Made a mistake today

[1simplemann]

I got busted today.. I have spot that I've been looking at for years. The size of the trees has always prevent me from trying to put and stand there. Plus the access. I now have a jet boat and it takes exactly 2 minutes from the launch. 5 minute total to get to the tree. Anyway, I have figured out a way to hunt these huge cottonwoods with a saddle. When I set the tree in the rain 2 months ago I planned on a big multi trunk cottonwood that was tight to the trails and scrapes I want to cover. However when I started I immediately notice that it was rotten. Cottonwoods often have a rotten hollow core. Since I'm not going to hunt a tree that going to fall over soon, time for plan B. I chose a tree parallel to where I originally want to hunt. It had Different lean to it but I was facing the action. I hunt river bottoms. The deer move up and down the river. I try to keep my back to the river at my 6 O clock. and keep the field of play in front of me. This time I had my back to my 3 oclock. There was a big opening and I figured no buck cross that opening in daylight. I forgot about does. You'll never hear them coming from that direction so you have to scan constantly. I was paying attention in front and never heard her come in. I swung around to look and she had me. She didn't know what she saw but she didn't like it. That's when I saw the big 8 pt behind her. They left the area. The tree was really uncomfortable and I couldn't see the whole field of play even though I thought I could when I set the tree. Later when I got down, I looked things over. I found 2 other trees that will let me see the whole field of play and my back is towards the river. The wind is better also. I was too close in the other tree. One tree has really great cover but it will take some work to set up there. Off season project. The other is decent but a little too open but fairly easy to set up. i set it up at lunch and will be back late this season. Lesson to be learned? NEVER put your back to where you think any deer can come in from if you can help it.

 

[1simplemann]

Been thinking about this today cause I HATE getting busted in a tree. It Doesn't happen often but when it does it makes me think of why. I now realize I also made other mistakes. It's really helpful to pre set trees w/ a buddy. One guy is in the tree and the other clears the lanes ,etc. The tree guy points out the limbs that need to be cut. Ground guy cuts them. In this case, I was the ground guy. I made 2 mistakes. Generally I walk ALL the paths from ALL angles looking at the hunter in the tree to see what the deer will see. I didn't do that in this case. If I had, I would've seen how exposed I would be from that direction. There's 3 ways to solve that. Get higher , pick a tree with more cover pick a tree not directly in their line if sight. Ideally all three. Perfect trees are hard to find. Sometimes you have to make do w/ what you have. I rolled the dice w/ what I had and didn't really look it over. From 50-75 yards away a deer hardly has to lift their eyes to pick a a hunter out of a tree especially if there is hardly any cover and a clear line of sight to the tree. I had cover to my left, right and in front but nothing behind me. I would've seen this instantly if I had walked the paths w/ my buddy still in the tree. The other thing I didn't do was I didn't climb the tree since it was set for me. I just went by his word. He gave me the thumbs up and we got out of there to set the next tree. Usually when I'm pre setting a tree, I climb the tree and try to "hunt" and envision in my mind ahead of time how the potential situations would play out. If I had, I would realized how vulnerable I was to getting busted at my six o'clock. I try to put a lot of thought into my tree selection. I try to put as much in my favor as possible. I had it all worked out in mind for months how I was going to setup that other tree. Then it was rotten changed my whole plan. Anyway, I hope this helps someone. Lesson to be learned? Keep the playing field in front of you, put your back to the least likely direction deer will come from, don't set up directly in a deer's line of sight, and check all the angles from the deer's perspective.

 

[TreeCreep]

Good lessons. I had similar experiences early this season with hot oaks and trying to pick THE TREE not just the oak flat to get close with my recurve.
I set up right in the sign instead of moving to a tree having cover on all sides and my back.
I knew the direction of travel but had my back to a old logging trail.
As I was locked in on approaching deer in front of me I didn’t scan behind me before moving my back band to reach for my bow. that doe blew out the other deer and came back to alert a nice buck.

Another spot two set ups later, on really heavy swamp cover I had perfect side and back cover but only the tree I was in , I must have been lollipop’n
That one still gets me , good reminders.

 

[1simplemann]

Good lessons. I had similar experiences early this season with hot oaks and trying to pick THE TREE not just the oak flat to get close with my recurve.
I set up right in the sign instead of moving to a tree having cover on all sides and my back.
I knew the direction of travel but had my back to a old logging trail.
As I was locked in on approaching deer in front of me I didn’t scan behind me before moving my back band to reach for my bow. that doe blew out the other deer and came back to alert a nice buck.

