Bike man

No, I was never interested in Mason Neck hunting. Actually, I do not do a lot of park hunts or Fairfax county hunting. But I do belong to clubs where I here much about that type of hunting. I do not like lottery hunts. I do not like controls on hunting. I have mixed feeling for the park hunts. It boils down to what you want. If you want easy hunting close to home to put meat on the table then it is good. And there are big bucks.

I know of people hunting with Suburban White Tail Management that have shot over 50 deer in one year. I think one guy shot 58 deer with bow in one year. If that’s what they want then that is good. But how much skill can you use on 5 to 25 acre lots.

I like real hunting. I like where you can develop and learn your hunt area. I like the guarantee of freedom to return and capitalize on what you learn. To be able to return year after year. I want to be able to utilize my skills and improve my skills. I like the challenge of public land hunting. I like hunting Quantico where I have 50,000 acre to hunt on.

Eyedr

Very well said. My thoughts exactly. I too enjoy the challanges of Quantico.

Lebensj

Interesting article about the acorn crop, last year I kept hearing that the deer weren’t moving because the acorn crop was so good. It will be interesting to see what hunters are saying this year.

WASHINGTON -- "Fewer acorns in the woods, more deer on the highway" is not folk wisdom from the Farmer's Almanac, but a warning from wildlife experts.

Acorns are a staple food for deer, so when they are scarce, deer will hunt for food along roadsides where they are more likely to be hit by cars.

Tim Stamps, head of Fish, Wildlife and Agronomy for Quantico Marine Base tells InsideNova that acorns were abundant last year and many fawns were born this year, so more deer will soon be on the move, hunting for food.

So far this year, there have been 32 accidents involving deer. Many of them were along Fuller Road, with others on Russell Road between the Davis Building and the traffic circle.

Traffic Safety Branch Manager Ed Billing tells InsideNova that he encounters deer daily, and urges drivers to slow down and give themselves more stopping distance than usual.

Although deer are a well-known cause of accidents around Quantico, they are not the biggest hazard.

Deer were a factor in 23 percent of accidents in the first six months of the year, but tailgating and distracted driving accounted for 33 percent of car crashes.

Follow Evan Haning and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

VA5326

I can tell you from my experience that there is quite a bit of skill in urban archery hunting. You still have to learn the land although it may be much smaller than 50,000 acres. What I've learned is that, in urban areas, deer and even more so mature bucks, still have the will to live and can still detect whether or not they're being hunted; whether it's winding you or busting you in a tree. If you hard spook them in an urban area, which I have done, you may not see deer for months. Another issue is overhunting. Most people in NoVa only have one or, if their lucky two places to hunt and, in turn, they hunt it.......ALOT. With more and more intrusion, the less deer you will see, especially if the deer know they're being hunted. I know and have witnessed that deer can tell the difference between nature strollers and hunters. Over time if they wind your scent enough they will associate your scent with a predator. In urban areas, such as NoVa, the wind plays an even greater roll than in big woods areas. With smaller tracts, parcels, or whatever you want to call them there is an even greater chance of being busted without even knowing about it which is why the wind plays such a critical roll.(i.e. DON'T HUNT IT IF THE WIND ISN'T RIGHT) I hear about people killing 25-50 deer a year while urban hunting but most of those people belong to an urban archery club who have access to several properties at any given time. Whether your hunting vast amounts of land or if you have a single 20 acre piece, big mature bucks are hard to get on no matter where you are. Heck, in some urban areas you may only see bucks a few weeks out of the year, (i.e. the rut). I hunt both styles(urban and big woods) and I think that each has their own crosses to bear. Neither is easier than the other.

VA

Bike man

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.

