How long will you stick with a stand site?

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Deadeye
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How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Deadeye » Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:52 am

Hey guys a little opinions needed here. Did lots of scouting and located an area in a WMA that offered the following: Small Bayhead located off of a No Vehicile Access Road by about 50 yds. Surrounding the Bayhead is planted pines in semi-mature growth. Understory is mostly brose scrub mixed with palmettos. No Oaks.

Found old firebreak trail going into to pines located at top of BH. Along BH found rubs and scrapes located on several firebreak trails. Set my ladder stand at a "t" on one of the trails with a scrape at 40 yrds straight in front of me. Another 20 yrds to my right. Another 40 yrds to my left. On the firebreak 20 yrds in back of me approx 40 yrds in both directions there are scrapes.

Sounds like a perfect set up right? I had to work opening weekend so do not know if the area was hunted or not. I did an all day sit on the 1st wednesday and an afternoon sit the following day. Did an morning sit this wednesday. Total deer seen so far is ZERO.

Did a walk around the area before I left. All the scrapes have gone dead. What do you guys think? Chasing does and not scraping? Dead? Left the area-- either due to hunting pressure or moved to oaks dropping acorns?

How long would you continue to hunt the spot OR would you look for another area ASAP?

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davedirt
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by davedirt » Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:26 am

As long as it takes............had a site that I hunted for two years, never saw a buck. Well I decided to hunt it opening week end of gun and I'm setting there thinking to myself that I have never seen a buck here and low and behold out steps an 8 point. He walked rite behind the camera and BOOM. He had been coming to the feeder and never aet any corn just comes thru looking for does. So to your question.......Its up to you. You just never know what is going to happen you just have to be there.
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Iluv2hunt
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Iluv2hunt » Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:45 am

With that many scrapes, it sounds like a young buck trying to assert his dominance. Pretty common for this time of year. Not sure where you are hunting, but all of cent Fla is in pre rut mode right now.

One thing I learned...If a spot has all a deer needs, I will not give up on it. The bucks will be there when the time is right. The only thing that concerns me is you don't have any oaks. They are wide open feeding on acorns right now. This is the time of year you need to be hunting the does. Find the does and the bucks will come (no pun intended)
I don't hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. ~Colonel Tom Kelly

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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by JBUG308 » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:47 am

Not knowing what transpired the first weekend while you were away makes a difference too. If it looks like nobody else is setting up or walking around in that area AND if the deer sign is staying consistent I'd stick to it.

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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Gblack15 » Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:42 am

I don't generally hut scrapes by themselves, since most of them are serviced at night. Generally the scrapes are on trails that lead to food/water/bedding areas. I try to find the areas they lead to and find some other sign as well ie... food, water, thick cover.. find those areas and you will be in the right area. Just my 2 cents, I am sure others have other methods that work for them as well.

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doghunter
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by doghunter » Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:32 am

Gblack15 wrote:I don't generally hut scrapes by themselves, since most of them are serviced at night. Generally the scrapes are on trails that lead to food/water/bedding areas. I try to find the areas they lead to and find some other sign as well ie... food, water, thick cover.. find those areas and you will be in the right area. Just my 2 cents, I am sure others have other methods that work for them as well.

:flag3d :flag3d :flag3d :flag3d :flag3d

Me too and I've only killed 1 buck actually checking a scrape in daylight. Even killed 1buck who I know made the scrape and thehe came in to feed and didn't check it. I like the food sources preferrably.
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Deadeye
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Deadeye » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:22 am

Well I don't know what happened on opening weekend but I do know that nothing is working the scrapes now and with no oaks in the area I think it is time to move.

Sometimes when your the most frustrated about things God sends an angel. When I had just about given up on catching Bass here because what had worked so well for my back in Pa was not working at all here, I had someone offer me a chance to go with them and they taught me how to catch them "FL Style". Now I catch bass all the time.

I was starting to get frustrated with hunting here too. Trying what I knew was not working and I wasn't sure what else to try. Yesterday I was talking with a friend about where I had set up they way the scrapes were and what was not happening. We were discussing what might be going on when another man, who had been standing there just listening I guess, asked me where I was hunting. I told him what WMA and he said that was where he was hunting too. He asked if I minded saying where I was seeing scrapes as he had not seen any rubs or scrapes yet. I told him no it didn't matter since I hadn't seen any deer there anyway. Then I asked him how he was doing. He told me he had shot 2 bucks, 1 doe, and 1 hog so far. I told him "wow your doing well" and he told me that "I can tell ya where to go if you want to shoot a deer" and proceeded to give me directions to the area of oak hummock where he was hunting. He told me that he was off work and can hunt anytime he wants to and has not seen anyone else there yet. I asked him if the spot he told me was where he was at and he told me "no I'm just a little further down the trail, but there are lots of deer in there and you won't bother me".

What a nice guy! He told us that he was seeing deer everyday and had saw several bucks that he couldn't get a shot at. Like I said, sometimes an angel just comes along when you need one.

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Iluv2hunt
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Iluv2hunt » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:10 am

Ok, I am going to play devils advocate here and tell you my first reaction reading this.
(not saying this is the case, just an observation)

~You slip up and tell a guy you don't know, who is not working where a bunch of fresh buck sign is.
~He tells you of a spot off the top of his head to get you out of the spot you have been hunting.
~He makes a bee line to the spot you told him about and hunts it


Once again, I may be out of line. But that was my first reaction reading your post
I don't hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. ~Colonel Tom Kelly

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Deadeye
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Re: How long will you stick with a stand site?

Post by Deadeye » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:57 am

Could be. But the sign is not fresh and hasn't been for two weeks. And I actually never told him where it was at. My friend knows where of he spoke and confirmed that it should be a good spot.

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