Over hunting your stand or woods?
 

Is it worse to over hunt your area or just not hunt as much? Is there such thing as over hunting your area? I feel that its better to be out there hunting more rather then sitting at home because you cannot harvest one from home. What's everyone's opinion on to hunt or not to hunt.

Yes you can overhunt an area.
Yes I am overhunting mine even though I know better.

To me this is a sticky subject. How much land do you have to hunt? Your area you hunt and stand locations are all factors. I'm fortunate enough that I have a lot of land to still hunt and I probably don't sit in the same stand more than twice. BUT, if I keep hunting the same stand or location and continue seeing deer I will keep going there. Some people don't have the luxury of having a lot of land and will hunt what they have as much as possible. Play the wind right and keep hunting hard. Good luck to you

I have 40 acres that is part of a 400-500 acrea wood lot plus 100's of acres of farm fields. I have 9 stands set up on my land and never sit in the same one twice. I like to give a 3-4 day rest in between sits. Not ideal, but I am not going to sit home either.

Not hunting an area much is better IMO but we hunt for fun so its your call. Yes less hunting in an area absolutely = better hunting in that area

It depends on your entrance and exits/ what happens in the stand. If the deer get spooked by you entering or exiting consecutive days they are gonna know somethings up. Same thing if you get picked off while in the stand they are gonna know where to look and get you every time. Cant hurt to let it sit for a day or two and hunt somewhere else if possible.

dang, you mean to say
 

that hunting one place could be bad, and hunters will be forced to carry their tree stands to many locations. Now how are they expected to do that?
And how are they suppose to give up those pies, cakes, 15 course meals. potato chips, enchiladas, and those delicious chocolate creme eclairs. Just to move a tree stand?
What a revolting development that would be?

Yes you can over hunt an area.

Will I still do it, yes I am going back into an area this weekend but I only do this because I hunt public land. The pressure is constant and constantly moving the deer. If you own your own land I would think it depends on how much property you got available. Smaller 10-20 acres would move around the property a bit and give it rests in between so you dont push all deer off your property. If your lucky with a larger tract 100 plus I would continue hunting it just moving around the property if you notice changes in the deer movements.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. "Over hunting" might mean one of two different things to you...

If you're talking about "over hunting", as in "going hunting in one spot too much", then it depends on how much impact you are making. If you are stealthy and low impact, animals might not know you are there, so you could hunt it every day and never drive them off. If they DO know you are there everyday, they will pattern you and move away from the spot, at least at the times they know you are there.

If you are talking about "over hunting", as in the "successful harvest of too many animals above the sustainability rate of the property", then that is NEVER a good thing, unless you are trying to knock out a population. When I go on depredation calls, I kill every coyote I see, because I'm trying to "overhunt" the area, and destroy the population. When I hunt doe for meat, then I intentionally leave some doe to walk so I know I'll have a healthy population back in the future.

So VISITING one spot too often depends how much impact you make, a good hunter might never 'over-visit' one spot. But the other meaning of 'overhunting' one spot, referring to KILLING GAME in one spot too often such that the population can't recover, is never productive.

Very true! Good post. I think entry is THE most important part of the hunt. I climbed my tree yesterday and as soon as I got seated (literally) and pulled up my bow I had 2 doe in the thicket 20yrds behind me! Yep, entry is big time important.

I am referring to hunting one stand or small plot to many times. I have been trying to get permission at other places but it is difficult around here. Most landowners either let family and friends hunt or no one. Then when I do get new permission there is already multiple people hunting it.

Valentine, what are you talking about? Are you saying that I am lazy and this is why I only hunt one spot?

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Yes you can overhunt a stand or your hunting spot. And imam sure that I do over hunt mine. I only have 15 acres. I have 6 ladder stands, and 2 ground blinds. And the real killer is that I only have one way into my spot. And it's a bottle neck that the deer like to use. So I am pretty sure that after the first week of hunting season, the deer have me patterned. But I really Dont have a choice, I have done the knocking on doors thing, but all them land around here is already taken.

Don't mind Valentine, nobody ever knows wtf he's talking about. 1,300+ posts and all of them are boldly sarcastic and confrontational, based around the fact that nobody needs anything but a wool sweater and a pointy stick to kill animals, and that hunting should be nothing but hard work, and nobody under the age of 115yrs old truly knows how to hunt anymore.

lol...I had to read it again..but I still don't understand it:happy0157:

can you overhunt? sure...you just have to be sneakier than them...Ive had to alter my parking location to 2 different places. As I have only one real way to get in to my property...keeping other hunters/trespassers out is the more difficult thing. I had to put lots of pressure on MY property to keep others from trespassing on MY property! I was gone for 20yrs in the Military and retired last year...to find my property being trespassed on A LOT...I put up signs/ cable across the road and finally Im getting control of my area again and taking deer!!

er... ah.... wellll you CAN harvest them from home, or some of us can. Spent the entire week in a couple of stands 2 weeks ago,( I Do believe you can over stay your welcome in stands), just to have my wife kill a 10 point while drying her hair on the front porch ! But I'm not offended, she let me clean it for her. I did see a flock of ten bearded gobblers one morning, no fall turkey season.