plan for the opening week of bow season

[bigbucks]

Okay I'm beside myself with anticipation, had to come up with a new topic. How much does everybody hunt early season & what types of stand areas do you hit early?

I'll hunt opening morning 3-4 hours, less if I score of course & the same that evening. Opening morning unless the wind is really horrible for that stand, I'll hunt an oak tree on the edge of a hardwood ridge along a pine planting, opening stand the last 7-8 years? Evening I don't know, conditions will determine.

I'll most likely hunt alfalfa & cornfield edges for the next few weeks after that. I'll try to go at least one evening during the week each week & 1-2 times a weekend, morning or evening, through mid October.

[leechlake]

First I'll swat some mosquitos. I have a spot just inside the woods by a clearcut that kind of funnels the deer to the area where they hang out before they go out into the clearcut. I'll be there opener evening. I usually get "deer stand pickers remorse" there because I'd rather be watching deer in the clearcut but I know my chances for a deer big enough for me to want to shoot is right here. I'm always curious to see how many different bucks I'll see especially when numbers are so high. I'll go but I can't wait for about the 10th of October when the woods will finally look like I want it to look like. Green isn't my favorite woods color but it is a time to catch a slightly unsuspecting big buck and to get out there. Favorite time of the year is right around the corner!

[TomBow]

Opening weekend will be spent hunting with a friend on 20 acres he purchased last year. This is his first year bowhunting and I have been mentoring him as best I can. He will be set-up on the peak of a thickly, brushed, oak-infested hill, which is covered with deer [PoorWordUsage]. I will be set-up on the other side of his propery just off the edge of very thick poplar brush, in the clearer area, with many trails running through.
On the other property that I have access to, I have one stand on the edge of a cow pasture so I can watch for deer moving from the cornfield into the swamp and the other stand is at the edge of a swamp where a oak-ridge runs down the hill. Wind will determine where I hunt but both can be access without disturbing deer feeding in the fields, something I had a problem with last year because I was too dumb to move the durn stand!

[EXTREME]

I am not hunting opening morning as I am bringing my nephew duck hunting. (early season youth hunt). The evening I am planning a hunt in a white oak tree that I put a stand in yesterday. It is a natural funnel about 300 yards from an alfalfa field. Believe it or not, up north I think this is one of the only alfalfa fields that I have ever seen. It is pounded with tracks. Pumped to see what is coming out there. If wind is wrong my brother in law has a cow pasture that is usually good too. I am going to hang a stand there this week. Loaded with white oak, but not sure if they are producing acorns or not. Still draws deer though. Man it is getting close...60 degrees out today.

[Iceman77]

Unfortunately I have to miss the opener this year as I will be in China for work purposes.... YUCK!!! Thankfully the bow season is nice and long to make up for the opening weekend loss. I hunt an area of about 20 acres that has a lake on one side, soybeans and corn surrounding the other sides of the heavily wooded property. There is a 30 yard wide path of grassland between the corn and the lake between two groves of trees. In the center someone planted a bunch of apple trees at one time. For any deer moving east and west they have to pass through this area unless they travel about 4 miles north or south where they can cross through trees, otherwise they would be crossing open farmland under high visibility. I have seen deer every single time I have been hunting but the large bucks I have been chasing the last two years have had other plans than I. This year I am once again confident that I will shoot one of the two I have been seeing. One is about 150 and the other is around 175. So I am excited for this year once again!!!!

[bmc]

My first chance to get out will be on Monday the 20th. I'm working opening weekend, on call all weekend. Then I'm on nights during the week. I'll probably squeeze in a morning hunt or two during the week. I don't get too fired up until October 1st. Good Luck everyone!!!

Brian

[Stratosman]

I usaully sit on an alfalfa field that is surrounded by woods, deer come out every night. I am gonna set up so I can exit the stand without being caught, once I get a feel for the deer movements, then I'll adjust. Evening setup only. I'm not sure if I'll hunt any mornings, if so I got a stand between another alfalfa field and a bedding area. Didn't get a chance to scout this summer so I'm kinda bummed out about that, so I'll use the first couple of weeks for scouting/low impact hunting.

[BLACKJACK]

I'm bummed, during a weak moment last spring, I consented to a fall vacation with my wife (camping in North Dakota), I'll be gone til the 24th. Then its off to duck camp the 25th and 26th, so the earliest I'll make it out will be the 27th. Then I'll make it out a few evenings every week, with a few mornings thrown in on the first couple of weekends of October. It would be nice to have a doe in the freezer by the time pheasant hunting opens up, because then I'm after the roosters in the evenings, but I will try and make it out a few mornings during the late Oct weekends. Then I'll be taking the whole first week of Nov off, bowhunting morning and evening, with some daytime pheasant hunting thrown in. Love that hunting prior to the rut and gun season!

I let the wind dictate where I go, I have some stands that are wind specific, east, south, etc. I hate it when I get the same wind direction for a week. I will hunt the field edges, I don't hesitate to do a ground stand by the edge of a soybean field, they seem to like them early, before a frost. I have a Doghouse camo blind that I'm going to try for the first time, will see how that works. Hopefully it will give me the versatility to try a few management areas. I like to bounce around from spot to spot, play the shell game with the deer, not let them figure out that I'm using the same stand every night. Also try to find other hunting spots so I'm not driving the deer on my home place nocturnal by hunting them too hard. Getting pumped just writing this!!!!!

