When to Hunt a Stand
Filed under: Ask Grant
Hey Grant, I’ve talked with you a few different times about different subjects, but I have a new question. I was just watching a show and they say to stay out of your “best spots” until the seeking or the rut phases. In Northeast Louisiana we hunt off the Mississippi River. Our rut in this area is anywhere from Christmas through February. If I stayed out of my spot until then, I wouldn’t get to hunt it until the last month of hunting season, 3 months after the season opens. I’ve been very selective with my hunting of these locations. What do you recommend? I’ve hunted some spots once since bow season opened back on October 1 and the deer are still nocturnal on my camera with zero pressure. I only go in to check my camera every two weeks or so. What do you recommend? Lee
Lee,
I was just in your neck of the woods a few weeks ago. The Mississippi River corridor can provide some tremendous hunting! I think every stand has a different time of the season when it is “hot.” Stands over food plots are great when the deer prefer that food source; stands by oaks are great when the acorns are falling, etc. This is the same for stand locations that are not productive unless the rut is in full swing. I have a couple of these on my property where a downed fence or saddle bottlenecks bucks as they troll between doe bedding areas. Anytime but during the peak of the rut and these stands are nearly worthless, but sit in one during the rut and bucks are likely to pass by all day long. If I were to sit in these stands before the rut I would only be burning them up with my scent and disturbance.
I try to have as many potential stand sites as possible and be flexible to finding new locations. Disturbance is detrimental to any stand because deer certainly associate hunting pressure with danger. I try to limit disturbance and conditioning them to my presence as much as possible.
Growing Deer together,
Grant
