So a few questions. Veteran’s day I have it off this year and taking the day after also. I plan to hunt my property maybe all day Veteran’s day and depending on success, I might hunt the morning and evening that Friday and Saturday as well.
The area of my property I tend to have a lot of through traffic along my creek. Years past with game cameras I am usually seeing between 3-10 deer a day passing up and down it. Occasionally more. Rarely nothing in a day. Sometimes just nocturnal, but that’s not usually until December that the deer are mostly nocturnal moving along there.
Mostly does, but I have some bucks moving up and down it. Each year so far I’ve seen at least a 6-7, and often an 8, 9 or 10. Often 2 or more good sized bucks. Not trophies, usually smaller antlers for the point count, but a 7-10 is what it is and I have seen a couple of big bruisers who had to be 180+lbs on the hoof and 140+ inches.
So that said. I have a clearing in my side yard between the backwoods with the creek and my front woods. That’s usually where I setup a ground blind every year and shoot a doe or two. A big 5-pt one year (technically that was a 40yd shot from my garage window, not from my ground blind. But he was in that clearing).
Looking at game cameras pictures my first year here (this is my 3rd season here) there was a nice 8-pt that would come in occasionally at night and rarely during shooting light. I saw him in January running through with all the neighborhood bucks at the edge of the clearing in daylight. It was him, a couple 6s, a 5, a pair of 4s and a spike. No, I didn’t have my crossbow while out taking care of my chickens or one of them probably would have ended up in the freezer.
Nothing bigger than a fork last year. This year a fair sized 5-pt has been coming in and some buttons. All does otherwise. Though I haven’t looked at the last month of game cameras pictures. Which I’ll be doing.
But anyway, I just moved my cameras to my backwoods near the creek at two path forks. See what is moving down there. But that seems my best bet to get a big deer unless a buck chases a doe through my clearing. They don’t seem to be coming in to eat corn.
So my questions. There are a ton of young saplings. One spot has decent shooting lanes, but it is a hang-on stand I am not thrilled with as it doesn’t have bars/rifle rest. So I feel like I am going to fall out of the damn thing at any moment. I am not terrible with heights, but it gives me some vertigo that my climber doesn’t. Plus it is towards the end of my property I am a little more loathe to hunt at I haven’t talked to the neighbors about hunting over there. I am clear on the ones I’ve talked to, but new neighbors, their house is JUST outside the safety zone, so I’d be good. But a deer is only about a 40-50yd dash to their property. Awkward way to make an introduction (my wife has met them once). Yeah, I do have to fix that at some point.
But that stand has a few cleared shooting lanes already that are decently wide, at least 10-15yds each. Still a fair amount of understory stuff blocking.
The other end of the path all those neighbors are cool with it and the deer would need to go a minimum of 100yds to get on to a property that would be awkward to ask to retrieve it. And it would have to run exactly the wrong way. And not likely with the terrain (cross the creek AND run up hill in just one direction those 100yds, like 2 hours on a 12hr clock is the direction it would have to run to do that. More likely it would have 150-200yds on my property or neighbor’s properties who are cool with me hunting).
BUT my choices are get up a tree DIRECTLY over the deer path along there. The other trees nearby (10-20yds away) are huge mature trees with >>>24” trunks my climber will NOT reach around. There are a couple trees suitable around 30yds away, but I’d need to cut down probably half a dozen or more saplings that are 6-10’ tall to clear shooting lanes to the path. Or else I am threading an arrow between branches and narrow gaps between trees a few feet wide. Not something I want to try.
I DO have an option equally distant between my hang-on stand and this opposite end of the path where I setup my other camera where the path forks. But it isn’t in a tree. There are several huge mature trees that have shaded the under story enough there or very few saplings growing and I could easily setup a ground blind and have a fairly clear, about 15yd wide section of the deer trail that is completely clear for a shot and a couple other gaps that are decently wide along that arc. It would place the ground blind somewhere between 15-20yds from the nearest point on the path (I’d have to work out the exact best place to put the blind).
