They had game cameras set up all around it and within a day, it had been visited by other deer and possums primarily. The conclusion was that deer were not alarmed by it, and in fact may have been drawn to it to some degree due to their very inquisitive nature.

They are far from 'dumb.' But apparently they lack intuitiveness. And here lately, I've had RW's luck. I haven't seen a deer in a month.

[ShaunM]

Hunt it immediately! I have watched and photographed deer coming up to sniff the gut pile! The first buck I ever killed, I had three does stand on the hill above me about 25 yards away and watch the proceedings! Not only may you see deer but yotes and other scavenger/predators.

The boy and I went this morning as well and saw nothing but a big red tail hawk. Weather pattern did not help us.

Get out there and hunt!

or do what I did the rest of the day, nap and reload!

+1 Yeah the weather has not been real cooperative to say the least. At least the second phase of the rut is kicking in. I had to move a couple of my stands due to the amount of acorns, beach mash and other food sources in the woods this year, field hunting has not been good for me. Seems this year so much food the deer just stay in one area and don't travel far for food. As everyone has said I have killed deer in the same stand on the same day. If the deer are pressured that could play a role in hunting the same stand the same or next day after a deer has been killed. Also deer can seem dumb but I have seen a lot of "smart" deer also. My thing is it won't hurt to hunt it, worse thing is you won't see anything.

Edited December 28, 2008 by Hunting101

[Guest Mugster]

Sometimes you see the game, other times, the game sees you.

The rut is over here. I've seen and heard no new buck sign in 2 weeks. Maybe it'll pick back up. Its possible.

If you've seen nothing in a month of hunting and have no sign, I think I'd try another place entirely. The well might be dry.

[Guest Mugster]

+1 Yeah the weather has not been real cooperative to say the least. At least the second phase of the rut is kicking in. I had to move a couple of my stands due to the amount of acorns, beach mash and other food sources in the woods this year, field hunting has not been good for me. Seems this year so much food the deer just stay in one area and don't travel far for food. As everyone has said I have killed deer in the same stand on the same day. If the deer are pressured that could play a role in hunting the same stand the same or next day after a deer has been killed. Also deer can seem dumb but I have seen a lot of "smart" deer also. My thing is it won't hurt to hunt it, worse thing is you won't see anything.

+1 on the food. I've got so many acorns down, its actually pretty weird. I've never quite seen this much food on the ground. I hope your right on the rut. Haven't seen doodly squat yet where i am.

[ShaunM]

Sometimes you see the game, other times, the game sees you.

The rut is over here. I've seen and heard no new buck sign in 2 weeks. Maybe it'll pick back up. Its possible.

If you've seen nothing in a month of hunting and have no sign, I think I'd try another place entirely. The well might be dry.

The second phase of the rut should be picking up and those old scrapes/rubs will see some action. I think the weather has played in a lot this year. Also this is one of the best years for deer due to the large amount of food source in the woods. On our property we have a small spring that runs through part of our property and the acorns are just everywhere and the deer just seem to stay in that area and only have to go maybe 40 or 50 yards to their bedding area. I moved one of my stands near their bedding area and have killed a 4 and 7 pointer. I agree with you on the no seeing a deer in a month maybe time to move the stand to a different area.

[Rightwinger]

They definitely are not hurting for food yet this year.

As to the original Kahrman question, the "lucky" guy that hunts with us "sometimes" on the lease, showed up late one day last year and decides to go into the woods for the afternoon hunt. He heads to the one tree those of us with climbers use in this one hollow of the lease, climbs up and promptly remembers he failed to hook his rifle to the lowering line, so he climbs back down, hooks up this time and goes back up. So after 30-40 minutes of making noise and generally being him, he is finally in the tree. 15 minutes later, a shooter buck comes out of the thicket across from him and he shoots at the deer. It runs off and he thinks he must have missed it, so he stays in the tree. Another 15 minutes later, a buck comes out of the same thicket and he is saying to himself "this dumb buck has just walked back out into my sights". He shoots again and hears this one run a bit then start to thrash on the ground. He's been in the woods less than two hours now...

He climbs down and starts walking towards where he thinks the buck is down and walks across a blood trail that is well before where he knows he took that last shot...low and behold, he has two shooter bucks down and hasn't hunted 2 hours for the day.

So buck #2 had to have heard the earlier shot, was in a postion to smell the blood and came on anyway. Of course it pays to be that "lucky" guy that never has to hunt much to get nice deer as well.

Now I need to go plan on how to disable lucky guys truck so he can't come to Wayne Co. next week!

[ShaunM]

They definitely are not hurting for food yet this year.

