ODH wrote:dan wrote: Early season acorns are an issue in the hills, and a prize in the swamps. Bucks bedding on leeward hills are bedding right under oaks. They don't move much, they just get up and eat. In swamps they bed out in the thick edges and move to the oaks and you can get between them.
Dan and Joe, fast forward to October 15 and you find yourself in the same type of environment as the challenge I am curious where you would you start hunting first, swamps, state land next to farms, or hills? Come mid October which terrain holds the better odds? thanks
If you would have asked me this before the challenge, my current answer may be different, but at this point in the game I'm not sure I would be in the hills yet. I hunted that area end of October one year and had my tail handed to me. I didn't grow up hunting the hills so I really need more time in them to grow my confidence and skills. I understand the swamps and marshes and the way that the deer move through them. In my opinion, from what I've seen, people seem more willing to go way back in the hills or climb a steep ledge. Add some water, cattails, dogwood, redbrush and guys just don't seem to go in very deep. Just go in a little deeper than most and you have an entire area to yourselves.
Since I killed that buck, I've had a handful of random locals that reached out to me to chat about hunting. They told me where they hunted and told me about how "remote" it was, or how "overlooked" or how far of a walk their spot was. I knew the spots and what the deer were like in these spots and none of them we're remote or overlooked and they all got way to much pressure to hold a mature animal in my opinion. With that being said, it gave me a good idea of where your average guys heads are at in regards to getting away from other hunters and there not getting away from other hunters which is what the problem is. So if someone thinks that they are an average guy, maybe be a little hard on yourself and push back a little deeper, or really think about what is actually over looked.. "what are you overlooking" in other words.
I would be interested to learn how the deer avoid squirrel hunters. There's gotta be something to it. From personal experience it seems like deer will dump down off a nob out of view and when the squirl hunter leaves, the deer come right back to bedding. In the early season I would imagine the effect of the squirrel hunters is different though because the deer are being relocated from there summer bedding to their October bedding. Now I'm rambling lol