Another spot two set ups later, on really heavy swamp cover I had perfect side and back cover but only the tree I was in , I must have been lollipop’n
That one still gets me , good reminders.

Recurves are tough. You have to get close. To do that your your usually gonna have to give up something. In this case ,I should've backed off. I was too close. I had three parallel trails running N and S and a connecting SW trail between them.. I was so focused on hunting the trail furthest to the east ,closest to the bedding, the big scrape and the connecting trail. The other 2 trails were down wind but in the open so I figured deer especially a big buck wouldn't use them in the daylight so I wouldn't get winded anyway. if they did, I would kill them before they got to my scent stream. I wanted to be in the "juice". Chip shot to that scrape. Now I think the best play is to back off, keep the 3 of the 4 trails in front of me. The wind is in my favor. The hot trail with the scrape is a bit of a poke at 40 yds but the other 2 are 20 yds. The last trail is 5 yds behind me but if I'm high enough my scent should go right over. We will see.

 

[Nyhunt79]

I got busted today.. I have spot that I've been looking at for years. The size of the trees has always prevent me from trying to put and stand there. Plus the access. I now have a jet boat and it takes exactly 2 minutes from the launch. 5 minute total to get to the tree. Anyway, I have figured out a way to hunt these huge cottonwoods with a saddle. When I set the tree in the rain 2 months ago I planned on a big multi trunk cottonwood that was tight to the trails and scrapes I want to cover. However when I started I immediately notice that it was rotten. Cottonwoods often have a rotten hollow core. Since I'm not going to hunt a tree that going to fall over soon, time for plan B. I chose a tree parallel to where I originally want to hunt. It had Different lean to it but I was facing the action. I hunt river bottoms. The deer move up and down the river. I try to keep my back to the river at my 6 O clock. and keep the field of play in front of me. This time I had my back to my 3 oclock. There was a big opening and I figured no buck cross that opening in daylight. I forgot about does. You'll never hear them coming from that direction so you have to scan constantly. I was paying attention in front and never heard her come in. I swung around to look and she had me. She didn't know what she saw but she didn't like it. That's when I saw the big 8 pt behind her. They left the area. The tree was really uncomfortable and I couldn't see the whole field of play even though I thought I could when I set the tree. Later when I got down, I looked things over. I found 2 other trees that will let me see the whole field of play and my back is towards the river. The wind is better also. I was too close in the other tree. One tree has really great cover but it will take some work to set up there. Off season project. The other is decent but a little too open but fairly easy to set up. i set it up at lunch and will be back late this season. Lesson to be learned? NEVER put your back to where you think any deer can come in from if you can help it.

Unfortunate about the big 8 that could have been but at least you found the better tree after. Hope you kill him

 

[1simplemann]

Unfortunate about the big 8 that could have been but at least you found the better tree after. Hope you kill him

I probably wouldn't even shoot him. He needs another year. However, I might not even hunt there much now. The big one that I was seeing hasn't been seen in a month. No pics either. There has been a sudden decrease in deer sightings locally. In my area and up river and on another river locally. It's only in pockets, not the whole area. Some areas have plenty of deer. FWP says there have been no confirmed cases of EHD yet locally some ranchers are reporting finding them dead. My field went from 75 head every night a month ago to 25 head on Monday night. We are talking about a 2 mile section of river that hardly gets any hunting pressure. They didn't leave. They just not there. I haven't walked around yet to look for dead deer. I don't want to disturb the few deer that are left. If a big one moves in then I'll hunt him. Not good. Anyway, I'm thinking about pulling the plug and going to another area that has plenty of does.

 

[Nyhunt79]

I probably wouldn't even shoot him. He needs another year. However, I might not even hunt there much now. The big one that I was seeing hasn't been seen in a month. No pics either. There has been a sudden decrease in deer sightings locally. In my area and up river and on another river locally. It's only in pockets, not the whole area. Some areas have plenty of deer. FWP says there have been no confirmed cases of EHD yet locally some ranchers are reporting finding them dead. My field went from 75 head every night a month ago to 25 head on Monday night. We are talking about a 2 mile section of river that hardly gets any hunting pressure. They didn't leave. They just not there. I haven't walked around yet to look for dead deer. I don't want to disturb the few deer that are left. If a big one moves in then I'll hunt him. Not good. Anyway, I'm thinking about pulling the plug and going to another area that has plenty of does.

Hopefully they aren’t all dead. Good luck in the new spot

 

[1simplemann]

It's getting the mule deer as well. I cover 200 miles a day in my route. I usually see 200 deer a day.. 25 total.. At Prime time.. Not good.