Beachcomber & Times Press

By Mark Sampson

Last Saturday I watched the sun come up from 12’ off the ground in the fork of a white-oak tree. It was opening day for Maryland’s gun season for deer, and as the last morning stars gave way to a beautiful blue sky the forest came to life around me. Flights of ducks zipped over the treetops headed for a nearby marsh, hawks screeched high overhead, and owls hooted their last "hoots" until evening. Squirrels chased each other and dug for acorns beneath fall leaves. That’s until a fox slipped past and sent them all running up the sides of trees, barking in protest and warning.

Mother nature’s show was nice since but since I was hunting deer I was also quite happy that by 7:15 I was watching a little "button buck" as it slipped down a trail to my right and into the thick cover of a swamp. A few minutes later a nice doe proceeded along the same path. Before my morning hunt was over I had two bucks clicking horns and lightly sparring seventy yards from my tree and another doe and yearling worked their way past my left side in a stand of holly trees.

Aside from not shooting anything, the morning worked out just as I had hoped, with plenty of occasions to fill my tag. Exactly why I didn’t take a deer that morning is another story altogether, but my point is that because I was, where I was, I had plenty of opportunities.

Choosing a good stand location is basically what make or breaks a successful deer hunt. After all, you can put as much effort into hunting as you like, but if you and the deer aren’t in the same place the same time, you certainly won’t be dining on venison this winter.

When I was a kid my first deer hunts found me simply walking into the woods, stopping just any old place, and waiting for a deer to stumble along. Not much thought or skill involved - I was hunting purely by luck. Surely a reason why it took me four seasons to get my first deer!

Experienced hunters can be taken in "cold" to just about any patch of woods or farmland, and after a few hours of scouting, be able to determine deer trails, escape routs, feeding and bedding areas. They’ll also identify likely ambush sites for stands that will provide the natural cover and shooting lanes needed for either bow or rifle shots. Before setting up shop in a particular spot these hunters will ask themselves "from which direction will the deer likely come, and how can I conceal myself in a downwind position and have a clear shot?"

As we move into this, the second week of rifle season, hunters will likely find that deer habits are changing as they adapt to increased pressure by the human presence in their environment. Deer that might normally be seen feeding in fields in the early or late parts of the day will wait until well after dark before venturing out into the open, and retire to the safety of the thick brush before sunrise. Hunters during this second week will, therefore, often change tactics and hunt the "thick stuff" in efforts to catch deer that are avoiding human presence.

During the day, deer can sometimes be caught in transition, moving through narrow strips of woods that join feeding grounds with thick bedding areas.

Hunters can also find good success in areas where bedding areas are directly adjacent to feeding grounds that have some cover of their own. For instance, the place I hunted opening morning was a nice stand of oak trees, holly, and pine directly adjacent to a dense swamp. The deer bed down in the swamp for the day, but only a few steps away are plenty of acorns for when they get the mid-day "munchies".

I won’t hunt that stand again until the last day or so of the season. Instead, I’ll save it for when I know that more and more deer have been pushed back into the area for refuge from other hunters who have mostly been hunting the edges of the fields and marshes.

Travel routs, wind direction, food, cover, bedding areas, location and movements of other hunters - experienced hunters put a lot into the decision of where exactly they’re going to take a stand. As the season progresses, a flexible strategy for stand location that changes with hunting conditions can provide hunters with a lot more than just squirrels to watch from their tree top bleachers.