Bump deer without blowing your stand so you can slip away??

Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
5,824
I had a nice evening stand sit last night. A bit of action but no shooters. Just after legal light I was rounding up my gear and a group of four deer moved in under me. I sat still and enjoyed watching the feed acorns. 30 mins later it was too dark to see anything and I needed to head home but they were stillwithin 40 yard.

I tried to get creative and toss sticks on the ground. Nothing worked. They just kept munching away. I didn't want to blow my stand but eventually I had to leave. I am curious if there is a good way to scatter de so you can't slip out.

Open to ideas.
 

Netherman

WKR
Joined
May 24, 2016
Messages
428
Location
Michigan
I like to coyote howl in a direction away from them. they usually just slowly walk away. I think if you are doing it constantly they might start avoiding the area, but in general I think they are more used to coyotes as part of everyday life than a human.

Nick
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2015
Messages
668
All you have to do is decide you want to shoot one of them, then start to pull your bow back and they will all immediately run away. Lol, this works every time!
 

Jski99

FNG
Joined
Nov 7, 2015
Messages
49
I had the same problem the other day!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 

LostArra

WKR
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
3,435
Location
Oklahoma
I think we unknowingly bump deer when we leave a stand in the dark without any lasting effect.
I just climb down and leave making as little noise as possible. I see quite a few deer while walking out that never even run off.
 

mcseal2

WKR
Joined
May 8, 2014
Messages
2,671
I hunt out of ground blinds in windy areas a lot. I rifle hunt and have ground blinds placed high in some places especially for morning hunts where I can slip up the back side of the ridge and into them without skylining myself. Usually this set up lets me set up for a 200-300yd shot where I can get in and out clean fairly easily. Sometimes it doesn't work and if I have deer close to me I rattle the fabric of the blind a bit. The blinds are set up well before season and the wind rattles them regularly so it's a sound deer are used to. I used that tactic the night before I shot my buck this year to move a young 8pt and 4 does over the hill out of sight, the buck I ended up shooting came from that direction the next morning.
 

Osprey

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
127
The only way the deer wont care if you bump them will be if you hunt lightly pressured deer. At all cost no matter where you hunt you should not bump deer on entrance or exit. Honestly when I hunt bedding areas I will set up at least 1.5 - 2 hours before light and stay until at least 1 hour after dark and my routes takes me on a path that is opposite of the way deer enter and exit. Depending on the areas I'm hunting the arrival prior to shooting light and stay after shooting light will vary bedding areas are generally the extreme of both and make for long sits. This way I ensure whenever I'm on the ground the deer are not aware of hunter intrusion other than possibly getting my scent which also is not in a spot where deer will not commonly come across. Sometimes you have to be creative to sneak into and out of areas sometimes hunting off hours too some areas I enter at mid morning and leave 30 min after dark and have encounters mid day all the time most hunters are not hunting mid day and deer know this. Never understood why so many hunters never hunt bedding areas since mature bucks move substancially more during daylight in bedding areas theres no such thing as a unkillable buck or fully nocturnal buck. You also should not bump deer on your entrance or exit or you will greatly reduce the amount of quality sits in a given area. Even bumping does is really really really bad especially prior or during the rut. The reason being you alter the local doe traffic mature does are pretty smart and will not tolerate much human interaction if they are in a pressured area so the traffic and pattern of the does will change with each intrusion and therefore alter buck traffic to new areas thus greatly reducing the amount of mature buck activity. However if you hunt lightly hunted deer you can do a lot of things wrong and still kill big bucks you see quite a few examples of this on filmed hunts on TV.
 
Last edited:

adamm88

WKR
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
408
Location
Pennsylvania
I just listened to somthing today about always keep a coyote call in your pack for just these circumstances...i personally would just walk out


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
649
A 4yr old plus whitetail will most likely move his core area if you bump him on an evening food source.
Its a better plan to hunt food source travel zones in evening sits. That way deer have moved through and you can get out clean.
Plus mature bucks usually stage up a bit before hitting a source. All depends on area, time, etc.
If i gt trapped on a night sit i just stick it out. Been in stand 2 hours late. Check with your state regs...some have "hunting hours" and some have "shooting hours". You will also be hurting your area by letting mature does know you are there.
The doe group may still feed there but eventually patterns will change. Change is not good when headed into pre-rut.
 
Top