Shed Hunting Pressure

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
gjs4
500 Club
Posts: 1917
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:11 pm
Location: Western NY
Status: Offline

Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby gjs4 » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:18 am

I could see this in both the land management and shed forums but felt the most reply would be here and it does bridge them all...

Walking the farm again yesterday pm looking for sheds...and NY has been crazy this year weather wise....despite buffalo being 15 min from the farm we were soemwhere at like a 1/10th of the snow we usually recive in a year....and because of that shed hunting has been way off...i personnally saw a 1.5 w a rack two weeks ago. So, because of this and the shed addiction i have wandered the interior of the farm 4 times this year..and some of this has been intrusive. So not my style but using it as a scouting tool and literally taking notes with each entry. Deer season ended her the 2nd week of Dec but i am obvioulsy pressuring the herd and have even withnessed a few tails bounded during my ventures. However, there are no guns blasting, my approach is alwasy noisy and nothing subtle or sneaky and due to the weather the cover is pretty darn thick.....so in my mind i think the sins are minimal, but what are your thoughts on how much i pressuring the native herd? Mind you this is a real high pressure hunting area and during our seasons (1.5 mo of archery then 1.5 mo of gun) I rarely even walk the interior trails let alon brush and this place is treated as a (total) sanctuary.

Thanks guys!


Green and growing... Or red and rotting
User avatar
GRFox
500 Club
Posts: 1657
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 4:59 am
Location: New York
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby GRFox » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:36 am

I don't think you have too much to worry about. I doubt that the few times you will stomp around in there will have much of an affect on the heard.as long as you stay out of there for 4 months before season starts im pretty sure the deer will continue bedding there.

[ Post made via Android ] Image
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby dan » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:39 am

I think that your doing very little damage... I personally would be in there anyway now scouting. I think your entry does some minimal damage every time you enter, but its no different than when a coyote runs thru and by fall most of it will be forgotten. In my opinion a person needs to do some spring scouting in those bedding areas anyway so he knows exactly where the biggest bucks on his property bed and can set his game plan around it...
User avatar
Stanley
Honorary Moderator
Posts: 18734
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:18 am
Facebook: None
Location: Iowa
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby Stanley » Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:22 am

gjs4 wrote:I could see this in both the land management and shed forums but felt the most reply would be here and it does bridge them all...

Walking the farm again yesterday pm looking for sheds...and NY has been crazy this year weather wise....despite buffalo being 15 min from the farm we were soemwhere at like a 1/10th of the snow we usually recive in a year....and because of that shed hunting has been way off...i personnally saw a 1.5 w a rack two weeks ago. So, because of this and the shed addiction i have wandered the interior of the farm 4 times this year..and some of this has been intrusive. So not my style but using it as a scouting tool and literally taking notes with each entry. Deer season ended her the 2nd week of Dec but i am obvioulsy pressuring the herd and have even withnessed a few tails bounded during my ventures. However, there are no guns blasting, my approach is alwasy noisy and nothing subtle or sneaky and due to the weather the cover is pretty darn thick.....so in my mind i think the sins are minimal, but what are your thoughts on how much i pressuring the native herd? Mind you this is a real high pressure hunting area and during our seasons (1.5 mo of archery then 1.5 mo of gun) I rarely even walk the interior trails let alon brush and this place is treated as a (total) sanctuary.

Thanks guys!


I like your thought process on low impact encroachment. If you need to do some ground work this is the time of year to do it. I know guys that do their main scouting in the fall. I believe this to be the wrong time of year to look for a stand site. Scouting is a process to put yourself into a position to kill a buck. If your scouting isn't doing this then you need to reevaluate what you are doing. If you are looking for sheds and incorporate some positive scouting into the trip, you are doing no harm but only good.
You also need to ask yourself what am I looking/scouting for that will help me kill a buck next fall. Most fresh deer sign won't help you figure out what the deer will be doing next year only what they are doing now. If you think about it most food sources aren't established until next year so what should you be looking for? Beds and bedding areas are the key. Terrain, land structures, water, ditches, trees, this is what you can look for when shed hunting in the spring.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
User avatar
gjs4
500 Club
Posts: 1917
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:11 pm
Location: Western NY
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby gjs4 » Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:16 am

Great replies!

I struggle between a property manager and a beast style hunter. Actually the bane of the family farm is how often/substancially things change. FOr that reason (and my deer obsession) scouting is always. Western NY has a ridiculous amount of hunting pressure, about the highest in the country, so low impact is the only way to have deer on a given piece and with deer habitat pillaged or protected you gotta baby your ground to stand a chance.

Stanley- your "Whats the good in it" point was well heard. A simple aspect that we should all have all the time. Need to tattoo that one on the inside of my eyelids.

Doing my best to always be looking down and learning and bedding areas and missed sign related to buck travel (staging, rubs, etc) are the goal.

Dan your coyote makes perfect sense and made me feel better abotu it too...
Green and growing... Or red and rotting
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby dan » Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:17 am

A lot of guys think I am to aggressive and put to much pressure on my bucks. But if you look at the big picture I actually put very little pressure on my bucks and just make key moves when the time is right.
It does you no good to have all the bucks in the area on your land if you don't hunt them... There is a fine line between to much pressure and "not in the game"
I am all for letting big bucks have space to call home. I only invade that home once in a great while and catch them totally by surprise.
The key is not to have "no pressure", more so to have noticeably less than all your neighbors.
User avatar
gjs4
500 Club
Posts: 1917
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:11 pm
Location: Western NY
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting Pressure

Unread postby gjs4 » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:57 pm

the ol bear adage-

"not that you have to be faster than the bear...just faster than the others trying to outrun the bear"

I still battle with cracking eggs for omlettes...but have seen so many great bucks that went into a 30 ac sanctuary and only came out after dark
Green and growing... Or red and rotting


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Southern Buck and 91 guests