what are your best tactics during the season?

For example, do you walk by your feeder to get to your blind or do you use an alternate route? Do you spray yourself with scent free fragrances before entering your land? Do you check you cams before your hunt or after on your wait back home? Do you park your vehicle in one spot and walk everywhere for your hunting trip duration? Do you have a pen around your feeder to remove hogs?

Share some tactics. I'm looking to gain some knowledge as this is my 5th year on the ranch and not seeing any animals during daylight. Something's gotta give after 5 years right?

I walk to my blinds, EARLY. My blinds/feeders are set up so I never have to get near the feeders when walking to the blinds. I have never used any scent killers..the blinds are situated so that the prevailing wind hardly ever blows from blind to feeder. I check the cams after the morning hunt and change sim cards to view the pictures back at my cabin. 5 Years and no deer during daylight indicates a serious problem.
Do you hunt during the rut?? Do you know when the rut is on at your ranch?? Do you see any deer on your trail cameras?? Is your trail camera pointed at your feeder??
If no deer on camera, it's time to change ranches/lease.

Walk the same path as always to the stand. Check cams when I get the chance. Have a pen but opened it up a month ago since hogs haven't showed. Wish they would since I have corn growing under the feeder. Have a few more deer show since they don't have to always jump the fence. No scent except my smelly body. Of course I am on my property 4 to 5 days a week cutting brush and firewood. Deer are used to me being there. Still not seeing the numbers I did last year though. Hope this helps but bet it won't.

I take a jug to the blind 'case I have to urinate. (I always have to urinate.) AND, I take a cereal/snack bar 'case I get hungry. (I always get hungry.)

My cam is pointed at my feeder. In October we had about 6 different bucks. No doe. As of today, we had 1 buck show up in the last 3 weeks. No doe still. Its amazing how poor it is there. The neighboring ranches shoot everything they see at all times. So even though I hunt the rut, it doesn't help if there aren't any deer left by that time. Which I have heard is now but in the past is usually around Xmas.

I get to the blind 2 hours before corn being thrown. Don't drive around. Its a family ranch. I don't pay anything but its the only way I can hunt.

Can had plenty of hogs from 8pm-3am nightly. And plenty of turkey.

Like me, you're gonna have to decide on opening weekend to throw lead or not. The hogs sounds predictable and fun. Time to invest in a spotlight of some sort.

Path to your blind should not have you walking by the feeder. I like to have my blind at least 150 yards from the feeder. I don't use sent killers. I like a large pen using at least 10 panels to keep hogs and livestock out. Check cameras after morning hunt. Get there early and stay late. Hunt the rut and put in the time. If I wasn't seeing any mature bucks on camera it would be hard for me to hunt it that hard though.

I had a really nice 150 acre lease last year that had produced 150 class bucks every year for the last 5 years. We had several nice bucks on camera. I spent a lot of time in the blind and it paid off. Sadly I lost the lease because of some bull crap.

Oh, and it only cost $750 bucks..... I'm going to go cry now

I'm only able to hunt during the weekends due to work, but I'll show up Saturday morning 2 hours before corn is thrown (get there at 5am), drive down to feeder/cam area get pics off camera and pour a pile of corn next to the feeder (the bucks seem to like the pile better than what's thrown from the feeder), then head to the stand. I park 10 feet from the stand and it doesn't seem to bother the deer at all. Once in the stand I go through all of the pictures I loaded to the laptop and figure out the time of day deer are coming to the feeder, and the hunt is on. Seems to have worked pretty well so far.

1. Never hunt a stand when the wind isn't right.
2. Walk more to avoid any noise that deer can use to detect and pattern your presence.
3. Take into account the pressure from other hunters and use it to your advantage when possible.
4. Don't over hunt the same stand sites.
5. Hit the practice range often so that all your remaining efforts are not later wasted, and to ensure the accuracy of both the firearm and the person shooting it.

I usually wake up right about sun up. Grab my gun and jump in my truck.
I pull up to one of our wheat fields and shoot whatever presents a close shot. Buck, doe, fawn. They all eat the same. Load up, skin, gut, quarter and then start doing whatever chores my wife wants me to do the rest of the day.

I usually bag at least a good buck every year my goal is to add at least one more to my wall every season, the main thing that pays off is persistence be there as much as possible I go to the stand almost every day after work and morning and evening during the weekends the only exception being when the Cowboys are playing. However I am lucky/spoiled I have three places all on is 2 miles from my house one is 5mi and my ranch is 10mi all three in different counties Hood,Palo Pinto, & Erath so I can go almost every day and try to take a big buck in each leasers usually don't have that kind of luck. I have a specific parking spot for each stand and always take the same trail avoiding feeders and other sensitive areas, I feed corn year round and protien too during antler growing season, I only check cameras or fill feeders during the middle of the day, I am a sucker for that gimmicky hunting stuff ie scent killer and special scents but only certain ones that have worked in the past. I usually stay in the stand unless it's late season and desperation time kicks in I might go to another spot and sit but never walk around much. The main thing is to make sure other hunters around you know deer season isn't play time during deer season the spotlights and the varmint calls get put away as well as the targets and shotguns, and the absolute most important thing is to be out there as much as possible eventually the Bucks will show up.

