How long do you leave it alone??

[marty]

How long do you leave your place alone?? I'm always back on the property during the summer and now getting last minutes details taken care of for hunting season. I try to let it stay quiet for around a month before I hunt it. If the critters are use to you does it even matter?:confused: . Just wondering what others do if any quiet time or all??........Marty:D

[Pinefarm]

I'm wrapping up all of my work right now. Hopefully get 'er done next week. Sometimes I wonder how much it matters. A couple years ago, I was cutting some shooting lanes by a rifle stand. After having used the chainsaw for about an hour, I took a break to sit in the blind, have a pop and see how it looked. I no longer sat down and cracked open the can when a small buck walked right into the lane I just cut! It stood there, looked around and slowly walked off. So, sometimes you never know.

[Eastern Yooper]

Our hunting property is in an area that is all private: Farmland and houses. The deer are accustomed to cars, 4-wheelers, kids laughing, dogs barking, etc. so I don't think it matters too much.

We hunted for years in the Hiawatha National Forest (Raco area) and the situation was markedly different: You had about three days to kill your buck before the deer went nocturnal... or moved... due to pressure.

There is a definate difference between hunting big-woods deer and rural farmland deer.

[Banditto]

Pressure does make a difference. If we spend too much time hunting during bow season on the hunting property, there won't be as many deer sitings during rifle season.

It seems like we push the deer off the property and onto the next property.

So we take it easy Oct-Nov, then hit it hard Nov 1 - Nov 8. Then we take it easy again until rifle season.

[Chuck]

I try to leave areas alone for at least 2 weeks but I hunt mostly public land so in reality its hard to judge how much human intrusion there is. But I have seen deer do things that dont seem right, Like one year i was sitting im tree stand and about 75 yards away some ya hoo and his 4 or 5 kids start building a blind (this was the night before gun season opener). The kids were running aroiund screaming and making all kinds of noise, and the guy building the blind was chopping down trees and braking branches. After about a hour of this I saw a 3 does walk between me and them about in the middle.
I think they smelled me and heard and saw them. They were down wind of me.

Two years ago I saw a guy shoot a nice buck ( I was on a hill waiting for it to come closer!DOH). He waited for about a hour and him and a buddy tracked the deer and found it about 50 yards from me. I saw it go down so if they couldnt have found it I woulda said something. But when they found it they were high fiving each other and yahooing and everything else. Well I look to my left and here is a 5pt sneeking around them ever so slowly. I didnt shoot him becouse I wanted to learn and it really opened my eyes to how sneaky and bold they can be. This buck was abouot 30 yards from them and 20 from me. He just ever so slowly eased around them, the whole time they were unaware and making all kinds of noise!!. I coulda easily taken him. I didnt get a buck that year but I did get a doe and I missed a chance a 2 other real nice bucks. If I got 1/2 the bucks I have fouled up on I might be able to be called a deer hunter!:)

Then one other time I cut a pathway threw some thick stuff in october and by early nov a buck had scrapes and rubs on this trail. I couldnt believe it. He messed me all up becouse then I didnt want to use the trail to get to my stand and all the sign was on this trail!DOH!!

I guess my point is you never know but its always better to be safe than sorry.