|
Post by ozark on Mar 9, 2009 16:51:59 GMT -5
The areas that we hunt are often sometimes not even simular. Here in the hills where three jumps puts the deer in concealment is different from the corn and bean fields where open areas are seperated sometimes by brush gullies. In some areas dogs are used and in many cases they come into gardens and on lawns to eat the flowers and vegitables. In the wilderness areas seeing a human is rare and in others they feed in plain sight of people going about their business. My point: I think deer adapt to all these differing conditions. Some learn to find food in snow and some never sees snow. The tactics used with success is NY could be wrong for Indiana. In some areas a spooked deer quickly puts a long distance between itself and preceived danger. In another, they may simply step into cover and stand. It is my thinking that I am a good deer hunter in some places but that my tactics might fail miserably where you live. Would love to hear some techniques you folks living in the north and deep south use. Ozark
|
|
|
Post by huntingmike on Mar 9, 2009 20:40:28 GMT -5
In TN. we have high mountains (some wilderness walk in only areas) to flat land corn and bean fields with everything in between within a few hours drive. In the East there are probably as many bear or boar as there are deer. It is a great challenge. Still hunting to slow stalking is probably the most productive. No dogs allowed for deer anywhere. To even see a deer can be hard. The farther west you go you will find more deer. It is more agricultural more food more deer. A lot more with a three a day bag limit for does for the entire season that starts in Sept. and ends in Jan. With a three buck a year limit. The most productive method is to hunt the fields. If you want meat hunt middle to west. If you want a large rack hunt the mountains. One exception for a large rack is to hunt Fort Campbell military base on the Ky line. Fields but also with dense pine thickets where you just about have to hunt from a tree stand. We almost have it all.
(We will have our first ELK hunt this year. On the North Cumberland mountains. They were just reintroduced a few short years ago. Just 5 lucky hunters for the first hunt.)
When I started hunting a long time ago the annual deer harvest for the entire state was approx. 500. I think I heard 160,000 + are reported harvested each year now.
You have heard people say remember the good old days. This is the good old days in TN. I am glad I lived long enough to see it.
|
|
|
Post by wilmsmeyer on Mar 14, 2009 6:03:50 GMT -5
In bow season and early gun season we hunt from tree stands exclusively. No walking around except to get to stands. It's usually for big bucks only. Lately, to us, that's 130+. Approaches are thought out using terrain and wind. Even though we have ample hunting ground, it is by no means a 20,000 acre plot. (probably 1500 acres) We are surrounded by hunting pressure and occationally are infringed upon from the roads and boundries deep in the woods.
Our terrain is a large swamp, many open rolling feilds, old pine stands, hardwood gullies, uncut corn fields and overgrown pastures. Deer are over-abundant but they adapt to hunting pressure the same as anywhere else.
Later in the season, most people have given up, got a deer or it's too cold for all but the die hards. Our camp is nothing but die hards. During this time, we may sit a little in the am. Then a few of us cruise the roads for 1/2 hr or so and check out for other hunters who may be out and generally do a patrol of the perimeters. If the coast is clear, we will put on selective drives using the wind as a "driver". We absolutely push deer over the lines because deer will do whatever they want. The drives we do are like chess moves in a way. If we do not have the right mix of people....the right wind....or there are obvious escape routes left open...NO DRIVE.
Also, if people are out there we may do a drive in an area where they would not have a good chance to play off of us OR wait until 15 minutes before legal hunting daylight end and do the drive anyway...counting on the climax of the event to happen at the last minute.
Late deer season brings out the "coyote" in this group of hunters and some of our best bucks on the wall were the reward along with 90% of our doe kill each year.
We have also been known to see a drive develop by bordering hunters at mid day late in the season. Then we may just run to some strategic stands and sit...never know....
