I'm with VS.... be patient and keep at it. One season I went for an entire month without a deer sighting. I could not believe it was happening. After a November morning hunt I was going to walk the entire property and try to find where the deer had gone. As luck would have it there was a fresh snowfall over night but it would not last because it was going to be too warm that day. I saw deer tracks the moment I got out of my truck. They were running around by my stand as I approached. I sat for 2 hours and only saw a doe and her fawn. I was contemplating getting down a scouting a new location to move my stand when I heard a branch snap, muffled by the snow. Moments later I shot the biggest buck of my life. Everything was OK again. Lol. The word is patience. Around here, by me the deer are just starting to move. Maybe it will improve by you in a few days or couple of weeks. When is the rut by you?
It can be frustrating. That is a lot of land. Like others said, find the honey hole. One thing I learned is you have to scout the land you hunt. One year, when I started chasing the biggest buck I'm after. I was focused n one area. He was showing up on trail cams, but I never could catch up with him. Well as the season began to wind down, I walked the property one raining day and I found a ton of sign on the other end of the property. I placed a trail cam on that end and along a trail and I got a ton of pics of him moving morning and night. Lesson learned, look for the sign. I took a gamble and did the same thing on another property I hunt during the pre-rut 2 years ago and found a line of rubbed trees coming from a bedding area. I made a move and got a shot on the buck there. Hit him, high, but that was my mistake. I say all that to say this, put boots on the ground and find the sign. Then move in. I think we get complacent at times and want thing to come easy. Sometimes it does. Other times, we have to get aggressive. Keep Hunting. Cooler temps are coming!
Would a topo map be useful to pinpoint creeks, funnels for travel, etc.? I hunted an area that had a small creek with a pool about 2 feet deep. Bypassed it...came back four hours later and it looked like a herd of deer had watered there. Tracks all over the place. Dummy that I was, I never went back. Might be able to find it these days.
thanks for the up lifting words guys. As luck would have it, I ended up seeing 4 deer today. a spike this morning adn 4 pt and 2 does this evening. it was hot today, 83 but I was determined to have my son see deer. He saw a buck he almost got a shot on but he decided that 25 yds was too far for his set up...and this evening he saw another buck but it was 60 yds out...He is starting to really show some maturity and his first bow kill is coming. Bucks have started chasing a bit and the rut here will be in full swing 1st week of Nov. Just seeing deer today helped my confidence a lot. I have walked 100s of miles over the years there and still do it every year. It's part of the whole process..I enjoy it.. I told my son, he's 15, that I enjoy scouting as much if not more than actually hunting. He looked at me like i was crazy because I walk him to death. I looked at him and said "you will get there one day too boy, if you're anything like your old man" I kind of left it at that so he can ponder it.. the lesson is, finding the deer, putting it altogether enough to see them consistently and not always kill them is what makes killing them special when you do because you know the level of skill it takes to do it consistently...if that makes sense. anyways, we had a small crowd hunt this afternoon, 9-10 of us and 7 of us saw deer and some of us saw multiple deer. so it appears things are cranking...I guess I just want my son to kill a deer with a bow so badly I can see the forest for the trees...thanks guys for helping me see it now!
Like I said, it is totally different from anything I am accustomed to. I can't relate, and more so can't even fathom that much land being compromised from it. If I hear a dog bark in the woods I am hoping it is a coyote so I can shoot it. I'll never shoot a domestic dog, ever, regardless of circumstances. I love pets too much for that regardless of reason of disappointment, I just hope to never see a dog in the woods I am hunting while hunting, period. I do not see how deer can become accustomed to it, tolerate it or even be seen as a natural environment with dogs roaming the woods, beyond the nuisance coyotes/wolves. I'd rather see it phased out than phased in, but as long as it is not in my area I have no cash in the game so to speak and other than this thread have no opinion on it. You have a better grasp on where and why you hunt when you do, I'd search for where the deer can go and never see another hunter, much the way hunters do the same.
That's a different perspective as well, being disgruntled not for oneself, but for your son not seeing deer. Maybe your club could come up with another rule or custom. Create a youth sanctuary, somewhere easily accessible that members could take their kids and first time hunters to sit for their first deer kills but it is off limits to the more experienced and other methods of hunting. That sized tract of land you could have a couple, archery for one section and rifle/firearm for the other.
