Too Much Hunting - Opinion

[rappstar]

Well I just finished my last day of hunting before rifle season.  It's probably just me, but I feel like I have the best opportunity before the guns start going off...

Anyways, this has been a pretty dismal season from a deer standpoint.  I shot a small button buck on my first outing (9/17), I had a couple of other shot opps later in Sept, then the season went into a tailspin.

I'm coming off 58 hours in the stand over 5.5 days.  One last hoorah...no buck.

I've been hunting my property since childhood so I'm very familiar with it.  

For the past 3 weeks, the deer sightings have gone down to 1 or 2 deer per day...I was shut out a couple of days earlier this week.

I do my best to stay clean, hunt the wind and such.  As the season progresses, I'm in the woods about 4 days per week.  

I have 200 acres of timber.  Do you think I'm burning my place out before the hunting gets real good?

[varmint101]

Sounds like the deer have YOU patterned.  It would be my opinion you over hunted the 200 acres.  I do that myself sometimes and usually realize it after it's too late.

[lpcjon2]

Take a break or move some stands around and change it up.

[joevan125]

Im with varmint101 on this one. Me and 6 of my buddies hunt 1,600 acrs of private land and the more we hunt it the less deer we see as the season moves on. The deer are still there because we get tons of pictures of some really nice bucks.

One of my favorite places on our property to hunt always produces year after year. After me going in and out of there a couple of weekends that spot turns cold in a hurry.

After i lay off it for a couple of weeks and ease back in there the deer are usually everywhere.

[waknstak IL]

Are the surrounding properties being hunted?

[rappstar]

Thanks everyone...

The surrounding properties are not being hunted until rifle season...but once that happens, all heck breaks loose and the deer get really messed up.

I'm sure I'm pushing them out and/or they are patterning me.  

Its just really hard for me to not hunt when I have a chance!

[lt-m-grow]

I think you are getting great advice here.  I would add that another problem is "you may know the property too well" or think you do.   Not only are the deer pattering you, you are likely using the same old pattern from year to year to year to year.   Because that is "what you do".  We all do.

A good example is that a friend of mine let us hunt his property in IA several years ago.  He was a gracious host and showed us all the best stands he had to get us started - then he cut us loose as he had to leave.   When he returned in several days we had essentially moved to various different locations and we were successful.  His only comments were "I never thought of hunting there" and "No one has tried that spot before." etc.

The irony is he is a good hunter and if the situation was reversed - he would have adjusted some too.   Sometimes we just do the same things that worked many years ago and don't change.  We likely do the same in our daily lives too.  :-)

Good luck and mix it up a little.

[Altiman94]

I have the same problem on my property I hunt.  It is very small, maybe 30 acres wooded.  I am giving it a break this week by traveling to hunt with a friend.

[rappstar]

lt-m-grow,

I agree!  I may be set in my ways and need to look at my place a little different when times get tough.  

Its also easy to just view my parcel of land as a single entity.  Instead, I need to view the whole area and how/why deer travel as they do....

Stupid bucks drive me crazy!

[xtrema312]

I try not to hunt a property more than one day a week unless the hunting is good, I can get a long way between stands, or the pre rut or rut is going.  I never hunt the same stand two days a week unless I am waiting on a buck that only comes in every few days.  As soon as I see some changes to deer activity I lay off.  If I spook deer in or near the stand I move it or don't hunt it for a long time.  If I see does track me to my stand, spot me or avoid my stand it is time for a change.  If the does start avoiding me early in the season they will not be there when the buck are following them.  I try to move stands a little ways each year.  I may hunt the same area or run, but I move the stands around to different spots or trees.   Deer can and will pattern you.  They do remember you from the year.  If you never see older deer particularly big old does you need to change things.  I always scout land I have hunted for years just to make sure I am on the best spots each year.  

I try not to hunt just because I can.  I try to pick the best days, winds and times so as not to burn out an area or stands on low percentage hunts.  The more I hunt a stand the less I see and lower the chance of a kill on it.  I am most likely to make a kill from a stand on the first hunt.  
 
The deer do the same things every year until they are on to you or something someone is doing changes things, and then they change.  It could be you or even a neighbor.  I have relatives on our main farm that gun hunted.  We all did well when they showed up opening day of gun season and stayed out the rest of the time.  Then they retired and became real serious deer hunters.  They spent a lot of time pre-season "scouting" September until November gun season started, baiting, and building deluxe blinds in the "best spots were all the deer always go".  Well the best spots are now worthless for me to spend a minute setting.  They have had the worst years hunting ever.  The last two years they have hunted with cross bows to get those deer all the bow hunters always get before they can hunt because that is why they don't see more deer or bucks.   They have hunted hard all season the last couple years probably 4 or more days a week October through December with maybe one or two deer between them and not with the x-bows.  Mean while I have shot deer every year there with a bow and pass up more than I have shot.  It has gotten a lot harder.  They are in all my old hunting spots now or have cut off traffic to them.  They have seen few deer and no bucks this year.  I have shot a buck and a doe on the property.  I have seen 7 different bucks and passed up chances to shoot several small ones along with 3 or 4 does.  I now hunt the bad spots they gave up on the last couple years.  They are gone from there and the deer are back.  My new method of hunting that property is to figure out where they are hunting and go as far away as possible because I don't want to be around them.  Oddly neither do the deer for some reason, and somehow we end up in the same spots.

[Michael Arnette]

Get out there during gun season and sit all day.

[Brian Krebs]

Or- cut some trees down to force the deer to where you can ambush them.

or- cut some paths so the deer are forced by you

or- a little of both ideas.

[AkDan]

when the guns start booming...find funnels and escape routes and you'll likely find your deer!