There are two ways to go about selecting a stand site for hunting whitetails in November: 1) select a convenient spot to use one or more store-bought attractants (lures) claimed to make bucks and other deer helplessly vulnerable to stand hunting or 2) select a spot adjacent to a trail or whitetail feeding or bedding area that will be frequented by bucks and other deer, based on deer signs, expected whitetail habits and range utilization and locations of foods (especially browse) favored by whitetails at this time of the year. Hardly anyone uses the second method these days because it requires learning more about whitetails and extensive old-fashioned scouting. Is this a mistake? It depends on the kind of deer you would prefer to take: a young and inexperienced fawn or yearling (buck or doe) or a mature whitetail 2-1/2 years of age or older, likely a trophy-class buck. If taking a mature buck is your goal, your odds for success will be considerably greater if you use the second method. Why? One reason is, because millions of American whitetail hunters have been using attractants to try to lure dream bucks to stand sites since the mid-1980s, there is hardly a surviving mature buck in America today that does not recognize the danger of popularly-used attractants (including foods and minerals) during hunting seasons. If the first method is your accustomed method of selecting a stand site, sooner or later the mature bucks in your hunting area (their numbers not particularly threatened by you or any other hunter) will have you believing the buck/doe ratio in your hunting area is very low and something should be done about it.

When this happens, it’s time to get serious about learning truths about whitetail habits and the rut and scouting. If you’ve never done much knowledgeable scouting, once you begin you will soon be amazed by knowing what to look for can do for hunting success. Things like: this stand  site has never been used before, very fresh tracks and/or droppings of a mature buck are within easy shooting distance and this area is loaded with favorite whitetail browse plants such as red osiers and/or sugar maple suckers growing from stumps (in a clearcut) or scattered broken shells of acorns are three of eight characteristics my three sons and I keep our eyes pealed for when scouting because they contribute so greatly to making our stand sites mature-buck-effective. Like our hunting successes (101 mature bucks taken since 1990), your hunting successes sure to follow knowledgeable stand site selections will likely begin to fool other hunters in surroundng areas into believing your hunting area, originally thought to be devoid of mature bucks like theirs, must now be unfairly loaded with mature bucks.