that would be great, but it would never fly here...picture this...we hunt 7k acres, club next us has 16K and the one on the other side has 10K....all been hunting with hounds for 100 years as an incorporated LLc. Again, I enjoy my time hunting with hounds, in the perspective lawful season. I would prefer to hunt with a bow, but that goes out the window when dogs are dropped...people who have never lived or hunted in this peculiar situation have a difficult time grasping the concept. And rightfully so. We can't use rifles here in this part of the state, it's shotguns and buckshot. you have to understand the terrain. flat, thick cutovers, swamps that will swallow you. And honestly, we would likely not kill even half of what the DWR expects without the dogs. it's too vast, thick and swampy. In southeast VA, we have too many deer and yet, the still/bowhunting can be very difficult because of the terrain. you can't get those deer if front of you any other way in a significant amount to balance the herd. VA has over 1 million deer, in the east, we have 3 buck tags and unlimited doe tags.. and with crop damage, we can kill up to 4 a day, and it happens on the regular with hounds..probably the only reason hounds are still legal here. you guys up north and in the midwest would have to see it in person likely to grasp it. Eastern VA/NC/SC/North FLA still have dog hunting. and I think parts of LA and GA and MISS. it's dying out in most southern states accept VA/NC/SC.. they all have very similar terrain. Anyway, the deal is, dog hunting rules the day in my area, even public land allows hounds... people that have never done it probably look at it like i look at hunting with a rifle.. I have never done it, and never will...shooting a deer at 200+ yds doesn't appeal to me but I understand that most of the country hunts and has hunted that way for decades.. it's just a cultural and regional difference..
Ive only been out 5 times since opening day, due to work, I'm on Vac. #1 now which started Friday (9days), Friday was a washout, sat out yesterday Sat. for 9.5 hrs/4 hours in one location, 5.5 in another, both were favorite and good locations for a NE breeze, the first sit was where I killed a big 205lb 8 pt last season on a NE wind on Oct. 25th ... 9.5 hrs and not a single deer seen ... I hunt state land, it was opening weekend for waterfowl and it was like WW III back in among the marshes/lakes where I hunt.. deer had to be thinking WTF with all the blasting and trucks driving around back in there ... so I went in deeper to another favorite tree for the PM sit after the duck guys left (they have to pack it up at noon)... all was fine until 3;30 and then a Elmer Fudd pulled a cart in with a climber and his gear on it, stopped 150 yds away, unpacked walked over another 40 yds looking at tree's .. I yelled YO twice when he was unpacking, he looked up my direction and continued ... WTF ??!! .. so he set up effectively cutting off a potential deer route .. WTF !!?? .... I would NEVER do that to another hunter, I'd move on ... needless to say, no deer seen ..... didnt even bother with a Sunday sit because it being Sunday, and even more Fudd's would be out and even more duck guys will be back in there .. today is another washout with rain, so, I wont get out again till Tues ... as a friend says "thats why they call it hunting" ....
^^^Ive always said a good day is when I dont see, hear nor smell another human when I'm hunting .. ^^ I feel the same, I am a die hard BOWhunter and will BOW hunt till the day I die .. as Ive said in other threads, there are now more Elmer Fudd's in the early archery season since the inclusion of the f'n crossbow thingies, more gun guys are using them in BOW season along with incompetent lazy ex BOWhunters ... the last thing I want is more hunters on the state lands in BOW season ...
hell I pay good money to hunt a bunch of private land and I can't get away from the guys that hunt in my club!! when I first joined the club back in 09, I had 7k acres to roam with my brother and never saw another soul...now, we took in about 15 more members and they all xbow/bowhunt/ML hunt.. and we all know the sweet spots and they gangbang them.. 7k acres is a lot, but it ain't all desirable for bowhunting lots of just do nothing land that doesn't hold deer...so
while Ive hunted this State area (8000+ acres) since '81, I leased 160 acres for about 18 yrs until the 'ol farmer/wife both passed, the property went to relatives who allowed all their friends to hunt it, they ruined the place by over hunting the place and one weekend of opening gun, he had 10 different guys on the place at one time and I hold the son to shove it at that point .. it was a great spot, never any problems as I knew all those around it growing up and trapping near there and I always killed good deer off the place .. I had a great relationship with the farmer and wife, his son always was always a prick .... after that, me and a buddy leased another farm for two years, but it was 100 miles from me.. we had more problems in those two years with trespassers and dogs than I did in all the years on the other spot ... so, now I'm back on the state land exclusively, Ive done good there thru the years and have killed some damn big bucks off the place, but the pressure has progressively gotten worse in BOW season since the inclusion of those horizontal shooting machines .. I'll keep hunting it and I'll still kill good does and bucks off it, but it is frustrating when a Fudd ruins a hunt ...
Not struggling yet will sit again Saturday, last time Halloween fell on a Saturday I sat for the first sit of the year and shot a 10 point an hour and a half into my season. I watched that buck chase around for 10 min before I figured he was big enough 138".
