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Spots

mschultz373

mschultz373

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
May 9, 2023
Messages
409
Location
SE LA
How do you guys conceptualize of a “spot”? Not talking here about sign or features you may look for while scouting. But when you settle on a spot - is it down a single tree that you select to hunt out of, hang a stand on or maybe trim to make way for a platform - and that’s one spot? Or Is it a general area you know deer use that you have a few set up options within - so you have a broader spot that you could access and hit from a few angles? do you ever hunt these same spots within the same season or no, or possibly only after a certain amount of time has elapsed? (Assuming such a spot even exists!)
 
For me a "spot" is an area that may range in size from 1 to say 5 acres, depending on the terrain, cover and tree availability where I know deer will be moving. I hardly ever narrow down a spot to a specific tree and will typically setup in the tree that I feel gives me the best opportunity based on wind direction and expected direction of travel given that hunt day. I find I typically categorize spots based on which direction the prevailing wind is expected to be blowing from on the given day and I have a lot of spots identified from scouting, both out of and in season.

I rarely ever hunt the same tree mutliple times during a season but will typically return to "spots" several times a year. I think it becomes easier for a deer to pattern you if you hunt the same tree multiple times in a season. For that same reason I still don't often hunt "spots" on consecutive days. I try to give at minimum of a three day break between heading back to a spot I've already hunted.

The exception is probably during rut when a buck is paired up with a doe. Since doe's home ranges are smaller, if I see a nice buck paired with a doe during this time and I'm undetected I will probably go right back in to that spot hoping for a repeat encounter while I know the buck is likely hanging there.
 
one of my big greenhorn mistakes last season was hunting the same spot(s) consecutive days. Usually about 150yards from previous day, but that’s still too close and just - I had no reason to be doing that.
 
I’m fortunate that I have private parcels I hunt and have patterned the deer. I have a few spots that are along their travel routes that I rotate throughout the season. I don’t hunt the same spot twice in a row and will rotate properties back and forth. I also alter my climbing heights and the side of the tree I hang off of.
I can do so, and this is the crucial point, because the deer are used to human scent and are more tolerant. They’re used to the rancher walking around the property and the other parcel I hunt they’re used to landscapers being around. Public land or anywhere else you might not be able to do what I am able to do so YMMV.
 
I divide mine similar to @boyne bowhunter but I call them macro and micro locations. I have a general area or macro location that contains the diversity of habitat I want to see for deer to be able to live there. Food, water, cover, space and arrangement of those features. Terrain diversity makes it even better. Within those macro locations I find micro locations based on sign. I then try to find where, for whatever reason, the deer seem to travel in and through these micro locations the most frequently. Finally, the location of these highest probability sign areas are compared to observed, ( either via camera, glassing, or bumping) deer based on the time of day etc. to determine morning or evening set locations early and late season and then rut funnel locations pre rut and rut.

Putting this into practice somewhat, I may snug up to thicker bedding areas in the early season or in travel areas
Leading to hot food sources like abandoned Apple orchards, or white oaks or hickory’s etc., or draws/drainages that are next to feed fields where the bucks may stage before heading out to food sources.

I also like finding thick transition cover edges leading to and from bedding and feed areas and setting up downwind of those.

Micro locations may be creek crossings, thick grape and cover tangles within more open wood lots, points of thicker cover moving into more open woods, side hill benches, inside and outside corners, saddles with thick cover, red or tag alder points leading into or out of low land swamp area, the point where ridge spurs connect to a main ridge, thermal hubs created by drainage ditches or ravines (you can almost drop milkweed 365) around these and they’ll all
flow to that hub….. be able to shoot to a spot just before that hub location….. typically that hub stop will have rubs in and around it showing where the buck will stage and typically it will be the lowest section of a small creek flow just a few feet apart in hilly terrain, if corn or grape rows are present bucks will walk the “head rows” small openings between the woods and corn field or grape rows heading to feed fields or apples o r clover patches, brassica greens etc, dropping white oaks early season or red Oakes in late season on south facing slopes, hopefully this gives you some ideas.
 
