Huntin' the Burbs?

[wolverinebuckman]

So after watching a video posted by MN_DeerHunter about some suburban hunting guys, in this thread,
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=44797 , it got me thinking about one of my spots, my grandpa's 5 acre yard.
This yard is deep, and is about 2/3 surrounded by a narrow strip of woods. That strip ties into a 10 acre block of timber that edges an ag field. There are 7 houses surrounding the area, most within eye sight.
A doe group of 5 and a button buck call the woods home, and they eat acorns and play in the back yard. During a late rut I had pics of 4 separate bucks roaming the yard at night, including a tall/tight racked beast, just at the photo's grainy edge. He left some of the biggest tracks in the yard's sandy soil I have ever seen!

I would like to kill him this year

What are your best tips for Huntin' the Burbs?
What do your setups look like, parcel size, proximity of neighbors, food sources, bedding?
How do you approach? How have you found success?
Thanks for the wisdom!

Chris

[mspaci]

Many think burb hunting is easy, I will disagree with this. Getting in undetected is very difficult. Just parking undetected is hard because the properties are so small. Bugger a buck just once & they may be gone for the season. I hunted Westchester co, Ny for many years & there are lots of nice bucks. Biggest thing for me was waiting til everything was right, wind, approach, parking away from property if possible, being very quiet on entry & set up. Lots of times the bucks will go from small lot to small lot cruising, had alot of success then. Mike

[Evanszach7]

So after watching a video posted by MN_DeerHunter about some suburban hunting guys, in this thread,
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=44797 , it got me thinking about one of my spots, my grandpa's 5 acre yard.
This yard is deep, and is about 2/3 surrounded by a narrow strip of woods. That strip ties into a 10 acre block of timber that edges an ag field. There are 7 houses surrounding the area, most within eye sight.
A doe group of 5 and a button buck call the woods home, and they eat acorns and play in the back yard. During a late rut I had pics of 4 separate bucks roaming the yard at night, including a tall/tight racked beast, just at the photo's grainy edge. He left some of the biggest tracks in the yard's sandy soil I have ever seen!

I would like to kill him this year

What are your best tips for Huntin' the Burbs?
What do your setups look like, parcel size, proximity of neighbors, food sources, bedding?
How do you approach? How have you found success?
Thanks for the wisdom!

Chris

I’ve only been in the suburban game this past season.

The 1 piece of Ohio private I hunt is pretty similar to your grandpa’s. It’s a 7 acre deep triangle wooded lot. There’s a long private drive with a 25 yard timber strip to the side butting up to a creek (1 acre). 1 acre grassy field to the other side with a 10 yard timber strip 50’ from a neighbor’s front door. The other 5 acres fall down an oak ridge where 3 drainages converge. Thermals and wind are crazy, near the bottom. From the bottom you can see 5 houses spread out amongst the ridges with similar lot setups. I ran a trail cam over a scrape at the bottom all season and along both sides of the driveway. The scrape had 3 mature bucks cruise through, with a handful of 1-2 year olds, mostly during November. The larger timber strip had 1 of the mature bucks and most of the dinks (ended up taking that 1). Pulled the cam afterwards from the other strip (had written it off because it seemed too exposed)- there’s the other 2’s access. Cams helped a lot here as I’d have pics on the scrape but 75% of the time not on my access trails. Figured out they were only using this access for a rare northernly wind.

Suburban hunting is different. There’s no bedding on this piece, and I’ve really only got 1 huntable acre. You’d think the deer are conditioned to humans, but they know where you should and shouldn’t be. I attempted hunting the bottom and most of the ridge, rising morning and dropping evening thermals. They accessed both ways accordingly and I had mature does busting and blowing from 300-500 yards away. Continuously blowing clear to the next ridge I’d written this spot off for next season, but just spotted a Booner dead head from the road 2 days ago. As I’m walking up the road a neighbor pulls over, congratulates it and shows me a pic of a Booner he took the previous year. We ended up having pics of some of the same bucks. He’s roughly 1/3 mile away.

For what it’s worth, I’d not write suburban off, but at least in my situation, its only good for a couple hunts per year (so this piece is really just 1 spot). I can’t employ beast tactics, have limited setup/access, and it doesn’t really fit my current goals (mature on public pressured). It was actually pretty frustrating knowing where they were most likely bedding and not being able to scout/hunt. The obvious up side here is these pieces can grow really nice deer. But... when I took the 1 last season I didn’t really feel like I had earned it. Right place, at the right time. Hoping to put my daughter here next year to take her first buck-

[ghoasthunter]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28074 its all about timing hunt around the dates you got cam pics for starts