Sitting and waiting. Watching. Listening. Waiting…
Being on a stand waiting for a deer to come by is by far the most commonly used hunting method in Ontario and many, many other jurisdictions. Each year, tens of thousands of deer (and many moose and bear) are taken by hunters waiting in a stand.
A claim made by many hunters — and something most hunters regard as general knowledge — is that chances of success are highest the first time or two a hunter goes to a particular stand.
Having multiple stands is viewed as a good thing as the more stands there are to hunt in, the more opportunities for success.
A takeoff tactic on having several stands from which to hunt that’s been successful for me is ‘run and gun.’ Frequently changing hunt spots — sometimes two or three times a day, for days in a row — and taking watch where convenient. It can be an effective and efficient way of finding unaware deer. This method doesn’t always work, however. In recent years, I’ve had success by becoming a more patient hunter. Rather than constantly changing stands, doing drives; or running around willy-nilly, I’ve been picking one stand and sticking with it.
The hardest part of sticking to a stand day after day is psychological. As Ontario OUT of DOORS Art Director Tamas Pal — an avid deer hunter — says, after two or three days, you really start to question your stand location. You may be only sitting and waiting, but your mind might be in overdrive, filling with self-doubt. The nagging thoughts that whirl around inside your head can be endless permutations of “Is my stand location wrong? Have the deer patterned me? Do the deer know I’m here?” and other negative thoughts.
Picking a stand
Unfortunately, the answer to one or most of your doubts about the stand can be spot-on. Your stand location may well be poor. Deer may have you patterned. They may know when you are in your stand. But don’t dwell on the negatives. Try and stay positive.
It will be a lot easier to stick it out in your stand if you have confidence in it and you’re comfortable. Obviously, a good stand location overlooks an area that deer frequent, such as travel lanes, a feeding area (including bait), or a spot where whitetails socialize (for example, there’s evidence of scraping or rubbing). A good stand location also lets you arrive and leave with minimal disturbance. It can help if it’s an integral part of the landscape, such as a permanent blind.
How deer behave
Although deer may have been initially alarmed by your presence — they may have heard you go to the stand, maybe they scented your presence, perhaps they saw you — over time, they may become habituated with your presence. Habituation is a learning mechanism. It explains the difference in behaviour of deer living in urban areas as compared to deer living in more rural settings. Frequent human/deer encounters habituate deer to become highly tolerant of the human presence. On landscapes where there are far fewer people, deer aren’t, as a rule, people friendly. By sticking it out on a stand, you are increasing the chances deer will become habituated to your presence and let down their guard.
It’s also absolutely vital to stay alert and maintain a positive outlook when on a long vigil. Don’t let thoughts of “That buck saw or sensed me early on! The buck has me patterned and avoids this spot if there’s any chance at all I might be here!” clog your brain. Again, don’t think too much about that, regardless of the fact it might well be what’s happening. Since deer can recognize humans — particularly hunters — as a threat, they can become overly cautious in avoiding them. Biologists call this type of animal behaviour ‘sensitization.’
Deer highly sensitized to hunters may not stay that way, however. In addition to becoming habituated with your presence, deer learn by watching how other deer (and other animals) behave and adjust accordingly. The less you alarm deer, or other animals, the better. If you’re not perceived as a threat by the birds and animals in your surroundings, your presence will be increasingly tolerated.
Deer movements
Keep in mind deer can move great distances. Bucks, in particular, can seem to materialize from who knows where. During the many weeks of the rut, bucks criss-crossing the countryside often find themselves in unfamiliar places. With a love-them-and-leave-them attitude to does, a mature buck can successfully mate with a number of does in relatively short order. However, does aren’t everywhere, and not all are receptive to amorous bucks.
Bucks on the prowl search long and hard to find friendly females.
Although hunters, often with the aid of trail cameras, can pattern specific bucks and their movements, it’s not uncommon for bucks they have never seen before to suddenly appear. Many big bucks — bucks from afar — are taken each year by hunters with no prior knowledge of their existence. On a recent hunt, I spent almost 14 consecutive days (I missed one day because it was storming) in my stand, often for more than four hours a day, before a good buck showed up, a couple of minutes before the end of legal shooting. I had never seen the buck before. It was trailing a doe.
Originally published in Ontario OUT of DOORS’ 2023-2024 Hunting Annual
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