Define "Pressure"
 

In terms of whitetail deer hunting......define "pressure".

Is it always (in your opinions) due to hunters?

Germ's reply to another post makes sense to me. He said there was an absence of big bucks in his area.....due to "pressure". I buy that. I'm the only one "legally" hunting the woods I hunt. But...the herd there is "pressured". I've always contended that a whitetail doesn't care if you're checking your cam....scouting....planting a food plot.....hanging a stand......walking your dog.....jogging or hunting.

He only knows you're in his bedroom.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Oh but yes they do care, my best example is riding my JD gator . If you keep moving ,no matter how slow deer stand and watch but the instant you stop they are gone in a heart beat.
I believe there is day and night difference in how you spook a buck. If your hiding and he winds you before he sees or hears you ,he will be spooked. If you are bumbling along walking a dog and give him warning that you are there chances are he will lye low and let you pass him undetected.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

I agree, if a whitetail knows your in his bed room then there is certainly pressure. I shed hunt my area hard, turkey hunt it, and ocassionally ride a quad on it, fish on it ect ect. Im sure some of my big buck sightings stem from the rut. They will venture into areas, and not give AS MUCH thought to pressured areas. I do have several places that i try and not visit as much and hope that others (guys on our lease) do some of the same. Those santurarys that they like to hide in are better off left less pressured imo.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Absolutely 100% truth right there!!! They DO know the difference! The farmer tells me how he gets within 50 yards of the deer and then they will just saunter away from him .... when i had my own land, I would watch the deer, watching me as I would ride on my 4-wheeler ....

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

To me pressure means the deer not being able to move naturally through their habitat. Fortunately deer are great adaptors. How pressure has affected my hunting is this: it makes it very difficult to pattern a nice buck or even get to where they may be spending more of the daylight time.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Here in the land of the give a damn dog hunters, pressure quite frequently comes from a loose deer hound. All in the name of running foxes :eek:.

Deer do get pressured in lots of ways, but think on this.... when you are hunting, or staying in one area for an extended period of time, your scent accumulates and builds up... so a deer knows that a human or other threat was there for quite some time (several hours). If this becomes a regular occurance, then I suspect a deer would get wise to it pretty fast. If you are just passing through, your scent will be minimal, and unless you were just there, a deer will be able to tell of course that it is old or that you were just passing by. I think in most places they are used to smelling humans, dogs, yotes or whatever.... its when they get a big ol fresh whiff of it they get spooked.... or like others have said... if its in a place they don't expect it, and can't pinpoint it.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Andy, they say "piece of game" now instead of deer/fox....in their trials that is? It is getting heated up around here isn't it. oh by the way I got to PM you !!!

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Deer know the difference between pressure that wants to kill them and pressure that is just an inconvenience. I live by a park where you can jog/bikepast a deer at less than 15 yds. without them blinking. Get off the trail and try to walk up to one and you won't get anywhere close to it.

Frequentareas where the deer are out in the open or just passing thru is very different than passing thru bedding areas repeatedly.

Making noise that alerts the deer to your presence so they quietly avoid you is better than sneaking up on them and busting them out.

Pressure can come from sources outside of hunters, but the VAST majority and the worst kind of pressure I feel comes from hunting. And "pressure" can go beyond just disturbing the deer. You could have 10 guys hunting an area, but only shoot 2 bucks and stand hunt only and in my eyes that would be less pressure than 5 guys driving the area every day shootingand shooting 2bucks.

Then of course the more likely scenerio is 10 guys driving everyday and shooting 8 bucks. THAT'S pressure.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

I agree Jeff, pressure to me is any human activities that make deer alter thier habits.

What pressure is changes from area to area. Here, I do not veiw farming activity as pressure as deer are entirely used to farmwork - other places any human activity at all might change deer habits.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

ThegroundIhunt mostlyis state land.Any time there is another hunter,hiker or horseback rideraround, which is fairly often, I would say there's pressure. As far as actual hunter pressure goes, I'd say it's pretty light throughout the season. Most of this "pressure" occursduring the early season. When it gets "cold" I usually have the place pretty muchto myself.;)
These deer on this land do know the difference between the various types of intrusion, there's NO doubt in my mind about this. Hikers and horseback riders just keep moving at a steady rate, and don't send them into the next county. But let one of them catch you sneaking around, or spot you in a tree ( they do look up!;)), game over!!

