Anyone ever find trophy quality game in areas your would never expect it?

[PaHunter86]

One of my best spots to see and get a chance at a mature WT during archery season is next to a shooting range. Now im not behind it but off to the one side about 100yrds over a slight embankment. Sitting in there will show how much you can ignore and deal with noise. I usually put in ear buds and listen to pod casts because you don't hear much over the constant shooting.

 

[griebel303]

One year archery elk hunting I got off to a later start from camp (530 am) and caught a bugle. I followed the bugle and found a string off elk making their way up the mountain just a few hundred yards off a busy 4wheeling trail. I ended up taking a bull that morning from the group and we have had several mornings over the past few years where we setup at the same spot and catch them moving through the exact trail. You would never guess a few hundred yards right off the trail with how much traffic is on it

 

[Burnsie]

My brother lived in the Quad Cities in Iowa for over 30 years - as the suburbs expanded further out some of his best hunting spots on the edge of town got ate up, but he still had permission on several pockets surrounded by new developments that held some real studs. Many great bucks in that area ended up being roadkill victims.

 

[grfox92]

Yes. In New York City. Couldn't hunt them but damn there were some enormous whitetails.

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[Pharmseller]

My backyard.

 

[MallardSX2]

Never.

 

[WA HNTR]

So long story short, I have always hiked way down in river valleys and far from any road or quad trails to set cameras and hunt thinking I would find more mature game.

I was driving late at night and noticed a massive moose in the ditch of a major highway. So I decided to shed hunt it in the spring and found a pile of moose sheds and deer sheds not far from the highway and some were large.

So I put some cams up and have got the biggest elk I have ever got on cam and a few mature moose.

I just can’t make sense how that area along a major highway and an area that has atv/dirtbike trails everywhere holds mature game?


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I haven’t killed any “mature” deer yet. But I have found that going 100 yards off the main road, or as some more legit hunters around here call, “getting past the beer cans.” And I find so, so much more game and animals. It’s crazy too how many four wheelers and cars are driving through state land and the deer are just over the next little ridge. Elk too!

 

[RedSmoke]

As long as the habitat is suitable to their needs, I think you always have a shot of running into high quality animals. When you consider the units and areas that other hunters are drawn towards, it seems pretty logical that some animals are going to be hiding in the spots those guys have never bothered with.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

If I could hunt the land next to most golf courses, I could probably secure some excellent wall hangers.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[AKCajun]

Largest whitetail I’ve ever seen in Mississippi was bedding on a 75 yard wide narrowing strip of woods just before two roads intersected. 18” g2’s and 3s. He transitioned from that area to a clear cut out of view from a large food plot a few hundred yards away.

 

[loganwayne]

I have permission on a small piece of land 40 acres that my buddy owns. It has decent deer for the area travel through it, but does bed pretty much on 3 sides of it so you blow deer out everytime. I finally set up a ground blind 25yds from his front porch and park in his driveway. Killed 2 really nice bucks mid day doing this. Feels weird having wifi while your hunting

 

[Sunshine40]

I saw the biggest white tail buck of my life in my grandmother's back yard 30 minutes outside of NYC.

 

[huntsman22]

A buddy has a pic of a giant full curl bighorn in his horse pasture. He lives north of Ramah out on the eastern plains of CO, right by the Ben Lomond gun club.....

 

[Hunt eat repeat]

This buck lived in town for a long time until he wandered a little too far. A young kid killed him. He’s a little deceiving. Went 190”ish.

 

[StuckInTheEast]

Its all situational and never very predictable in my experience...plain old luck has an aweful lot to do with it anyway you go.
Just for a couple examples:
Ive hunted the same 15 acre plot for white tail that is boardered by private drives and houses on both sides for a decade now. Killed the two biggest bucks Ive ever shot there on 2 consecutive years. Friend killed a very nice non typical there the following year. The year after we had 6 bucks well over 150 moving through there regularly but very randomly and no one connected.
Last 3 years...crickets...Hand full of doe took up residency and few more pass through but not a good shooter buck for few years now...maybe this year? Not seen a good buck anywhere around here though all year in the places I've always seen them in summer years past.

Know a group of guys that have hunted the same large ranch out west for 12-14 years...same thing...some years a bunch of them bring home trophy quality animals, other years they seem to be nowhere around.
As others have said, they are where they are.
I think its more about the experience you want to have. If you want to/have the ability to chase them deep and want that adventure, have at it.
If you want to take your chances closer to the beaten path or that few acres in the middle of suburbian hell is all you've to work with, then go give it hell.
Either way you go, you'll never fill a tag without getting out and trying.

 

[gabenzeke]

I'm in Iowa. One of the best deer hunting spots I ever had was on a public chunk where tons of people duck hunt. One of the parking lots had maybe four acres of trees behind it. Tons of deer would bed in cattails and duck hunters walking in would push them out right to me. Shot one once that died not more than ten yards from my truck.

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[LTHisle]

Maybe they figured out dirt bikes aren’t trying to kill them and just let them ride on by while napping in the brush…

I see it all the time

 

[sshhh]

As MuleyFever said sshhh ; ) lol

some of the best hunting is where everybody drives by, dont mind gettin the meat out that way ill say that. Species dependent. Got to mix it up, pristine untouched wilderness loonng pack trips, and as soon as my boots hit the ground from my truck cab, what time of season and what species will dictate that.