VA5326. I agree with most of what you say. I have done some of the urban hunting and most of the time the deer are just a spooky as the big woods deer. And if you spook them too much then they will never return. The urban hunting can be challenging. The guys who shoot 50 deer do have many properties and they hunt almost every day all year long including the summer. These guys have skills that set them selves apart from others. It’s the same game in most ways. When I talk about being able to utilize your skills, I am talking about reading scrapes and rubs and feeling the land so that you know what scrapes and rubs are worth while and what ones to ignore. To read the other hunters and go where the other hunters are not. To read the acorns, the terrain and the thick cover. To take in all of the woods and put together a game plan. I have been hunting for 48 years and I am still learning and it can be very challenging. I should not brag, but I saw over 50 bucks last year in Quantico. That was about 1.5 bucks per day. More than ½ of the bucks came with in range. I must have had about 10 different 8 pointers with in 10 yards and I did not shoot a buck all season. One day I setup on the ground without a blind and had one 8 pointer come with in 18 yards and another 8 pointer come with in 7 yards. I can not do this every year. With the bad acorn crop this year I will be lucky to see 10-20 buck on Quantico.
With urban hunting your options are limited. How many different methods of approach can you use on 20 acres of land? In the big woods it is easy to have a game plan that does not work and you need to change the game plan every year. If you pay attention, then after many years you can put it together. I can learn and improve my skills the most in the big woods. Urban hunting and hunting on Fort Belvoir takes a different skill set. I have had difficulty being successful on Belvoir. The biggest thing that I learned on Belvoir is that if there is not sign that someone has been hunting there then it is a bad spot. This is the opposite of how I hunt Quantico. There are so many different hunting environments and each one offers a different challenge.