ORIGINAL: HuntingBry

Brucelanthier made the same point above, and to be honest, I never thought of it that way. To me, deer would just have an inheirent fear of humans, especially in their core area, but I guess it stands to reason that while that instinctive fear may be there that learned behavior through nothing bad happening may have them less skittish than the deer that run 5 miles through PA getting away from the orange army.

I'm still not letting go of my belief that all big bucks are a challenge, but you are making some good points that their behavior may be different in areas with less pressure. I can't speak to that since I've never hunted the "big buck states."

I can say this, while living in Florida I hunted a lease in Georgia that was on a peanut farm. Those deer were not heavily pressured by PA standards and there were some nice deer on that property. They were SPOOKY. I've never seen deer react to scent and little things that I could get away with in other areas. So, while geographic influence probably does exist, it is not necessarily directly linked to pressure.

So, while the pressure you and I know will most certainly affect behavior it is not the only factor there. Age, and some unknowns are there as well, at least from my experience.

ORIGINAL: pjhunts

I'm not trying to take it too personally, I'm just tired of guys trying to take away from what others have accomplished by saying the only reason that they are doing what they're doing is where they live. Hunting pressure is unreal here just like any where else. Including both gun and bow seasons, there are~25-30 people that hunt in the area of 1 mile of my house. This area is about an even split between fields and woods and we all know nobody hunts in the middle of an open field, so that means there is usually 2-3 people per small woodlot around here. Once again I'll say that they are NOT putting big bucks on the ground and yet they are hunting the same area as I am. Do they just flat suck as hunters, no. They just lack the passion and dedication that I do. I log hundreds of hours in the woods each fall, hunting in pouring rain, and cold and anymore, in the heat. I have a very positive attitude that I will be successful and I believe that I would be successful anywhere I went. I'm not saying that I would kill the biggest buck in the woods but I would give myself65-35 odds of killing a 3 yr old buck or better. It is my opinion that saying there " are no big deer here, so I can't kill one" is a much abused and overused excuse. If one were serious about killing a P&Y buck, it could be done. The first step is to quit shooting immature bucks because you "know without a doubt" there are no better deer in the area. If it were me, and I knew there were no better deer in the area I would hold out hope for a roamer to come through at about 11:45 when everybody else is at home eating lunch or taking a nap. You have to be willing to eat a few buck tags now and then and just be happy shooting does, I know because I've been there. It's kind of funny, take a look through magazines like North American Whitetail and see the freak monsters killed in states that aren't supposed to have big bucks. I'm sure if you asked people who lived in those areas and they would say there are no big deer there either. I could go on forever about QDMA but it would do no good because it is way to easy to use the excuse that there are no big bucks where I live. I will leave you with this, All of the big buck slayers that I know of have read about are extremely disciplined and dedicated to taking big whitetails. I know that this is not for everybody. I think we as hunters for the most part go through a growing curve and a great percent stay in sections of the curve because they simply don't care about what the shoot, if it makes them happy they shoot it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Just don't use the excuse that the big boys aren't there.

ORIGINAL: Colorado Luckydog

Truth is Atlasman...you would rather post, than hunt! You would rather post something stupid than hunt hard!

I have onlly been here for a short time

In those 10 days, I've seen more shooter bucks than I would see in 5+ years here in MS..... To put it bluntly, its fairly easy to shoot a decent (110+) buck in Illinois. They have a well defined rut, farm land terrain that funnels movement, etc..... I know one guy out there that has killed 7 P&Y bucks on 40 acres.... 40 freaking acres! Down here you can't kill 7 squirrels on 40 acres, much less P&Y deer.

Last I heard mature deer were nocturnal everywhere.

ORIGINAL: Todd1700

You make a great point that I left out of my original post. The terrain up in Illinois makes it so easy to pattern and set up on deer it's like taking candy from a baby. Here in Alabama you have huge solid blocks of almost featureless timber. In most places there is literally nothing to channel, funnel or concentrate the deer into any one area or trail. In other words it's hard to pattern deer movement where there is no pattern to the deer movement.

As long as the temps stayed cool we had no problems seeing big bucks during daylight hours on any of our trips to Illinois. By comparrison the mature bucks here in Bama are so nocturnal they are scared to shift their @$$ from one side of their bed to the other before 10 pm.

ORIGINAL: goos_blues

Last I heard mature deer were nocturnal everywhere.