rybohunter

I think I represent/describe my hunting lands pretty well, so I don't think people would be suprised if they've read my posts.

However what I think a lot of people may not fully grasp is
1. How much pressurethe land gets both hunting & non hunting related.
2. How many deer can still survive and be founddespite that pressure.

And probably for thosefrom PA if I gave county locations, they would expect one of my spots to have a P&Y behind every tree, and the other to be completely void of deer & big bucks, where in fact both have lots of deer, and I see many more (relatively speaking) big bucks in the spot that ISN'T supposed to hold them.

magicman54494

I think most would be shocked! Big woods and not a lot of deer. Kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack. I could bait (and I have) but I never took any pride in killing one that way. I read gregh's buck story from last season and he said he saw 7? bucks that day. I am lucky to see 7 during the entire rut. My unofficial sightings are about 1 deer per full day of hunting. It's a lot different than small woodlot hunting. I did a lot of that in my younger years. I love the big woods and I love to roam. It's great to be able to walk all day and never run into a fence or no tresspass sign. You have to be mentally tough to hunt for days without a deer sighting. My record is 7 days in a row w/o a deer sighting. I have done that twice. My love for the big woods far outweights the need to see a lot of deer. Mixed in all that big woods are just enough big bucks to keep me trying

GMMAT

I hear ya, Magicman. I saw a total of 4 different bucks, last year..........and all but one were 1.5yr olds.

Although I see great numbers, "sometimes"......I had a stretch of 6 days without seeing a deer, last year.....and 17 TOTAL buck sightings (4 separate bucks)all season.

magicman54494

I would like to add that I am not complaining. I wish I would see more deer but I love being in the big woods setting. I will never explore it all before I die but i'm going to try

popeandyoungchaser

I don't think any of the HNIer's would be surprised in how I hunt. I don't think it is that different from anyone else's style.

GregH

I also stated that that was a freak occurance and why I think it happened. Here is a more normal year of mature buck sightings for the month of November. Some of these are the same bucks. This is in a bow only county.

Schultzy

Your graph would be pretty accurate for me as well on the days you seen the most mature bucks. Most of mine are on the 6th but I see a fair share in between the 1st and the 5th also.

GMMAT

Me neither, MM......just stating a stat. I'd LOVE to see less deer.....and we're working on that.

mauser06

like quik and rybo said...nothing too different about SW pa farmland/rolling hills/small wood lots either broken by fields or houses...but i do feel most of the out of state guys dont realize what hunting pressure is. i bet jaws would drop if some of you could get an ariel view of a typical day in rifle season...youd see a sea of orange...youd see guys lined up walking towards guys lined up sitting...even in bow season i got competition with other bowhunters, small game hunters, fall turkey hunters, coon and predator hunters at night, people spotting deer at night scare them out of fields(mainly because a few bad apples chase them or drive into the fields..)

alot of guys would also be very surprised at the cover deer can and will hide and bed in...ive jumped deer in places i would have bet piles of money that there wasnt a deer in...jumped a buck one year out of a low growing wild blue berry field...stuff would have trouble hiding a big rabbit let alone a buck...alot of our deer simply evade hunters like that...and will bed in back yards and places hunters cant/wont go..

so i doubt anyone would be too surprised over the land i hunt...then again they might..sometimes im on a gamelands thats over 10k acres...others i can see houses and roads...just kinda diverse like that...but our pressure would likely surprise alot of people..yes you hear us talk about it all the time and THINK you have an idea...but without seeing it, it would be hard to imagine..

shed33

I think a lot of folks would be surprised if they bowhunted whitetails inthe country I hunt.Some may even hateit.Low deer density coupled with massive expanse of country that is bothrugged and littered with ample feedin every direction. There just are not many variableshere during hunting seasonthat congregate deer.

When Rybohunter wasout here elk hunting with me.. One of the first things he said to me in regards to bowhunting whitetailshere in these Mountains/Forestlands, was....

"How do you pattern deer in this stuff?" "I wouldn't know where to start!"

Of course it can be done.. if a hunter does his homework. I am also really looking forward to hunting some Idaho farmland next fall. It will be nice added dimension to what I am used to hunting.