Even yet another first timer question: The sustenance?

[randomguy]

Hey all,

Yet another "help me with my first time" post. So I've been reading and posting for almost a year now and I'd like to think that I'm about as prepared as I'm going to get. But one thing that still baffles me seems like it would be one of the simplest things: the sustenance of an all day hunt. I just read an article where a guy is talking in one paragraph about his scent free deodorant and his scent free toothpaste, then moves on to how he had a cup of coffee on the way out the door and at lunch time sat in the stand and ate a PB&J sammy.

I'm more than a few credits shy of my PhD in zoology, but wouldn't it seem that the food involved here would stink things up in the field way more than the benefit of using a bunch of scent free stuff within your home?

Along similar lines, I've talked to some folks who advocate staying in the stand all day. I've also read several articles and talked to some folks who say they'll hang around from sun up until 10 or 11, then be back by 3 or so to catch all the end of the daylight traffic.

Anyone want so share thoughts on these topics? Thanks again for everyone's help! Getting excited!


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[Fish]

Im not a scent control fanatic. See it as waving a white flag when necessary. I take precautions not to stink. But putting a deer downwind of you is trouble no matter what youve done to prepare. Hunt according to wind direction as best you can.
If you cant eat a PB&J on the stand then you may as well go to work. At least there you are paid for not having fun.
Lots of big deer killed by stinky hunters. All the scent control game does is marginally help a guy out. Scent control is important, but its also big money. We all decide where that line is.

 

[X-farmerdan]

The olfactory senses of the whitetail deer are baffling. The science is clear about how many millions of receptor sites the animal has. Hundreds of millions more than a human and more than the best tracking dogs. They also have an uncanny ability, so I read, to be able to separate many different smells all at the same time. So, maybe the processing goes like this - "Ah! Peanut butter. Oh! coffee! Hmmm, peppermint?" I'm curious about those smells. I think I'll go check it out!" These smells get segregated into the "not dangerous" box. Along the way, the deer smells the odors caused by human bacteria and goes, "Oh crap! I gotta' get out a here!"

It all baffles me. There are days I'm up a tree and deer are screwing around not five or 10 yards away. If they have such a great ability to smell, how come they don't smell me? I don't care which way the wind is blowing. I'm not that good!

 

[X-farmerdan]

Along similar lines, I've talked to some folks who advocate staying in the stand all day. I've also read several articles and talked to some folks who say they'll hang around from sun up until 10 or 11, then be back by 3 or so to catch all the end of the daylight traffic.

On this one I think how long you stay depends on where you hunt, how you hunt, and the season of the hunt. From GPS collar surveys it's plainly clear deer move most from near dusk into the mid evening. And, the second biggest period is in the morning. Otherwise, they stay in a really tight area. This is most pronounced in October - the archery season for me. I get in the stand in the morning 45 minutes before legal shooting time and stay until 9-930 am. Then back in the stand 3 or 4 hours before dark.

IF there are people moving around then the deer are going to move as much as they need to avoid human contact. You should be in the stand all day (?) hoping one runs by you in an attempt to avoid someone else. Around these parts we hunt all day in what we call the regular gun season.

During the rut, anything goes!

 

[Chainsaw]

Larger bucks here in northern NY are often caught moving around noon time by the very few hunters on stand at that time. Whether to stay all day or not for me depends on whether it is a high odds hunting day ( ie; November 11 with a great huntable wind) or a October day with circular blowing winds. Actually when the wind is not right I normally do not hunt at all let alone all day.

 

[Drycreek]

I have hunted all day a few times....it's brutal when deer are not moving. I normally hunt from before daylight until 10:00/11:00 am, then back at 2:00/3:00 pm. More than once I've slipped into a blind at 3:00 pm and had deer in the food plot. That supports the all day sit, but like I said, it's tough to sit all day, although I've done it many, many times antelope hunting over water. That's not the same though, because you have 4/5 days to get it done, and you never know when a goat will get thirsty.