This is in a rural residential neighborhood. In my clearing I have deer mostly ignore me eating corn with me sitting 15yds away or even closer in my ground blind.
So I am thinking in terms of smells, they should be habituated enough that if they smell me back in the woods 15yds or so away that probably won’t spook them. But traveling and feeding behavior I know are different.
If I go for a ground game, am I likely risking getting winded and spooking deer out of there? The location would be slightly above the deer path, maybe a yard above it and that 15-20yds away.
Another thought is what about scattering a bit of corn along the path. Either when I am using the blind, or starting maybe a week or so in advance. Less to get them all coming there and more to distract anyone coming along to get them to stop and eat. I could call to stop them for a second, but just thinking if other options.
Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.
Thanks.
PS beyond the hang-on not making me comfortable (I plan to swap it out with one with bars/rifle rest at some point. But that point isn’t this year), a ground blind also means I can easily set it up a week or so in advance and when I want to hunt there I walk out, open it up, flop (quietly) in to my chair and I am hunting 2 minutes after I walked out my door.
Hang on or climber adds 5-10 minutes (and more exertion) to put on my harness, safety line, get up there or climb up, secure the climber if using that, haul my pack and crossbow up and THEN I am hunting. Sure, it isn’t a huge time difference, but it means sleeping in a little later. Plus less chance of spooking anything with a big racket. And the reduced effort makes it more likely I will roll out of bed 15 minutes before shooting light, change, grab coffee and get in to my blind. For the days I am not hunting all day, also easy to just walk out and sit in the blind in the afternoon.
Buttt, if the ground blind is more likely to spook deer, I’d rather cut a few saplings and use my climber. Or try one one day, the other the next. And I don’t want to throw out corn the day or or in advance if that’ll spook deer or just get the wrong deer coming in and keep the bucks away. At this point I am donating to friends, family and FHFH. I’ve got enough venison. I’d like to go for a decent sized buck or just skip shooting anything else if I am putting the effort in to dressing it, dragging it out of there and a butcher fee if giving to friends/family or at a minimum a risk of losing/destroying a $15-20 bolt and arrow head combo. Plus the risk of shooting a doe, and scaring off the big buck that might have been 30yds up the trail…
The area of my property I tend to have a lot of through traffic along my creek. Years past with game cameras I am usually seeing between 3-10 deer a day passing up and down it. Occasionally more. Rarely nothing in a day. Sometimes just nocturnal, but that’s not usually until December that the deer are mostly nocturnal moving along there.
Mostly does, but I have some bucks moving up and down it. Each year so far I’ve seen at least a 6-7, and often an 8, 9 or 10. Often 2 or more good sized bucks. Not trophies, usually smaller antlers for the point count, but a 7-10 is what it is and I have seen a couple of big bruisers who had to be 180+lbs on the hoof and 140+ inches.
So that said. I have a clearing in my side yard between the backwoods with the creek and my front woods. That’s usually where I setup a ground blind every year and shoot a doe or two. A big 5-pt one year (technically that was a 40yd shot from my garage window, not from my ground blind. But he was in that clearing).
Looking at game cameras pictures my first year here (this is my 3rd season here) there was a nice 8-pt that would come in occasionally at night and rarely during shooting light. I saw him in January running through with all the neighborhood bucks at the edge of the clearing in daylight. It was him, a couple 6s, a 5, a pair of 4s and a spike. No, I didn’t have my crossbow while out taking care of my chickens or one of them probably would have ended up in the freezer.
Nothing bigger than a fork last year. This year a fair sized 5-pt has been coming in and some buttons. All does otherwise. Though I haven’t looked at the last month of game cameras pictures. Which I’ll be doing.
But anyway, I just moved my cameras to my backwoods near the creek at two path forks. See what is moving down there. But that seems my best bet to get a big deer unless a buck chases a doe through my clearing. They don’t seem to be coming in to eat corn.
