Does anyone else hold off?

[Patriot]

The farm I hunt is about 300 acres I'd guess.  I only hunt the weekends and am making a strong effort to only hunt perfect winds. 
 
I also will try not to overhunt certain stands.
 
By doing that, I plan to keep it as fresh as possible.

[OHhunter]

I hunt several farms, one I refer to as my primary spot. I don't start hunting it till later in the season (last week or two of Oct.). The others I hunt often during the early season, mainly because a few other people have permission to hunt them, and they usually start hitting the woods hard towards the end of October.

[t99civicsi]

Right around the early opener i'm itching to get out there mainly because its been 9 months since i could scratch my deer hunting itch. I actually got my early doe on my second evening out (9/21 here in PA) and now i'll leave the patch of woods quiet until the buck opener...worst part of early season for me is the dang mosquitos, man they drive me nuts!!!!

[Marc Anthony]

The earlier, the better for me. We don't open here in IL. until Oct 1st, which is why I'm hunting KY. right now. I like to get the bucks before they go into their pre-rut mode. Find where they sleep now and you'll have them in your garage opening week. The early season is by far the easiest way to kill a trophy buck, IMHO.

[Cut N Run]

I won't hunt until muzzleloader in early November, even though the archery season is open now.  If I had the crossbow I want, I would probably be singing a different tune. Even then, I would likely stay away from the lease and hunt other properties around here just so I wouldn't mess my hunting buddies up, who only gun hunt.
 
Even though you can sometimes pattern a good buck early in the season, the rut is a fun time to hunt.
 
Jim

[buckhunter21]

ORIGINAL: hunt4fun

Not exactly.  I choose to hunt only the fringes of land early on.  It's like leaving almost all the land as a sanctuary, then the sanctuary decreases the closer it gets to the rut.  However, this year, our bow season started September 15th and I still have not made it out yet.  It is just so warm still that I have chosen to just dove hunt instead for a while. 

 
This is about how I do it.  Hunt the fringes, and move in as the rut gets closer.  WI season opened two weekends ago, and I've been out twice since then, both fairly warm, but I've seen quite a few deer both times.  I just don't like sweating!  [:'(]

[Goose]

I relate to Ohhunter because I am fortunate enough to hunt several areas. This gives me the option of sitting with the absolute perfect wind.
On our main property we hunt mainly the outskirts or closest stands if the wind is right......if the wind is wrong, we don't hunt.
As stated above our season opened on the 12th, we run a good number of cameras on our land and using them to gauge behavior, it doesn't look like we are impacting them yet.
 
I wish I had your patience to wait, but in the same sense, I sure do enjoy sitting out there watching and observing deer!

[69Viking]

Here in the South our season starts late enough (Oct. 15th) so I won't even consider holding off part of my vocabulary! I'm new to bow hunting and we get 5 weeks before the rifle season starts to bow hunt. I think with my limited experience with a bow and hunting in treestands it's going to be challenge enough for me to get a deer of any kind in that 5 weeks so I'll be out there as soon and as often as I can family obligations permitting!

[buckhunter21]

ORIGINAL: Goose

I relate to Ohhunter because I am fortunate enough to hunt several areas. This gives me the option of sitting with the absolute perfect wind.
On our main property we hunt mainly the outskirts or closest stands if the wind is right......if the wind is wrong, we don't hunt.
As stated above our season opened on the 12th, we run a good number of cameras on our land and using them to gauge behavior, it doesn't look like we are impacting them yet.

I wish I had your patience to wait, but in the same sense, I sure do enjoy sitting out there watching and observing deer!

 
I echo those comments.  Even though I don't like sweating early season getting to my stand, it beats sitting on a couch....but as stated, only hunt the fringes, and only hunt with the right wind.  We have two different 80s, so it gives me some options!

[Ohio farms]

Early in the year I hunt the perimeter of my woods so as not to walk all over the property. I don't like to hunt deer in warm weather, mostly because of quickly cooling the meat.  I have a couple bags of ice in a cooler in my car, but it's still a pain.  Low 60's is nice.
Years ago you could only shoot 1 deer in my county, so if I shot a deer in October, my hunting was done.  Now, it is much more liberal, so I get to hunt pretty much all of the different weapon seasons.