Rough Start to the 2020 Archery Season

I love to bow hunt but my spot reminds me of the Detroit Lions, lots of ups and downs and plenty of disappointments.

I have been out either in the morning or evening at least once every day since archery season started for whitetail deer in Michigan, well except today.

I have been hunting this property for two years now and I'm no closer to figuring it out yet. I have hunted a long time and most locations, it has never taken me that long to figure out a spot as it has this one.

Last year, my land was like a daycare center for deer, nothing but deer under 2.5 years old and man are they spooked in my area. Even in the spring when there is no season in, the deer mainly move at night and even if one is out and say, 200 or 300 yards away, they run off like it is gun season if they notice me.

My neighbor says the problem started with the last owners of the property just shooting at everything. Even an area farmer said that the deer in the area do not act like the deer in thirty minutes in each direction. I thought I was losing my mind but the farmer knew exactly what I was talking about, especially since he owns or farms land in different areas near me.

The farmer was telling me he thinks it has been bred into them since there is high hunting pressure in the area and possibly some people who are just shooting them off corn piles to survive since there is not really a booming economy in the area where I live.

Usually when I see deer in the spring or summer, they are not spooked, they know it's not season and feel safe and just go on about there business. Heck at my last house they would walk through the yard while I was mowing my lawn.

So far when I go out to my stand the deer are already there and I just kick them out which is better than last year when I didn't see any at all most of the time.

The deer still move most of the time during the first half hour of light or the last half  hour of light. Even on my trail cameras you can see how they are constantly paranoid all year long, not just during season.

I have yet to figure out how to get in my stand in the morning and have only hunted one evening and that was on the ground with my son, since he is too small and young to take up in the tree stand. We did see three about a hundred yards away, we were down wind and they still ran out of the woods and into the field to head to the corn I had planted.

I'm going to let things calm down for a few days before heading back out and will hunt a different stand in the morning to try not a spook them but from the looks at my trail camera, the Amish in my area have already done a lot of damage hunting the youth hunt and early shotgun hunt and doing all the shooting. I was at least getting a few daytime photos before the Amish shot up the area but now all the photos are at night only and that is not good.

It I continue to have problems in the morning, I think I will hold off until the rut comes in and take my chances on a buck cruising for does. That may be my only way to even see a deer let alone take a shot.

I'm glad I put up a stand in Indiana this year, because if this keeps up, I'm going to have to hunt where the deer act normal instead of like they are paranoid weirdos like the ones on my land.