Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How long would you hunt an unproductive stand?

I'm always a little reluctant to go walking around during the gun season because invariably I'll jump something up and get it killed by some other hunter. The best stand sites that I've ever found were from snow tracking a big set of deer tracks and setting up a stand the next year somewhere along that route that gave me an advantage. Topography does funnel deer movement. I was talking with Greg Miller at a deer seminar and he told me that he has left hunting Price County because it was too big and too flat and the deer could go anywhere. Another thing I'd heard and already mentioned in this thread was that if you want to shoot a big buck, you need to hunt where one lives. I think that I've morphed into hunting like tzone's two buddies. We only get a 9 day gun season and opening day is sacred. The deer have to be there somewhere and they can't all be down wind. A stand site for me will take advantage of the prevailing north west wind, but I'd still probably hunt a good stand in a wrong wind. Back in my youth I'd hunt high enough in a tree that it didn't seem to matter much.

Shaman, I think that a minor move should be in order. Last season hunting the only decently large stand of regenerating poplar trees within miles, I got the feeling that it was like being in the right church, just the wrong pew. The only shot that I heard close that made for coyote, crow and raven gut pile scavenger noise was on the other side of that stand of poplar. That stuff grows thick and visibility is pretty limited, but I'd read that it will hold like 13 deer per square mile. Way more than that mature maple.

"... don't see a lot..." Heck I don't see any! This gun season I spent 32 hours some days dark to dark watching an empty deer woods. If the kid wasn't coming over for dinner tonight, I'd be up there right now scouting out some areas that I found on Google Maps now that the snow is melted back some. I had a lot better area before I sold my place one county over, but I don't want to drive that far from the new place to deer hunt. I'd best nail down a few more good stand sites rather than just hanging out at a stand where I've shot bucks before.

Moosemike, that is a lot of the problem deer hunting up north here and ihookem is like a lot of us hamstrung with a low density, public land deer area because we have a cabin/cottage there. Northern WI. is beautiful with big tracts of woods, streams and lakes, but the woods are getting too mature. Minimal industry and a low tax base, so the area is depressed economically. More poaching, harder winters, a four month bow/crossbow season, doe seasons to get more hunters up there and predators. 14 years does seem excessive though.