Don’t Overuse Your Stand Site When Hunting Deer with Your CVA Muzzleloader Rifle and Always Stay Alert in Your Stand
Editor’s Note: Become an effective Muzzleloader deer hunter by not overusing your stand site and staying alert.
Often tree stands are overhunted. If you hunt a stand in the morning as well as in the afternoon with your blackpowder rifle, then don’t go to that stand the next day. If you hunt from the same stand over and over again, the deer will wise-up to what you’re doing. You’re leaving scent going to and from the stand and on and around the tree as you climb up and down. Particularly when hunting trophy whitetails you’ll learn that the less exposure they have to human odor, the better your odds are of taking them. The more exposure the deer have to human odor, the less chance that the hunter will have to bag a specific buck. Deer wise-up to a hunter’s movement patterns quickly. The only advantage the hunter really has for taking a smart deer is to be in a spot where the deer doesn’t expect him to be. Therefore the more times a deer smells human odor, the more likely the animal will be to avoid that area. Consequently, the more times you hunt from the same stand, the less effective that stand will be in producing a deer.
Also, many outdoorsmen brag about how long they sit in their tree stands waiting on deer to show-up. But if the hunter is in his stand asleep, daydreaming or not hunting (actively trying to see and take a deer), then the length of time he spends suspended between heaven and earth has no direct bearing on his success as a hunter. Many good blackpowder hunters make the mistake of staying in a tree stand when they’re not hunting. When you catch yourself falling asleep or not actively looking for deer, the best thing you can do is leave the tree stand and come out of the woods. When a sportsman’s hunting, he should be hunting. When he’s resting, he should be resting somewhere other than the woods. Often during those rest times is when a deer is most likely to appear. If the hunter is not alert and anticipating seeing a deer, he’s more likely to shoot too quickly or inaccurately or make noise and spook the deer.