This up coming season will be my 4 year, so I’m not much to to off of. But, I’ll share my experience for what it’s worth.
Last year was somewhat the opposite of the first 2. First 2 years I would sit inthe same few spots that I thought were travel routes with minimal signs. I rarely saw deer and when I did they were does or small bucks. I did manage a buck both years and one was a giant.
Last season I saw lots of deer and several good bucks, although I didn’t capitalize on any. My rut spot I hit 3 days in a row. I saw the same 2 good bucks on the first 2 days in a row (mid day). The same 3 does came out like clock work every evening at last light despite the fact that I had to yell at them to leave so I could get down. Mid October and early January in 2 different “spots” the bucks in those places showed up 2 nights in a row and never again.
My take from my experience is that you can pull off 2 days in a row but after that they LEAVE. I do wonder if I broke it up more would they have stayed??? Dunno, maybe I’ll be able to fight that urge this year and see if they stay.
 
mschultz373 said:
one of my big greenhorn mistakes last season was hunting the same spot(s) consecutive days. Usually about 150yards from previous day, but that’s still too close and just - I had no reason to be doing that.
Click to expand...

I once hunted the same spot for nearly 30 days and passed on quite a number of nice bucks until I finally missed my target buck. Admittedly I was a greenhorn.
 
mschultz373 said:
one of my big greenhorn mistakes last season was hunting the same spot(s) consecutive days. Usually about 150yards from previous day, but that’s still too close and just - I had no reason to be doing that.
Click to expand...
There's nothing wrong hunting the same spot over and over and one of the biggest crocks of nonsense pushed by Infalt. Certainly I like to jump around and keep spots fresh. But if a spot has certain conditions like being a hard funnel, and your access is right you can hunt it repeatedly, as long as its back to back. After a couple of days the deer will pick up on something is wrong and activity will go way down.
Next couple of pics. First pic was a picture of 1 of my targets who showed up. Second pick is yours truly having just shot that target buck a half hour before. And finally the very next day another nice PA buck. Look at the dates in the photosScreenshot_20230728_214540_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20230728_214527_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20230728_214425_Gallery.jpg
 
Actually now that you mention it, I did kill a sow one morning and the next morning have a buck come in to a grunt call. He was about 50-60yards out and across a creek that he actually splashed into, like he wanted to head my way, but then turned and went back up the bank. I had forgotten that was literally on the ground at the same tree back to back.


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Some of our spots are just a single tree. For whatever reason, deer in that block of woods always seem to pass in range of that tree. Others are just a gap that deer seem to pass through, and depending on the wind and sun, we might hunt it from one of five or six different trees.

On that one, I learned the hard way that you don't have to be on top of a ridge to be "skylined". It works when they're looking downhill and the lake is behind you too.
 
I know a good spot in a great area and I know a couple trees that'll hunt that spot if the winds right....if not, I got a couple other spots in that same area. Plenty of good trees to climb. Just gotta hope the wind holds
 
I hunt in rugged river hill ground and this type of terrain usually creates specific spots that deer travel. There are some places where the terrain opens up and this creates an area rather than a spot. So, depending on the terrain and the sign determines where I set up and hunt.
 
For me, a spot is a single tree that I believe deer will walk within 20 yards. I am looking for the O first and then the right tree within that is the x. I saw a hammer Saturday while out hanging cams. Bumped into the deer on an old grown up logging trail just off the spot I was headed too to hang a cam. Deer seemed to be coming from that spot. He didnt booger up too bad just sorta lazily loped off. We'll see if I hung the cam on the x because I very well could end up climbing the tree the cam is on.
 
To the extent I think of "spots", a "spot" is a relatively small patch of real estate I expect a deer to stand on or pass through; I'll find a tree that gives me a vantage point to that spot. Maybe it's a clearing by a bedding patch, maybe it's a trail intersection, maybe it's an active rub line with decent vantage points. I'll generally try not to hunt the same "spot" on consecutive days. I might have 3 or 4 trees or brush blinds in one "spot", depending on wind and light and other environmental factors.
 
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