RE: Early Season Setups
2010/09/28 22:39:51
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I hunt mornings and evenings in the early season. Some days I will pull an all day sit, but rarely in the early weeks of season. Maybe once, when I am still fresh.
I hunt thicket....fingers? it is hard to explain but the areas close to bedding areas that kind of stick out, even just 20 yards; makes for great travel corridors in the morning. Often this is on the sides of flats, or benches. Especially if that have an apple tree or something that the deer check out before going to bed for the day.
In the evening I hunt maybe 20-50 yards in from the edges of fields. Wind and thermals are a real betch though, because you have all the does and youngins coming out first, so you cant have them bust you from a field, and you also cant have any of them, or big papa, getting wind of you in the woods either. Deer also seem to get hung up in the "almost" field area if they are entering with the wind at their back. They are extra cautious. Kind of nice to have a couple of corners to choose from, that way you can play the wind, and their instincts.
When the rut comes I hunt the down wind sides of those same thicket fingers, but for the whole day. Main trails that does use year around mixed with favorable winds, make for great all day sits. You never know when big unit is going to come by sniffing for some strange.
I am also prone to hunting in the middle of the thickest places I can get away with and still have a couple of shooting lanes come the rut, because I figure the big guys will be taking does back home to shag, and I want to be there waiting for him, like a classic slasher film.