Hunting Sense

I was reading Oklahoma Hunting Today and ran across a tip from Shane Gulbrandsen about not spooking deer on the way to your stand.

We all have to admit that we’ve likely spooked deer on the way in to our stands, it’s just one of those things that happen. What matters though is how the deer react to it. Although I have never tried the exact method that Shane talks about, I have had similar luck with tactics that were close to it.

First, the fact that deer do pattern hunters is true. Anyone that has hunted public land and stayed out during the mid-day has probably seen the rise in deer activity when the hunters leave the woods for lunch. They are very intelligent animals and anyone who forgets that is likely to go home empty handed a lot.

Where I use to live, I left for work way before daylight. Many mornings, there were deer that would graze in the pasture between the house and the main road. Driving down the driveway, at first they would run quite a distance and watch me as I left. After a while, they would simply raise their heads and stand frozen as I passed by, and then return to feeding.

My example above is much like what Shane mentioned in his article. It also goes to show you that the method of riding the four-wheeler into your stand should work. I know that I’ve rode into my stand with others, each of us having our own atv, and parked mine while they went on to their stands. I saw deer using this method, mostly because I think they heard the other four-wheelers leaving and didn’t realize one had stopped.

Anyway, I like Shane’s idea, and if you are sitting all day without seeing any deer after walking in to your stand to keep from spooking the, you should give either it or my suggestion a try. If you do, or you use a similar method, let us know about it.

hunting, Oklahoma, tips, Shane Gulbrandsen, Oklahoma Hunting Today, deer, spooking deer, atv’s