ZUES

I am fairly new to bow hunting and I have a lot to learn. I'm from Ontario Canada and have been hunting a funnel between two corn fields and hardwoods. I have seen a lot of deer this year (15) now. Alot of does early in our season but I wanted to wait, also 4 bucks but none close enough for a shot. The problem I am having is that it is now bitterly cold and we have about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. Tonights forcast is to drop to -21(f). It started snowing about a week ago and the temp dropped since then I have not seen hide nor hair (pardon the pun) of the deer. I took a walk down to the lower fields (surrounded by thick swamp and evergreen) and there is a ton of sign and it snowed last night so it is fresh. I took a chance and put my secondary stand down where I seen the most sign in a large apple tree between two corn fields and the swamp. The question I have is should I change to that stand or stick to my primary?? I have tried to find reading material on when the deers routines change due to weather but I cant find anything. Can anyone help??

basserman

ZUES, Personally, I change my stand locations as dictated by the habits of the deer. I know that some hunters are restricted to small areas and even single stand locations. My experience has indicated that it is not difficult to "burn out" a stand by repetitive hunting even if your super careful.
I have found it better to have more than 1 location and change when needed. IF you can place a stand in the area with all of the sign, do so. What I do not know is if the location of your secondary stand will put you in shooting range of your target. Luck!

ZUES

Thanks, BASSERMAN. I am limited to a small area to hunt this year and I am in the process of aquiring a second area that I can hunt so I will have two areas next year. The area I am in now is believe it or not a gravel pit. The pit is approx 50 acres in size with about 1/2 of it being the actual pit and the remaining area corn fields (2)and hardwood stands (2) and a swampy area. The activity at the pit (the machinery and workers) does not seem to bother the deer at all...I watched a buck and a doe earlier in the season walk out of the hardwoods and over to the edge of the pit, the workers were right below them and it looked as though the deer were being nosey. I HAVE PROBABLY WORE MY AREA OUT THOUGH....WELL IT JUST RECONFIRMS ONE THING "I HAVE ALOT TO LEARN"!!!!

Budbowhunter

I agree with basserman. Change your location. Just make sure you're not pushing the deer from their primary bedding area. In heavy weather, they will bed down in the thickest cover they can find. Here in Iowa, that's cedar trees. Look for that type of cover in a low lying area (you mentioned swamp) and see if there's fresh sign there. If there is try a stand near there. Good luck.

KEEP IT LEGAL. KEEP IT SAFE. OR WE MAY NOT GET TO KEEP IT AT ALL.

WhiteRaven

I'd change locations as well especially if your present area is devoid of sign. I was hunting an area last year for four days. The fifth day it snowed and it was easy to figure out why I hadn't seen any deer. There were no tracks to be found anywhere near where I was. I switched to my back-up area...got ontop some tracks and had venison in the freezer within 5 hours. God luck.

WhiteRaven

I'd change locations as well especially if your present area is devoid of sign. I was hunting an area last year for four days. The fifth day it snowed and it was easy to figure out why I hadn't seen any deer. There were no tracks to be found anywhere near where I was. I switched to my back-up area...got ontop some tracks and had venison in the freezer within 5 hours. Good luck.