HOW OFTEN YOU SHOULD HUNT A STAND

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The Roost Hunting Lodge near Aliceville, Alabama, close to the Mississippi border, has a reputation of being a place where hunters have a fairly good opportunity of taking a quality buck because of the lodge's management practices. George Mayfield, who owns The Roost, talks today about how often you should hunt a stand.

QUESTION: How often can you hunt a stand and still prevent the deer from avoiding the area?

ANSWER: There's really no set pattern to that, but The Roost tries to keep a record of who has hunted which stands and when they've hunted those stands. Although we don't live or die by our records, we do try to rotate the regions we hunt. Some stands get hunted more often because you'll always see deer around them.

We're very careful also about the wind's direction when we hunt. If the wind's wrong, we won't go into that section of land. For instance, The Roost has a 104-acre greenfield with five shooting houses on it. We don't put people in all the houses at one time. However, we will place a hunter in one of the five houses. We'll choose which house for the hunter to be according to the wind.

Never spook a buck if you can help it. Remember, once you see a buck, you can kill him. The problem comes when the does move out early into an area and start milling around. Make sure you don't spook those does. The closer to the rut you hunt, the more important remembering that information and doing something about it becomes.

Call or write George Mayfield at The Roost, P.O. Box 509, Aliceville, AL 35442, (205) 373-3147 for more information.

TOMORROW: COMMON MISTAKES HUNTERS MAKE ON THEIR STANDS THAT PREVENT THEM FROM TAKING DEER

Check back each day this week for more from George Mayfield...

Day One - Visiting The Roost In Aliceville, AL
Day Two - How The Roost Raises Deer...
Day Three - Where You Should Set Up Your Stand...
Day Four - How Often You Should Hunt A Stand
Day Five - Common Mistakes Hunters Make...

John's Journal