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yep. the old advice of "if you hunt public land go deep... real deep into the woods". my first sighting when hunting was 5 km into a public tract. if we did manage to take the deer, I could only imagine how far in over our heads we would be.
age and experience... i tell ya...
I’ve heard two pieces of advice. One is get in at least 20 min before hunting time. The idea is once you haven’t made noise for 20-30 min the deer have forgotten about you.
The other one, which may work better in the day when you have time and are trying to slip in or move stands is to “walk like a deer”. Take 4 or 5 steps then stop and look around. I’ve even heard of doing a two step. You walk by taking two smaller steps with each foot, step-step step-step, step-step, step-step. Pause and look. Repeat.
In your case leave the truck about 2 hours before sunrise.
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I don't worry much about noise or even scent. Obviously I don't put on cologne or intentionally make noise at my watch, but other than that, I don't worry about it much.
We shot a deer this year. We were gutting it using the lights from a truck. We were also standing around talking. Less than 100 yards away, another deer was eating some apples, not paying much attention to us. In my experience, deer aren't quite as scared of us as we think.
Now if I was bow hunting, I'd worry more as you need them to get nice and close, but for rifle, I don't worry about making noise going to my watch, I'm not overly worried about scent nor do I worry about making small amounts of noise while on my watch. Has worked for me so far
They are verg curious but it dosent take much to make them suspicious that being said....regular walking noise and nothing too loud most times wint ruin your hunt
Walking to my stand across frozen leaves in the hardwoods has landed me a few nice bucks. 3-4 mins after climbing in my stand 8ft up, they have come as close as 10ft from my tree looking for the intruder.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bear13
This ^Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Stewart
I've been listening to the bigwoods bucks podcasts since my season ended. These guys hunt Maine/New Hampshire/Ontario but track all their deer (like the Benoits). And that's what they do, unless they are trying to make time on a buck that they figure is still out a ways. Then they just go...
On dragging big deer... my biggest buck woulda been about the size of Fenelon's. I field dressed it myself, dragged it myself (not far). But could not get it in the boat. Just too much dead weight. Terrain will dictate a lot. Up here if you hike in over 500yds and drop anything over 200, you're gonna be in for a hell of a time. Ridges, moss covered granite (worse than ice when it's wet), blow-downs, overgrown, intertangled patches of bush not intended for human intrusion... all those things aside any grade in the terrain going up is gonna make the drag a helluva lot harder. Take the shot late in the afternoon and now you're working in the dark. Being fit/young/strong/on drugs whatever ain't gonna mean chit if you aren't used to travelling in the bush, because nothing quite prepares the legs for traversing in the bush except just that. All things to consider.
I hiked into a pond I used to hunt once. Even had a bit of a trail cut through the thicker sections. It was a 40min hike. I jumped a flock of geese that were tucked back in there and dumped 3. The walk out on tired legs carrying an extra 25lbs was not fun.
Couple weeks back I walked in to my ground blind, snow on the ground, but crunchy. Put chair out, blow nose, look up and there is a big buck 20yds out watching me. He walked around me watching me trying to figure out what I was. He even decided to walk towards me. He didn't spook until he was 10yd away down wind. I think if they don't smell you, you are probably good. I definitely made lots of noise.