It seems this year I have a lot of giant bucks around the small woods I will be bowhunting in, but they never seem to stick around. The small woods is surrounded by alfalfa, and across the road a ways is a soybean field and more woods. What can i do to make them come to my woods and stay there earlier in the season. I won' t bait or use food plots. Any ideas?

you just put won' t in front of the only two ways!!!!

HELLO?!

BUCK " SLAYER" ?!?!?!?

Simple here dude! They are not going to be " hanging around" waiting for you top get in stand and shoot them. If you are seeing them then most likely you can shoot them! There are moving thru, to food, to bedding, from percevied dangers, WHATEVER!

I don' t think they are flying through or being transported like Star Trek so you set up along travel routes (not on them!) and back a little off funnels.

AND DON' T STINK THE PLACE UP GOING IN AND OUT!

Then pick ya one anf focus on " gettin' a little somethin' " .

Uncle Matt (in IL)

If you won' t put the time in to food plots to hold the does and bucks, you may have to change your handle to just Wisconsin..........

food plots and baiting isn' t a time waster to me.

I think its unethical

*sigh*

Listen, the only way deer will stay in an area is if there is some sort of food or cover there for them. More than likely, your area is only a quality deer area during the summer, and during hunting season they find a different, more suitable range. The only way to change that is to change something about the area - i.e. change a food source.

You can fertilize the indigenous food sources, or you can put in a food plot. Calling a food plot unethical is about the least intelligent thing you can do. You do realize that you can put in a food plot and not hunt over it, right?

Otherwise, you' re doomed to watch the summer deer leave your area year...after year... after year, until you develop the idea that the rest of us have known about for years - go where the deer are.

If you don' t want to put out bait or make a food plot then you might just want to quit hunting,,,if you don' t give them a reason to stay they won' t be there during the hunting season

put yourself a food plot in one part of your land then hunt the trails that lead to your food plot or the travel routes they take going to the other food sources in the area

Maybe you could list the only ethical ways there are to deer hunt. I' m curious.

how about following the deer and hunting where they move off to??? you know they are deer...they arent goind REALLY far....so find out where the DO go and hunt that area.....deer have areas for season.....its where the food is at....near the fields would probally be a good place to look in the fall....find their new beds and the trails they use to get to the fields and hunt around their travel route....dont wait around for deer that arent there...you gota HUNT the deer and find them to be successfull

Set up some decoys with estrus scent. Call, rattle or use attractant scents. But; if you do any of these you' re doing the same as baiting. You' re changing the deer' s normal patterns by trying to lure the deer into an area that it wouldn' t naturally be in. At least with food plots you' re improving deer and wildlife nutrition, whether you hunt over them or not.

Dan O.