As to the original Kahrman question, the "lucky" guy that hunts with us "sometimes" on the lease, showed up late one day last year and decides to go into the woods for the afternoon hunt. He heads to the one tree those of us with climbers use in this one hollow of the lease, climbs up and promptly remembers he failed to hook his rifle to the lowering line, so he climbs back down, hooks up this time and goes back up. So after 30-40 minutes of making noise and generally being him, he is finally in the tree. 15 minutes later, a shooter buck comes out of the thicket across from him and he shoots at the deer. It runs off and he thinks he must have missed it, so he stays in the tree. Another 15 minutes later, a buck comes out of the same thicket and he is saying to himself "this dumb buck has just walked back out into my sights". He shoots again and hears this one run a bit then start to thrash on the ground. He's been in the woods less than two hours now...

He climbs down and starts walking towards where he thinks the buck is down and walks across a blood trail that is well before where he knows he took that last shot...low and behold, he has two shooter bucks down and hasn't hunted 2 hours for the day.

So buck #2 had to have heard the earlier shot, was in a postion to smell the blood and came on anyway. Of course it pays to be that "lucky" guy that never has to hunt much to get nice deer as well.

Now I need to go plan on how to disable lucky guys truck so he can't come to Wayne Co. next week!

I let my brother who at the time had only been hunting once in his life go hunting in my stand ( I was going to go but he asked if he could go and like a nice brother I let him, he didn't have a gun so I let him borrow mine) killed a very nice 8 pointer first and only deer he has ever killed. Should have told him hell no and went myself .

[war4peace]

To the original question, i would personally keep hunting that stand unless there is a lot of hunting pressure that deer are aware of. We have three stands located on our property and they are all permanent stands. Midway into gun season i've seen deer come out of the woods and look into the stand first before they cross. I have harvested 6 deer from only one of the stand this season already. Now i wouldn't field dress a deer too close to a stand because i wouldn't want coyotes to be around there scaring away the deer. And to the person who posted that deer are dumb, i have seen a deer watching me and a smaller deer around my stand before believe it or not. Alot of the mature bucks know when hunters leave the woods and when they enter. Hell i have even seen mature bucks bedded right beside a house off in the thicket before. I saw him on my way out of the woods when i was walking along a logging road. But every deer is different. I have shot 3 does at one time before. After i hit the first one, he fell instantly and the other two took a few steps back near the edge of the woods to watch the fallen one which gave me a chance to dropped another one. And then after the second fell the third one bounced off closer into the woods and was watching his comrade kicking on the ground right before i shot the third one too.

[Guest sharpshooter01]

Hunt it!!!! I have killed deer, field dressed them, and hunted the same area the next day and have deer come through that I could have killed. I shot a doe one morning with my bow and it ran off out of sight. Not really knowing if I had killed the first one another one come in about an hour later and I shot her also. I saw her fall. I stayed on stand till my brother in law was done hunting. Maybe another hour past and I had another doe within bow range that I let go. I had 2 deer down, not field dressed, but still dead and had more deer coming in. Deer are curious critters.

[Guest TnDeerHunter]

Agree with all about go ahead and hunt same stand I've killed out of a stand of the morning and had a hunting buddy hunt out of it of the evening and do the same. I'm just a little jeaolus of the multiple kills same day here in east Tn. (unit we are limited to one a day and only three per season of which one has to be a doe

[Guest sharpshooter01]

I'm just a little jeaolus of the multiple kills same day here in east Tn. (unit we are limited to one a day and only three per season of which one has to be a doe

You can kill multiple deer the same day in unit B, just not 2 bucks a day. Not sure what you mean by the 3 per season and one has to be a doe. Note, the deer in my post were killed in west Tn.

[Guest TnDeerHunter]

I stand corrected. Thanks, sent me back to hunting guide book to double check. We here in region 4/unit b are allowed multiple kills in same day as long as deer is not moved. once you go to move it it has to be tagged an checked in, you have 36 hours to check in but can't hunt untill it has been checked. Correct on one buck per day, as I stated before 2 bucks and 1 doe per season unless you hunt on TWRA hunts where bucks are noted as bonus or you take your 3rd buck outside of unit B again I stand corrected t

[Guest Mugster]

Statewide, the bag limit is generally 3 bucks, have to be taken on different days.

In unit B, the limit is 2 bucks. You have to look up your county in a table on page 21 to determine how many does you can shoot. You may need a type 94 permit to shoot em, even on private land. If I read it right, some counties in unit b, you may not be able to shoot any does.

The rules, it takes me nearly a full day to read everything. I don't know why this has to be so complicated. The only thing I can figure is, they make it that way so they can hand out alot of fines.

Edited December 28, 2008 by Mugster

[Guest TnDeerHunter]

I'd have to agree not only the laws but I'm not to proud of the fees for license. I hunt South Carolina and Virginia and the nonresident license don't cost that much more than my sportsman in Tn. Although I do hunt private land in Va. and club property in South Carolina and only big game at that. Bottom line you pay to play and for the enjoyment I get out of it I still think its a great deal. But back on track hunt a productive stand as much as you can and enjoy. I guess as you get older you realize a successful hunt doesn't always mean meat on the ground but just being there and realize just how blessed we really are. Good Hunting

[KahrMan]

You guys need to move to unit L where we can shoot 3 does a day, every day. Don't know why you would need to shoot that many but it is legal.