Jumpin' deer every time
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Jumpin' deer every time - 11/3/2009 7:43:14 PM
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buckfarmdude
Posts: 172
Joined: 11/14/2008
From: Buckfield, ME
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Our gun season here in Maine started on Saturday, October 31. That morning, I went to my blind just off a snowmobile trail where the deer trail crosses it and goes by a big oak tree, basically from one patch of thick cover to another. It was the perfect setup. I get there on opening morning, sit in my blind, and twenty minutes into the day, a neighbor and his buddy go flyin through on their ATV--right past my blind. So my plan B was to go up a woods road that I had scouted and looked promising. I'm on my way in, and their ATV is parked right there. So they spoiled both plan A and B at the same time. So I turned up the snowmobile trail, and jumped a deer 15 yards away.
Monday was the next day of hunting season, and I entered to woods to a different stand location where my aunt and younger brother saw a nice buck on Saturday. On my way in, well before shooting light, I jumped 3 deer. They all blew and ran. I sat and waited for it to get a little bit lighter, and started in again, and jumped another one (I didn't see any of the deer I jumped on Mon; it was still pitch black out). I finally arrived where I was going to sit and stayed there all day. Nothing.
Today, I went farther up the hill to hunt a patch of oaks up beyond a stand of planted pines (this is an afternoon hunt now). I jumped another one on the way in. I wanted to get there earlier, but it didn't work out.
My question is regarded the ones I have jumped really early in the morning. Should I wait to enter the area until shooting light so that I can at least see the ones I'm jumping or should I just keep going early and hope for the best? I seem to be in the right place every day, just at the wrong time.
This is my tenth year hunting deer, but I'm still somewhat new to hunting in the woods. I have only really hunted orchards and fields up until about two or three seasons ago.
_____________________________
Psalm 42:1 "As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee O God."
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/3/2009 10:32:49 PM
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WiredToHunt
Posts: 111
Joined: 8/26/2008
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I'd get there as early as possible. I try to get in stand atleast an hour and a half before shooting light. That way I shouldn't jump deer and the woods should be settled by the time its light enough to shoot and deer start moving through.
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/3/2009 10:35:22 PM
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Wanderer
Posts: 287
Joined: 2/8/2009
From: Fulton County Indiana
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You might want to consider waiting until its a bit lighter and still hunting your way in. I'll betcha Woodsy would give you some tips.
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/3/2009 11:16:23 PM
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mnmaverick
Posts: 37
Joined: 11/25/2008
From: Saint Paul, MN
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I have the same issue. The only ways into my land are through food plots and an adjacent meadow. I always jump deer walking in. Normally if I do and they blow at me I just blow back. Often they don't run off by just walk away, thinking I'm a deer. You might try that. Often I've had deer I've jumped circle back within an hour, so assuming they can't see you well I don't think it's the end of the world, but you might wait for light and still hunt your way in and see if you can get a shot at one!
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 9:32:27 AM
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Sailfish
Posts: 710
Joined: 5/19/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mnmaverick
Often I've had deer I've jumped circle back within an hour
I've jumped them and recall once I had the opportunity to watch them until they found cover.
They ran a HUGE circle in an open field, eventually curling into a crick covered with heavy brush.
I watched from another location (about 20 minutes(+/-) later), they came out up of the crick and ended up very near the original vacinity where they were jumped.
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In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 9:39:21 AM
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dmcianfa
Posts: 444
Joined: 9/23/2008
From: Upriver
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I do the same thing when and if I jump deer going to my stand. If they can't see me, I'll blow back and/or snort wheeze at them. Don't know if this actually works or not, but sometimes I've done it in the daylight in a swamp, where it is hard to see and if I sit tight right there after doing so, they came right to me an hour or so later. Weird, but now I do it because of that.
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"I enjoy and become completely immersed in the challenge and the increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It’s a return to fundamentals that I distinctly feel are basic and right"-F.B.
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 9:52:46 AM
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vipertech
Posts: 250
Joined: 10/28/2008
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One thing that has taken me a LONG time to learn (and I'm still learning it) is this: When you step one foot away from your truck and onto your hunting land, YOU'RE HUNTING! What I mean is: you HAVE to get your mind focused immediately. It is far too easy to rush to the tree stand thinking that when you get settled in, THEN you hunting! NO! That is not the case! Once you get in their living room, they can be anywhere! You're never going to 100% avoid busting deer but you will greatly reduce the likelihood if you ensure that you slow waaaay down and look extra sharp whenever you move through the woods.
Now, as to the question of time: I think one has to adjust for their own land. If you always get to your land at say 6am and you always bust deer. Well, simply adjust your time and go in earlier if possible. I personally am a proponent of "half-hour before sunrise". I like using the cover of darkness. There seems to be a shift in this mentality however towards using the faint light to help still-hunt to the stand. If you like this idea better then be sure to pay attention to what I wrote above.
< Message edited by vipertech -- 11/4/2009 9:54:10 AM >
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 11:12:24 AM
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shaman
Posts: 1127
Joined: 6/21/2008
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I've got a similar problem. I frequently bump deer on the way to the stand in the morning, some as close as 10 yards from my flashlight. It frequently is a good sign for me. It usually means I'll see deer later in the morning after the sun comes up. It depends. The ones I'm talking about are sometimes a quarter mile from the stand, and what they presage is that the deer spent the night on top of my ridge rather than hiding down in the bottoms.