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Thanks for the PM Landon... it is bad news.

And I appreciate the updated vernacular. I'd hate to sound like a yankee when I'm bumming around Sussex and Southampton this year putting out trail cams. It is definately getting heated... hopefully everything will turn out for the best of the resource.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

The older the deer the lesstolerance they have to human intrudence.I think thats what turns the big ones to bestrictly nocturnal and it doesn't take much.IMO.If we only knew how often it happens.

Pressure:Any human contact in a deers normal home range.IMO

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

pressure starts the minute you walk in a deer's woods!:DNo matter what your in the woods for... weather it's a walk or hunting or checking your cam's when your in a deers house there one pin's and needles!My new hunting spot I got is heavily over populated with deer,when i put my cam in last week deer stood there and looked at me but I guarantee they were on pins and needles. These deer are use to humans but I thinkwhen I went down in the woods they were a little jittery.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

In the woods i hunt i'm the only one there so i make sure i go out of my way to and from my stand so i don't miss up my hunting area. But come pre-rut and the rest of the season it like a chest game ,because i know the guy's are hunting the woods next to me not only do they walk around there woods but also the woods i hunt in because i 've caught them three time in the past three years they just don't seem to care if they screw it up for anyone else.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

I think that pressure is when deer in a specific area are hunted very heavily.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

To much human scent in an area of a woods in a given time. Thats pressure to me.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Exactly.

It is amazing how quickly deer that show up on my trailcam transition from daylight activity to becoming nocturnal in mid October.

What happens in mid October? All the gun hunters start getting out in large numbers preparing for the opener of gun season in early November.

Our country is rural/agriculture area but not so much that deer aren'taccustomed toa certain level of human activity and interaction.

But when the activity rapidly increases and happens in a wider area than normal, then it is PRESSURE anddaytime deer activitychanges dramaticallyalmost overnnight.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Early In is exactly right. They know the difference in the kind of intrusions they experience. Many times I'll be talking to people and they find out that I hunt, and they'll say, "You should see the deer around my house. They're so dumb I can walk right up to them and get within 30 yards from my driveway." I tell them that next time they see them to step off the driveway, just one step, and see what happens. All they'll see is white flags waving at them.

The deer definitely know how to determine threat levels in their environment around here.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Pressure is hunting a farm that immediately borders state gamelands that is also stocked with pheasants. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't have someone bumbling off the state land or through it on winds that hurt me, walking dogs, riding horses, scouting, shooting at game (pheasants rabbits) or just straight trespassing. PLus the fringes of the property I hunt also get bowhunted heavily and by guys that don't know what a wind current is or where it's going. Throw in an early youth rifle season and muzzleloader season and I'm out of that patch of woods seriously by the end of the first or 2nd week of the season.
I won't go back until the rut if at all.
It's one of those places where if I don't whack one in the very first week the bucks turn out the lights until November, and I'd just be relying on forced movement of bumped deer.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Bryan, that reminds me of something a lady said to me one time. She owns a small parcel ofground that she lets me hunt exclusively. She hates the deer because they eat up all of her Hosta's (sp), flowers that she spends a lot of time planting, that she LOVES!!She told me it should beeasy killing some of these deer, because they just graze on her lawn as she tends to her gardening.
I laughed, and told her those deer don't run because they seeyou do thatall the time, and you pose no threat to them. She also told me she has banged pots together to scare them, and they just stand there and look at her! I also told her whenI go back into their world to hunt, they become a TOTALLY different animal, because they know I'm a threat!:D:D

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

The spot I hunt the most had 60 hunters signed in on opening day (a monday). There are 100 guys wandering around out there the week before season opens, hanging stands. Some guys still are dragging stands out there once season opens, even in mid-November.(setting them up at 4pm no less)

This is on 600 acres of woods at best.

Last season I set my stand up on what I figured would be 'escape routes' for the deer when they ran into the other hunters. Well, sure enough, opening evening a bunch of deer come past, some running, one stumbling about, nonepresentinga shot. A hunter 100 yards away hadshot a doe. It was a bad hit. He spent the entire next day looking for that doe on that same ridge that I was hunting. I'll give him credit for looking, but it entirely ruined the area I had hung my stand. [&o]

High pressure public land rocks!

