Does anyone have any experience hunting close to a busy road? I am have access to a fairly high pressure piece of land that is open to the public, but designated as bow hunting only. I typically don't touch this area until firearm season begins bc everyone who has been hunting the property disappears to gun hunt in other areas. After firearm season begins, I essentially have 600 acres to myself. I walked the edge of this property the other day and found a lot of good deer sign. There is a line of white oaks that are dropping a ton of acorns and there are multiple trails leading to these. There has no question been deer here as there the ground is turned over and there was plenty of fresh tracks and poop. There was also a fresh scrape in the area. However, the problem is that this spot is literally 50 yards from a very busy road with high traffic volume. Do you think the deer that are hitting these oaks are only coming late at night when traffic dies down? Or do you think it would be worth a sit? It just seems so silly sitting this close to a road. If anyone has any experience hunting near a busy road I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Personally, I wouldn't hunt close to a busy road like that simply because with my luck, I'd shoot the deer, it would run, jump into traffic, get hit by a car, kill a family of four, and I'd still have to put my tag on it. If there's 600 acres, they're not dropping out of the sky to get to that location, they're coming from somewhere, throw up a camera or 10 and see where they're coming from.
I have and do hunt in Urban zones, shot a buck once only 100 yards off the road. My current spot I might be 150 yards off the road.. Never been a problem, hard to hear deer walking but I have had some decent success there
I used to hunt real close to the interstate. I wouldnt worry about shooting a deer and having it run across the road. They know that the road is danger, and will usually run away from it if possible when you shoot them. The worst problem I had while hunting near the interstate was not being able to hear deer come in. The traffic noise is horrible and by the end of the hunt you are frustrated with not being able to hear nature. It can help hide your noises though, but you have to rely on your eyes much more.
Deer don't mind the traffic, but as said above you won't hear them coming. The sound of 18 wheelers for hours on end does get old.
I dont mind the sound of traffic if I know deer will be moving in my direction. You should worry about the traffic at all. White oaks and big time deer tracks=very good chances.
I use to hunt a 35 acre spot off of an interstate. The noise is there, but you could get in undetected. We took 5 bucks off of that piece the last year I hunted it.
Agree... I have a place that gets really loud during AM and PM clobbering times. The deer don't mind but it does make them hard to hear.
I love to hunt spots of the interstate. It's to my advantage. Although it does kind of take away from the hunt.
Ive hunted buy a not so busy road.you cab tell when a deer was crossing couse of the cars slowing down.it was kid of a heads up and get ready.
I hunt a "doe reduction" area south of town near a busy road & have been surprised by the number of decent bucks I've actually seen there. The thing that's tough with the urban hunting is that there are so many more variables to affect deer movement. Takes some getting use to but it's nice for me to have a place to hunt 15 minutes from home. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hunt a piece of woods across the street from my house which is a busy highway and I killed my biggest buck with a bow 50 yards from the road. I set up on an active scrape and he came in to work the scrape from the road so I think you will be fine!!
