Getting to the spot in the morning: methodology.

Both, FWIW there are some vehicles we use that must sound like the dinner bell to deer. The sound is not something they run away from, rather towards.

I guess I am the slow and quiet type but I try to be that way all the time I am in the woods. That said I have not found that being quiet is that much slower than being noisy, though it take considerable more concentration and effort. For the afternoon hunts I frequently take long circuitous routes to my chosen deer stand taking much longer to get to it than if I had simply walked there directly. Stalking into a stand especially an afternoon stand has worked well for me.

I used to be an early morning, half hour before sunrise guy. As I got older, my night vision got worse....bifocals add insult....my stealthy indian self became more like daffy duck walking through a room full of mousetraps and garden rakes. The dry hardwoods are noisy to navigate anytime especially in the dark.
As I got older I also have become less bloodthirsty. With three kids hunting deer.. my freezer usually has PLENTY of venison. I also have become partial to staying in the tipi a little longer with a warm and squishy squaw.
Lately I have been more of a stalk and hunt my way to the stand type. I also climb down a little early and hunt my way to the Jeep or investigate a different spot or check out something that I saw from the stand.
I'm pretty informal these days...I also didn't get a deer this year.....

I discovered long ago that the woods are noisy, but very rarely do lights randomly float through the woods due to natural causes (lightning bugs {fireflies to some} being an obvious exception). This non-scientific theory has me convinced you project your presence less if you walk in slowly without a flashlight. So, if it's just me hunting, I wait for the sun to start rising, giving me enough ambient light to see. If I have to get two or three other hunters into stands first I'll start early and do that in the dark so I can get into the woods in time, but generally, I'm sneaking in when the sun has already turned the lights on, but before it's officially up.

I think it depends on how much hunting pressure the game feels and also how often they see humans that aren't hunting them. I mostly hunt a property owned by my BIL. He logs it and runs a firewood business on it, so he is on the property daily for much of the year. The deer are used to his machines, atvs, etc. In fact, in the depth of winter the deer come running when they hear his chainsaw so they can browse the tops of the felled trees. In a situation like that, I think it is best to not make the deer think you are trying to sneak up on them. I walk into the woods in the dark with a red headlamp. I try not to make extra noise, but I don't worry about it too much. I try to sit down in the treestand about 30 minutes before legal shooting time in the morning and let things settle down.

Another property I've hunted is very different. The deer see very little human activity except hunters. I try to be as quiet as possible on the property because the deer run as soon as they see/hear/smell a human.

In the am, I try to go as quiet as possible and be set up 30 minutes prior to shooting time. I use a green headlamp for the nights that are dark as chit. When possible I skip the light completely.

PM, I'll stalk in hunting enroute and try to get in about 2-3 hrs prior to "prime time" (last 30 minutes of shooting time)

I used to love hunting the end of the day prime time. Now, not so much. It would have to be a really good buck to make me feel like field dressing a deer in the dark. I've done it enough times already. I usually have enough venison in the freezer and my family isn't going to starve if I run out. So I focus on hunting the morning prime time and then however longer into the day that I feel like hunting.

I always take my time in the woods. Hunting and hiking. No reason to go crashing through and making a lot of noise. When we hike. My wife likes to be a chatterbox. I told her one day. Be quiet for a change. Part of our hikes is to see natures creatures. After we saw some birds and squirrels. She said yea your right.

daniel craig said:

That's interesting, I didn't think there was much of a market for firewood.

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Huge in certain areas. A LOT of people heat with it.

Unfortunately the market is shrinking rapidly. My BIL’s business is down 50% over the past 5+ years.

It depends on where I am hunting. On several of the farms that I have hunted, the deer are used to people and machinery. I usually ride my ATV within 200-400 yards of my stand and then walk quietly to my stand or blind.

Hunting the National Forest is a completely different game. It is thinly populated, so the deer are not conditioned to humans, and vehicle access is limited. These deer will not tolerate human activity. I hunted them for years and finally found "The Spot" to consistently kill a buck. I hiked a mile and half in the dark, and had a climber set up a week before season. The only problem was the steep, brushy terrain. The last buck that I shot took 2 1/2 hours to drag out and passed me on a couple of the steeper hillsides. I am too old for that now

I try to be as quick as I can, as quietly as I can. Maybe splits the difference in your options.

I always stalk in as quietly as possible using a minimum of light from my adjustable beam head lamp. I also wear one of those small photon LED squeeze lights with a red lens I wear around my neck on 550 cord (along with a small lens wiper) to get myself and my stuff situated once I am in position.

