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Who's going out on opening days and had you have success in the past? Tips?

HuumanCreed said:
So question. I might be wrong in my understanding so if I am, please correct me. The concept of 'burning' or 'blowing' out an area is that deer get smart to the fact that their are hunters in the area, or even in the same tree.

But how much of a concern is that if you are in a highly human populated area like say near hiking trails? My favorite spot is within 100 yards of a trail. Deer should be used to human...and dogs present.
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Yes, burning or blowing out an area is just unusual pressure from scouting or hunting. I agree with the above that any unusual intrusion will put the deer on guard. If they are used to smelling people nearby, they will be more tolerant but if you go off down into the areas that don't normally have intrusion, they will be suspicious. Its like if you have a sidewalk in front of your house you won't think too much about people walking down the street but if you come home from work and your front door is open and your TV is gone you will be on high alert.
 
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I’ll be out the first three days of Maryland. My wife and I take our camper down every year and hunt public. We seem to always get on deer and have been successful, but I’ve done a lot more scouting this year really hoping it pays off.
 
I've had really good luck with a fawn bleat in early season, and even into the first part of the rut. If I'm checking out a new area or doing an observation sit I'll tootle on it and see what kind of response I get. As does start going into heat they get rid of the kids so you have does running away from their crying fawns. Sometimes a buck will come in to a crying fawn in hopes of finding the doe the fawn is chasing. Sometimes the fawn will come in to find a playmate.
 
Iron_llama said:
I've had really good luck with a fawn bleat in early season, and even into the first part of the rut. If I'm checking out a new area or doing an observation sit I'll tootle on it and see what kind of response I get. As does start going into heat they get rid of the kids so you have does running away from their crying fawns. Sometimes a buck will come in to a crying fawn in hopes of finding the doe the fawn is chasing. Sometimes the fawn will come in to find a playmate.
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What brand of fawn bleat do you have?
 
I am ready but, I am still really concerned about ehd in my areas.
Im hearing a-lot of it and its very disturbing.
I know there isn’t much to do but pray-for rain Regardless Ill be leaning in a tree somewhere on September 1st.
I gotta figure out where from Info we have collected.
My routine this year will be hunt morning’s hard for the first week or so.
Pressure pushes the big boys to bedding before first light after that.
After that i start hunting mornings hard around the late third week October.
Until late November.
I hunt hard evenings the entire season long.
snd after the early opener i think this is best time outside of rut.
 
thedutchtouch said:
Looking forward to the experienced answers to this as well, but my take is deer are used to the trail... So they have become accustomed to the expected activity around it. As soon as they see/year/smell me OFF the trail in the woods, they know it's danger time and peace out. At least that's what I think, I never had luck in places where I found myself close to trails, either on purpose or by accident, but can't specifically say it was the proximity to the trail alone that caused that.
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Absolutely correct!! There’s plenty of spots those deer totally expect to encounter humans & that’s why they’re bedded where they feel safe. Once you announce your presence where the don’t expect you they will adjust accordingly. How much they shift or how much intrusion they tolerate is different by scenario. My early season spots are afternoon transition / bed to feed spots catching them coming out to food but not blowing them out in the exit. Plus early season they’re usually almost on the food ………
 
My anniversary is opening day here Oct1 I miss every other year but I always do better first month of the season than last month or mid season almost every year. Worst part is dealing with the Louisiana heat in the stand in October some years but deer that haven’t been hunted in 8 months are much easier to hunt than in January after 2 rifle splits‍♂️
 
Opening weekend is my time with my daughter as I have custody of my 9 yr old daughter every other week. Typically I'm not hunting but my daughter recently told me that she wants to go with me. So, I'll be out on opening day (9/10) depending on if she still wants to go. We shall see...

David

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 
Last year was my first saddle hunt and bow hunt, made sure to get out on opening weekend, and it was a complete success.

1. My bow disconnected from my hoist line and had to use my grapple hook to pull it up.
2. Though climbing SRT, I had to 2TC as I had set my platform in a bad spot.
3. Once at height, I noticed I had a sapling completely blocking my shooting lane so I rappelled down, cut down the sapling and climbed back up.
4. It got very windy, the tree I was in was bucking pretty good and the saddle/tether allowed me to be virtually stationary.
5. Had a group of deer come in within 10 yards just past sunset. Watched them for about 40 minutes slowly working there way towards me, completely oblivious.
6. Took about 4 weeks and somewhere around 40 hours in the saddle before I got my first bow kill.

