How long do you give a stand before moving?

[cahaba]

If fresh deer sign is there I like to give it 3 days from daylight to dark. Then I will try a different area close to that vicinity. I like to keep tabs on the first place and may hunt it again a time or two if fresh deer sign is still there.

[Orion]

I always let the wind determine whether I sit a stand.  I almost never sit the same stand two days in a row, and if I don't see deer by the end of the third sit (half to full days), I move.

[RedShaft]

Great posts guys, thanks for good advice!

[xtrema312]

Lots of good stuff posted.  

I think you really have to hunt the deer as they hunt / react to the hunters in your area.  It would be easy to just hunt the deer if I didn’t have so much competition.  I spend way more time trying to figure out how to work around other hunters even on private property I have to share.

Well if it looks good and it is easy to find you can be sure someone besides you will be on it also.  Good sign can be sign of good nighttime activity spot.  Even on private land you can burn a spot out quick.  I kill deer way more often the first hunt or two than the rest of the time.  So just about anywhere, I don’t hunt more than two good days with the right weather……….   It is time to move if I am not seeing anything.  Maybe come back later for another try after it cools down or activity timing changes due to time of year, food….

The best bet is to look for the spots most people don’t and find spots that are on travel routes away from places of activity.  Catch them coming from or going to bed.  Working escape routes is great in heavy pressured areas.  A good escape route funnel will have deer moving from presser from a lot of areas.  Your chances of seeing something is way higher than setting the activity spot.  Look for a spot where deer travel to go to a protected areas like private land, preserve, residential area and so on.  

Work downwind areas of sign with hunting pressure. Deer will often stage where they can see what is going on.  They will wait there until dark for the  area to clear out.  One of the best spots I hunted years ago was about 100 yd downwind of a big bait pile hunting spot.  The guy on the bate saw nothing over a couple days, and I was in the deer every night.

I have seen deer walk into a good feed areas with sign using the parking lot drive for the hunting area.  They wait until the parking area is empty and then walk in.  I found tracks one time doing this.  We had fresh snow, and I noticed a couple deer were crossing into the drive to the parking areas a couple days in a row.  I was hunting down the road a ways and seeing the track as I passed.  Finally I figured they were crossing at night so I back tracked them into the cover on the others side of the road, and I set up to catch two bucks staging in the evening waiting for everyone to clear out.

[Piratkey]

The first times are usually the best, so 2 or 3 times (2 hours each time),after that,if nothing move,I move.

[Rick Richard]

One more note on public land hunting.

I find there are not many spots left where folks will not venture off to.

We all read the same articles about going "way" back or finding that secluded spot and it seems with this thought process we end up all in the same areas.

I have changed my ideas because of that and find myself hunting closer to the "front" where most folks walk by on their way to the "back".

I can't tell you how many more deer I now see within site of a parking lot, major roadway and  the number of bigger bucks...they too adapt to the increasing hunter pressure.

I will hunt the little hideaways and watch everyone else walk by.

[Mint]

Last year i thought i found some great spots but didn't see anything. I put out a camera and found that they had changed their pattern from earlier in the season. Thats what I plan on doing now, using a camera to see if the spot is worth staying at if I haven't seen anything in a day or two.

One spot that i found i thought it would be great but the camera showed that deer were moving through but not many at all. I did some more scouting and found that there is a heavy trail going close to the houses and avoiding walking through the thick cover i was hunting. I guess the deer figured it was safe to go by the houses so why walk through the thick cover if they didn't have to. I'll be there this year waiting for them just on the outside of that thick cover before they veer off to the houses.

[Thumper Dunker]

10-20 minutes.