Stalking Into Deer Too Early?

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Chiyuan

Well-Known Member
People always say get into the high seat before first light and that’s what I always do if I fancy a high seat morning session. However, in the recent few visits, I always bump into 1 or 2 deer on my way to the high seat. Once even at the base of the high seat. As it’s too dark, I could not ID the sex. And even if I could, through the thermal, it’s too early to be legal. I watched the deer a few minutes before it wondering off, obviously knowing my existence.

So my question is what you would do in that situation? Back a few steps and wait for the light? Ignore the deer and go to the high seat? Any thought is appreciated.
 
Chiyuan said:
Ignore the deer and go to the high seat?
Click to expand...

Get there earlier.

For a morning outing (my preference) I am often in my seat by 0400 hours. I use the TI just to see and study what is about.

Eat my wrap. Drink some coffee. Watch the world come alive.

It is (for me) the nearest thing to Heaven on Earth watching the sun rise from a High Seat; enjoying the peace and solitude.


Unknown.webp
 
Stalker62 said:
Get there earlier.

For a morning outing (my preference) I am often in my seat by 0400 hours. I use the TI just to see and study what is about.

Eat my wrap. Drink some coffee. Watch the world come alive.

It is (for me) the nearest thing to Heaven on Earth watching the sun rise from a High Seat; enjoying the peace and solitude.


View attachment 435829
Click to expand...
Sounds brilliant
 
Exactly the reason I bought my thermal. Back in the day there were a couple of ambush sites we used for the fallow where the way in involved a very early start & everything was green.

And, as K has said, if you spot them in the Ti then simply wait till it’s light enough to see them & ping them if you’ve got a safe shot & they’re in your cull list.
 
Strange how everyone has different experiences - mine are very different.

The deer on one of my permissions are predominantly Muntjac, and on cold mornings don’t start to move about until the sun’s up and begun to warm the ground. Trouble is, that’s usually when I’m supposed to be packing in !

On that ground I’ve virtually given up early morning stalking and concentrate on the afternoon.
Much better deer/hr ratio.
In the depths of winter the ‘legal’ shooting time is so close to my agreed 0900hrs exit time that it’s barely worth the early start.

However, in order to go back to the OP, if you can’t sex the deer to shoot in that light then you have to look at what you’re there for. If you cannot achieve that result at that time, then perhaps you’re wasting your own time, and disturbing your pitch.

An earlier start and a longer prep in the seat may well be the only sensible way forward - allow the daylight to open up your options. It might only be another 30 mins earlier, and then there’s deer on the ground.
 
Thanks for all the inputs!

It seems that I am on the correct way but need to go further! I used to get ready in high seat before or at the legal time, 1 hour before sunrise which is still very dark. After bumping into deer, I set the alarm 30 minutes earlier but still bumped into deer! Like said, it seems still not early enough! Next time I go, I will try to get in high seat 1 or even 2 hours before the legal time to see what happens!
 
Various ideas:

1) clear the path to the high seat so that you can get there with the minimum noise and fuss. Mow or strim a decent path, clear the deadfall wood etc.

Do good reconnaissance before hand. Look for fresh tracks, poo etc

2) when you do walk to the highseat just walk normally and firmly there. Don’t try and stalk, but equally don’t make a racket. Deer are used to people walking, and mostly will just to a step or two back well before you even get to them.

3) what you don’t want to do is to stalk in very quietly and surprise one which the bounds off barking away and clearing everything.

4) get into the highseat, or your chosen sitting spot and then just chill out for 20 minutes to half an hour. Even better just doze off. Let the fields and woods just return to normal and relaxed and the deer will soon make a re appearance. Don’t forget that deer, like all ruminants need to feed regularly, but also regularly need to lie up to chew the cudd. If nowt is happening, they are lying somewhere and you just have to wait until they move.

One of the hardest things to learn in hunting is patience and to accept that you just have to go at nature’s pace. Most of us lead busy lives, constantly plugged in responding to others. One of the joys of stalking is the enforced stopping. Many can’t sit still, or simply are not prepared to do the hard work of just being patient and will have to rush off looking for animals elsewhere using all sorts of technology etc etc and charge around the countryside in their 4x4.

Little do they know they could just sit on their arse and the deer would come to them, and they can take their time and have easy carcass recovery.

Even better is rather than school chair on the end of a ladder that seems to pass for a UK highseat, is a proper hunting hut type highseat. These have enough space for a mattress and sleeping bag. Go up in the evening, go to sleep and awake in the dawn.
 
I reckon it takes about twenty minutes for an area to get back to 'normal' after some sort of disturbance like you walking in or even taking a shot. So give yourself another half an hour for the approach and just walk in and get settled, as someone has already suggested. Be as quiet as possible, but normal walking as if you were just out with the dog, not stalking.
 
Stalker62 said:
It is (for me) the nearest thing to Heaven on Earth watching the sun rise from a High Seat; enjoying the peace and solitude.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's an unforgettable memory!

Klenchblaize said:
Its a problem well observed but sadly with no perfect answer. However, given you have the luxury of thermal ID, if you see beasts close to or under your highseat and the wind is in your favour, why not wait where you are for legal light?