In short, all the practice I had put in over the summer paid off and the hunt went very well, even if I didn't loose an arrow.
 
I won't get to hunt opening day....my first will be some public that has 3 days no quota middle of the week. That will be the first hunts in those woods so it's kinda like opening day...I'll run out straight from work and hunt an evening or 2.
Plan is to look for boot tracks and deer tracks on the roads and cut into the woods at heavy deer crossings and see where they go. There is no scouting when hunting is closed in these woods...no going in there at all till hunting begins. They very active land management so it may look much different since last time there....I tend to not make much of a plan at all and just kinda wing it...when I make plans something always happens to screw them up
 
Tons of scouting and cameras this year and I still don’t think a velvet deer is in the cards. I will be in the tree about an hour before first light. I will definitely have better odds there than I will at home in bed!
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Yes, burning or blowing out an area is just unusual pressure from scouting or hunting. I agree with the above that any unusual intrusion will put the deer on guard. If they are used to smelling people nearby, they will be more tolerant but if you go off down into the areas that don't normally have intrusion, they will be suspicious. Its like if you have a sidewalk in front of your house you won't think too much about people walking down the street but if you come home from work and your front door is open and your TV is gone you will be on high alert.
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So to pick up on this topic. How long is an area usually 'burned' for? Or is this very dependent on the location?

For example, if I accidentally walked into a bedding area, disturbed the whole area by walking around and taking pictures. How long before they feel safe enough to return? Or they simply go find somewhere else to bed in? Another example is a trail/funnel that they use very frequently that is parallel to a human hiking trail, If I prep a tree for SRTing somewhere on that trail, would they simply ignored it because they understand that there are human around?
 
HuumanCreed said:
So to pick up on this topic. How long is an area usually 'burned' for? Or is this very dependent on the location?

For example, if I accidentally walked into a bedding area, disturbed the whole area by walking around and taking pictures. How long before they feel safe enough to return? Or they simply go find somewhere else to bed in? Another example is a trail/funnel that they use very frequently that is parallel to a human hiking trail, If I prep a tree for SRTing somewhere on that trail, would they simply ignored it because they understand that there are human around?
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Can anyone really say for sure ya know. Probably depends on the deer itself. I've thought about that topic for years and I just think it depends on the situation and every situation is different.
 
HuumanCreed said:
So to pick up on this topic. How long is an area usually 'burned' for? Or is this very dependent on the location?

For example, if I accidentally walked into a bedding area, disturbed the whole area by walking around and taking pictures. How long before they feel safe enough to return? Or they simply go find somewhere else to bed in? Another example is a trail/funnel that they use very frequently that is parallel to a human hiking trail, If I prep a tree for SRTing somewhere on that trail, would they simply ignored it because they understand that there are human around?
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I think there is a lot to take into consideration. A mountain deer with big range and zero to few human encounters might never come back after he finds his bed with human scent, since he has so many options without human interference. Deer in the suburbs would be different, establishing their “bubbles” of safety and moving at times they pattern humans to be least active. These “bubbles” depend on how much human scent..how often the scent is there, and most of all, what are their other options for food/bedding. If there’s a very safe and plentiful area for food.. they may move thru dangerous areas to get there. If the safest bedding area is somewhere you left scent.. they might be willing to go back there the same night. Also.. how many other animals felt safe there after you left and left their scent.. the simple answer is to always treat the deer as if they would never come back. scout out of season, hunt scent free on high probability days and don’t over hunt.. move your set up 100-200 yards if you think you’ve burned an area. Keep moving a where you think the deer moved .
 
I love to get out on the first day just because I look forward to archery hunting. The deer in midwest Illinois where I hunt have a lot of food choices in early October and are traveling pretty random but they are also pretty plentiful so your chances are good. I have never made a kill on opening day but it doesn't dull my anticipation a bit. Also it's usually awful warm the first two weeks of season here and I have passed on a lot of good shots because I didn't want the hassle of processing and cooling the meat in a rush.
 
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