Has anyone else found it easier or harder to hunt urban deer? I have seen much more deer bow hunting urban spots but cannot seem to pull any in close enough, plus I always pass on the 1 to 2 year olds. Has anyone had any successful tips on bringing the deer in range?
Took this guy last year off of a 2.5 acre lot in the city. I usually get one chance at a city buck and then he's gone forever.
Thats a smasher. Congrats man, yeah they seem to catch on really quick. I always get good trail camera pictures but its a different story for them to show themselves when you're in the stand.
Exactly! I got pics of this buck for 6 months. The first time I saw him in person was at 8 yards, right at sundown. I didn't shoot and never got another pic after that...
What I have noticed is they are much easier to come by (because of the fact that it is such a dense population in a small area) as compared to the rest of Maine where I hunt. A lot more ground to cover as compared to the urban deer.
I took this 3.5 yr old buck in a 5 acre public land wood lot that is between residences and a corn ag field. I look for places like this where the deer bed and are secure around the homes, where I can't hunt, but want to cross to the food source through the wood lot. The food source may be a clover filled soccer field or some other rec area. Not necessarily Ag Crops. Urban areas, if you can find them, are very good places to hunt for deer! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2331378587093029&set=t.100006627310836&type=3&size=2048,1818
Pros, deer are forced to travel through certain funnels, spots can be overlooked and deer can grow big. Cons, deer are able to pattern hunters super quick, if you get busted from a certain stand you can basically throw it away. BUT all this seems to go out the window during the rut, which makes urban tracts much great rut hunting areas imho
The neighbors of my hunting property have a "secondary yard" of perfectly manicured clover back in the woods. Works out very nicely for me!
That's interesting. So what do you think the key attributes are that help these urban deer pattern hunters so well?
I think its because its so limited, in my area they only have a few tracts of "woods" to maneuver through so they are pretty forced to take the same or very similar path. When I get busted I usually still see deer in later sits, but there adjusting their routes and now out of range. You have to stay mobile ( I use that term loosely, I will move 20-50 yards, still hunting the same area), or totally undetected (basically impossible since your scent stays in the area after you leave)
From experience I will tell you that if you get busted in a stand, give it up leave the stand up and move to another. Watch the deer when they come thru again the herd's old nanny doe that busted you will check out that stand over and over, she is now hunting you every sit.
Makes since. I can see how a limited amount of available habitat could make a deer ultra sensitive to it's surroundings. But also... One would have to consider the fact that urban deer are much more "desensitized", when compared to their rural counterparts. That would play a big role as well.
Yes and no. They will sit and watch me in the yard, but as soon as I enter "their woods" they are on high alert. I actually walk in to hunt in street clothes, so they think I'm just a crazy neighbor. That seems to do less damage than being busted in camo.
The best time hunt urban deer is during weather events. High winds....rain. keeps the people from coming outside and the deers senses are overwhelmed. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
check out the book "The Urban Deer Complex" by A. J. DeRosa. It's a book about hunting the urban deer in the Boston, MA area. Very good read. I now see there as an "Urban Deer Complex 2" now. https://www.urbandeercomplex.com/