Slow and quiet every time I move into my area I have scouted out, I rarely make to “the spot” before I start seeing deer that otherwise would see or heard me.

wombat13 said:

I used to love hunting the end of the day prime time. Now, not so much. It would have to be a really good buck to make me feel like field dressing a deer in the dark. I've done it enough times already. I usually have enough venison in the freezer and my family isn't going to starve if I run out. So I focus on hunting the morning prime time and then however longer into the day that I feel like hunting.

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That's pretty much how I look at shooting does.

I don't mind dressing in the dark, but I always go through a little mental checklist depending on the animal. A good buck, is worth the effort. Everything else depends on:

1. How I'm set for meat
2. How far and how bad of a drag
3. How many days are left to hunt
4. What I'm doing the next day
5. The temps; can I hang it for a few days (Has an effect on #4)

Depending on the above I may or may not pull a trigger.

It depends on when and where I am hunting.

Early season I usually hunt in the evenings and walk normal to the stand unless I get close to a bedding area and then I walk slow and stop here and there.

Mid season is evenings again for me when the leaves are falling and crunchy I walk slowly to the stand and stop here and there to make sure nothing spooked. If I am hunting food I am not so quiet. If I am hunting close to bedding I am quiet.

Rut/rifle season when they are moving 24/7 I hunt from sunup to sundown. I hunt farm country so have to walk field edges or cross fields to get to the woods. I wear a red light headlamp and try to keep it off as much as possible. I know for a fact I am probably blowing deer out of the field so I come from an area that will push them to a spot they have to cross me to get back to bedding or skirt them all together. Usually this is just a normal walk in until I hit the woods and then I walk slowly to the tree with minimal light. If I can only hunt the evening I have the crossbow or gun loaded and stalk my way along the field edges hoping for a shot at something on the walk in. I do this all the way to the tree.

Late season with snow on the ground I just move normal.

No matter the time I am always in the tree a good hour before the deer move. Mornings I am settled in the stand an hour before the sun comes up and if only hunting evenings and the deer don't move until 5pm I am in the stand by 330pm. All this has worked so far for me. My get silent mode helped me sneak past about 10 deer bedded on a bench next to a creek. I got in the stand about 2hr before prime time and here come a doe heading into the bedding area. I shot her with a rifle and 10 deer stood up on that bench. I never knew they were there and they didn't hear me come in.

I'd love to know where the deer bed on our property or even for that matter where the food is. The problem we face is that our property is in the middle of thousands of acres that are pretty much all the same. There is water everywhere. There are pretty much the same food sources available all over. Where do they bed? Pretty much anywhere they want, as far as I can tell. The one place you aren't likely to find them is on the west side of a ridge near the top where the wind is most intense.

So far, about the only thing that really works is hunting the topography. The deer can run straight up what we would need ropes to climb, but they don't want to. So we have our best success where relatively flat land (there is no flat land) meets a steep hill side. The terrain acts as a funnel and somewhat concentrates the deer. This works great for hunting does and the bucks that are chasing them during the rut. It doesn't work so well for bucks outside of the rut.

A couple of years ago, I started riding bike to any of my stands that have decent enough trails to allow. It's been a game changer for me. Not always the quietest but sure doesn't sound like a two legged predator either. Many times I've ridden past bedded deer that didn't spoke that would have been in the next country over had I walked past on the same trail.

I've got deer both ways, but I prefer the first; I once slowly walked out into a beefer pasture full off steers and a few cows, that were asleep. Didn't disturb a one. There also happened to be a half dozen deer sleeping on the hill just above them. (I didn't know for sure they'd be there, but I'd seen beds on the hillside before) As the last steer got up and did it's morning whizz, the deer started popping up, just past legal shooting time. I shot the nearest one, a nice big doe at 125 years, with my Traditions Hawken .50. I tossed it to the ground, grabbed the 1100 next to me, and proceeded to miss the rest of them. I reloaded the 1100, waited about ten minutes climbed the hill, and when I crested it, the doe popped her head up from where she'd lain down, and I put a slug through her neck.
If I'd have hurried to the rockpile that was my stand, all I would have seen was many large animals running away, some cattle, some deer, but too early and dark to shoot or even discern which were which.

I have come around to the slow and quiet approach. Sometimes, I can do it fast and quiet if there is moisture on the ground. Sometimes, I can tweak the circumstances and run a drag on my ingress trail and loosen up the soil a tad for quieter travel.