Effects of Shotgun/Rifle Season on Deer

[ZeppelinExperience]

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience to share with the effects of the shotgun season on deer sightings in public lands in Midwest? Advice on how to proceed if affected? I can't help but think the orange army full of Elmer Fudds I had crawling all over me while in stand bumped the deer to deepest darkest holes on private land.... striking out and don't plan on eating tag soup this year.

Where I saw deer before, now I don't. The woods seem deader than a doornail.

Thanks all.

[tgreeno]

I have had the same results in the past. Gun hunting in WI usually kills my bow season. Alot of guys drive most of the public I hunt. Hopefully this year we get some snow so I can figure out where all the deer go.

[Rich M]

They are there somewhere. The deer don't leave, they just change how they move about. Essentially, you have to hunt like a beast - go where the other guys don't. That's where the deer will be.

Public land is a challenge for that very reason - everyone is out to do whatever they can to get a deer and they will step n your toes. That's why it is such a challenge. I hate it but may be FORCED into getting back into it next season.

Go deep, go long, go thick. Take the extra effort and get away from the other guys...

One thing I just realized this year - you can look up deer densities online. Don't think you are in an area with enough deer? Find one with more deer. LOL! So simple yet few do it.

[Jrichard]

With gun season here in RI (I know its not the mid west) but they tend to hang tight in the thickest nastiest stuff possible. The other day I sat where I just took a deer the other day. Shot my muzzle loader twice. Went back 4 or 5 days later. The only deer I saw came out of the heavy heavy cover with 2 minutes of legal shooting light left. It was an 80 yard shot for me. So I passed on it. But I could hear him milling around in the heavy cover for about 45 minutes before legal shooting light was over. So I say get as close to the heavy cover as you can on the down wind side and on a heavily used run.

[Southern Man]

If it's like here, wait a couple of weeks and the deer start moving again. It's a little different because there's not as much cover as there was before gun season and the food sources change a bit, but come the first week of December they're moving again.

[justdirtyfun]

My opinion is the thick and overlooked stuff IS where they are.

But,running around in orange into those places will have an effect.

Say you shoot a nice one and end up in the parking lot with other people. They either heard the shot or seen you in that spot.

Sometimes your better off just being a bowhunter and give the gun guys their time.

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[tgreeno]

My opinion is the thick and overlooked stuff IS where they are.

But,running around in orange into those places will have an effect.

Say you shoot a nice one and end up in the parking lot with other people. They either heard the shot or seen you in that spot.

[glow=red]Sometimes your better off just being a bowhunter and give the gun guys their time.[/glow]

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I am

[ZeppelinExperience]

I strictly bowhunt but there's no way I am giving the orange army their time, because a week plus long season, with a 2 week recovery period sounds more like a month and I don't have that kinda time being a weekend warrior like most. I dress in mandatory orange and go out and bowhunt, watching the orange Fudds walk in from private lands right in toward me.

In addition there is also muzzleloader season coming up, nowhere near the numbers but still something to think about.

Sounds like I need to get in deeper as mentioned......

[Wlog]

This won't help you out right now but one thing I often do on properties I'm not that familiar with is go scout and find where they are right after gun season ends. Go scout and jump deer and locate those hideouts. When next years gun season rolls around you'll have a list of spots to bounce around hunting and let others drive the deer to you.

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[woodswalker]

I think calling other hunters doing what is legal during a season Elmer Fudds is pretty disrespectful to your fellow hunters! What makes them Elmer Fudd and you not an Elmer Fudd?

[matt1336]

Studies have shown that deer often times don't leave thier home grounds unless they're absolutely forced to. Many times they just hunker down and move only after shooting hours. The northern Wi and UP gun seasons are testamonials to this theory.
Quote from many gun hunting baiters- "i don't get it! I sit over my corn pile all day and don't see a thing! Then i come back in the morning and all the corn is gone! What happened to all the deer? They were here during bow season?" In my head I'm saying....genius- the deer know what you're doing more than you know what they're doing. But I don't.
The deer understand what the hunters are doing and where they are safe. Imo if you want to bow hunt deer during gun season you're going to need to get real close to bedding in order to catch movement before closing. That or find yourself an escape route and sit all day.

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[Rich M]

I think calling other hunters doing what is legal during a season Elmer Fudds is pretty disrespectful to your fellow hunters! What makes them Elmer Fudd and you not an Elmer Fudd?

I felt the same way but couldn't say it as nicely so didn't say anything.

[Singing Bridge]

I have intense public land gun hunting pressure in the area I am hunting. It has been a slaughter on the young bucks and does and usually is. I am out in the swamp water and pretty much have it to myself. I am not on the points or big islands that are visible to the masses. I am in the scraggly little tree in the muck adjacent to overlooked buck bedding areas. The bucks I am passing up, 2 year olds and under, are still moving quite a bit before dark... They are not stepping in dry ground before dark though.
The bucks I am after, 3 year olds or better are rare in this area and scouting all year makes a big difference on finding them. They are moving during the last ten minutes of daylight- very consistently I might add. They are not getting anywhere near dry land, for the most part, before dark.
There are exceptions to what I am seeing but this is the pattern I see most often in super-pressure gun hunting areas.

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[ZeppelinExperience]

Alright thanks guys. Gotta get in on their bedding. Sounds like a scouting/bumping-focused weekend for me.

That sucks though. I'd rather be up in a stand with the cold front coming in this weekend...

[Wlog]

Bumping deer was just one suggestion. Go to a morning setup. If it doesn't pan out, get down and scout with stand on back to look for fresh sign where the deer have relocated. If your stealthy enough and smart about the way you do it, i.e. keep the wind from blowing your scent out ahead of you by approaching from downwind, you can find their new location and get setup for an evening hunt. If you jump them you jump them so be it but you can still make it work without burning your chances.

FYI, knocking other guys for their weapon choice isn't really cool. They have just as much right to be there as you do.

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