Top_Heavy's World

The pros all tell us the answer is yes. "The first time in a stand is the best time" is often heard or read in the How To stuff by the well known writers. I am here to tell you that in some locations or circumstances, the answer is NO! You can hunt a stand every proper wind all season long, and even hunt some of the wrong winds, and not burn out a stand.
Kevin McDonald of Eastern Iowa harvested the top typical archery deer of 2007, how did he do it? He found a buck on a property he couldn't hunt, he set a stand as close as he could and sat in it until the buck came to his side of the fence... 30 plus sits and over 17 sightings finally offered him his chance to arrow the high 190"s super top end deer.
I recently harvested a low 190" nontypical by sitting in a E or NE wind stand over 15 times and on that 42 acre property more than 20 times. I walked in on only 2 trails and sat in 4 different stands total.

How do you do it?
First, I realize that big bucks have small core areas and it is almost impossible to move into that tiny area they know so well and not get caught. This being said, if you are out of the tiny area of use, you wont see the big deer much. You must be at a low impact junction very close to the high use areas of these big deer. When a big deer is located, you need to hunt that area often, as the deer will surely be back. If you don't hunt where he is, or spends time, you won't kill him!
This works for deer that you have patterned for the summer, as was the case with the McDonald buck. You can determine the main area, watch the deer and spend weeks picking the best location to ambush him. This can also be done after th rut, as the deer have a simple and small routine again, the rut is the most chancey time of the year.
You can also watch the deer for years, as core areas change and brushy areas grow up, deer get into a routine and with some patience you can put yourselves in the more common areas or escape routes, as I did for my deer this fall. The key is to locate a big deer and spend some time getting him/his habits figured out

Sorry, will finish this when the kids go to sleep!