Absolutely not, except for coffee on the morning of a hunt, if it's early. I typically won't drink coffee before an early morning hunt, and if it's an all day sit, no coffee period (unless I'm hiking, then I may stop and make a cup). I also don't eat much except for supper anyway (inside or outside of hunting season), but maybe a few snacks in the tree if it's chilly out.
How else you gonna get whitetail fit?
A cold front( 10+ degree temp change) followed by high pressure plus or minus 4 days of the full moon every month season is open.
Josh Driver, a guest on the southern outdoorsmen podcast phrased it the best way I have heard, eliminate the negative terrain. Think about it from the standpoint of what deer need and how they will get from one spot to another as well as when they might use an area. You might find a white oak with a lot of feed sign but if that tree is not close to cover, the odds start going down to see daylight activity there. Big areas of mature timber with little to no ground cover are the same. If there is not a mast tree dropping, there is no reason for a deer to be there in daylight, generally speaking. Then add to that looking at what terrain and/or vegetation features are going to influence where deer travel moving from bed to food and back and how bucks will move across the landscape checking does during pre-rut and rut. There are certainly spots in negative terrain where you can kill deer, the objective though is to focus on the highest odds spots of daylight movement that condense travel for the highest odds for a shot opportunity. If I am e-scouting, I am looking for hard edges, soft edges, and terrain features. Then when I am boots on the ground scouting, I am looking at all available food and deer level cover. The more features you can stack in a spot, the better it likely will be.
Coffee is a weird thing...or maybe I'm just weird or just too young yet lol. Effects people differently. I defintely dont get the coffee jitters either. Did an all day sit saturday and had 2 cups before I left for the woods and put the rest of the pot in two travel mugs. Drank the 30oz mug in the stand a few sips out of the EWO mug towards the end. Never did have to take a bathroom break though I felt one was coming the last few hours and still didnt go till I got home around 7pm
This is perfect. Thank you. I'm going to reread this a few times. To me this equates to don't just setup where you see steaming poop. Deer poop all the time. Instead, look around and see if the poop corresponds with a bunch of edibles in the area.
Deer poop all the time, yes. But they only poop where they are walking. Poop is just one type of sign too. Tracks tell a story, browse sign tells a story, browse species tells a story, and you have rubs and scrapes too. More than one way to skin the cat though. You can look for sign and then evaluate why it's there or you can scout features and confirm with sign. I was taught to hunt following the first method but feel the second option is more efficient. Using both helps a lot. All of this though is just about the where. Still have to nail down the when and that is going to be influenced by the time of season, pressure, weather and moon, imo. It also matters if you are just deer hunting or trying to kill a mature buck or a specific buck.
I normally drink a LOT of coffee on a daily basis, I'd say too much but I don't think that exists lol! I do have to pee more when I drink more, but that's it... No jitters here until after maybe my 8th or 9th large cup, and then I can feel it, but my hand stays steady. To re-phrase, I don't drink too much fluid in general "on stand". Hiking, different story!
I second this
Wouldnt be a bad idea to start a thread on it. I deal with this a lot in trapping where some or a lot of sign is deceptive and isnt worth setting on. Asking yourself "why is this sign here?" is a good question to ask yourself when you find it.
Exactly what this thread is for. Asking questions of qualified individuals. Drill away.
Word up. Thank you!
Great information here guys. Thank you very much. So for both responses (@SNIPERBBB and @BTaylor) sounds like the correct answer for A and B is to keep going because those deer are likely not going to return before sundown. How do you increase from "Maybe" to "Definitely"? Come back tomorrow but be at that location an hour earlier?
Time of day when you find hot sign is going to determine for me whether I go ahead and hunt or prep it for the next day. If it is late in the day then I will prolly drop a pin and get out of the area as quickly and quietly as I can and hopefully not booger it up for the next day. Otherwise, I am going to hang that day if it is fresh poop and the other boxes are checked. If you are hunting from the ground and have an hour of light left, I would make a hunt if there is cover to tuck into in range. I just dont really hunt from the ground often.