I personally like the earlier parts of the season where sitting and catching a deer off guard, unharassed. But they are all part of the soup.
|
|
|
Post by dougedwards on Mar 15, 2009 8:16:06 GMT -5
I have reported in the Smokeless section of this forum that my 50 cal Savage will do anything that a .40 or .45 could do for me and do it just as well because of the terrain in which I hunt. Even though I practice shooting at 250 yards I have never had the opportunity to harvest a whitetail in excess of 70 yards, most being within 50 yards. Heck.....my Excalibur crossbow could almost be used at those distances!
I hunt on some local leased property, on a military camp which is available to the public for a fee and also on federal land in the mountains of Virginia. Middle and eastern Virginia is full of thick vegetation and the deer head there during daylight hours when they feel pressured. It is in these areas that hunt clubs use deer hounds to push the deer out of the thickness and into areas that hunters might have access to them. That type of hunting isn't for me.
The George Washington National Forest in the western part of the state offers some rough terrain but still here you will find very few areas in which you can see over 100 yards around you. Also this federal land is heavily populated with hunters who might come from many of the bordering states. Which is why I choose to make the mountains an endurance test for me so that I might be able to get away from the public hunters by climbing to places that most hunters aren't willing to go.
Part of the reason that I hunt in such close quarters isn't because of the terrain available to me but because I can't extract the bowhunter from my hunting consciousness. I rarely am attracted to large open feeding areas as most of my scouting revolves around trails leading from bedding areas. This tactic has worked well for me but I do try to open my perspective somewhat but I always find myself reverting back to my old ways. It is just something about hearing the deer first......then feeling my heart beat so hard that I just know that the deer can hear it.....that attracts me. I don't quite get the same feeling on long range shots.
|
|
|
Post by northny on Mar 15, 2009 19:13:38 GMT -5
Where I do most my hunting now is in the St Lawrence seaway valley a few miles from Canadian boarder. Mainly dairy farms, land is fairly flat as we are north of the Adirondack mountains. Fields and timber mixed. Brush, ridges, beaver swamps. Quite a bit different from the southern tier of NY where I hunted for 25 years.
Up north, every day in the season is pretty much the same as opening day except when the rut is on, then it gets better. The pressure is not severe, there is a lot of land and the deer density is not high like the southern tier. So the odds of seeing a buck on day 7 or 17about the same as day one. About the 50th day the rut is on. (I did say 50th, bow season starts about Sept 27, MZ about Oct 15, rifle begins Oct 21)
We tend to sit watching trails in woods or fields. We do not do drives, too much timber and too many escape traills. We have several acres of feeding plots (1 to three acres) and a several shooting plots ( half to one acre).
The food plots do tend to concentrate deer so we can take does fairly easily. After decades of bucks only, (except bow hunting), the buck to doe ratio was way off. The state moved to does by permit in rifle season only about five years ago. Muzzeloader is buck or doe. We do pick up some nice 8 pts in the fields, but the big boys are killed either in the thick stuff or during the rut.
We currently shoot as many does as we legally can. We even brought in a few neighbors to help. I guestimate we have moved doe buck ratio from 10 to one to five to one.
We also have trail access to a number of enclosed blinds (ground and elevated). So we have a few octenegarians hunt with us. If they can ride in a golf cart, and still shoot, they can manage. Since we have tractors and UTVs around the property year round working the fields, the deer tend to be tolerant of dropping off someone for a hunt. But we try not to drive around early or late in the day when working property. You can drop someone off mid day for an afternoon hunt, and have deer show up 10 minutes later.
Tuesdays deer report: at 2 pm we had nine deer in one 3 acre feeding plot. They seem to have come throught the winter in good shape. Not bad for a county with less than 15 deer per sq mile.
|
|
|
Post by ozark on Mar 15, 2009 20:04:00 GMT -5
Anyone use the phases of the moon to judge deer feeding periods? Many here do and one TV Station gives the prime feeding times. Many also say if the cattle are up and feeding the deer are also plus the fish are biting. Some will not hunt with a east wind blowing. In my lifetime I have never seen anything close to a 50/50 Buck/doe ratio. But among fawns I see as many of one sex as the other.
|
|