I've got an off-season topic for y'all that's been on my mind since season's end. I'd like y'alls' thoughts on whether deer stands have a life cycle and why that might be so. I'm now 18 seasons into my present deer camp, and nearly all of our current stand locations are different from what we had initially. Most of them just stopped producing after a while.

Let me give you the PRO and CON as I see it.

PRO:

1) The habitat changes
2) The neighbors' hunting habits change
3) The deer get wary
4) Local agriculture changes

CON:

1) After putting up a new stand, I've found remnants of deer stands from the 60's close by.
2) I can show you deer trails that have been where they are for almost 2 decades
3) Deer do not have language. One generation has a hard time passing on knowledge to the next.


Discussion:

In support of the proposition that deer stands seem to stop working after a while, I can tell you that my experience has been that magic stands, stands that produce year-after-year seem to have a limited shelf life. The best one I've had has now gone several years without connecting with a big buck. In another location, we put up a stand in an oak grove and hit paydirt several years running, and then all of a sudden things shut down. We got a smart doe that I called Madge. I believe we managed to kill her mother and the next year her son out of the same stand, and for the next three seasons Madge would make sure she busted us on every trip out. After Madge disappeared in 2007, we had zero traffic at that stand and finally removed it in 2017. There are still deer in the vicinity. My son has a stand about 100 yards away, but the deer seem to stay out of that oak grove like it's poison.

On the other hand, I've got a spot that has produced 1-3 deer a season since 2008. You can shoot one there Opening Week and still be able to take another on the last weekend. I've shot back-to-back 170+lb mature doe less than 3 days apart standing in about the same place. On another part of the property my buddy has a honey hole that normally produces a big buck every year, usually bedding in the same patch of weeds in the same corner of a pasture next to a cedar thicket.

Go figure.

I'm just wondering what y'all have noticed.

I think that there several reasons, at least. One is as you said, 'stuff changes' roads fences housing food/water sources and deer simply change their habits. Areas for many reasons loose deer populations.
One, I believe, is that those 'good stands' get over hunted. I know that deer don't talk, as you say. But if there is constant activity weekend after weekend out of one blind I believe deer become blind shy. Maybe only hunt that stand sparingly. in Texas our season is, basically, from the first of November through at least December. In that case only hunt those 'good stands' the first weekend, Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas/New Years week.
capt david

I hunt a place in the hills. My friend that owns the place has hunted it his whole life. He says the best stands are still good and are every year. The topography is what determines where the deer travel. Another place I hunted we hunted 17 years. Once we found good stand locations they continued to produce every year. Both of these places were heavily wooded.

Seems like I kill a good one about every other year in east Texas. My stands have been there for 12 yrs.

One of my hunting buddies has 3 or 4 stands that have been in the same basic area since at least the 1940's. His Dad and Uncles found a migration route that the deer use every fall in migrating to wintering grounds. They're on public land but fairly remote. If you hit the weather right (storms) they produce some nice bucks nearly every year.

I've seen it go both ways. In one instance, the neighboring property logged their property and the deer quit coming by the stand. Once it thickened up, the deer began using a new travel route and that's been productive now.

Other places have been good since the 1940s.

I shot my first deer about 50 yards from where my grandpa shot his first deer many years ago. My nephew shot his first deer last year in the same spot.

I think in some cases the lay of the land dictates where the deer go, and without MAJOR changes, they will keep using that. In other areas, a couple of dropped trees from a wind storm can cause them to stop using a trail.

-Jake

Reckon it depends. There's a stand I know that's produced some fine bucks for at least 20 years. You just gotta be lucky enough to get in it. Well east of Bumphuqq Egypt.

I have one stand that I always kill a decent buck from. I put that ladderstand there in a year that there weren't many acorns and with 5-6 big white oaks there I picked that spot.
it produces every year no matter where the food is. deer come from every direction possible. for that reason I never worry about wind direction when I hunt it.strange thing is ,its like a deer magnet deer will be going by that stand and turn and walk really close to the stand. I've seen very few deer pass it without coming within bow range. I have never fed any deer at all. It have amazed me how deer come really close. I killed 2 bucks this season from it one at 32yards and one at 8yds.

I hunt out of an old ash tree that I have been hunting since 1973. Still producing as good as ever even though I’m on my 3rd. “Permanent “ ladder stand.

For the most part, deer don't give a schidt about you or your stands.
They are living their lives, eating, drinking, sleeping, breeding. If you are
between where they are, and where they want to be, on their way, they will go by.

You might blow a stand, or not. If topography makes it a good place, they may just
be more nocturnal. Most likely, something else changes.


People love to make this more difficult then it is.

My elevated deer stand is still going strong since 1983. I think its all about the habitat and the health and number of the deer in the area.

I found an atlatl head in a creek at a funnel. I think that funnel has produced for 2,000+ years.

But these days those kind of spots are becoming fewer & fewer due to development

A hurricane like we had here in September will totally disrupt their patterns. There are downed trees all over the woods , lots of oaks went down which not only blocked trails but also eliminated a food source.


Mike

Deer in My neck of the woods tend to travel the terrain on the same routes, this changes very little depending somewhat on particular years mast crop but for the most part they will travel the same low gaps and ridges every year with little deviation.....Hb

Deer do get educated and I think there is such a thing as stand burn out. Even the doe's will look into the stands before coming close and this stand only gets hunted two or three times a season. Some locations you can hunt more and they still produce, others once busted that's it for a couple weeks or even the entire season.