K
Click to expand...
I tried to stay still then back a few steps hiding behind a tree. But the deer sensed me already and wondered off soon. If I needed to stalk properly into the high seat avoiding the deer sensing me first, it would be too slow and too hard! I would had spent more than an hour on the 500 meters path in the wood.

Rutland lad said:
The deer on one of my permissions are predominantly Muntjac, and on cold mornings don’t start to move about until the sun’s up and begun to warm the ground. Trouble is, that’s usually when I’m supposed to be packing in !
Click to expand...
The wood I talked about has only Fallow in it. Maybe Muntjac and Fallow has different behaviours. I used to stalk a wood which has only Roe in it and the deer to stay where they bedding during night well after the legal time if not disturbed.
 
Heym SR20 said:
Various ideas:

1) clear the path to the high seat so that you can get there with the minimum noise and fuss. Mow or strim a decent path, clear the deadfall wood etc.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I learned from another member in the same syndicate. We clear the path when possible, often after the morning session as we are not on the ground everyday.

Heym SR20 said:
2) when you do walk to the highseat just walk normally and firmly there. Don’t try and stalk, but equally don’t make a racket. Deer are used to people walking, and mostly will just to a step or two back well before you even get to them.

3) what you don’t want to do is to stalk in very quietly and surprise one which the bounds off barking away and clearing everything.
Click to expand...
I think this is where I got it wrong. When walking to the high seat, I tried to be as quiet as possible though not too slow, and stop regularly to check through the thermal to see if any deer is in front of me. Like you said, if I had not stopped to check and kept walking, the deer 10 or 20 meters away might just stood there watching me walk by then back to its own stuff.


Heym SR20 said:
4) get into the highseat, or your chosen sitting spot and then just chill out for 20 minutes to half an hour. Even better just doze off. Let the fields and woods just return to normal and relaxed and the deer will soon make a re appearance.
Click to expand...

Merlyn said:
I reckon it takes about twenty minutes for an area to get back to 'normal' after some sort of disturbance like you walking in or even taking a shot.
Click to expand...
I learnt the 20 minutes rule when shooting squirrels with an air rifle years ago. That's why I tried to get in the high seat about 20 minutes before the first light. But what I did not know was that Fallow, not like squirrel, started feeding way earlier than that.
 
Chiyuan said:
People always say get into the high seat before first light and that’s what I always do if I fancy a high seat morning session. However, in the recent few visits, I always bump into 1 or 2 deer on my way to the high seat. Once even at the base of the high seat. As it’s too dark, I could not ID the sex. And even if I could, through the thermal, it’s too early to be legal. I watched the deer a few minutes before it wondering off, obviously knowing my existence.

So my question is what you would do in that situation? Back a few steps and wait for the light? Ignore the deer and go to the high seat? Any thought is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Go in the early evening, all 3 of my cameras ping more deer in the last 2 hrs of legal light than in the morning.
This group were up wind 120 yds also in the last 10 min of legal light so I stayed a bit later to watch them noting the limping doe . All does and fawns so 8 weeks to go but had it been Nov then there would have been 2 on the deck.

Both of these were shot with time to spare
 
I've always found in good weather by all means get into your seat in the dark forget anything you bump just get in the seat. An hour after first light is the time that deer start to move in my experience and that is when I've shot most of them. In winter I have shot more Roe between 10am and 2pm than any other time as they need to feed throughout the day. Evening is generally the best time to sit in a seat and usually more productive than morning for most species.
 
Chiyuan said:
People always say get into the high seat before first light and that’s what I always do if I fancy a high seat morning session. However, in the recent few visits, I always bump into 1 or 2 deer on my way to the high seat. Once even at the base of the high seat. As it’s too dark, I could not ID the sex. And even if I could, through the thermal, it’s too early to be legal. I watched the deer a few minutes before it wondering off, obviously knowing my existence.

So my question is what you would do in that situation? Back a few steps and wait for the light? Ignore the deer and go to the high seat? Any thought is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Morning high seats don’t make any sense to me, for this very reason.

Stalk the morning, sit the evening.
 
Chiyuan said:
Thanks for all the inputs!

It seems that I am on the correct way but need to go further! I used to get ready in high seat before or at the legal time, 1 hour before sunrise which is still very dark. After bumping into deer, I set the alarm 30 minutes earlier but still bumped into deer! Like said, it seems still not early enough! Next time I go, I will try to get in high seat 1 or even 2 hours before the legal time to see what happens!
Click to expand...
If you regularly bump them neat the seat I would only use the seat at later times in the day , if you see your bumping some there’s probably more you didn’t see.They maybe feeding near the seat most of the night then you will never get there early enough. Set a few trail cameras and check the times they are there
 
Get one of these, and get in your seat about midnight.
Not even kidding.
I often used to turn up at midnight, park out of the way and kip in my car.
Set my alarm for "sparrow's fart" o'clock, and start my stalk from the car having not disturbed the area by arriving.
I even posted a write up a few years ago about one such trip where I ended up with 2 roe bucks shot within 5 minutes of my alarm going off.
 

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