whats going on

[rambo1993]

ive been hunting for 2 weeks know and have been hunting for like 7 years im 17 and this has been the worst season ever i get at 4:30 am and hunt every day before school or am "sick" for 3 days and ive seen 4 deer thats it im hoping when the rut kicks in ill get a buck cause i really need the meat but i want it with my new kota recurve with a gun is ok but bow is the best thanks and in put on how your season is going would help or what is bring the deer to your stands thanks and god bless
david

[straitera]

Same here in Texas Dave. Heat makes animals slow to move.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I just hunt the lay of the land.  Nothing to bring them in to me except instinct of the deer.  Watch for ridges, draws and saddles.  Maybe a natural food source like acorns or crops.  get in between them on a travel route.  

God Bless,
Nathan

[Tom Leemans]

Expect the rut to be later this year. They're still after food sources now.

[Bowwild]

The key is to be where they will be...first.  Really, in my 45 years of bowhunting I'm like bornagain... above. I'm a topo hunter. I hunt edges, pinches, and funnels.  In my country the ground is really hard and rocky with trails sometimes difficult to see.  In loamy, level country where I've hunted in the past trails are easy to recognnize and hunting junctions of such that lead to and from bedding or feeding areas is terrific.

My favorite tactic is edge.  Where a wooded area comes to an open area or even one dominant tree grove meets another (oaks meeting pines for instance)I've found deer will key on. If you have fences on or around your property it is often easy to find places the deer like to crawl under or jump over - crawing under, look for hair on the wire.

Of course if you can find a concentrated food source (natural or planted please rather than piled)that is a great lead. Food preferences change though as the fall progresses.  Many a person has hunted hay field edges because lots of deer were there in September and then wonder where the deer went .... to the woods when acorns started falling. Look for persimmon trees with fruit, deer love them. Of course ag crops are also quite an attractant to the deer until they are picked and the ground tilled.

If you have any nice vantage points on your property, away from where you might hunt, it might be worth a couple of mornings or evening sits to observe deer movement. This is what I do out west when hunting mulies.

Finally, with the advent of trail cams (I just bought my first two this year)these are great scouting tools. I don't subscribe to piling food and trying to pull the deer in. Instead, I place my cameras in  locations where I don't know exactly what the deer are doing (as if I'm hunting the spot) and leave them up for a few days. Later, when I check the camera I found out what might have been and could be again. Of course the terrific bonus is that I might catch a picture of a buck I didn't know was around.

Hope this helps.  Woodsmanship and scouting are important learned skills for a hunter, especially a bowhunter who must get close. The only shortcut I know is to have a mentor who has made lots of mistakes and learned a few things. If you have opportunity to take a Bowhunter Education course, if the instructor is a good one, you might pick up a thing or two.

[Bowwild]

By the way, my son is 31 years old. He has been hunting with me all his life. My best hunting buddy. I noticed just a few years agon that I didn't do him much favor by always doing the scouting, hanging stands, and saying "hunt here".  Sure, he's killed a lot of deer and he has the strongest set of hunter ethics of any hunter I know. But, he didn't have a full understanding of "why" stands are hung or not hung in certain locations. So for the past half-dozen years we do it different. We scout together as much as we can (his work schedule is less "mature" than mine and therefore inflexible).  But now I quiz him and ask him to evaluate.  He's coming along very nicely.  I sure didn't want to make him so dependent upon me that he'd have to hang up hunting when my faith and obedience relocate me to higher pastures.