Let Other Hunters Work For You

Anyone that has hunted public land knows that others in the woods can hurt your hunt. On the other hand they can help it as well. With a little planning, you can use the wind and other hunters to move deer in your direction. This works on public land or private property as you will see in the example to the left. These are two properties that I have permission to hunt. (indicated in yellow). The red is a farm that is leased out for hunting to a pretty large group of hunters. So, how do we use the other hunters and the wind to help us hunt? Lets start with the wind. On a normal day the prevailing wind in our location is from the West Northwest. When it is later in the season and the weather starts to turn colder, the cold fronts tend to come in on a North Northeast wind.
Looking at the property in red, we know that the only access to the property is from the North. When the hunters come in they filter all the way to the south end of the property. Because they can only enter with the wind at their backs or a cross wind, we use this to help us know where to hunt that day. On a West northwest wind we hunt the yellow property to the East. If the wind is North Northeast we hunt the yellow property to the West.
The plan basically is to get in well before sun up and be settled in our stands before the other hunters come in. In this situation we like to place stands near small trails headed into the thickest cover at the edge of the property or hedge rows. If you can find funnels or bottle necks leading into thick cover all the better. Just like clock work, first light comes and you see deer headed for the cover as they try to flee the incoming hunters. Because deer will usually use their nose to watch their back trail and they are already leaving because they got a whiff of the hunters, We sit waiting with the wind in our faces waiting for them to come in.
If you seen deer moving at first light but none close enough to get a shot at, do not worry. Again you can almost set your watch by it, around 9-10 am many hunters will be headed back to the truck for a cup of coffee or just start walking around to relieve the boredom. This is when you want to be sitting quietly in your stand. This should be the second deer movement for the morning and often puts many whitetail bucks in the truck. In the event that the morning hunt didn't let us harvest a deer, we seen were they were headed and have a good idea where to set in the evening. Chances are, when they move again it won't be in the direction of the other hunters.
This tactic works best for gun season, simply because there are more hunters to move the deer around. You can use it to work during archery season as well on public land where there are more hunters.
Just remember, sit with the wind in your face and hunt the edges of thick cover. Get in well before other hunters and stay sitting when you think they are headed out (go early and stay late). The use of topo maps or satellite photos like we use, will help make it easier the tell where the others are coming from and give you a good idea of where to scout for stand sites. If you use this tactic, you will see more deer on public or private land hunts.