By this I mean after watching all of the videos and reading all of the articles that say deer are lazy and walk the easiest path. They always bed here or there. Plant this and they will show up like clockwork. Put out this mineral and you will kill the biggest buck on your property. I have found that more times than not, the deer I am looking for aren't following these rules. I notice a lot more deer on my property walking up and down the steepest hills and ditches with ease, instead of around the hollows. My theory on this is humans are the lazy ones and we walk the easiest path, leaving our scent there which makes the deer use another route. They bed in the most out of the way places they can find. I once watched a buck bed in the middle of a level field next to some foxtail that was growing aroung a drain pipe. The patch of weeds was no bigger than a kitchen table. I think we are so programmed to what a bedding area should look like, we over look where the deer feel the safest. I raised the most appealing looking food plots you could ever have on my properrty last season. But with all of the crops left in the farmers fields until nearly the end of the season, the deer didn't show up on my property until after the crops were harvested. Or after dark. I am a self taught bowhunter, who learned in the woods, before the internet and all of the videos. Lately I've been trying to use a lot more of the information I read and hear to help my hunting. I think it has actually taken me away from hunting how I learned to hunt and made me rely on too many unproven tactics in my woods. I'm going back to hunting a lot more by my gut and what I know works instead of what someone else says should work or where someone else says my deer will be. If all of the deer followed "The Rules" they should be a lot easier to kill than they have been lately.
You bring up some good points JM. The best point you brought up is the food plots. We have been so sold on them being the answer for hunting that most people dont realize they in alot of cases they make deer nocturnal. They are great for deer health, and keeping deer on your property more, but they are not as hunter freindly as the shows make them appear. One thing people don't realize about shows is most of these guys are hunting unpressured deer, on private property. Mature deer on high pressured public will allways use cover to move, either vegetation, or darkness.
I do notice I see a lot of deer in funnels, but I am also amazed that they don't give a darn about hills or anything else. I've seen them walk through downed trees, over tree tops jump ditches, through ponds......the only thing predictable about deer is being unpredictable. We see alot of does and fawns in our food plots, and we do get alot of pictures of bucks........almost exclusively in the dark.
I feel about the same,every time we enter the woods we tip off every deer in are hunting area to or hunting spot,most of the big deer find are trails at night and simply locate where we hunted. like most old timers will say your odds drop 20-30 percent after every time in to a stand. We all have gone out and found tracks on the field roads where we parked and they seem to follow are paths we took to are stands, for the most part i stay out of my very best spots until the rut is in full swing ( oct 31-nov 9) here in mo. Also i jump around on everyhunt sometimes a mile or more on my ground just to keep the deer guessing and this works the best for me. On one hunt i seen a small buck walk down a side of a ridge that a billie goat would not walk down,he passed under me and bedded down within a few feet of the field and watch it until dark... I thought to myself if this deer get's to live until 2.5 years he may be unkillable,
Deer, just like people, have different personalities and are very individualized. Some deer love Beech nuts, while others wont touch them. Some bucks go whacko when they hear a snort-wheeze while others play it cool. It all depends on a deer's personality. I did read, however, a while ago .. and I think it was in Field in Stream (don't quote me on this). That if a writer begins a sentence or article with "A deer will always..." or "A deer will never.." You're best bet is to turn the page cause that writer hasn't spent enough time in the woods to know what he's talking about.
Jm, If not why would we always say when you get in your stand, I am set as long as they don't come from over there because we know they will.. I have said that for a long time when walking in the woods find where no deer would go in his life time and that is where you will find him.. That's the same talk we just had on another site is on public land so many times you hear of the kid first time ever deer hunting walks 30 yards off the road and kills the biggest buck in the woods. Why because that buck learned early on that all the big bad hunters were walking a mile or two back into the woods and no one would ever look up by the road except the kid that didn't know any better. This is the mentality it takes when hunting in Michigan on stateland, learn to hunt your hunters and you will be more successful. Learn to find the thickest nastiest areas and you will find your big bucks..Humans lazy you bet we are the worst.. Walt
"I am a self taught bowhunter, who learned in the woods, before the internet and all of the videos. Lately I've been trying to use a lot more of the information I read and hear to help my hunting. I think it has actually taken me away from hunting how I learned to hunt and made me rely on too many unproven tactics in my woods. I'm going back to hunting a lot more by my gut and what I know works instead of what someone else says should work or where someone else says my deer will be. " What did you do differently this year in terms of your set-ups as compared to years past?
I hunted the easy trails into my food plots. I only hunted certain stands when the wind was perfect. I believe you can get away with hunting not so perfect winds. Hell the deer don't always come from where they are "suposed to" anyhow. I killed my 2nd biggest buck after he and the 3 does he was following walked 360* around my stand that morning. Probably relied too much on the deer coming to my food plots. Played things too safe on some set-ups instead of getting tight to suspected bedding areas. I need to do more in season scouting. Sneak around in the woods after a morning hunt on the way back to the trailer. I used to find a lot of good fresh sign like that. I also probably spent too much time there right before the season checking trail cams and food plots. I'm sure educated a few deer that way. But then again there were a lot of guys in the neighborhood that always kill bucks that didn't get one last year. Maybe next year they will be running around everywhere and I'm just overthinking things.
I was a self taught bowhunter for many years.....However, my "success" has increased tremendously since I actively sought out people on these forums to help educate me about deer tendencies. I had to sift through a ton of information over the years and figured out who I thought could help me become a better bowhunter. I owe some people on these forums a ton of gratitude for educating me on "the rules" of deer movement.
I could see and feel your frustration all season John through your typing. Some years It don't matter what a person does, It just Isn't going to happen even If your hunting a good area as you are. That's bow hunting for ya.
My deer follow the rules to a certain degree. They also follow their rules, if the wind is wrong they don't force it, they use an alternate route. They also make more rules if they run out of rules
So John, if the corn/crops had been picked like they normally were in the past during hunting season, do you believe your set-ups would have worked?
On the public land... the only rules are that the other hunters are far more predictable than the deer. I try to use that to my advantage. Over thinking the deer is pretty easy. Done it many times myself. I've learned not to try to out-think the deer.... but to think more like a deer.
I do think more deer would have been using my food plots. But how and when they get there could still be a problem. But I did hang the stands with the intention of killing deer from them. I saw much less doe activity in the plots last year also. I do believe they lived in the corn. Kinda hard to hang a stand on a cornstalk. We had a late harvest the year before, but not as bad and I had much less planted in my plots, but I saw tons of daylight activity there by all sizes of bucks and a lot of rut activity. This year I saw 3 bucks following does, one at a time. That was the rut.
