Typically, the first time a stand is hunted is the best time to arrow a mature buck. The author chooses to leave his best stand sites alone until the rut kicks in. This allows the author to hunt fresh stands throughout most of the breeding season.

Sneak In, Sneak Out
Another mistake that hunters make to ruin a good stand site is the route they take to and from their stands. They seem to think that the key to success is the location of their stand, period. A good stand also has a good entrance and exit route. Often this route is not the shortest or easiest path to the stand, but instead requires a longer walk and more effort. Many seemingly good stand sites actually turn out to be duds when the approach route is considered. You must be able to get to your stand without nearby deer seeing, smelling or hearing you. To be successful, an archery hunter needs to hunt deer that are calm and relaxed. These are deer that will be moving naturally and comfortably. This is especially true when hunting for mature bucks.

Getting to your stand unseen often means taking an out of the way route where you are not likely to encounter deer. It also often requires utilizing terrain features such as ditches, swales and other depressions to keep a low profile as you travel to your stand. A good entrance route also allows you to access your stand without your scent blowing into areas where you expect deer to be. Spooking deer before you get to your stand is a sure-fire way to decrease your odds of success in a big way. Be sure and set your stands so that the favorable wind that you need to hunt those stands is also the same wind needed to access it. Finally, your approach needs to be quiet. Stomping through a carpet of dried leaves can kill game activity near your stand for several hours. A much better option is to follow the soft banks of a creek or another quiet path.

Fresh Stands
If you have thought things out and have a plan to access and hunt your stands with specific favorable winds, you could still doom your chances of success by over hunting them. It is a natural tendency for any of us to keep going to those stands that keep producing deer sightings. We give ourselves a false sense of security by thinking that since we are still seeing deer, everything must be fine. This is seldom the case. It is a well accepted opinion amongst successful trophy whitetail hunters that the first time you hunt a stand is the best time to kill a mature buck from it. With every subsequent hunt your odds of success go down rapidly. I firmly believe in this theory and will often leave stands alone until specific periods during the season. For example, I have stands that I save just for the rut and even some that don't get hunted until the late season. This allows me to continually hunt fresh stands throughout the season.