My dad and I have had the fortune of being able to hunt the same 165 acre farm for 42 years. We have had certain stands in place for decades and still take deer from them. More times than not they are standing in the same tracks as the last one that was taken there. We call these the home town deer. Meaning they live there on a permanent basis and never leave. Then we have the visiting team. These are the ones that you may see only during the rut when home ranges expand. These guys are usually bigger than the home town bucks and must be hunted on the fly and stands must be placed based on their irregular or shall we say out of the norm patterns. Wind is the determining factor of which one we sit for all but one stand. We have had scrapes under the same branches every year for decades. Our methodology for hunting this piece of dirt is not to overly invade their space . By doing this the deer on this farm move naturally as deer would in an unpressured environment. It’s not uncommon to have deer out in the middle of a field in broad daylight all throughout gun season. For our area overall that is very uncommon. Over encroachment and continuous penetration into what we call the safety zone will put the place on lockdown in short order. We never take a stand down that has been repeatedly productive however there are years when we may not hunt it until the signs dictate such. There was a reason that a deer liked it and we have found that at some point in time others will as well. Terrain and It’s proximity to cover have always been the leading factors in how we select our sites. Trying to out hunt the hunters is is extremely unpredictable and extremely frustrating. I would leave an area alone and find another spot before I tried to predict the movements of others. It just doesn’t interest me. FYI we hunt 2.5 hours outside of NYC .

So in regards to longevity- the stand may not have dried up , it just may be that this year or even next might not be its time. Think of hunting as a never ending continuous improvement project and that you must always remember the history that has lead you to the point you are at today. Sooner or later things will come full circle. History has a funny way of repeating itself . Adapt yearly to those stands that offer you the most sign. With the advent of trail cams this is a no brainer. Good luck

Since 1966 I killed a buck every year from the same tree with bow or gun. Just like real estate Location Location Location! What attracts deer to move thru an area vs food movement is the key. Food varies during the season week by week but find a place deer can feel safe traveling thru and you got a keeper.

My best stand, has been hunted for probably 40 + years by family.

Between me, my uncle and my father in law and a couple close friends, I'd say it's averaged at least 2 deer/year for the last 40.

I'm hunting on state land and occasionally a stranger happens upon it, I'm not accounting for the deer taken/possibly taken by someone I don't know.

My best guess is that stands on travel routes are going to last longer over time because, as someone mentioned, terrain is the major factor in determining those pathways. Natural food sources, except browse maybe, are temporary and seasonal, so sitting over a cleaned-out one is a waste of time for the most part. Nothing is certain, though, and the rut is a wild card.

Hunting pressure on "my" WMA was down this year, so the deer I usually see on the lam from other hunters never showed. The ones I saw were all just traveling normally. Passed on some does hoping for a buck; a mistake as it turned out. Next year, I'm planning on doing my buck hunting with the xbow while they're still moving naturally. Rifle season will be brown & down.

there are only 4 things that mean anything to any wild animal food,water,bedding,breeding. the rest they forget very quickly.

We have a club environment with say 15 members sharing 2,000 acres of Southern timber lands, woods, creek, sand roads (public and logging) and pretty much contiguous land. We have places that produce year after year but the deer are stand wise and seem to always be looking at them when they step out in a power line or road. Someone shoots a nice deer, that stand gets checked out a bunch.... doesn’t produce again.... overhunting.

We have some stands that have been in one spot for 20 plus years and the saying is, “that spot used to get good deer wonder why no one has got anything lately...”. If you go there and look around the trails go behind the stand location deer are bypassing it. Solution, climb 40 to 50 yards off the stand and trails, and you get a nice deer. Climb high. Tell everyone you shot out of the stand, they go there and don’t see anything.... go back and climb... ;-).

Our biggest disrupter is clear cutting of timber which causes us to reposition stands in surrounding areas.

OP was right on about old locations... we see a “new great spot” and then look around and usually find some old boards nailed to a hardwood or remnants of an old stand... everything has been hunted before...


It’s hunting and it’s fun!

I've hunted out of the same deer stand for over 20 years. The stand is 6 foot square and is 21ft high. I have plenty of deer tracks within a few feet of the stand every year. I've heard "stories" of hunters saying: Deer know where my stand is and avoid it. I find that to be hilarious.

Don

in 1974 me, my dad, brother and dads friend had to hunt a new area due to overnight snow fall keeping us off the mountain. we went to a spot we had hunted small game and on the way in we saw a big buck cross the road and go up a draw through a field and up the ridge. that afternoon i sat at the bottom of that draw and shot my first deer, a six point. through the years my brother used it and got many deer there. in 2008 when my boys were 12 we sat there and they both got their first deer there on the exact spot i got mine in 74. since then my sons have gotten several more there. unfortunately the area has gotten smaller as other parcels have been bought up and posted but this 20 or so acre pocket and the big old hemlock we have all sat under is still "old reliable". its just not as much fun to hunt since you really can't move much. due to terrain, i have no doubt that the deer have been using this draw for eons and will continue.

The best answer for “things changing “ has been covered. Food,activity, etc. I’ll throw in that your particular piece of land grows up and doesn’t afford the same protection and browse it once did. On the other end the ONLY runs that I have found that produce every year are migration runs. Those are about timing and no one will usually share the location of those spots.