Three question to ask before hunting the perfect spot

[ChiefStingingArrow]

The Words of Fred Bear are absolutely true:"You can learn more about hunting deer with a bow and arrow in a week than a gun hunter will learn in his entire life" When I first started hunting with the Longbow I relied more on luck than skill....I had a lot of encounters with deer that made for some great stories. Unfortunately, they were usually stories of a staring match between me and the deer, of course overtime I tried to get a shot of the deer was much faster than I. Or I could home telling how many deer I saw....actually it was more like how many tails I saw.
As I began to read and study the art of hunting I began to learn the fundamentals that are so important to consistently and successfully taking deer....I would start each season with great expectation of how to deer used the land, wind, etc. but as the season progressed I would rely once again on luck to get me close to deer.(no doubt sometimes getting lucky pays offf)

This year was my first year to kill a whitetail deer. This is my 4th year hunting and in those past years had wounded 2 deer and missed more than I can count.

At one of my very best hunting stands this year I stayed in the tree even when the wind was blowing the completely wrong way. As the evening wore on I saw some deer approaching at an angle where they could not smell me(I did not expect them to come from that direction) but as they began to work their way up to where I would be able to get a shot(where I expected the deer to come from) they caught my scent and without andy explanation they took off out of sight. As it began to get dark I thought to myself I should have seen a lot more deer than this and if I would of played the wind like I new I should I would not have ruined this good stand site for the remainder of the week.

So with all this being said to keep myself sticking to my guns I have developed three questions that help me in picking and hunting successfully

1. Will there be deer coming through here?
     Am I between a feeding and a bedding area?
     Just because you find a good trail does not mean that they
                are using that trail during the day.

2. What kind of wind do I need to hunt this?
    Only hunt this stand to where i can enter and hunt with the            
    wind in MY favor.

3. Can i be adequately concealed?
    you may have the perfect spot but if you climb in a tree that is
   in the wide open those deer are going to pic you out.
       What do I need to do to make sure that I am adequacy
         hidden.

I find that if i slouch in any of these areas I either don't see deer or spook them before getting of a good shot.

What do you do to keep yourself from slouching and relying on luck?

[malcom.f]

I have made the mistake of not paying close enough attention to the wind and man has it cost me.  So I have hung 4 different stands for most weather situations this year hoping I do a better job, but I'm sure that I will get schooled again by some fat and sassy doe.

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

I have many setups , some have been in the same locations for many years some are new. I have prob close to 40 treestands and groundblinds out right now , also will use a my shaggie coat if needed. I have stands for every wind situation and time of year and weather , rut , water , food source. I hunt many places from just a few acres and up to several thousand also public land. I just try and pick the best location for what's at hand and that said I was hunting this morning and the wind switched several times and I just had to backout and head to camp. I just do my best and like today it wasn't good enough , I guess you just do the best you can and when it ain't right get out of there and go to plan 2 , 3 , 4 .....

,,,Sam,,,

[Whip]

Your checklist is a good one and if you follow it religiously you will do well.  So tempting to stray sometimes, and it takes some guys longer to learn than others, but there are no shortcuts.
 
As hard as it is to do, ultimately you will have better success in the long run if you learn to stay home when conditions aren't right.  But of course the best solution is to have multiple stands so that you always have an ideal one to hunt under any conditions.