When do you look for a new spot?

[erikwells]

I spent close to 30 hours in stand over the slug season in Northern Kandiyohi county and did not see a deer. I pulled my cards on my two cameras Saturday morning after they had been out all of the last week and saw 1 spike buck that came by one camera at 12:30 a.m. My other camera had 3 does (1 afternoon, 1 5:00 a.m. and 1 at noon). I walked through the woods (about 150 yards long by maybe 50 yards wide) Saturday and saw around 4 scrapes and maybe 4 rubs. Pretty discouraged as I did not do well last year and got shut out again this year. Last year I blamed myself for not spending enough time in stand. This year I put in more time and had an anterless tag and I really wanted to put some venison in the freezer, no dice. Opening weekend on Sunday (Saturday was really windy) I heard a lot of shooting around but nothing came our way to the woods or the slough. I don't know what the overall success was in our zone 277 but I saw plenty of other hunters hauling deer. When do you give up on a spot and scout out a new one?

[surewood]

I scout new spots every year. I'll won't leave old spots if there's sign, but I'm always looking for more. Food sources change, cover, etc. I like to have multiple back up plans.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

So the total woods is 150 yards x 50 yards? If so, I think 4 scrapes and 4 rubs is pretty decent, for that small of an area.

It's not that abnormal for the deer to be nocturnal come hunting season. And it might be that you are in a spot that deer only visit at night.

I've hunted the same public land since at least 2006. It was the same story every single year...tons of deer pics on the trail cameras, but never see anything during hunting season. I spent every single opening weekend sunup to sundown in the stand. Between 2-3 of us, 1 deer was shot from 2007-2012. We passed on one or two small deer in those 6 seasons.

Turns out we were hunting wrong. We always set up in the woods where we got lots of deer pics, which sounds like a good plan. Trouble is, as soon as gun season rolls around, the deer only visit the woods at night.

Two years ago I finally realized that the deer don't just vanish. They ARE somewhere, we just have to find them. I found a couple tiny little wooded areas in the middle of the swamps. Missed a dandy buck opening weekend last year. This year I got a doe on opening morning, and wiffed on another Sunday evening. Every morning before shooting time I can hear the deer out in the swamp, heading to their bedding areas.

It may not be that you need to totally give up on the spot...take a look at hunting it differently.

[Bear55]

If you have to ask then it is time. Like surewood I am constantly scouting and rescouting the areas I hunt, can't have enough places to hunt.

[nofishfisherman]

Everytime I walk through the woods I'm looking for a new spot.

If I prescout an area that looks good I'll hunt it a few times but if I'm not seeing any of the same sign I saw when I prescouted during the summer or fall then I will move on and look for something with more recent activity. This fall I found a couple good looking spots with lots of activity but when I went to hunt it over opener I saw none of the same sign. With the light snow on the ground it was easy to see it hadn't seen any activity recently so I gave it some time on opening morning but moved to plan B in the afternoon. Plan B was hunting over some well used trails that were still seeing activity.

I don't use trail cams since I hunt all public land that is a 4 hour drive from home so it can be hard to get an idea if the spots only see deer overnight or if they get day time activity. Usually takes some time in the stand to figure that out.

[WalleyMN17]

This isn't feasible for everyone, but buy a bow and hunt before gun season. Your frustration sounds familiar to me 7 years ago, bought a bow and have had success ever since. Some years get a nice buck, some i don't, but I consistently have days where i see 10-12 deer. These 9 day seasons have the deer in lock down after day 1 and are frustrating. I still gun hunt but more as a social gathering with family.

[bigbucks]

I agree you need more places to hunt. My home woods is probably 5-6 times the size you're talking about, between mine & the neighbors. It's a nice little backup spot for me. I hunt a lot of land, some if it heavily wooded plenty of it is just crop land next to some small wooded pieces. Hunt whatever you can find & check it out as good as you can over the season. If the deer aren't there, you have to move or save a spot for the conditions when they will be there.

I've always got my eyes open for new properties to hunt as well as new spots on my current properties to put stands in certain conditions. Things usually change, they get better or they get worse. Occasionally you have a spot that's just a solid, reliable producer, but they are few & far between.

[Musky Buck]

Constantly is my answer, I now have 3 counties and 9 stands to hunt from, some zone 1 mostly zone 2 and have taken 6 bucks from 6 different stands in the last 6 years so having mega options is really why I've had success, if I was scenting out 1 stand or even if I had a 2nd option not so far away I'd be out of luck taking a mature buck year after year, the gig is up rut or not on those bigger bucks and you help them become nocturnal not that they're not primarily already. Sure enough my 1st hunt Sunday from a fresh stand and you bet, had deer everywhere and tag was filled. I do have a 2nd option on that 100 acres about 500 yards south which must have been far enough away, amazing how 0 of them wanted to go south very far, likely because of my scent saturday and sunday, they do the same avoidance to the bow hunters there, amazing how they route around those guys but boy it helps me in the end.

[1eyeReD]

1) When I've hunted it a time or two and just aren't seeing the amount of deer/deer sign I would like to.

2) When I've hunted it a time or two and there's another guy or two who are there hunting consistently as well and I start to feel crowded.

Sometimes I move to a different part of the propery. Sometimes I find myself hunting plan B and C 200 miles away.

I keep telling myself to scout around shed hunting time, but fail to do so every year... So I eventually burn many-a-tanks of gas and put miles on my boots around late July and early August re-scouting old spots while always trying to fit in at least one or two new properties per season for a backup plan.

Throughout the year, I spend hours upon hours doing online scouting. Once I find a public piece that seems like a gem, I locate DNR forestry offices and call to verify boundaries and access if not obvious on maps. I'll go out there once to do an initial walk through and mark likely areas in the property on my GPS. Usually, these public tracts will be way too big to cover in one day so I hit the pockets, funnels, and try to find a natural food source.. Or check crop edges if there are any within the property. If I run into neighboring landowners, I stop to talk with them to see if I can get any additional information about how busy it might get, touch on land boundaries, what they are seeing for the wildlife in the area etc. Very nice people almost always. If I really like a spot, I'll go back a second round to pick out several different trees in different parts of the property to go back and do "trial hunts" (I'm a bowhunter). This second round would be the round where I select an entrance to the "spot on the spot" and I try to pick out as many spots as possible in case I show up and a fellow hunter has already occupied an area.

Having a plan A, B, and C is the idea. You never know, sometimes you'll find that C is an untouched honey hole and it becomes the A.