Over the years, I've had the exact opposite though. I had one spot that frequently held deer in the pre-dawn, and my stand was about 50 yards away. Probably I blew my chances of getting a deer from that stand that year by not paying heed to the snorts and stamps, but there was also no way I could get to that stand without walking through that pasture.
. . . but then again . . .
I have one stand that's at the corner of a field. I can bust deer in the woods on the far side of the field on the way in, climb into the stand, and have those same deer come by after sun-up walking the fence line with a wary eye turned towards where I came from, but no clue as to what's in the tree above them.
Crazier still?
I have one stand that is overlooking a shelf with a bunch of white oaks on it. When those oaks are dropping acorns, I've tried to pussyfoot to my stand a full hour before first light, and had deer munching acorns 20 yards from the stand. I have climbed into the 15 foot buddy stand, put on my outer layers and settled in and still had those same deer feeding later when legal hunting started. This was the same stand I was in during muzzleloader season this year: I showed up early and had a flock of turkeys roosted up on the stand and on the surrounding limbs. I busted about a half-dozen when I first got there, but the birds were still flying off nearby branches until well after sunrise.
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Confessions of a Cervid Serial Killer
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 12:15:32 PM
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buckfarmdude
Posts: 172
Joined: 11/14/2008
From: Buckfield, ME
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quote:
ORIGINAL: dmcianfa
I do the same thing when and if I jump deer going to my stand. If they can't see me, I'll blow back and/or snort wheeze at them. Don't know if this actually works or not, but sometimes I've done it in the daylight in a swamp, where it is hard to see and if I sit tight right there after doing so, they came right to me an hour or so later. Weird, but now I do it because of that.
I usually do this also. I had the Lohman snort call, but I lost it in the woods on opening day and can't find it.  (I can sorta make this sound with my mouth, but it doesn't sound quite as good) When I was scouting a couple of weeks ago, I called in a small deer using grunts and bleats. She came in on a string, didn't stop until she was only fifteen yards away. After hanging around for a bit and trying to figure out what the heck was going on, she stamped and blew, and then ran; then she stopped and blew again. Recalling the recent calling article in D&DH, I blew back, waited, and blew again. A few minutes later, I heard some more blowing off to my right. I think she circled back to get downwind.
_____________________________
Psalm 42:1 "As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee O God."
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/4/2009 6:10:03 PM
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buckhunter21
Posts: 2378
Joined: 4/25/2008
From: West-Central WI
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I've tried going in an hour before light, right at light, and even earlier as in 2 hours before first light. I seem to have better luck the earlier I go in...As was already stated, this gives the deer some time to calm down. If you do bump them, a good snort or grunt back usually can settle them a bit. Going in right at first light may work, but sometimes you can be right on their heels as they are leaving the food plot....At least when you are going in there super early, they aren't 100% sure what you are, just that you sound a little different. My two cents....
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/5/2009 7:37:07 PM
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Powell1120
Posts: 23
Joined: 7/12/2009
From: Boone County, IA
Status: offline
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quote:
One thing that has taken me a LONG time to learn (and I'm still learning it) is this: When you step one foot away from your truck and onto your hunting land, YOU'RE HUNTING! What I mean is: you HAVE to get your mind focused immediately. It is far too easy to rush to the tree stand thinking that when you get settled in, THEN you hunting! NO! That is not the case! Once you get in their living room, they can be anywhere! You're never going to 100% avoid busting deer but you will greatly reduce the likelihood if you ensure that you slow waaaay down and look extra sharp whenever you move through the woods.
This is good advice! There are more mornings than not that I bump deer on the way to my stand. I have tried the grunts to try and calm the deer down, but I have found that the slower I go the better. If I hear hooves in front of me I stop and stay still for a few mins before starting again, and when I go again it is very slow. I know my foot steps don't sound like a deer but I at least try to keep a pace that is not that of a human charging through. I've had a lot of luck of just bumping the herd and not alarming them to where they stomp and blow at me since I started this. The time that stands out that it didn't work so well is when I came up on a deer at probably 10 yards that was bedded in the dark. Lets just say when it jumped and bolted I about ruined any scent control I had going for me. The only problem with this is that you must allow for the extra time it may take to get to stand, which means geting out of bed earlier.
< Message edited by Powell1120 -- 11/5/2009 7:39:13 PM >
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RE: Jumpin' deer every time - 11/5/2009 7:45:25 PM
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nhdeerchaser
Posts: 391
Joined: 6/10/2009
From: Central NH
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quote:
ORIGINAL: buckhunter21
I've tried going in an hour before light, right at light, and even earlier as in 2 hours before first light. I seem to have better luck the earlier I go in...As was already stated, this gives the deer some time to calm down. If you do bump them, a good snort or grunt back usually can settle them a bit. Going in right at first light may work, but sometimes you can be right on their heels as they are leaving the food plot....At least when you are going in there super early, they aren't 100% sure what you are, just that you sound a little different. My two cents....
That's my favorite time to head in. I have to go in later on Sunday however. I'm gonna have my son with me, and I don't want him going into the ladderstand until he can safely climb in at first light. I might walk in before light, then climb into the stand when we can see well.
Mike
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You can't kill'em sittin' on the couch!
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