How close is too close?

MoeFaux

FNG
Joined
Jan 25, 2024
Messages
49
Location
West Michigan
Today, I'm acquiring two TINY plots of land nestled within 15,000 acres of wild USFS land. The two plots I'm picking up are roughly 100 yards apart, and my desire is to make one of them (1/4 acre with road access) into my campground where I sleep, eat, and hang around a fire while the other one (smaller, still) into a food plot.

Would I ever be able to hunt this food plot successfully, or would noise, fire, and humans 100 yards away blow out the area?

I don't know prevailing wind directions for the area yet, so lets just assume they don't tend to be in my favor.
 

hiker270

WKR
Joined
Nov 5, 2022
Messages
533
Guess its worth a try since you may be able to draw deer to a food plot. Its the possible pressure being surrounded by public land that may be your downfall.
 

cnelk

WKR
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
7,461
Location
Colorado
When I’m at my cabin in Wyoming, I see deer walking around for the first couple days I’m there.
Then, they start adjusting their patterns and I don’t see them as much.

I was standing in my cabin when I took this pic a couple weeks ago.
Didn’t see any bucks walk by after that.

IMO - Human activity will affect movement



IMG_4485.jpeg
 

*zap*

WKR
Joined
Dec 20, 2018
Messages
7,759
Location
N/E Kansas
you should see the deer here at the local state park campground....they feed 50' or less from folks sitting around the fire...some folks put out corn and the feed even closer.
hunting pressure moves deer away from an area, not just human presence.
 

Bert01

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 26, 2024
Messages
123
I have literally shot them out of my back door, I’ve also shot them on my rifle range a couple hours after sighting in a rifle.
 

go_deep

WKR
Joined
Jan 7, 2021
Messages
1,981
Got a video this morning from Wisconsin of a buck feeding in a corn field about 75 years from my buddy running a backhoe through the field, he didn't care.
 

Macintosh

WKR
Joined
Feb 17, 2018
Messages
2,753
If youre there full time ie more or less a “constant presence”, deer get used to it. If its “unusual” for you to be there (ie not there almost every day at more or less predictable times) your presence will spook the deer without being careful, since your presence is out of the ordinary.
Good exit from your other land, good screening, maybe??
 

Yoder

WKR
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Messages
1,671
If you were there all the time, I would say no. They get used to people. The problem is when they are used to no people and you show up. If it's thick, 100 yards might be enough that they don't care.
 
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