In-season scouting is fine, to a certain extent. Crashing through timber and bumping deer from their beds is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Try to limit in-season scouting to walking field edges and long-distance glassing.

I am fortunate to have a job that puts me out in good whitetail habitat on almost a daily basis. Besides owning a tree farm where I grow shade and landscape trees, I am also a tree planting contractor for various conservation projects. Each spring I plant tree seedlings on a number of sites, most of which are privately owned lands that have been enrolled in conservation programs such as CRP and WRP.

This past spring, I was once again planting seedlings in a prime deer area when I mentally noted two promising locations for tree stands. As my work brought me closer to these potential stand sites, I noticed that another hunter had also discovered these travel corridors and already had his tree stands in place. As I continued to work in the area, it dawned on me that this was not the first time that I had spotted a location that I thought was a prime spot for a tree stand and upon further investigation found that there was already a stand in place. These incidents have not only happened while I was doing these tree plantings, but have also happened a number of times over the years as various other activities brought me into good deer habitat.

A thought really hit home with me that day. It became clear that most hunters are actually pretty good at stand placement. I have seen a number of stands hung by others that I would feel confident hunting from if conditions were right. As I thought about it more, I wondered why more hunters did not kill monster whitetail bucks when so many of them are seemingly adept at stand placement. As I continued to dwell on the matter, a number of other reasons came to mind as to why many hunters fail to realize the potential of their hunting areas when hunting from well chosen stand sites. Here is what I consider the most common mistakes that hunters make to ruin otherwise good stand sites.

Play The Wind
Failure to consider wind direction is likely the primary downfall of many hunters. Nothing can ruin a great stand site faster than hunting it with a bad wind. Successful veteran hunters have preached this for decades, but still a lot of hunters fail to heed the advice. This is likely due to the fact that many hunters simply do not appreciate how keen a whitetails nose actually is and how seriously a mature buck takes a slight hint of human odor. Whitetails in general, and mature bucks in particular, will respond to odors the same way that you respond to sights. A buck standing 100 yards downwind of your stand smelling a hint of human odor isn't going to come marching past your location any more than you are going to follow four masked men carrying guns into a bank. You will back away and wait to make your deposit on another day. The buck will back away and change course and possibly his destination as well. What's more, he will remember the incident and be much less likely to come through the area for some time, probably for the rest of the hunting season. At the very least he will be a lot more cautious and likely scent check the area from downwind before passing through.

Every good stand will have certain wind directions that allow for good hunting as well as others that will not. I have had hunters tell me that they have stands that they can hunt with any wind because the deer show up from any direction. My response is simple. That stand is not in the right location. You cannot give up the wind and hope to have consistent success with mature bucks. It will never work and nothing will ruin a good stand faster than hunting it with the wrong wind.