The game you gotta play
12-24-2005, 10:21 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Morgantown, WV
Posts: 808
The game you gotta play
After reading lots of peoples comments about their deer management efforts on various sizes of properties, i've come to the conclusion that there's only two main paths to take.
A) You own or have hunting contol over a large trac of land, several hundred to several thousand acres. In this way, deer management can be carried out the best. You decide what you shoot, what you want to feed them, etc.
B) Your stuck like me with several acres to a couple hundred and your surrounded by land you can't control. This is completely different from deer management. To me, this is a game of getting the deer comfortable with your area and giving them a sufficient unpressured place to hide during gun seasons. If they're hiding on other lands they're very likely to get shot and you can't get your 3.5 to 4.5 yr olds like u want to.
Conclusion: If you have a small piece of land don't bother going all out to bait them in then hunt the crap out of it and spook the deer off. try and offer some cover somewhere on your land and don't hunt that area, just the outsides of where you think they'll lay. you'll save alot of deer that way. i had 16 acres of corn that i left stand during our 2 week rifle season and didn't let anyone hunt it. a pile of deer ran into there and hid after being pressured on several occasions. now with late archery season coming up, i actually have some deer left to hunt
. not many seeing that everyone likes to fill all those doe tags around here, but many made it that normally wouldn't have. including some 115-130" bucks that will really be nice next year. keep them fed up during the off season
A) You own or have hunting contol over a large trac of land, several hundred to several thousand acres. In this way, deer management can be carried out the best. You decide what you shoot, what you want to feed them, etc.
B) Your stuck like me with several acres to a couple hundred and your surrounded by land you can't control. This is completely different from deer management. To me, this is a game of getting the deer comfortable with your area and giving them a sufficient unpressured place to hide during gun seasons. If they're hiding on other lands they're very likely to get shot and you can't get your 3.5 to 4.5 yr olds like u want to.
Conclusion: If you have a small piece of land don't bother going all out to bait them in then hunt the crap out of it and spook the deer off. try and offer some cover somewhere on your land and don't hunt that area, just the outsides of where you think they'll lay. you'll save alot of deer that way. i had 16 acres of corn that i left stand during our 2 week rifle season and didn't let anyone hunt it. a pile of deer ran into there and hid after being pressured on several occasions. now with late archery season coming up, i actually have some deer left to hunt
. not many seeing that everyone likes to fill all those doe tags around here, but many made it that normally wouldn't have. including some 115-130" bucks that will really be nice next year. keep them fed up during the off season
12-25-2005, 02:27 PM
#2
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location:
Posts: 125
RE: The game you gotta play
you forgot the 3rd scenario...you own about 150 acres (as your 2nd case went), but can'tbe there 24/7 to control poachers and people who are on your land shooting all the deer that are on it.
seriously though, I think you're exactly right. After spending all spring/summer working the land it just seems like the only numbers to go up have been people trespassing and poaching deer. The best thing to do is put the food sources in the middle of your property, away from the threat of other hunters shooting your deer.
seriously though, I think you're exactly right. After spending all spring/summer working the land it just seems like the only numbers to go up have been people trespassing and poaching deer. The best thing to do is put the food sources in the middle of your property, away from the threat of other hunters shooting your deer.
12-26-2005, 09:38 AM
#3
Typical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: NC
Posts: 845
RE: The game you gotta play
I agree. My lease is 546 acres and the adjacent lease has a motto of "If it's brown it's down", and with the dogs helping, the deer are extremely nocturnal. I have many pix to prove this.
12-26-2005, 10:16 PM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: cazenovia, NY USA
Posts: 2,973
RE: The game you gotta play
I agree
With a small property (mine is 90 acres - with management control over the neighboring 90 acres. = 180 acres total.)
Food & covershould be plentiful - and preffered to your neighbor's property.
Hunting pressure should be controlled - the best you can. We limit walking around - and abandon late season morning hunts altogether.
You cannot get them - if you don't hunt them. - so hunt them smart and limit your "in woods" scouting to bow season.
FH
With a small property (mine is 90 acres - with management control over the neighboring 90 acres. = 180 acres total.)
