Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

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cbigbear
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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby cbigbear » Wed May 27, 2015 12:25 am

justdirtyfun wrote:Those hogs sound like trouble. Hate hearing all the destruction they cause.

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Here's some aftermath of hogs

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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby dan » Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:32 am

Steve Heiting wrote:I can't believe nobody has mentioned wolves. If they come through, you can forget about deer at that stand for at least a few hours, if not days. Also, bears and coyotes.

Otherwise, deer in the northwoods seem pretty tolerant of everything else in the woods.

When I baited bears in Wisconsin and Minnesota I have noticed a lot of deer come in right after wolves and bears with little concern.... Not sure why. With bears we even had some deer we would see in the background on the cam pics hanging around waiting for the bear to get done.
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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby dan » Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:43 am

I would say Bigfoot really scares the heck out of deer... But really, I think dead quiet is the worst and deer are pretty tolerant of jays, and squirrels and turkeys, etc. (Predatory animals probably do have an impact, I have seen deer absolutely flip out when crossing a feral house cats scent trail) but when you head to your stand all the birds and squirrels and turkeys going silent as you approach is probably a bigger deal. Everyone says jays, squirrels, etc sounding the alarm is the worst, but actually I think deer hear that all day long... Silence means danger. I have noticed it often gets dead silent when deer or bear or wolves approach, and thats tipped me off more than anything. Im willing to bet consciously or unconsciously bucks get nervous when the woods gets quiet. I bet most hunters don't notice because they are approaching and moving, but the animals don't really seem to come back out for 20 minutes after your there.
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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby Groundhunter@1 » Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:56 am

Only animal that ruins my hunts ....Wolves
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Grizzlyadam
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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby Grizzlyadam » Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:48 am

Bobcats.
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Re: Critters & wildlife that ruin deer hunts?

Unread postby KLEMZ » Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:32 pm

dan wrote:
Steve Heiting wrote:I can't believe nobody has mentioned wolves. If they come through, you can forget about deer at that stand for at least a few hours, if not days. Also, bears and coyotes.

Otherwise, deer in the northwoods seem pretty tolerant of everything else in the woods.

When I baited bears in Wisconsin and Minnesota I have noticed a lot of deer come in right after wolves and bears with little concern.... Not sure why. With bears we even had some deer we would see in the background on the cam pics hanging around waiting for the bear to get done.


I hunt far NW Wisconsin near Lake Superior. Back in the 2005---2015 range of time, when you saw a wolf, it was with a pack of 8--10 wolves, and I saw many of those packs in that era. These days, when you see a wolf you see one or two at most...that's all. I'm not saying there are fewer wolves now, but there's something different going on. I believe, (for the record, I'm not a wolf biologist... I'm a hunter with a brain), that the federally protected wolves have eaten themselves out of "house and home" and are now suffering from lack of food. They are perhaps not able to have pups, or possibly the pups are born, but later die from starvation. They are DEFINITELY eating other food sources, like beavers. The bottom line being that this is causing the wolves to spread to new territories... (south!), and MOST importantly, that a pack of two or three wolves cannot drive deer efficiently. A healthy adult deer can keep free from the danger of a two wolf pack (but NOT in deep snow in the springtime when the deer are weak).

Steve Heiting's comment was back when wolf packs were healthier (2015). He is just telling us what he saw. So am I.

In 2021, I shot a mature buck (130"), with my bow, that followed the SAME EXACT trail that a lone wolf had walked only 15 minutes prior! The buck was following a hot doe, he was apparently confident that he could deal with a single wolf. I believe (from observation), that a whole new population of whitetails exists that knows how to deal with the stressed wolves. Deer are very adaptable creatures.

Bottom line. Wolves do NOT ruin my hunt. Actually, they HELP me by keeping everyone else away.








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