VenaticOutdoors

Windy day Saturday so I will refrain - will only call sparingly if I do. I prefer to see the animal to try and judge how he behaves before I pick up a call.

I use a bungee cord to secure the top only - easy to transport and very quiet. If I'm carring my stand, I'll just strap it to the stand so I always have it.

Definitely 2.5 By the way, those new Primos Truthcams are great.

Yea - could have been damaged in velvet or just be a genetic thing.

Agreed.

Great pics - gotta love the changing seasons!

Careful about planting rye this late - I would talk to some local farmers and get their opinion before you spend money on additional seed. If you have it, it may be better to hold onto it until next year.

Bending at the waste is important. Also, if you want to get real serious, that diagram you provided leaves out gravity with a downward acceleration of 9.8 m/s2. The higher you are, the more the downward angle, the faster your arrow is going to fly. Suddenly, 13 yards becomes less than 12. Like everyone said though, if you focus on the basics like bending at the waste and a solid anchor point, then everything else will become obsolete.

I can see the differences now - good luck! Seems like you may have found yourself a little honey hole!

It's certain parts of shooting that are most important to me. I shoot almost every day, but if I don't focus on settling in on a point and taking my time, then all my practice means nothing in the stand.

The first two pictures look like they could be the same deer - what do you think?

Great New York buck!

Oh I'm not that sophisticated, I just play around with Photoshop or Paint until I have something I like. I can tell you that it really helps to have a large laminated copy in your camp though.

It's the best way to do it. I actually too the time last year to create one in photoshop. I numbered all the stands and then created another document that had wind directions on it. Next to each wind direction was a list of numbers (stands). We have problems with a family member who just hunts whatever he wants to. He has got much better though and he tries hard. But the map really helps. It's easier for us all and it's laminated on the fridge.

I can do you one better and include a little map for you. We hunt on 236 acres and I can assure you that it's not us. We hunt very smart, sometimes too smart, and only touch a stand if the wind is absolutely perfect, not just for hunting, but also for accessing the stand. We actually have a map with all of our stand locations on the refrigerator and corresponding wind directions. There are several stands that we won't even touch until November and most of our access is done through the neighbors fields. We have 236 acres and only check trail cameras between 11 and 1. I prefer to walk to check cameras, but if there is one that is tough to get to, we'll take an ATV. We travel the property all year long in ATVs and always get pictures, they do not bother the deer on our property. Because of this, they are used to them. In the map attached, red dots are tree stands, blue is the cabin, and I tried by best to lay out food plots in the green lines.

No doubt that it's a porcupine - I see one every time I'm hunting.

We're not in an agricultural area so there is really no food around. Then again, there is a farmer who does corn down about 1 mile down the road which I completely forgot about. Oaks aren't that abundant and I have scouted heavily for them in the past. I do believe that it is food related coupled with the changing seasons, I do not believe this movement has anything to do with the moon phase. I'm struggling to pinpoint the exact cause though, but the deer always show up in November like rats so I'm not too worried about it. It would just be nice to figure it out so I'm not wasting my opening weekend year after year. I shoot quite a few deer every year, and that weekend I've only shot one in four-five years. And...it may have been the only deer that came within bow range now that I think of it.

I've heard the same - considering that we're 40 minutes from the Canadian border, it would make sense that it hits early. I will do some research on that - thanks!

I headed to my camp after work on Thursday and hunted until Sunday afternoon. The weather was the best we have ever had for this time of year, with temps in the 50s and a light, steady 5 mph wind. To be honest, you couldn't ask for better deer hunting weather in the first week of October. In fact, when we woke up on Sunday there was a light frost and it was 37 degrees out. All summer we have had good trail camera pictures. And, the food plot I was going to be hunting, an easy short walk from the cabin, was seeing a lot of activity. We had pictures of two shooters visiting it weekly, four other 1.5 year old bucks, and several does and fawns. I noticed that the number of pictures the camera had been taking was dropping off as the season changed, but it didn't bother me. Well, I didn't see a single deer all weekend! Not a one! Perfect wind, perfect conditions. When I took some time to think back, this is not unusual. The past few years we have seen almost no deer the first week of the season. Then, as the rut starts to roll around we'll see 10-20 deer a day. The deer are still on our property though, it's not hunting pressure, they're just not moving. Does anyone have any ideas why? I've done a little reading on moon phases etc, but is there a movement lull when the seasons change? I don't think it's food sources either but I'm hoping I can find an answer.

You could do a few grunts as well - several articles have been written about that.

How about getting in there extra early in the morning? We hunted this weekend and we were in our stands by 5:40 because we knew deer were active in our food plots in the mornings. Also, what about leaving a little later after it's been dark for 30 minutes?

Very neat to watch them interact with eachother too.

Such a disappointment...

Good stuff Bernie - I'm heading up today after work and will hunt Friday-Sunday. As the storm moves out, the weather looks very promising.

If I have a spot that I cannot get out of in the dark without spooking deer, such as a food plot, I will wait until it's super dark or make plans with someone to pick me up in an ATV. We do a lot of food plot work so we're regularly traveling the property in utility vehicles - the deer understand it's not a threat so they'll just hop in the woods and wait until you leave.