I'm in agreement on the sandwich thing, doesn't make much sense to be super sensitive on scent control when your baloney will get you busted !

 

[Kwood]

The more you work on scent control the better, I️ believe this. That said, you can’t outfox a fox. Deer will pick you up if they get downwind.

Hunt with wind to your nose the best you can.

That all said, deer can come in from any direction, we can’t be perfect. During the rut the more time in stand the luckier you can get.

Most importantly... this is supposed to be fun. Enjoy it. Eat sandwiches, drink coffee, pee from the stand if you like...some days stay up and have an extra beer then sleep in. Do what makes you happy.

Then, enjoy your time in the woods and be safe, take ethical shots, and pass it on to a friend or a kid. This is not just a sport, it’s a passion and a lifestyle. Enjoy it, life’s too short!

Sorry for a rant, my best friends brother got moved to hospice today at 29 years young. Reminder that we need to enjoy hunting and live life.


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[dogghr]

Why am I always going against the norm? I try to fit in but just won't happen. Bullcrap on the food. I eat all day from stand and I can assure you if anything it is an attractant, especially crunchy granola bars and hot chocolate. Hear me out. For one, I swear I think bucks feel the sound of me munching on nuts sounds like deer feeding on acorns. More than once I've had them come in just as soon as I was beginning to munch. I just rattled in a 11 pointer past thur as I sat eatin my pbj. Not the first time.
In addition, I only take hot chocolate to stand as it doesn't make you pee as much , has just as much caffiene as coffee, and more energy. Now more than once I've had to throw down my cup of choco as a shooter buck made its way to me just as I was enjoying my drink. And I'm talking only book level deer.. I really think they hear the slight tinking of the thermos no matter how careful I try to be.
And yes during the rut if weather is as I want, then I sit all day even if it means moving to diff stand. And majority of my best bucks taken were def between 9;30-11. So no way am Im leaving before then.

 

[FL Plotter]

Non-rut, we find bucks generally move later than does. I used to end my hunt when the does left the plot by 9am. I've seen more bucks the past two years by forcing myself to sit until 11am.

Deer are crepuscular, so the best chance to see/harvest a deer is dawn and dusk. That doesn't mean they don't move midday sometimes though....just not very often.

As far as scent control, my theory is that by reducing your odors, you can fool a deer into thinking you are farther away. I know that I go to some pretty drastic lengths to reduce my scent, but when a deer is downwind of me, they can still smell me.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Deer totally dislike the smell of human sweat because we identify as predators, and usually they won't tolerate the smell of a predator for very long. That's why we try to keep our BO to a minimum, even when we all agree that we can't totally eliminate it. Deer react to other smells in various different ways, but tolerate a lot of them, especially food, although I've been told that they dislike the smell of orange peels? So, you need to worry about your armpits, your stinky socks, and your bad breath, not your PB&J sandwich. And I agree with the others, if you're not going to have fun you may as well go to work. Sustenance? It's almost always when you pack enough food and drink up your tree to last you for several days that you shoot a big buck in the first hour of daylight.

 

[Mennoniteman]

During the rut or the first day of gun season it's best to hunt all day. Early October when it's warm and the deer are starting to feel a little hunting pressure it's a total waste of time to hunt all day, the deer mostly move in the last half hour of shooting light, and are already bedding down by daybreak. As far as deer smelling you, there is one foolproof deer stand location that's almost impossible to beat. Bucks like to travel on the military crest or shoulder of a ridge, and in the right setting you have the prevailing winds coming across the top of the ridge and meeting the thermals from the sun coming up the other side, creating a chimney effect, at the exact location that the deer are moving, and an elevated location on the shoulder of the ridge is also out of direct line of sight from both directions. This is a great kill spot, and if you can incorporate a food plot into this setting yet, it becomes a guaranteed place to fill your tag every year.