[bigbucks]

Speaking of hunting the right winds I just started something a couple of weeks ago that was basically a modified idea from things I've read in hunting magazines. I created an Excel document & started listing all of the stands I have access to that are usable for bowhunting. Some are really better positioned for gun hunting, but I wanted them in there for picking evening stands during gun season too. I think it's going to be really helpful for me personally.

I like to hop stands from one outing to the next & not use them too often & there's 3-4 of us bowhunting some of these properties, 2 of us real regularly. We're all friends & family, we coordinate, so it's not much of a problem. I've got 27 stands listed so far, 5 portables, the rest permanents (all are on private land). I used the following column headings, but you could add more to suit your needs:

stand, property, primefood 04, secondfood 04, prime wind, evening winds

I included things like salt & water under the food columns based on what I felt was the biggest reason for deer to come there. I'm mostly looking to use it for winds, because with so many stands you forget about a stand that a certain wind is "perfect" for sometimes. Also I have some properties that are just easier to hunt after work as there closer, so need spots for certain winds on those properties, etc. I didn't try to list morning winds, which on some stands could be exactly the opposite of the good evening wind. I have a lot fewer opps for morning hunts & know from experience that some are just better than others, closer to home, etc. for those outings. I added the food columns because sometimes you notice during season that corn, alfalfa, acorns, etc. are the hot ticket at the time & wanted to be able to recall all stands that have each food nearby.

[NELS-BELLS]

I was fired up for the bow opener as well as the whole season until last Sun. when the orthopedic surgeon informed me that I wouldn't be able to draw a bow back until sometime in early Nov. That is when he will hopefully remove the pins from my wrist.
The ironic thing was that I had just finished setting up my last portable stand for the day, high up in an Oak tree overlooking an alfalfa field with two nice deer trails on either side of it. I was coming down and there was a small branch that i decided to remove. I gave it a tug, but it didn't break so I gave it another tug and it broke. The sudden weight shift, when it broke caused me to loose my grip on the other wet branch I was holding onto and down I went, about a 15' belly flop. Luckily I was able to turn my body in the air so that I didn't land flat on my back.
After finding my glasses, I looked at my left hand and noticed it was facing in a different direction than it should. Now I have four pins sticking out of my arm and hand, attached to a bracket like thing that sort of resembles an expensive arrow rest.

Now you know the rest of the story.

Please be careful out there people!

I know in some respects I'm lucky because it could have been a lot worse, but i sure was fired up for this season. Hopefully I'll fill my tag at the end of the season.
Good luck to all of you!

Nels
P.S. It sure takes along time to type with one hand.

[Ben1022]

I'm going to hunt more in the early season than last year. Basically, I waited until the last few days of October and hit the first 6 days of November hard anticipating some rut action. Not to be...Only saw one buck and few does.
This year, I'm going to do the opening weekend, and really hit it hard from mid October to 1st week of November. Most of the good bucks taken last year, that I saw, were all the 3rd week of October and a couple the 1st week of November. Also, weather has something to do with that but that's the plan so far.
Good luck to everyone and be careful when climbing those trees.

[BLACKJACK]

Yowser Nels!! Bummer! A good reminder for all of us to be careful climbing those trees! I use a safty harness once I'm in my stand but the weak link is the climb up and down, with branches in the way its hard to keep a safty strap on.

Good luck to you when you get back out!!

[TomBow]

Nels--that sucks! It gives a real down-home lesson to all of us, rule: Don't trust any branch on a tree, hold onto your ladder or steps.

Good Luck Nels!

[Captain B.R.K]

I was reading a magazine article and it was stating the 3 best times to hunt in a season...the first few weeks of the season was #1.
I'm like the rest of you, all ready and pumped up for Saturday (MN archery opener).
I went out to the woods I'll be hunting this past weekend and put up a few more stands. I'm going to be on top of some ideal stuff. Just hope the deer come out to play.

Good luck all!

[mudman]

Well went out and finalized next weedend.
I will be with some buddies that have a couple hundred acres north of the cites.
We are going OLD SCHOOL
Tents and sleeping bags.
Personally I will be focusing in on the oak ridges that funnel into the swamps.

[TomBow]

Water sources are also a valuable consideration concerning where to set you stands. Best of Luck to all my bowhunting addicted buddies out there! Cheers brudders and sisters, may the blood trails be short and plentiful!

[bigbucks]

Dittos on best of luck to all.

Hopefully some of us drop something in it's tracks by 8am Saturday morning...

[Fish- N- Hunt]

I am pumped!!! It's getting so close. I hunt every evening from opener until the end of firearm season, with maybe a very few amount of times that I can't make it out for whatever reason. I don't hunt very many morning hunts because of duck hunting and deer movement is typically slow in mornings. I will alternate which stand out of three that I will go to, depending on wind conditions. I like to hunt edges of fields/clearings, someplace that is easily accessable and easy to get out of without spooking game. There are sometimes that I need to push myself to go, but the way I look at it is, if your not out in the field how do you expect to ever get Mr. Big!!

Good Luck to all hunting this coming up weekend.

Fish- N- Hunt

[Pooh]

a night of sitting in the stand and not seeing an animal is better than any amount of time at work!!!

Good luck to all this weekend!!

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this is just my 2 cents
Pooh