Deer Hunters - How Long Do You Wait Before Moving?

[AGarbers]

I am curious.

If you are not seeing any deer how long do you wait before moving to a different location?

How many deer do you see on an average day?

How many stand locations do you have?

A friend of mine, who does extremely well, moves if he is not seeing deer within an hour or if the wind starts blowing his scent towards where he is watching. He has multiple stands and stand locations.

On the other hand my wife and I own our own 17 wooded acres and just have one stand each. I also have a chair snugged against a tree overlooking a creek valley that I sometimes sit in. I feel lucky if I see a deer. We might go days not seeing a deer and most that I do see are small does.

 

[Whitsettd8]

From my experience most of its dumb luck. You can hunt the obvious food sources water sources and bedding areas or in between point a and b. I really don't see any rhyme or reason to their movements. I use a climber and don't usually move once I'm out. I'll judge the wind setup and ride it out for the morning maybe switch in the evenings.

 

[42769vette]

I am curious.

If you are not seeing any deer how long do you wait before moving to a different location?

How many deer do you see on an average day?

How many stand locations do you have?

A friend of mine, who does extremely well, moves if he is not seeing deer within an hour or if the wind starts blowing his scent towards where he is watching. He has multiple stands and stand locations.

On the other hand my wife and I own our own 17 wooded acres and just have one stand each. I also have a chair snugged against a tree overlooking a creek valley that I sometimes sit in. I feel lucky if I see a deer. We might go days not seeing a deer and most that I do see are small does.

I've sat 2x a day for over a week without seeing a single deer in gun season. In bow season I see a lot of deer, but there is a lot of gun pressure in my area, and they go into hiding a lot once the shooting starts.

I preplan the wind direction, but if it shifts during a hunt I usually don't move. I will sometimes depending on how thick the area I'm hunting/moving to is. Also it depends on how many hours I have left to sit. I have about 10-12 locations I sit on the farm.

Long story short there is no blanket answer on weather to sit it out, or move.

 

[patience0830]

Once I'm down, (or up, as the case may be ) I'm there for the duration of my ability to withstand the conditions. Used to spook a lot of deer looking for them. Not so much anymore. It's important to choose your spot wisely. Scouting is important to my success.

 

[KJW]

I usually stay out about 3 hrs in one place. That's because deer move mostly in the early morning and shortly before dusk. I have hunted in the afternoon successfully, but the probability of success is much better in the hours surrounding dawn and dusk. I honestly don't pay attention to the wind because I am assiduous about scent elimination and hunt from treestands.
I see lots of deer. It would be rare to not see a deer. When I gun hunt I am successful almost half the time I go out. Bow hunting is obviously tougher (there's a lot more movement drawing a bow back than cocking a hammer and they have to be a lot closer), I may go out 5-8 times before I get a deer. I shoot only does because they're doelicious!
I have a climber that I absolutely love and 5 ladder/hang-on stands. I have 160 acres of woods with a creek and river on/adjacent to my property and farms surrounding me. I am blessed with a home that just happens to be prime whitetail habitat.

 

[redfox033]

I have 2 places I hunt, one place is a small. 7 acres in the middle of a big woods. I have 2 stand locations on the property. I've sat for several days and not seen a deer. I've had as many as 11 deer at one time walk up on me. It just depends on where the deer are going that day I guess.
I would say sit as long and as often as you can. I get in early, I like being in my stand an hour to hour and a half before shooting hours. Other hunters coming in later may push deer your way.

 

[ar1973]

I dont move and heres why. deer are creatures of habit and will do the same thing and go to the same place day in and day out . scouting is not just for pre season rite after gun season is over I will galss the fields for 3 or 4 days to see what is going on and sure enough there they are same spots every evening and will keep coming if not disturbed. like I said in another post I dont even bother with morning hunts after the rut has ended , because at this point all deer are woried about is sleeping and eating to build thier fat and energy back up for the winter . so I decide where to ambush them in the evening on the edge of a field and tuck in behind a big tree . most of the time I dont even get in the woods till about about 1 hour before dark (who wants to freeze thier butt off looking at snow besides all the magic happens 10 min befor last light anyway). and I am very sucessfull have taken 2 does this past week and could have taken 1 every night if wanted ,but the big 10 is eluding me . Ive done this for the past 20 years and it works for me. so to answer your question I dont see a need to move plan what your doing and make it happen.

 

[Leadeye]

Have 7 stands out and change locations based on what I'm seeing. Always see deer but not always the deer I'm looking for. Once I'm in a stand I stay until I'm going back to the house.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

I prefer evenings because it works with my work schedule best, I bump fewer deer, and evenings allows me to stalk my stand in case the deer are there early. I try to get out with at least 4 hours to sit. I never sit the same stand twice in a row. The more times you visit a spot the more scent you lay down and the more likely you'll push shooter bucks out. Unless something compelling pulls me back to a stand I may not see it again for at least two weeks.

Some of the best hunting happens just after season. That's the time to bust in to bedding areas and learn. Where do deer actually bed, where are the big buck sanctuaries, etc. That's the time to do it when there's no impact on next year's season. During the summer is the time to trim lanes (not cut - trim), lay in natural barriers and funnels, and cut access lanes so you can get to stands without laying down scent by touching everything and/or making lots of noise.

