Double Creek

A post by buckeye spawned this question.... Leaving location out of it, what is the biggest obstacle YOU face onYOUR property that keeps or interferes with you consistently killing mature deer?

I can agree that location is HUGE, but every property for the most part has a mature deer on it and consistency doesnt necessarily mean killing one every year! consistency in your woods may be every other year where it may be every year in someone elses....


I think for me.... As I've bounced around from property to property is search of the best ground available, the #1 factor I face is timing of the seasons.... Archery season ends a full month before the rut... Sure, I can bow hunt during gun season, but lets face it, once the guns have been popping for a month, the big deer go nocturnal, period...

I believe if the southern states would get guns out of the rut, we could be right up there with the Iowa's, Illinois, Kansas, etc... But as a whole, we all have LONG gun seasons and they spanall phases of the rut.

For you big buck slayers out there like GregH, buckeye, Shed33, and many others, what would you do to combat the obstacles we southern guys face?

Washington Hunter

It is legal to bait in Washington state.

We share the land with a gentleman, his son, and his daughter. They live on the neighboring property. We're about 15 minutes away.

They bait on a regular basis. Regular being a 50lb bail of hay every three to five days.

We don't bait. We can pattern the deer all summer long when they're feeding in the alfalfa fields, but as soon as they start baiting, everything changes. Short of baiting myself, I've yet to find a way to consistantly put myself onto mature deer. Sure, I could hunt on a trail or two leading to their bait sites, but I can't bring myself to do it.

Edited to mention; We're hunting 130 acres. Between the three other hunters, they bait six different stand sites.

Buck_Slayer

For me it is getting them to walk by when I am on stand instead of when it's just my camera out there..haha.

I have found their area, the main pinch point that virtually all the deer funnel through, and I still get skunked on the big guys every time out, yet every time in my stand, I have seen deer (last year)

Well, I guess I kind of take that back, getting them to walk through the shooting lanes would be more like it....Last year I saw movement just out of the corner of my eye...it was a nice heavy racked buck walking past me about 35 yards out...he looked back when I grunted, but didn't dare start rattling because he would have seen me for sure. It just boils down to a string of bad luck for me

Schultzy

My biggest obsticale is the neighboring land owners shooting the 1st little buck they see. The last few years has been good but recently before that it wouldn't be a surprise one bit to see 2 to 3 six pointers in each of the neighbors trees hanging. Hard to grow mature bucks that way.

buckeye

My biggest obstacle is human pressure. No two ways about it... My area is over run by hunters and the competition for decent private land is crazy. [/align][/align]I actually drive a couple hours South to hunt rural public land onweekends and my vacation to help get away from the crowds.[/align]

Buck Magnet

I would say the biggest obstacle on the property that I hunt is a lack of a truly defined movement pattern. There are no defined bedding areas and no majore feeding areas. The woods are usually thick with a good amount of underbrush and downfalls and these woods are almost always surrounded on three sides by ag. fields. Game cameras have helped proove this to me. I would love to put a radio collar on a buck and monitor his pattern for a week or two straight and I would be willing to bet that there is no definet pattern to his movements. There is just too much bedding, browsing, feeding, and watering areas. Add pressure into the mix and the bucks are that much more challenging to hunt. Around here it is mostly about using your knowlege of the deer to put you in the best situation to be lucky!

TexasBowHunter

I too hunt the south where they allow gun hunting during the rut, the second for me is work, I work an odd schedule as I am gone for a month and then off for a month. Every other year is good for me, unfortunately this year will be an off year for me. Also I hunt 2 different parts of the state, in the west we have a lot better luck as we manage the property well, but in the east is family land and they all gun hunt except for me, I would definately say that once they start firing the rifles (on little 6pts) the mature deer go nocturnal and become almost impossible to hunt.

GMMAT

My poaching neighbors.

Hey Dan....

Do they know how detrimental this is???? Did you know a deer can die of starvation with a stomach full of hay?

BOWHUNTINGisLIFE

Finding them.................................lol

jmbuckhunter

My biggest obstacle has been after the crops are out a lot of the deer leave the woods I have been hunting. Unless there is a huge acorn crop. The farmer doesn't plant food plots and likes to get his crops out early. So if there are food plots in the neighborhood, guess where the deer are headed.

I hope to remedy that situation on my new property. I will be planting food plots to keep the deer on my side of the fence.