As a lifelong archery hunter, I thought I had made every mistake possible, that was until Oct. 2, 2019. It all unfolded on my first sit on a stand I had placed a couple months before. This area was one that I had hunted for several years and had only taken a handful of does, trying to let the younger bucks gain some size. The stand was set up just off a well-used travel route close to a handful full apple trees.

Through the summer I had several trail-camera pictures of the same two bucks, one a perfect 10-point and the ONE that had been slipping away from me the past two seasons, a stud of buck with a drop-off left main.

As things played out, everything was good for a nice evening hunt. Just like clockwork, the does started coming out, strolling by me at 14 yards, an easy shot, or so I thought. As the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, he showed his face. What a face it was, the drop tine buck II had been chasing. If all went as planned, he would stroll right by me, a chip shot away.

I was self-filming the hunt, I reached over to turn the camera on, everything was in focus, lighting was good and he kept walking my way. As he approached the kill-zone area, I shifted my feet and it happened — a squeak. The tail went up and off he went, never to be seen by me again. A neighbor’s son killed that buck later in the season.

That stand hadn’t made a sound in years. Why then did it spook off this buck? Well, I don’t know that answer because it did not make that sound the rest of the season after I took it down and worked on it.

If it creaks, tings, pops or squeaks, I suggest you fix it or get rid of it. Your stand location should be the closest you get to spooking any deer. When you make a successful stalk to your stand, the last thing you want to do is announce to the woods that you have arrived. Is a climber appropriate for these conditions? I think so, as long as the access is quiet, limbs are precut and your climb is dead quiet.

Here are a few more mistakes that have been made over the years, or so I have been told.

Although there is a way to effectively hang a bow any time of the year, earlier is typically better — to a point. When I can actually prioritize the time, I like to set my stands so that the signs of clearing shooting lanes are brown, crisp and dead by the time I hunt. That typically means an Aug. 1 cutoff in most areas. By the time a mature buck moves into his preferred fall habitat closer to Oct. 1, he shouldn’t be able to tell if the changes to the area were completed during late winter, or mid-summer. As long as the cut limbs and brush have completely died, it will all look the same to a mature buck.

Like I have said time and time again, keep practicing during bow season. A couple years ago, actually, I spent so much time planting plots, installing tree stands, setting game cams and cutting habitat improvements that my shooting time took a back seat. It was a slow progression, but eventually my shooting skills began to suffer. Shooting early and often will not only make sure your muscles are in shape, but it will also give you time to work on any inconsistencies in shooting form, or symptoms of target panic.

In order to consistently connect on a mature buck during the early season, you have to know exactly where he beds during the day, feeds at night, and how he gets there and back. Recognizing the natural lay of the land and both quality feeding and bedding areas is the first step, but there are also ways to increase your odds! Mineral stations, waterholes and mock scrapes can all be used to make sure that the patterns of use you are hunting are established early, often and consistently throughout the entire hunting season.

No matter where you are hunting if the deer herd can smell you, hear you or see you while you access your early bow season stands, then it will be nearly impossible to run into a mature buck. Only improving the habitat in areas that you do not expect to access through during hunting season is an important practice, but so is making sure that your access trails are clutter free and quiet. Your goal should be to get in and out of your hunting stands while leaving as little hunting pressure behind as possible.

When you get the entire movement figured out, you have enhanced the movement and entered your stand with the prowess of an elusive cat; where is your scent blowing? Scent control starts with your stand location. During an early bow season hunt you often have to allow many deer to pass before a mature buck travels by, so it is vital that you can blow your scent into a non-deer area.

During the rut it’s best to place a premium on morning stands, but this is not the case during early bow season here in whitetail country. I love hunting in the early season. During the early season, bucks are pretty much in their bedding area early, but if you sit all day and are near high-quality food sources, some will get up for a midday snack.

If you can hunt a morning stand without hindering a high-quality evening hunt then, by all means, go for it. But during the early bow season a hunter should never risk a low-value morning sit at the expense of a high-value evening sit.

Many potential sits are hindered each year by trail cam overuse. I rely on trail cams to a great degree for my mature buck-hunting efforts, but I am very careful to not add additional pressure to the lines of deer movement on the lands that I hunt. Changing SD cards while accessing bow stands, nighttime social area placement and cell cams are all ways to use trail cams as non-invasively as possible. This is why cell cameras are quickly becoming the norm in the hunting world. Placing your cameras and leaving them, while still getting pictures via cell is a huge plus and keeps areas undisturbed.

After your strategy is set, leave it alone, don’t second-guess yourself until there is a reason to. There is nothing better than a high-quality, early bow season set that has been allowed to age like a fine wine, after weeks of absolutely zero human pressure. Often, hunter activity peaks as opening day approaches, so it pays to be one of the few hunters in the area whose preparation activities are actually decreasing as the season draws near, instead of increasing.

Making mistakes makes us better hunters, but the key is to keep mistakes to a minimum and learn from them.