Maintaining the Element of Surprise
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
6/28/2011 12:00:00 AM
One of the keys to successful deer hunting is the ability to keep your presence a secret from the deer for as long as possible. Once a buck realizes that you are hunting him he becomes much less likely to move during daylight hours and will move with more caution when he does. You are less likely to catch him making a mistake. Even educating does and small bucks will lead to a change in their behavior and body language that will also affect buck movement.
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Appoaching your treestand undetected |
There are four primary ways to keep the element of surprise in your favor
. If there is a secret to deer hunting, focusing on these four aspects of the hunt is it.
First, keep your pre-season and in-season scouting to a minimum. When you do have to scout use maps and aerial photos to help you reduce the amount of ground you must cover.
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Second, make sure there is a good way to get to and from your stands without being seen, heard or smelled by deer. If you are bumping into deer when approaching a certain stand you should stop hunting it and look for one with better access nearby.
Third, do everything you can to reduce your scent. Even if you never completely eliminate it you will keep your hunting area more productive because the distance at which a deer can smell you will be reduced. That means fewer total deer smell you during the course of a day.
Finally, have plenty of stands that you can hunt so that you don’t have to put heavy pressure on any one particular stand location.
Don’t get so attached to a certain stand that you over-hunt it or hunt it when the wind is less than perfect. If you are going to take off a week of vacation to hunt, it makes sense to have at least a dozen stand locations ready beforehand. You can also move your stands during the season if your current locations show signs of burning out, but keep scouting to a minimum or the scent you leave will cancel any gains from hunting a new area.