So my questions. There are a ton of young saplings. One spot has decent shooting lanes, but it is a hang-on stand I am not thrilled with as it doesn’t have bars/rifle rest. So I feel like I am going to fall out of the damn thing at any moment. I am not terrible with heights, but it gives me some vertigo that my climber doesn’t. Plus it is towards the end of my property I am a little more loathe to hunt at I haven’t talked to the neighbors about hunting over there. I am clear on the ones I’ve talked to, but new neighbors, their house is JUST outside the safety zone, so I’d be good. But a deer is only about a 40-50yd dash to their property. Awkward way to make an introduction (my wife has met them once). Yeah, I do have to fix that at some point.
But that stand has a few cleared shooting lanes already that are decently wide, at least 10-15yds each. Still a fair amount of understory stuff blocking.
The other end of the path all those neighbors are cool with it and the deer would need to go a minimum of 100yds to get on to a property that would be awkward to ask to retrieve it. And it would have to run exactly the wrong way. And not likely with the terrain (cross the creek AND run up hill in just one direction those 100yds, like 2 hours on a 12hr clock is the direction it would have to run to do that. More likely it would have 150-200yds on my property or neighbor’s properties who are cool with me hunting).
BUT my choices are get up a tree DIRECTLY over the deer path along there. The other trees nearby (10-20yds away) are huge mature trees with >>>24” trunks my climber will NOT reach around. There are a couple trees suitable around 30yds away, but I’d need to cut down probably half a dozen or more saplings that are 6-10’ tall to clear shooting lanes to the path. Or else I am threading an arrow between branches and narrow gaps between trees a few feet wide. Not something I want to try.
I DO have an option equally distant between my hang-on stand and this opposite end of the path where I setup my other camera where the path forks. But it isn’t in a tree. There are several huge mature trees that have shaded the under story enough there or very few saplings growing and I could easily setup a ground blind and have a fairly clear, about 15yd wide section of the deer trail that is completely clear for a shot and a couple other gaps that are decently wide along that arc. It would place the ground blind somewhere between 15-20yds from the nearest point on the path (I’d have to work out the exact best place to put the blind).
This is in a rural residential neighborhood. In my clearing I have deer mostly ignore me eating corn with me sitting 15yds away or even closer in my ground blind.
So I am thinking in terms of smells, they should be habituated enough that if they smell me back in the woods 15yds or so away that probably won’t spook them. But traveling and feeding behavior I know are different.
If I go for a ground game, am I likely risking getting winded and spooking deer out of there? The location would be slightly above the deer path, maybe a yard above it and that 15-20yds away.
Another thought is what about scattering a bit of corn along the path. Either when I am using the blind, or starting maybe a week or so in advance. Less to get them all coming there and more to distract anyone coming along to get them to stop and eat. I could call to stop them for a second, but just thinking if other options.
Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.
Thanks.
PS beyond the hang-on not making me comfortable (I plan to swap it out with one with bars/rifle rest at some point. But that point isn’t this year), a ground blind also means I can easily set it up a week or so in advance and when I want to hunt there I walk out, open it up, flop (quietly) in to my chair and I am hunting 2 minutes after I walked out my door.
Hang on or climber adds 5-10 minutes (and more exertion) to put on my harness, safety line, get up there or climb up, secure the climber if using that, haul my pack and crossbow up and THEN I am hunting. Sure, it isn’t a huge time difference, but it means sleeping in a little later. Plus less chance of spooking anything with a big racket. And the reduced effort makes it more likely I will roll out of bed 15 minutes before shooting light, change, grab coffee and get in to my blind. For the days I am not hunting all day, also easy to just walk out and sit in the blind in the afternoon.
Buttt, if the ground blind is more likely to spook deer, I’d rather cut a few saplings and use my climber. Or try one one day, the other the next. And I don’t want to throw out corn the day or or in advance if that’ll spook deer or just get the wrong deer coming in and keep the bucks away. At this point I am donating to friends, family and FHFH. I’ve got enough venison. I’d like to go for a decent sized buck or just skip shooting anything else if I am putting the effort in to dressing it, dragging it out of there and a butcher fee if giving to friends/family or at a minimum a risk of losing/destroying a $15-20 bolt and arrow head combo. Plus the risk of shooting a doe, and scaring off the big buck that might have been 30yds up the trail…
