So the past couple days I' ve been thinking a lot about this and I really think my opinion has changed a lot in recent years.
When I was younger I thought that hunting in suburban areas would be 100x easier than vast woodlands with ag fields mixed in. I thought to myself " Heck, the deer don' t have many places to go so they' re bound to walk by me sooner or later."
But here I am 11 years later and the vast majority of deer I' ve shot have been in the woods and farmlands of Northwestern IL, despite the fact that I hunt extensively in the suburban woodlands near my home in the Chicago suburbs. Yeah, I see a lot of deer around home but it seems like I can never get the shots I need. Or more often than I would like, I spook deer while entering my hunting grounds. I' ve found it' s a lot harder to get in and out and set up a good stand when you' re confined to small spaces.
Take for example the place I was at this morning. I have one small piece of woods that' s maybe 10-15 acres that is bordered on one side by a soybean field, another side by a nursery, another side by a corn field, and yet another side by a large overgrown weedy field. Since the woods are so small it' s hard to get into them without spooking out every deer in the area so I' m forced to set up stands on the very edges. Unfortunately a lot of times the deer don' t get to me during legal shooting hours. Furthermore it seems like every time I walk out to my stand there are deer in a new spot and I spook them up. I" ve tried walking in at various points and it doesn' t matter. There just doesn' t seem to be much of any sort of pattern! This morning I spooked up a BIG buck not 40 yards from where I park my truck on the side of the road.
On the other hand, the rural area I hunt is your classic deer area. 80 acres of hardwoods (that i have permission to be in) surrounded by CRP land and corn fields. There are ravines and funnels and all your basic " deer hunting" terrain all over the place. Through extensive hunting over the years I' ve learned to pattern the deer and have several stands set up for various wind directions.
It' s strange how there' s 2 different tactics for hunting the same animal just based on where they' re located. And in my opinion hunting them in the ' burbs is a lot harder given all the other factors that go into it. Increased traffic that effects deer movement (and mortality unfortunately), increased human presence and a lot of times hunting pressure, decreased locations for good stands, etc etc.
What about everyone else? What have they found over the years? And what, if any, pointers do you have for hunting these suburban deer? They seem to be in one place one day and the next place down the road the next.
Suburban hunting vs. Agricultural Land hunting
