cal516

Reading on here I see a lot of guys hunt and take a lot of deer mid-day. My question is where do you hunt in respect to feeding areas and bedding areas. On the land I hunt (public BTW), deer move from the fields up to the ridges. The ridges (bedding area) are private property which is separated by a paved road and the fields are also private property. However the area in between is public land. There is a large peninsula separated by a creek that sometimes fills when heavy rains come but most of the time is dry. Anyway, I have evening spots that sit as close to the ridge as possible just across the road. Those also are good morning stands. I have spots I also will just sit in the morning. My question is this: Where do you hunt deer for mid-day? In my area I don't feel I would see them. Deer won't come off the ridge til the evening and usually after a point in the morning they have all come from the fields. You MIGHT catch a couple that have bedded somewhere on the peninsula. Other then that I can't get close to the bedding areas to catch anything moving.

SeabeeTim

Are you bow hunting or gun hunting? Because during gun week, deer are as unpredictable as humans, and can be seen at any time of day, or not seen at all. As I said in the other thread, though, weather and time of week have an impact on this.

There's a lot more hunters in the woods during gun week, and any time one of them get's impatient and decides to take a walk, or has to pee, or heads in for lunch, they stir the woods a bit, and tend to get things moving. Also, a lot of hunters will put on drives during mid day, and neighboring lands can benefit from those as well. Once a deer gets kicked up, they go for a long way. I've even seen deer kick each other up, having almost a domino effect, or, better yet, like pool balls scattering on a pool table after the break.

Also, when a deer is kicked up, generally, they'll run till they feel they're out of danger, then, when they stop, they won't just lay up, but they'll try to regather, or wander and look for a place to bed down. I've seen deer get kicked up and come high tailing into my area, then disapear over a hill or around a bend from me. More than an hour later they worked their way around to me.

Sport4

^^^Spot on.

cal516

I understand the concept of what you are saying. I hunt all season: bow, muzzleloader and rifle. I guess I was trying to imagine the concept in my area since it seems cut and dry to me. Deer are up on the ridge where no one can hunt (except maybe landowners) and not in the different areas of the woods that hunters have access to.

SeabeeTim

If there's no one around you to get the deer moving, then there's a good chance mid-day will be slow for you.

I can't picture a gun week without any other hunters around me, at least within 500 yards, maybe it's different where you're at. On the same token, I can't imagine hunting public land around here, way over crowded. So I guess geography plays a part as well.

I expect that bow hunters and gun hunters should have two entirely different perspectives on this subject. If there's no other hunters anywhere near you at any time you're hunting, then you should always hunt like you're bow hunting, just using extra long range arrows sometimes. Gun hunters will often hunt off of other hunters around them, if four deer are together, a hunter might get one and send the other three on to the next hunter. Since there's less bow hunters, and bow season is so much longer, bow hunters don't have this luxury, so they track the patterns of deer, and try to implant themselves into those patterns. Gun hunters completely disrupt those patterns by storming the woods in droves and creating chaos. With the lack of other hunters to create this chaos, I suggest you hunt like you're bow hunting with a gun.

Maybe you should introduce yourself to the landowner of the ridge(?) If he has no hunters up there, there's a good chance he won't mind one. I don't know what it's like in Tennessee, but I avoid public land at all cost.