Pre-Season Hunting Tip: Stay Out Of The Woods

© By Othmar Vohringer

Here in British Columbia bowhunting season started on September 1st. In most of North America hunting season is still a month away. It never fails, a month before hunting season opens I notice a lot of hunter activity, hunters checking their trail cameras, doing last minute scouting trips, hanging or moving treestands and placing bait were permissible. In a way this activity is understandable. It’s only a month to go until hunting season and most hunters are itching to get out.

But believe me. It is the worst thing you can do. All that work you’re doing now should have been done a month ago. Now is the time to stay out of the woods. Any activity you do now only serves one purpose putting the deer on edge. Think like a deer. All year it is quiet in the woods, then a month before hunting season human activity increases a hundredfold, all this does is make the deer alert.

If you did your due diligence during the spring and summer scouting you know what trails the deer use at any given time during the hunting season and you have placed your stands accordingly. If you didn’t do that then it is too late now.

A month before the season let the deer relax and resume their normal travel and feeding patterns. The day hunting season opens is the day you go into the hunting area and sit on your stand. This is the best chance you will get at opening day hunting success. Conversely running around in the woods now checking cameras, hanging stands and scout will diminish your chance at an opening day buck.