I throw out lots of corn and sit in the Kubota. Only difference is we have a lot of Deer in this area.

Preparation is year round. I feed my entire property all year with free choice protein during late winter through late summer, corn through fall and winter as well as plant spring and fall food plots. One of the primary reasons is to obviously attract and hold more deer on the property and grow those deer a little bigger. I use hog panels to keep the hogs out of/away from most feeders. I kill every hog and coyote that show themself when I have a gun in hand to reduce the predation on the deer herd and yell four letter words when I see them and don't have a gun.

I started using Google Earth to identify game trails, travel corridors/funnels then scouted those in the off season. It made finding heavily used trails much quicker than walking the entire property. I put two big bucks on the ground this year from a set up on a game trail I located using Google Earth. You still have to put in time on the ground, but it definitely helps zero in on an area. Any blind or feeder movement, additions, repairs are done by the end of the summer. If I think I need to change stand locations during the season, I'll use a tripod to keep the disturbance of the area to a minimum.

Trail cameras are used year round to keep up with the deer and their progress. At least on my place, the bucks are difficult to pattern come November. I've got bucks that show up on different cameras that are two miles apart within the same 24 hours during the season, but I still use the trail cameras to determine the most recent active spots to hunt.

When hunting, I am maniacal about scent. I wash my clothes in scent free detergent and shower in scent free soap. I make my gear as scent free as possible as well. As soon as the hunt is over, I take off my hunting clothes and put them in plastic bags or closed plastic tubs so they do not absorb odors from the cabin. I also hunt the wind and keep the scent of my vehicle in mind when determining where to park in relation to the stand and the wind. When bowhunting I am over the top when it comes to scent control, but it has made me very conscious of scent control when rifle hunting as well.

I'm in the stand longer on overcast days as deer move more and longer in the lower light conditions. I stay in my stand after the evening hunt until dark. I get to the blind at least an hour before first light. There are two hunting camps on neighboring properties both about five miles in different directions from me. It amuses me to watch the vehicle lights pour out of each of them at dawn while I've been in the blind for an hour. I avoid a path that walks me past the feeder and/or the predominant trails the deer use to get there. I park my vehicle in different spots depending on the wind. I only check feeders and game cameras during the middle of the day, usually the day I'm leaving and keep vehicle travel through the pastures at a minimum the days I'm hunting. I permanently cover the back windows of all my blinds so that I can't be silhouetted. Other than the wind/scent, the single most important thing is putting in the time in the stand. An overcast, light or no wind day during the rut are the absolute best conditions to hunt in. On those days, make time to hunt and be in the stand longer. Last, make sure your weapon of choice is accurate and you are proficient with it. When the moment of truth arrives is not the time to fire your weapon the first time since last year.

I quietly walk the last 300-400 yards to the blind and I try to get to there about an hour or more before feeder time. I am often able to get in the blind without disturbing early visitors at the feeder.
Blinds are set so that you can get to them without going by the feeder.
And never put your blind on a main thoroughfare. We have a guy that put his blind right on the road that leads from camp, bad idea.

My,my........some of you folks really work way too hard at this. And read a lot of hunting magazines.

I hunt were the deer are. Take a leak around my stand regularly. Mostly bow hunt these days. don't pay attention to the wind since ill have a cover sent. Dip wintergreen Copenhagen every hour im hunting... and hunt just about any weather good or bad.. time in the field will up your chances more than anything.. and a bit of luck never hurt

Like someone said above, don't hunt a stand if the wind isn't right. If you do that you don't have to worry about scent killers. I don't drink or eat before going to the stand, and don't drink, eat, or piss while on it. If my stomach rumbles, I can wait to eat.

What no Natty Light in the stand Nav

Naaaaaaaaaaaa I would never do such a thing

I feed for a month leading up to the season. I have 1 stand set about 160 yds from the feeder. It is not uncommon for me to see 20-30 deer in a setting,almost all does. The 80 acres I hunt is between heavy brush at one end and about 1500 acres of wheat at the other. I go out and hunt for fun but I make sure I am there in the rut. Its in the panhandle so I take a week off work corresponding with the new moon in November. Its like someone turns the buck switch on! Bucks show up from all over,I just make sure I am there. I think you can be the greatest hunter ever but if you are not there to pull the trigger it doesn't really matter what you do. Good or bad!

Other then that don't think because you put 5 rounds down the tube at a range and cut paper that you are good to go. Shoot the gun,shoot it free hand,shoot it in a stressed position. I have seen a lot of people that are great at the range have problems in the field.

Oh yeah,be really lucky too...

I'm not a good deer hunter. I've just managed to get lucky for the last 2 seasons.

Use a blind/stand about 30% of the time, the other 70% it's no stand, no blinds, play the wind, walk and stalk with a ghillie suit and dairy hand's stool strapped to my rear end: