Frustrated

[Huntchic]

when i was younger where i grew up i had plenty of relatives and we all hunted. After first few days of season we would put on drives for those family members that hadn't gotten what they needed yet. Was definably a great way to get them. I was hunting with a friend i had been in the Marines with on his family land until 2021 season when he passed away. We would take turns sometimes putting on little drives for one another trying to kick up a big one to each other. Now as of 2022 I'm hunting Private land and Non of the girls i know like to hunt or really willing to commit to serious like i do. The Guys i know either don't hunt or aren't willing to put in any work ahead of time or scout either. Now i admit I have until last year hunted with my friend and family till he passed away. I still keep in touch with a couple of them but cant feel comfortable to go hunt with them now. I do get 1 0r 2 days a year going back home where i grew up to hunt with my brother and his kids n few relatives. I agree that it would be great tactic to do a drive but again its just me so that's kinda what it is.

 

[*zap*]

I think it is best to hunt where the deer move regularly during shooting hours rather than find a way to hunt nocturnal deer. Some spots are just not huntable, especially with archery gear.
Canoe is a great way to hunt public land, just can be more work....plus paddling out at night can be hazardous depending on the area. You need good lighting...

 

[Huntchic]

I really appreciate everyone's input and ideas. Thank you all. I think I'm going to try some of my last year other spots and a few new ones this year maybe a day or two at the clear cut if things look right. I'm going to take yall's advise and after season this winter trim up few trails back in and work at keeping them cleared over the summer. Try it the next season. Just have to see how this season goes too. perhaps ill make a new reliable friend to hunt with and share some of the efforts and hunting experience with by then too.

 

[*zap*]

I am not sure that keeping trails trimmed is going to help your deer hunting success. Something to think about. Good luck this season.

 

[JBrew]

I have a spot similar to this. Instead of hunting it early or through the rest of the year, I now only hunt it during the rut. The bucks are going to push the does out, just have to be there when it happens.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I have a spot similar to this. Instead of hunting it early or through the rest of the year, I now only hunt it during the rut. The bucks are going to push the does out, just have to be there when it happens.

Also have to have the patience not to just put an arrow through the doe. Two years ago I had a nice tall young 8 run a doe out into my shooting lane repeatedly for 1.5 hours. He'd run her all through the brush and she'd get winded and run out in front of my and just stand there for a few minutes, then walk back in the brush and I'd hear them chasing all over. She finally came out and decided to just keep going further out into the open. I could see him back in the brush watching her. She got about 100 yards out into the clearing and he decided that was far enough and came out after her. He died.

 

[Huntchic]

LoL. sounds like fresh venison heart tonight screamingpotato.


Zap, Why don't you think clearing a couple lanes during winter and keeping them clipped till season would be a way to make hunting in that stuff possible?
I'm sorry if i miss led someone I'm hunting with a muzzleloader and rifle only and haven't bow hunted in many years now.

 

[JBrew]

Also have to have the patience not to just put an arrow through the doe. Two years ago I had a nice tall young 8 run a doe out into my shooting lane repeatedly for 1.5 hours. He'd run her all through the brush and she'd get winded and run out in front of my and just stand there for a few minutes, then walk back in the brush and I'd hear them chasing all over. She finally came out and decided to just keep going further out into the open. I could see him back in the brush watching her. She got about 100 yards out into the clearing and he decided that was far enough and came out after her. He died.

Have seen the same thing many times. Hunt it with the wind blowing out of the thicket, towards you, and you're golden

 

[Rich M]

Zap is a serious big buck hunter - He is levels above most hunters.

If you haven't heard of Hunting Beast, do a google. Takes about 3-4 yrs to learn HB techniques and blend em into your style.

Clear the trails and deer will use them - only need to do it once a year couple months before season. It may be good for opening day archery. Not ML or rifle.

Getting ready to start scouting, hang a couple cams. 2 months to go before my first hunt. It is Public, there will be 2 hunts before mine so low hanging fruit will be gone.

 

[Huntchic]

Thanks for the insight and help. I realize that there are some very knowable folks on here and one of the reasons i joined was to get wisdom beyond mine. I respect everyone's responses and value them all. I have always believed that a smart person learns from there mistakes and a wise person learns form the mistakes of others too. I'm a scientist laboratory person so i always ask why something is or isn't working so i can understand the out come and results from others.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Greetings all,
I had a tough season last year and looking for some advise or ideas. I've always had good areas to hunt till last year. last year I had to start NC hunting public land. So my question is two parts. part 1 is the area I was hunting had about 20 acre clear cut surrounded by mostly open to semi open woods. I'm guessing the cut over was about 9-10 years old. It was terribly thick and i tried 2 times to actually walk though it. No way. insane even trying to crawl sometimes. I hunted near the edge of it in two different locations that showed good trails and signs coming in and out of the cut over. scrapes, rubs and scat. I would be in my tree at least an hour before light and stay till to dark to see to shoot. I never saw deer. Sometimes mid day i would get down to move to an evening area of to look around a different area hour or so then return. Most days i stayed entire day time. I would see fresh scat, areas where they pawed up acorns new rubs etc. I know these were done during the night because i was there during the daylight time. A few evenings i could hear movement and sounds back in the thick cut before dark. So my question is how the heck can i hunt that clear cut? I know there is a lot of deer in there but i don't believe they come out any during daylight. I considered making a little trail into the cut to one of the few rare taller trees and get way up and try hunting like that but didn't. figured It would be really difficult to find where deer dropped once down from the tree and packing it out would be crazy difficult if i did retrieve it. I have started scouting a couple new areas i hunted last year few times that don't have any clear cuts but cant quit thinking about that area with the clear cut.