QuanticoKidd

Very Interesting info Bike Man & VA5326....I scouted Quantico today for about 5 hours and I walked several miles and I had a very hard time finding Acorns but it's kinda funny becuase the tree in my back yard is a white oak and it is seriously a acorn blanket in my back yard but I do not see that at Quantico so far from my little scouting I have done....Bike Man what do you normally look for if u see that the acorn crop is going to be bad this year ? I'm found myself today kinda stumped in the woods trying to figured out how to find the deer

VA5326

Find another food source plain and simple, however there are acorns falling on the Q.

seslise1112

Teşekürler

QuanticoKidd

VA5326...Yes I did see some acorns I'm sure that some areas are better then other's and honestly I feel like if you find a good producing white oak on Quantico that deer are coming to then you probably hit a gold mind especially if it has cover and water close by but as you know on Quantico those Mature Bucks are very smart and they typically don't do what the immature deer do except during the rut or over the right food I'm only 23 so I have a way's to go to learn Quantico for some reason before the rut and after the rut I have a hard time finding deer on Quantico I might see deer "sightings' but I would like to get good enuff to where I can see deer "almost" every sit.

When I go into a area on Quantico and I sit once and see some deer and then return and not see anything again that to me is not acceptable I just want gain more knowledge about Quantico Deer and be able to put a Mature Buck down atleast one a year I'm young I like to have my Picture taken

Bike man

Quantico kid

When I gun hunted, I would see 10 deer on my first visit to a good spot and 3 deer on the second visit and 1 deer 50% of the time on my 3rd visit. Some spots are very sensitive and others are not. As a general rule deer sighting decrease after each visit. I have a three visit rule and this includes scouting, but you really can get away with 5 visits most of the time.

You can not get it right all of the time in choosing a good spot. Deer sightings carry a lot of weight. I found a very good gun spot because I saw deer on a hill top 3 times over several years while doing deer drives. I would have never known that it was good spot to look at it. This is not the norm for me to find spots. The norm for me that makes me successful is my skill to read the sign and pick the spots.

Lack of acorns: that is a tough one. In earlier posts I hinted that I do not do well when there are not acorns. This is one of my weak areas. Yes, looking for a different food source should be the key. The field hunters like it when there are no acorns. Field would be the best, but I can not relate to having a skill that gives me an advantage to finding trophies in the fields. Hunting without acorns is not my area of expertise so I may be wrong. As the leaves disappear look for anything green. Try creek bottoms where the deer can eat freshly fallen maple leaves and there is other green stuff to eat there. I have seen deer eat freshly fallen yellow/brown tulip popular leaves and I have seen these yellow ½ brown tulip popular leaver in the stomach of deer. Clear cuts have some good brows. Old home sites can be good as they offer a different food supply. One of the 17’s has more late season green stuff on the ground than any other area on the base. Honey suckle, autumn olive and even pine can be good food. Deer will not eat some of the pines. Pine is not there favorite and is only eaten when there is little food around. They will eat white pine and a pine that I call yellow pine. I do not know if it is really called yellow pine. There are mushrooms under the leaves in the hard woods and mushrooms grow in the pines.

To find acorns you need to search out differences in the trees. I spend almost as much time looking up at the canopy. Walk over to any exceptionally large tree. As these are the best, but sometimes it is a sick tree or a small tree that is producing. Look at the ridge tops and on the bottoms and even hill sides. Check out trees that are out of the norm. Sunlight has a big effect on acorn production so try looking where the canopy opens up. This includes the edge of fields. When you get a few acorns (5 acorns) under some trees then that is a hint that there may be a producer close by. Sometimes for no reason there will be a stand of 10-20 trees producing when no others are. Know the species of oaks that you are looking for. Do not go for chestnut oaks. Deer do not like chestnut oaks. Whites of course are good. Northern red is good and easy to identify. Pin oaks produce almost every year. Pin oaks are normally in swamp bottoms. The only large stands of pins that I know of are in the 17’s and east of 95. In all of 6C I have only found one pin oak and it is on my GPS. I GPS most of the pin oaks that I find. Do not be fooled by last tears acorns. Verify that the acorns are good. Listen for the sound of dropping acorns.

Expect the rut to be late if there are not acorns and if there are no fields.

Some average hunters have taken big bucks off of that lone producing oak tree. You need no special skills if you find that gold mind as it will pull in all of the deer. Trophies are not that much smarter. It’s just that they are nocturnal and stay near good cover and stay away from where man stomps around.