The All-Day Sit

By Jacob Robinson

There comes a morning every November when you pack more food than usual.

An extra bottle of water goes in the bag. Maybe a sandwich. Maybe two. A hand warmer gets shoved into a pocket. You climb into the stand before daylight knowing you might still be sitting there when the sun starts going down.

Because it’s November.

And somewhere out there, a buck is looking for a doe.

The Morning Rush

Most deer hunters know the rhythm.

Get settled before daylight. Listen to the woods wake up. Watch the first shapes appear between the trees.

Then wait.

The first few hours of daylight have earned their reputation. Deer that fed during the night are working their way toward bedding cover. Bucks may be checking fields, trails and doe groups before disappearing into thicker country.

During the rut, that morning movement can stretch later than usual.

Eight o’clock becomes nine.

Nine becomes ten.

Eventually the woods get quiet.

That’s usually when the temptation starts.

You’ve been sitting for five hours. Your legs hurt. The coffee is gone. Nothing has moved for forty-five minutes.

Deer camp starts sounding pretty good.

So hunters begin climbing down.

And sometimes that’s exactly when the woods get interesting.

The Buck That Doesn’t Own a Watch

A buck searching for a receptive doe isn’t following your hunting schedule.

He may spend the morning with one group of does and leave them at 10:15.

He may get pushed from a bedding area.

He may catch the scent of a doe and follow it across a property.

He may simply be cruising.

Whatever the reason, the rut creates something deer hunters don’t get nearly as often during the rest of the season:

legitimate midday movement.

Not every buck moves at noon.

Not every property suddenly becomes busy in the middle of the day.

But during November, there is enough daylight movement outside the traditional morning and evening windows that climbing down automatically can cost you opportunities.

The longer you’re in the woods, the greater the chance you’re sitting there when one of those bucks comes through.

Simple as that.

Where You Sit Matters

An all-day sit doesn’t mean picking any stand on the property and refusing to leave it.

Some places are simply better suited for it.

A food source may be excellent during the first or last hour of daylight but nearly empty for the rest of the day.

A travel corridor can be different.

Funnels between bedding areas are especially interesting during the rut because bucks can use them while checking multiple groups of does.

Pinch points can concentrate movement.

Creek crossings can do the same.

So can saddles, fence gaps, narrow strips of timber and inside corners where deer naturally travel.

And then there are the downwind sides of doe bedding areas.

A buck doesn’t always need to walk directly into a bedding area to find out whether a receptive doe is there. He can cruise the downwind edge and let his nose do the work.

Put yourself along one of those routes and suddenly 11:43 in the morning doesn’t seem like such a strange time to see a deer.

The Hardest Hours

The difficult part of an all-day sit usually isn’t sunrise.

It’s early afternoon.

The morning excitement is gone. You’ve already eaten half the food you packed. You’ve checked the same patch of woods about six hundred times.

Nothing has moved.

This is where an all-day sit becomes a mental game.

You start negotiating with yourself.

I’ll give it another thirty minutes.

Then:

I’ll climb down at one.

Then:

Maybe I’ll just move to another stand.

Sometimes moving is the right call.

But unnecessary movement creates scent, noise and disturbance. It also creates the possibility that the buck you’ve been waiting for walks underneath your empty stand twenty minutes after you leave.

If you’re sitting good sign, the wind is right and you’re positioned where bucks should be traveling, boredom isn’t necessarily a reason to move.

Sometimes hunting is just waiting longer than you wanted to.

Pack Like You’re Staying

An all-day hunt gets considerably worse when you prepare for a three-hour hunt.

Bring enough water.

Bring food that can be eaten quietly.

Dress for the coldest part of the day, but remember that walking in overloaded and sweating before daylight can make you miserable once you stop moving.

Layers matter.

So do dry socks.

Hand warmers weigh almost nothing.

A seat cushion suddenly becomes one of mankind’s greatest inventions around hour seven.

A portable battery isn’t a bad addition either, especially if your phone is also your mapping tool.

And deal with the obvious before you climb the tree.

Ten hours is a long time to regret that second gas-station coffee.

Comfort isn’t about turning deer hunting into a living room.

It’s about eliminating the little reasons that convince you to quit early.

Don’t Let the Rut Make You Reckless

There is another side to staying all day.

Fatigue.

After hours in a tree, people get stiff. Cold. Distracted.

Take your time standing up.

Stay attached when you’re hunting from an elevated stand.

Keep your gear organized.

And don’t let the appearance of a buck turn ten hours of safe hunting into ten seconds of bad decisions.

The goal is to hunt all day and climb down safely when it’s over.

Sometimes You Should Leave

An all-day sit isn’t a religion.

There are times when getting down makes sense.

The wind changes.

Human activity alters the area.

You’ve learned something that makes another location clearly better.

Weather moves in.

Or you’ve realized you’re simply sitting in the wrong place.

Staying all day only works when staying gives you an advantage.

There is no prize for spending eleven hours in a bad stand.

The point isn’t stubbornness.

It’s being willing to stay when the situation says you should.

The Second Morning

Then something strange happens.

The afternoon begins.

Shadows get longer.

The temperature starts dropping.

Birds become active again.

And after sitting through the dead middle of the day, the woods begin waking up for a second time.

It almost feels like another morning.

Deer start moving toward evening food sources. Does filter through. A buck that spent the afternoon bedded with a doe may begin moving again.

And now you’re already there.

No walking in.

No climbing.

No fresh ground scent.

You’ve been part of the woods for hours.

That’s one of the quiet advantages of the all-day sit that doesn’t get talked about enough.

When evening arrives, you didn’t just get there.

You were waiting.

Stay a Little Longer

Most all-day sits don’t end with a giant buck walking underneath the stand at noon.

That’s the truth.

Sometimes you sit from dark to dark and see very little.

Sometimes you question every decision that brought you there.

And sometimes, at 11:27 on a Tuesday morning, you hear leaves crunching behind you.

A buck appears where there wasn’t a deer thirty seconds earlier.

He’s walking quickly.

Nose down.

Going somewhere.

And suddenly the sandwich, the cold feet, the aching back and the six hours of staring at empty timber don’t matter very much.

That’s November.

You can’t make a buck walk past your stand.

But you can be there when he does.