Leaving the stand while surrounded by deer

Last night at the end of my hunt i was wondering how I was going to get to my car with out spooking everything out of the field. I hunt the edge of a rye field and have a quarter mile walk to my car. I’ve spooked numerous deer in the past and I hate doing that. I called my brother to come pick me up with the truck to scare the deer with something other than seeing a human. What do you guys do? It seems if you scare them from a field they become nocturnal. They moved into the brush and I was able to escape undetected. I’m just curious to hear what others do. Any input is welcomed.

For the record I gave my boots a shot of nose jammer. I had several deer very close down wind and i was not winded.

Thanks, Steve

we prefer to use a vehicle also. Just depends on the stand location of course.I have used a Gatorade bottle tossed out into the stuff out of the stanD. I also know guys who use a coyote call.

Vehicles do the least amount of damage in my opinion. Often times that is just not an option, like Kooty said a bottle or a loud grunt call. Anything is better than having them realize exactly where you were sitting by packing up while they are close. I actually hit a nubbin with a bottle a few years back and he still wouldn’t leave the food plot

Vehicles are definitely the best way in my opinion. Think about it, Farmers are always driving around farm equipment and what not. It will do a lot less educating than jumping down from your stand.

I’ve seen a good loud snort wheeze work, the deer often walk out of the field only to return in about 20 minutes.

Thanks for the replies. I like the bottle idea. Maybe throw the bottle in the direction of your car and pick it up on the way out. Thanks again! Good luck for the rest of this season!

I am forced to walk out and unfortunately spook them. I don’t want to get pinched for being in the stand after legal shooting time so it is what it is.

Nothing illegal about sitting in a treestand after shooting hours. As I’ve been told just don’t have an arrow nocked or gun loaded. If you can’t get out but can move enough to lower your bow to the ground that would make it pretty obvious too. Or case it in a soft easy to pack case.

Two weekends ago I sat in my tree a half hour past quitting time as 3 deer came in just at dark and walked out on the only real path I had out of the valley.

As for deer in the field, if your really stealthy and use the wind it is possible to walk right by them in the dark. I’ve done this many times, though I have always had a cut cornfield to sneak around them on which you can walk and hardly make a peek there (was chopped so no stubble left in field). I’ve started now on a couple stands I have that require traversing about 500 yards of field to get to the tree line and then another 200 to 400 yards to the stand(s), driving the ATV out to the treeline. There is a tree just on the other side of the old pasture fence in some overgrown pasture (that buffers the field and woods) I hide it under and then walk in the rest of the way. Being farm country the deer don’t seem to care too much about the ATV when I leave at night, even the ones right in my path just trot off far enough to get out of the way and then just watch me.

The ones that get me are every now and then when you don’t notice one as your walking out. Had one a couple years ago that my exis from the woods was thru a downed spot in a pasture fence and I then skirted along the edge of a corn field (not cut yet). I didn’t see/know there was a doe about 2 rows into that cornfield right near when I cross the fence. As I’m stepping out into the field edge she let me know she was there, think I jumped about 10′ into the air and was still shaking from the adrenaline surge when I got back to the house (which was still a good 500-600 yards from where the incident occurred).

I used to sit until pitch black at my old place, when I had a crapload of deer in the field. They wouldn’t scatter until I was on the ground about 20 yards from my stand and I would turn on a flashlight… they would scram and would always be back the next night.