Food & covershould be plentiful - and preffered to your neighbor's property.
Hunting pressure should be controlled - the best you can. We limit walking around - and abandon late season morning hunts altogether.
You cannot get them - if you don't hunt them. - so hunt them smart and limit your "in woods" scouting to bow season.
FH
12-27-2005, 03:18 AM
#5
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Sweden
Posts: 279
RE: The game you gotta play
Or you could be very lucky and have manygood hunting neighbors with whom you can make a good management plan that reflects what the mutual goal is. Good in theory like all communism you may think but Ive seen this work.
12-27-2005, 08:13 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: cazenovia, NY USA
Posts: 2,973
RE: The game you gotta play
Hey Charlie -
Sometimes I'll make a statement like that and not explain myself very well. This is one I should have explained better.
Keep in mind that your hunting property may be different.
As you know we plant year round food plots, but an important part of our program is Winter plots. (standing soybeans and corn). The property is basically a Lage Hill-top with one small valley (180 acres total) - we have decent bedding but not great bedding areas - they arenet big enough. But when the snows are 1 ft+ deep in the late season - the deer come from all around, and many stay CLOSE to the food plots and bed on our property rather thanhead back down the "hill" to the safer lower bedding areas behind houses and lightly hunted properties.
We've found that the deer are mostly off the food plots later in the season by 1st light- sometimes staging in the overgrown apple orchards that border the fields. When it gets really cold they bed here not 30 yds off the plots. There is no sneaking up on these deer - nor can you easily get into position without spooking deer off the property. So we limit morning hunts to areas well away from the plots if we go at all.
Also - if we leave them alone all day - the start into the fields much earlier in the afternoon.
And finally we "protect" these deer from our neighbors by not spooking them off during the day.
This tactic is really only good in the last 2-3 weeks of the season - but one we've been working with now the last several years. We've seen so many more deer, and passed on more young bucks - than we see most of the year.
FH
Sometimes I'll make a statement like that and not explain myself very well. This is one I should have explained better.
Keep in mind that your hunting property may be different.
As you know we plant year round food plots, but an important part of our program is Winter plots. (standing soybeans and corn). The property is basically a Lage Hill-top with one small valley (180 acres total) - we have decent bedding but not great bedding areas - they arenet big enough. But when the snows are 1 ft+ deep in the late season - the deer come from all around, and many stay CLOSE to the food plots and bed on our property rather thanhead back down the "hill" to the safer lower bedding areas behind houses and lightly hunted properties.
We've found that the deer are mostly off the food plots later in the season by 1st light- sometimes staging in the overgrown apple orchards that border the fields. When it gets really cold they bed here not 30 yds off the plots. There is no sneaking up on these deer - nor can you easily get into position without spooking deer off the property. So we limit morning hunts to areas well away from the plots if we go at all.
Also - if we leave them alone all day - the start into the fields much earlier in the afternoon.
And finally we "protect" these deer from our neighbors by not spooking them off during the day.
This tactic is really only good in the last 2-3 weeks of the season - but one we've been working with now the last several years. We've seen so many more deer, and passed on more young bucks - than we see most of the year.
FH
12-27-2005, 09:46 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: West Winfield New York USA
Posts: 545
RE: The game you gotta play
I hunt on 130 acres and have alot of hunting pressure on all sides. All of the shots that I here just drive me insane. I here lots of shots well after legal hunting hours. One KEY thing that helpsalot isnot walking all over the 180 acres. Ilet the deer come to me. I have done this forfive years now and it is paying off, the deer feel safe without humans pushing them every day.I have shot a couple of nice three year old bucks. It is rare to see a three year oldbuck around here.This year was the best season ever and I didnt even shoot a buck. During bow season I saw two three year old bucks and didnt shoot. Now during late ML season I saw these same two bucks plus a third one and I decided not to shoot any of them because it was so close to the end of season and maybe they will make it through the season and I will see them next year as four year olds. I did here alot of shots during ML season so I hope all three made it. That would be cool! Believe me I will shoot next year. For me food plots are payng off even with all of the hunting pressure. Like I said before, I think the key is not tramping all over the property before or during season. I will post some pictures off of some video I took.