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

I agree with this ......to a point. I hunted a place a couple years ago that I had to be drawn to hunt. It is public ground that is open to hiking and horseback riding. And it gets used a lot by the public. Bordering this property is an equestrian center......so you can imagine.

Ok, when I was notified of being drawn, I took to the woods for some scouting. I can't tell you how many deer I walked right up on w/in 20 yards and they just watched me walk by. I talked to several folks on horseback that had similar stories.

Fast forward to the hunt. Now I'm sneaking around in camo and off of the trails. I spooked quite a few deer. I personally feel like the deer noticed the difference in behavior, and while they didn't understand it was because I was trying to kill them......They didn't care either. It was different, and that's all they needed to know.

I think if there's consistant activity in an area, the deer grow used to it and it doens't bother them. That's why they simply watch a farmer plow their field, but don't try walking across it, or driving across it w/ your truck. I agree that for the most part they don't care what you're doing, but they notice the difference. And in most cases, human activity in the woods IS the difference.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

I define pressure as 4 months of deer season, 2.5 of which is firearm.

I define it as firearm season encompassing all facets of the rut.

I define it as every male I know hunts deer.

I define it as dog hunting is a way of life.

I define it as extremely liberal bag limits.

I define it as an almost completely nocturnal rut.

I define it as deer hunting in Mississippi.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Pressure = instrustion in a deer core area out of sync with deer(in that area)"normal" routine.

IMO there is a level of "pressure" each whitetail will tolerate in an area. Once that level has been reached, we now have a pressure whitetail who is going to change his or hers routine.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Thats perfect Germ!

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

IMO - pressure is a combination of two things. First, bumping deer. Second, putting human scent into an area that human scent doesn't usually exist. Now consider this as a scale. The more "pressure" on one side, the less movement you can expect to see on the other. For mature deer, it doesn't take much. The younger the deer, the less pressure willeffecttheir movement.

This is the reason I hunt so many areas, trying to get as many surprise attacks in a season as possible. The number of deer we see is completely dependent on my ability to locate new stand sites throughout the entire season.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

LOL, that reminds me of a story a friend told me about a landowner on a property we hunt. She said, "If you really want to kill them you have to come out here at night. They just stand in the back yard. I'll turn on the flood lights and you can shoot them from the back porch."

He politely explained that doing that would be illegal and highly unethical. She didn't seem to care.:eek:

Todd, there is something to be said for your method. They always say the best chance you have of shooting a deer out of a stand is the first time you sit it. If you move around enough and have enough spots you can make each hunt almost a "first time" from that stand.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

"Pressure" to me is activity that isn't normal to a deer. Around my property, their are bedding areas right next to logging roads that i will jump deer out of every day and they come back. Now farther into the woods, they probably wouldn't come back. There's certain places the deer will expect humans to be IMO.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Any time the animal has to be alert, it is loosing its sence of comfort. If that said animal has been alerted in a certain place and made a conection with the threat (stinky human) time and again, there is no comfort in that area and then the deer is under "pressure" in said area.

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RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Exactly the reason I walk my woods in camo 3 days a week starting in the spring. Get em used to me going hunting.:D[8D]

I agree though, running a tractor you could get close enough to pet one. Stop 400 yards away on the road to put the glass on one and they are all gone in seconds.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Anything they are not comfortable with in the wild.

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

To me "pressure" is anything that occurs frequent enough to changea deer's routine. If a deer is on its "normal" routine and pumps into a hunter/jogger/predator he will alter his route that day and then go right back it the norm. However, if that hunter/jogger/predator happens to be there again and even again, the deer has been "pressured" to competely alter its route.

Does it make sense?

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

Pressure is what the Pittsburgh Penguins are feeling right now! ;):D Thats pressure![:-]

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

^^ i knew that was coming sooner or later

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

This pretty much defines pressure where I hunt.

This was just opening weekend :D

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

The feeling I get after a big plate of Louisiana's finest red beans and rice and a big piece of Jalapeno cornbread.

Now that is pressure.

LT

RE: Define "Pressure"
 

LMAO:D:D:D:D