“It’s rare during the early season that you will find me hunting mornings,” he said. “It’s because I won’t know where the deer are in the morning. Everyone said that deer feed all night and head back to the beds in the morning. Well, I’ve not found that to be true. And, since I don’t know where those deer are, I don’t want to risk spooking them. In the morning, what hunters are trying to do is move into a bedding area an hour before it gets light and set up their stand. That’s very difficult. An hour before light, that deer can be anywhere, which means there is a good possibility you will spook it. That big deer likes to roam when it’s dark out. So that’s why I stay away in the mornings. During an early-season hunt when you go into your spot in the afternoon, you just know that deer is bedded.”

Urbas is so concerned about tipping off a deer to his presence that he mounts his stand on the day of the hunt.

“I seldom put stands up early,” he said. “I prefer to put my stand up on the opening day, that is if the wind is right. If the wind is not right, I won’t even go there. I think it’s a high risk to set up a day or two before because you create a situation that will put an older buck on alert. The big deer might change its routine if it notices a change in the landscape or picks up an unusual scent. I’m real particular about spooking deer. You can go into an area too much and push a deer into another area or routine just because they don’t want to put up with you in their area. That’s why I like setting up the day of the hunt.”

Is stand placement important? It is, according to Urbas.

“I vary where I put the stand, but I like to be anywhere from 15 to 30 feet high,” Urbas explained. “I like to be high where I might not be skylined easily. If I have a lot of cover and some branches to break up my pattern, 15 feet high is fine. The height of the stand just depends on where the deer is going to come in, whether he can skyline spot me, and how much cover I have.”

When it comes to scent control during the actual season, Urbas considers himself, well, let’s let him describe it. “I’m probably considered extreme when it comes to scent control, but I’m telling you, those deer can smell everything, and if they get one whiff of something unusual, it will make them change their pattern and put them on alert.”