1)Do the deer go into those thick areas and never come out in daylight especially as season progresses? Area gets med to light pressure after first week of season.
2) Is there anyway to hunt that kind of place? Should i just forget it and hunt other areas?

My first reaction is that bucks are not using that cutover as much as you would like, or that there is sufficient food in there or enough hunting pressure on the edges to keep them hemmed up tight during shooting light.

Anybody walking the edge of the cutover to get to an edge stand or to something more distant is potentially putting up a fence between you and an entering/exiting buck.

 

[Beagle1]

You have no idea how hard your spot is being hunted on the days you are not there. If the deer are as nocturnal there as you say my guess is the deer are being pressured hard. Once a buck knows he is being hunted near his bedroom he becomes very difficult to kill and if he is a big one he’s almost impossible to kill. I know the deer sign is enticing but you can waste a lot of time trying to hunt a spot like that. I would only maybe hunt an occasional evening and then starting about two weeks before the peak of the rut I would put my serious time into day and evening hunts. The odds of non local unpressured bucks cruising the edge of the clear cut go up dramatically then. To increase your odds of success even more I would only hunt the day of a big temperature drop from the previous day.

 

[Huntchic]

Thanks everyone for the insight. Many of the things said make a lot of sense. I agree before season I saw cam pictures of couple truly really nice bucks entering and exiting from a small draw in the cut. Mostly evenings n mornings. Just before and first week of season only pics of any deer were night time only. I hunted some other areas also and did take 3 deer in the other areas. Just frustrated that I couldn’t do anything in that area. Seeing the nice couple deer there ahead of time got me caught up in trying to make it work or coming up with a way. The advice to find non nocturnal deer and less hunted pressured deer make sense. The couple deer I did get came from places that didn’t have cut overs and were places I never saw other hunters and were not places most folks would be willing to go. Going to stick with those type places this year again. Going to avoid getting caught up in trying to make something work I want and stick to doing what the deer want.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Going to avoid getting caught up in trying to make something work I want and stick to doing what the deer want.

 

[Pilarczyk85]

I hunt a lot of the same stuff you're talking. Most woods around me is logged and can create some nasty stuff. I find success during the rut with these types of setups. Like some of the guys said. Gotta figure out the pattern. Don't over hunt it. The more pressure the deer feel the more they're gonna stay in that thick shit and not come out. Especially if they have every resource they need. I don't know if you mentioned it but it maybe wouldn't hurt to put up a camera. Thich stuff can be rewarding but I've also found that usually a stud or two will be in there. Good luck!

 

[Huntchic]

Thank you. Yes i used cameras before and first week or 2 of season. Yep, was a couple real bruisers, one in particular. Its why i was so determined to find a way. They have pretty much everything they need right in that stuff.

 

[Macintosh]

Probably they arent coming out. If its a spot you are going to otherwise end up writing off, you can take a go for broke attitude…get into range just downwind of the most strategically located bed before he gets back to bed, ie midnight or whatever it takes. Probably blow the place out for a bit if it doesnt work, but if it isnt working otherwise not much to lose trying.

 

[Huntchic]

Up date.
I decided to take advice from folks here and just not worry about the cutover area i tried to hunt last season. I spent some time in a new area this past weekend. (off the beaten path) There are no cutovers in this area. It looks quite promising and doubt very few if anyone would be willing to hike into the area to hunt. Couple funnel areas and saddles. Somewhat open woods with 2 nearby Agriculture fields on private land. This would be a hike in and set up a camp, then hunt from the camp each day. Finally getting hip replaced at VA in 1 week after two years of waiting ( had a cancelation ) so I'm really hoping to be healed up enough i can hike in and hunt by Muzzle loader season. Nice thing will be I'm going to be off for first 3-4 weeks of whitetail. For healing purposes of course.

 

[LostArra]

Zap, Why don't you think clearing a couple lanes during winter and keeping them clipped till season would be a way to make hunting in that stuff possible?
I'm sorry if i miss led someone I'm hunting with a muzzleloader and rifle only and haven't bow hunted in many years now.

I can't speak for zap but I've cleared trails to my stand for easier and quieter access. It helped a few times but the deer took to those trails immediately so I was busting them in the dark on the way to my stand which is a discouraging feeling. Sometimes (rut) they came back so all was not lost.

 

[Huntchic]

Well i tried really hard to make that spot pay off last year but it never did. I'm not afraid of some hard work but i did take a few deer in other areas and less hunters too. decided that the best plan for this year was to concentrate where i knew had some nice deer and fewer hunters. from my experience most "hunters" don't walk far from the vehicle, a clear trail/road especially in the dark. Aside from dang spider webs and kicking up the occasional grouse that gives your heart a stress test i don't mind in the least hiking a ways day or night in the woods. I went to an area last year i had scouted in the daytime and started in at 3am on a gated service road. good lord there were reflective tacks and tape streamers everywhere people had put up leading off the road to where ever for about a half mile then at about a mile i never saw another one. I generally cut off my headlamp after a mile or so and prefer to not use a light within a mile or so of where i plan to hunt. Anyhow it made me wonder if any of these folks actually knew how to travel or navigate in the woods. when i was growing up we always referred being a good woodsmen or woodsgal not a hunter. Hunters were just people who went out hunting and a woodsmen was someone who knew and understood the woods, animals, nature and everything involved with being out in the forests and mountains .