Will this stand continue to be productive?
Filed under: Hunting Tactics
I was fortunate this year and harvested a great 8 point this year while I was home on military leave. He green scored 147.5. My question has to do with how and where I killed this buck. I saw this deer at first in a thicket chasing a hot doe but he never got close enough to shoot. I was bummed out because the same thing happened the year before when I had two 140 class animals at 65 yards and just couldn’t seal the deal. Anyway, I took a looked at my topo maps and realized this deer was on the same ridge that I had seen a huge trail during spring turkey season. So the Saturday after my encounter I had a perfect northwest wind and I moved my climber back on that same ridge 300 yards in a clearing where I though he was running back and forth. The ridge where I set up was about 50 yards wide so I set up in the middle and had a real steep drop behind me and a field in front. I killed that buck at 12 yards at 1405 on an all day sit. Now that I have explained why I did what I did, heres my ultimate question. Will that spot continue to produce? I feel like it is a perfect rut stand and was wondering if there is any truth to bucks moving in once a dominant buck has been killed? Can I look forward to that happening or is it very rare for deer to pick up on that sort of thing?
Mike,
Thank you for your service to the United States and congratulations for tagging a nice buck!
Good stand/blind locations tend to remain productive as long as nothing major changes in the local habitat. However, this is not because other bucks “move in.”
Deer, especially mature deer, rarely leave their home range. Deer know the locations of food, cover, and predators within their home range and rarely venture into new areas. Contrary to many rumors bucks don’t roam the county seeking does. However, other deer in the area will certainly use the area for the same reason the buck you tagged found it attractive. This is why knowing the habitat and the preferred sources of food, cover, and water are such great strategies for tagging mature bucks annually!
Good stand/blind sites are not only where deer tend to be active but also where hunters can approach, hunt, and exit without alerting deer. It sounds like you’ve found such a location! You should look forward to hunting that location again next year during the same time frame!
Enjoy creation,
grant
December 14, 2015
