EDITOR'S NOTE: Greg Miller of Bloomer, Wisconsin, a member of the Hunter's Specialties Pro Staff, is the co-host of "North American Whitetail" TV show and the co-host with Tom Miranda on "Realtree's Whitetail Country" TV show on ESPN 2.

Question:
Greg, once you've used a Hunter's Specialties Rack Tracker camera to identify the big buck you want to take and to find the place you want to hunt during opening weekend of bow season (see previous week), how and when do you prepare your stand site for that first hunt of the season?

Miller:
I like to go to the stand site I'm planning to hunt at least 10 days to two weeks before I'll hunt there. I go ahead and cut limbs and shooting lanes and get this spot ready to hunt on opening weekend of bow season. I believe if you give deer 10 days or more without having any more hunters’ scent in their area, then they'll return to their normal and natural feeding patterns, even if they're trophy bucks.
To document this fact, I've set up a Hunter's Specialties Rack Tracker camera right under my tree stand before after I've gone in and cut shooting lanes. That camera generally shows me that within three or four days after I've put up my stand and cut my shooting lanes that the buck I've photographed in that area will start returning to that site at about the same time of day as we've photographed that buck earlier. I think you must be away from your stand site at least a minimum of 10 days before you plan to hunt it. Then the deer will get comfortable again and aren't expecting you to be there.
Another thing I've learned from my camera is not to hunt in the mornings in our part of the country. There's two outfitters who are friends of mine in Wisconsin who actually tell their hunters who come in for early-season deer hunting that they won't be hunting in the mornings. The reason for not hunting these deer in the mornings is because they're so pattern able in the afternoons. Getting to a place between the fields or the watering holes where these deer are coming in during the afternoons and their bedding sites without spooking the bucks is difficult. So rather than taking the chance of spooking the deer and running them off the property, the outfitters just don't hunt the mornings.
I've also learned that if my Hunter's Specialties' Rack Tracker camera is recording a large buck coming by the same place almost every afternoon, then my chances of taking that big buck are so much greater if I'll only hunt him in the afternoon. I won't even attempt to hunt that big buck in the mornings. I don't want to spook the deer I'm trying to take because I don't know where he's at or what time and when he'll be coming to his bedding site. However, I do know where and when he's coming to his feeding site. Therefore I'm less likely to spook the deer if I only hunt him in the afternoons.
This philosophy is one of the secrets of taking big bucks: if you don't spook a big buck, you'll have a really good chance of taking him. If you do spook the deer, you drastically reduce your odds of success. Therefore, you're better off hunting a big buck only when you're reasonably assured of taking him - the afternoons in our part of the country - rather than doggedly hunting that deer all day long.
Another advantage of hunting in the afternoons around field edges and water holes (see last week) is that in most regions you can drive right to the place you want to hunt with your pick-up truck or 4-wheeler, which deer are accustomed to seeing and smelling since they see farmers and ranchers riding and/or driving vehicles like this all year. So, if someone drives the vehicle right up to your stand, you get off the vehicle and climb immediately up into your tree stand and someone drives to your stand at night when the hunt is over and picks you up without your feet ever touching the ground, you can hunt from that same stand for several days, and the deer never will know you're there. But if you're walking around in the woods or through the fields, within a day or two, the deer will know you're there and won't come back out in that field until after dark.
One of my outfitting buddies who only hunts this way in the afternoons has seen the number of big bucks that his hunters take drastically increase by using this technique over when he once had his hunters in stands in the mornings and the afternoons. I think one of the reasons that more hunters don't take more big deer is because the older, more-mature bucks figure out the hunter's movement patterns before the hunter learns the big buck's movement pattern.