Ben / PA

This may not be my BIGGEST problem, but its the one that bother's me the most.

Schultzy

Thats a bugger. Your really missing out quiksilver!!

Rory/MO

i think we face a lot of biggest ones

SouthDakotaHunter

For me it's probably human pressure from neighbors... It seems like they are always out in their fields doing something, shooting guns, driving there atv's, go carts etc. all over, pheasant hunters that are tresspassing....

A close second is that most of the local hunters shoot the first deer with horns... So most of them don't get close to maturity...

quiksilver

It totally sucks, Schultzy. PA doesn't allow Sunday hunting, so out of the 2 days a week that I'm off work, I'm only able to hunt ONE! [:@] Although, I have now made myself a regular fixture in SE Ohio, where they DO have Sunday hunting... And I'm angling for more vacation time and constantly exploring new hunting areas.

So once I get some free time to burn - it's gonna get interesting.

But, I'm not complaining - even with those time constraints, I manage to loga lot of stand time every season. I just miss the primetime every year - and that stings.

rybohunter

I don't know if I could pick a "biggest". More of a bunch of small reasons.

Mostly I'd just have to say the actual existance of mature bucks in my areas. Call it neighbors shooting too many little ones, call it no access to where the few mature bucks are sighted, whatever. The fact of the matter still remains that they are very few and far between, and the land is far too chopped upin ownership to be able to move to the deer.

shed33

I can't just single out one obstacle that makes the bowhunting of anold buckhere difficult, the best I can do is narrow it to a combination of threeconsistent obstacles I face.

A 2 month long rifle season encompassing the entire rut coupled withhuge countrythatholdsno defined feeding areas,finally themountainous terrain createsbanking swirling windscombined with changingthermalsthroughout huge forested areas thatofferbucks several options to dissolve into the timberwhen he is pressured whether it be from human or a predator.

If I dont seek out, find and thenget to know a buck on a personal level, observehis disposition, tendancies etc..and learnhow he likes to use his core area, I am better off to piss into the wind than try to bowhunt him.

_Dan

This is the biggest obstacle that I face as well Troy. The woods I hunt is so huge that the deer are very unpredictable during the season. They could bed and feed anywhere.

magicman54494

I hunt in the very dense thick woods of northern Wis. I look around and think the deer could bed anywhere of a million places. It took me many years to figure out where those big bucks are bedding. Search for elevated areas that are surronded by dense cover. Look for the beds. I found that those older lazy bucks like to bed in the same spot. They like to bed where they can see well. One I am still after likes to bed on the edge of a high ridge. He can see anything coming forever. Behide him is a huge blowdown that nothing can get thru. When I found this spot I thought wow this buck is a genius. BWT he is huge. his dew claws hit hard when he is walking.

tsoc

I would have to say the absence of mature bucks in the area's that I hunt.Also available time,from a practical perspective as much as I would like to travel further from work or home to hunt better area's I havn't found a way to fit it all in,my work demands are huge (self employed,16 employee's) and my family likes to see me once in a while.
I hunt one or two afternoons during the week and then mornings and afternoons on the weekends.This year I am going to do my best to see if I can locate better area's within an hour of home or work,that's about as far as I can go and not run myself ragged.
I can relate to a lot of the other comments mentioned,land access,hunting pressure,other hunters shooting the first legal deer they see etc.