Late summer is time to scout where early season food will be (early persimmons, white oak, etc.) and late season food especially foods often over looked (i.e. locust bean pods). Early bucks and December bucks are found on food trails. Since I hunt evenings I push as close as I dare to bedding on trails that lead to food. Eventually I move to staging areas near food, funnel areas during rut and late season food trails pushing bedding without spooking again.

That's a snapshot of my game plan.

 

[sloughfoot]

My Uncle Dale never moved out of the "little green swamp" where he set up every morning and toasted his sandwiches over a little fire when he got hungry. Near Goodland Minnesota. He depended on us young guys to get restless and get the deer moving. He got a deer almost every year, sometimes over that little fire, because we couldn't sit still.

I don't have an asnwer for your specific question. I wish I could..

 

[whitetailbowhunter]

Every year I write down simple notes of my deer season. Each day when i'm done hunting I write down what stand I was in, how many deer I saw (bucks/ does). Where I saw them come in from, and any other unusual wildlife I saw (coons, coyotes, bobcats, etc.)

I have 6 stands set up on our property, 2 food plots and hunt all CRP, new-groth forests, etc.)

I have been out 30 times this year as of today.
I have only been out 4 times where I didn't see a single deer.
I have seen 14 bucks and 47 does/antlerless

I NEVER switch stands once I am already set-up.
I do enjoy stalking from the ground though, or setting up on a ridge where I can see hundreds of yards out.
With the snow on the ground, the last 3 hunts I went out on, I set up on a ridge so that I could easily spot a deer walking across the snow and I saw 3 bucks and 12 does.

If your having trouble seeing deer I would highly encourage you to put out some sort of small food plot. It does not have to be big and can be done for $30 and a day of labor. It will give an extra reason for deer to come onto your land, and make it their home rather than a travel route.

 

[bstewrat3]

I never move on a hunt. I go up in the morning and stay all day regardless of the wind direction. I hunt public land and see deer almost everyday and usually consider the other hunters who move as an advantage because they get the deer moving as well.

 

[Willie]

I never move unless I get a bad wind switch and it is blowing right into where the deer WILL come from. Most of my stands are in locations where the deer can come from ANY direction. My biggest worry on that is a variable wind. In 45 years of deer hunting ill bet I've only switched stands after an initial sit a half dozen times.

i know the grass always seems greener elsewhere but the noise and laying of more human scent in the area is not worth the switch..

imho..

 

[HICKMAN]

This has been my most productive year as far as seeing deer goes, mostly because I just get up in a tree and sit!

Years past I was spending far too much time on the ground, thinking I was always in the wrong spot. Now, once I decide where I'm going I get up and and stay until dark.

Sat in a new spot tonight and watched 3 different does walk thru a thicket tonight, about 50 yards away, realizing they were near a fence line, which would make a nice little funnel.

I'll wait a few days and sit there when the wind is right.

I do plan on putting in a couple of small food plots on the farm next year, to give us a better chance.

 

[MidwestMuzzleloader]

That is a tough question. I tend to sit and stay, with the exception of late in the season I will still hunt if I have a tag (I still do). I hunt mostly farm ground so it may only have patches of wooded areas with lots of scrub brush on fence rows. The fields are a mixture of grain, hay and pasture. I usually hunt out of a stand during bow, but I mainly sit on the ground for shotgun and muzzleloader. Do you see deer moving through you property outside of season? Deer sign? If your property doesn't have food or bedding area ( or sit between the two). You will probably sit a long time without seeing deer. Even during the rut, I hunt between bedding and food and usually in the evening. That seems to be when I see the most deer. It has been my experience that does will always stay near the food sources and with that you get bucks moving through. On our farm, there are 3 or 4 area deer like to bed down and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to which one they pick. I have no idea what your property looks like but I would consider setting out a trail cam after the season and se what you have moving through and when. I also agree with one of the posters above about spending a couple of evenings scouting every month or so. When I started I spent a lot of time in the stand and didn't see deer, that can be very frustrating. As to how many deer, I will usually see the same sets of does every day or every two days. Bucks are a little different, I might see the same 3 or 4 young bucks every couple of nights. If you have any other questions feel free to pm me, I am by no means an expert but would be glad to help.


disregard any spelling or grammar mistakes, I pounded this out on an ipad...and I literally mean pounding, how the hell do people type on these?

 

[308offate]

Our property rule is pick a stand and your there till 9 at that time your good to go and move about freely

 

[Mark 1911]

I agree with Whitsettd8. It's dumb luck. Eventually the deer will come back to the area if they've been accustomed to using it. Just be patient. If you don't see any deer and decide to move, the deer have an uncanny habit of appearing just as you're climbing down your ladder.

 

[djl02]

I agree with Whitsettd8. It's dumb luck. Eventually the deer will come back to the area if they've been accustomed to using it. Just be patient. If you don't see any deer and decide to move, the deer have an uncanny habit of appearing just as your climbing down your ladder.

Ive had that happen ,too many times.

 

[djl02]

Every deer I have taken, I have been in the woods less than 1/2 hour.

 

[Dargasonus]

I don't move after I'm settled in. Prime time is for my areas 1.5 hours after sunrise, 1 hour until sunset. Full moons usually have me hunting mid day instead.