No trail walking for our deer

[maineac]

I have always maintained that the deer around my area rarely use regular "trails".  There is so much woods and feed scattered through out and very little agriculture that they do not need to follow any pattern.  They bed wherever they fill up, and move when they get hungry.  This became more apparent when checking areas since the recent snow falls.  We set a friends camera out to watch an area that had a small trail.  Over ten days we got three pictures of deer.  One on the trail (which has disappeared since the most recent snowfall).  The first was of a deer on the trail.  The other two were not on the trail, just wandering through.  It has made me aware of how much more flexible I have to be, and try to keep on top of food sources since it is so hard to find a consitant trail pattern.  Any one else experience this, and what is a technique you use to see deer on a regular basis?

[straitera]

Deer are creatures of habit residing usually within 1 square mile all their life (according to TP&W). If so, they know that area like you know your living room. Any disparities are accounted for as well as their individual whims & sidetracks. 10 days is a healthy read however. I'd like to know more.

[Orion]

Yep.  It's called big woods hunting.  Deer do have home ranges and do travel through the same general areas repeatedly, but in the big woods, thousands of acres with few or no roads or agricultural fields, they seldom leave/create defined trails.  May find more pronounced trails at habitat bottlenecks (good places to take a stand) but they soon peter out on either side of the bottleneck. If you kill a mature buck in the big woods, on his terms, you've done something. Wouldn't have it any other way.  

[ronp]

I have noticed the same thing after hunting up in NY's Adirondack Mts. the last few years.  No really defined travel patterns, although I see more tracks congregated through saddles at the tops of ridges, and also near bottlenecks like old beaver dams.  It seems the deer like the easier passage across streams.  Not really too many definite trails though.  Just areas they seem to move through.  It sure is tougher hunting than in areas where there is a lot of agriculture and edge areas.

[ron w]

After 30 years in the Adirondack " big woods" you have to relate to the terrain. Saddles were mentioned, also deer are creatures of the edges. Even in the big wood there are edges, where evergreens meet the hardwoods, beaver flows meet the evergreens ,you get the idea. Food sources are what they are in the big woods and deer will eat what available. Mast crop, browse, mushrooms all make deer move in a heltter skelter type of way and you have to be flexible to catch up and set up on them. Deer numbers may be lower,but there are some nice ones in that type off woods and it's not a bad place to spend some time!

[BlacktailBowhunter]

That is pretty much exactly how Blacktailed deer act in Northwest Oregon in the dense forest and older reprod.

Apples are working for some guys once it gets really cold and they need a consistent food source.

If baiting is legal, try apples, wet cobb, and cracked corn. Corn alone can be a problem from what I hear, but apples and cobb are okay.

Good luck,

Paul

[Huntrdfk]

I have always said that Mike about the northeast.  Big woods, they can pretty much eat wherever they want, same for bedding. Saddles, funnels, edges and distinct food sources, which change quickly, are key in our areas.  Couple that with deer numbers that are low comparatively speaking, and you have accomplished something when you kill deer with a bow in these areas.

David

[Jim now in Kentucky]

Can't bait deer in Maine, or at least can't hunt over bait.

I had the same problem for 33 years in central Maine. Deer rarely walked the same path every day. I found one spot where that was true one year. My son missed a nice buck from that stand two different evenings.

Add to that, that no matter what some lucky hunters say, the deer there are mostly nocturnal during the hunting season.

That's why I moved to Kentucky. But night movement seems to be the norm hear too.

I think a lot of the guys who have "patterned" deer have done it with feeders and bait piles.

jm.02

[ti-guy]

Deer in agricultural area and deer in wide forest are two completely different games and it`s true that you have to adapt.You have to look for regrowned clear cuts, oaks patches,wild apple trees,trees that gives acorns etc.If you can't find concentration of natural food you can help mother nature.(planting or cutting)just afew suggestion.