Hunting the Suburbs

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chadwick9
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Hunting the Suburbs

Unread postby chadwick9 » Mon Aug 15, 2016 4:09 am

Wondering if any of you who do urban bowhunting would care to share what some of your tactics are? In Maine we have whats called expanded archery that allows us to take 1 buck and unlimited does. That starts Sep. 13, before our regular archery Oct. 1st, so it's a good chance to get tuned up before hitting the marsh and hill country. I would imagine it's quite similar to hunting funnels, food sources but I'm curious if theres more not so obvious ways to go about it. To find beds in hill country its clear to look for points, ridges, 1/3 elevation and for marshes you walk the transitions. Can anyone make a good case for where they should be bedding in town?


mainebowhunter
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Re: Hunting the Suburbs

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:21 am

Just so you don't miss out...Sept 10th is the opener. Always the Sat following Labor day.

I have hunted urban zone for years now. Locally, its tough. Regular archery zone holds more deer. Not which part of the expanded zone you are hunting...but they are not all created equal. Southern zones have much higher deer densities are much bigger. My zone can be driven around in 20 minutes or less. The southern zone takes 1+ hrs just to drive the length of it. Offshore islands are the best bet..but they take some doing to get to them. I have covered just about every inch of the local zone and I am in the last piece that I feel is worth hunting. I am really only in search of a 3.5yr old buck or better so that kind of narrow things down a bit.

Many guys are really just looking to harvest an extra deer or 2, any deer will do. So really, your tactics will need to be adjusted accordingly. Most of us really focus on apple trees more than anything else. Deer sometimes will bed in and around peoples house wherever they can find secure cover.

The areas are also very diverse. Meaning, some spots are very suburban with 10 acre patches of woods...other areas are 2000acres of solid timber. So bedding really does not change in the timber. What is tough with the real suburban stuff is that big deer will find someones 2acre spot and bed it and no matter how hard you look, they are super tough to find. I have a lot of hours looking for some of these bucks. But living in peoples backyards they can be tough to find. Access is limited.

Like this buck here. We got pics of him again this year. So he made it. He is alive. I have a LOT of hours looking for his beds. I have scoured just about every piece of cover I can find within a mile of this place. I have 3 cams out right now looking for him. I have checked all suspected bedding and still am not a lot closer to finding him. My buddy got tons of night pics of him last year. But very little daytime. These bucks cross properties and lots of time bed properties that are tough to get to. Obviously, where they feel safe. We have run cameras ALL over and still cannot find him.
[bbvideo=425,350]https://youtu.be/7_BGgI0Ylk8[/bbvideo]

Like I said, expanded really is an oddity. You have certain areas with 40-60deer per sq mile and others with 5-10. Some areas you can see deer near every sit, others you wont see a deer in 2 weeks.


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