Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
-
- Posts: 116
- Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:12 pm
- Status: Offline
- may21581
- 500 Club
- Posts: 1186
- Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 12:48 pm
- Location: north east ohio
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Every property is different and sets up differently. Hopefully through observation, cameras, or Intel will tell you when and where to hunt. You can have the best rut property but hunt it early and never see a thing. Or you could have the best early season land and wait till the rut and your opportunity has passed. This info is only gained by experience and boots on the ground.
One year your best property and stand might not produce a thing, sometimes a stand will produce every year, sometimes you find a place that no one hunts and hit a honey hole. The key is adapting, moving around, and knowing what to look for and seizing opportunities when they present themselves.
One year your best property and stand might not produce a thing, sometimes a stand will produce every year, sometimes you find a place that no one hunts and hit a honey hole. The key is adapting, moving around, and knowing what to look for and seizing opportunities when they present themselves.
"Failure is the price for entry for achieving something great"
-
- 500 Club
- Posts: 4140
- Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:13 am
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Hunt it when the sign is there.
-
- 500 Club
- Posts: 1282
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 5:32 am
- Location: South Central WI
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Hard to say without seeing the property or knowing anything about it. But generally I would say you would want to avoid hunting any property hard.
There are some spots though that are generally better at different times of the season. Have to dive in and figure it out through scouting and really through hunting it. That spot that looks like a gem in the season might only be good for a small window of time. Still struggle with reading sign and relating it to when I should hunt it.
There are some spots though that are generally better at different times of the season. Have to dive in and figure it out through scouting and really through hunting it. That spot that looks like a gem in the season might only be good for a small window of time. Still struggle with reading sign and relating it to when I should hunt it.
-
- Site Owner
- Posts: 41638
- Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
- Location: S.E. Wisconsin
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Hunt it lightly all year, or when the best time is... Some properties are better suited for rut, some for early season, some late season, and some all...
- Arrowbender
- 500 Club
- Posts: 1614
- Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:39 am
- Location: Minnie!
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Does the property hold buck bedding?
Hunt early for sure!
Does the property enjoy good rut funnel traffic?
Hunt during the rut. No need to hunt early but probably won't mess too much up.
Does the property hold doe bedding and buck bedding.
Should be able to hunt both if you can keep the pressure low early.
Hunt early for sure!
Does the property enjoy good rut funnel traffic?
Hunt during the rut. No need to hunt early but probably won't mess too much up.
Does the property hold doe bedding and buck bedding.
Should be able to hunt both if you can keep the pressure low early.
-
- Posts: 116
- Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:12 pm
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
dan wrote:Hunt it lightly all year, or when the best time is... Some properties are better suited for rut, some for early season, some late season, and some all...
Those few times you hunt that property are you being pretty aggressive about it?Would you setup in the best looking spots when you go in?
-
- Posts: 1251
- Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:20 am
- Location: NE Indiana
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
Access is key to how "hard" I hunt a property. Bad access on a good property will make a good property a bad property usually after 1 sit for awhile anyways. I don't save a property or stand location, I try to hunt the best sign I can on each hunt.
-
- Posts: 310
- Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:12 am
- Location: Ohio
- Status: Offline
Re: Do you hunt a property hard early season or save it for the rut?
I think it depends on how much hunting pressure in general your property gets and when that pressure is there. This year and in years past I have tried to save one of my best remote public land spots for times the mature buck movement has been best in the past. That kinda bit me in the rear this season. My first hunt at one of my best spots was on Oct 29th. On that hunt I had a beautiful big bodied mid 150s 10ptr come through feeding his way into bedding at an hour after daylight along with several other deer. I missed him at 30yds. He didn't really know what happened (the arrow went over his back and buried into a red oak directly behind him) running away spooked, but not exploding out of there. After the hunt I pulled the card from the camera i had at the spot. Its the first time I had checked it since I set it up in late July. Turns out he had showed up there almost daily for a week or so in the days before.
I've hunted this spot for 6 years. In years past the biggest bucks in the area showed up in this location Nov 3rd-11th. And even though I was disappointed I had missed that 10ptr, it was only to a degree as I had another buck on camera who was bigger that i was my number 1 target. So I decided to let it cool down and waited to return hunting at this area until Nov 7th when I had the wind I thought was best for it. In years past it's been a rugged 1.5mile hike to get there- having to drop down into a deep steep ravine and then climbing a big hill with lots of small rocks making for some bad footing. In bow season I've had maybe 4 or 5 sightings of other hunters whether on trail cam or in person in 6 years.
This year however logging was recently completed through a portion of the area's access. The logging road put in by the logging company has made access much easier, eliminating a lot of the barrier of the steepness and bad footing. It's still a solid hike, but a combination of way more out of state hunters coming in and an easier hike suddenly put a lot of pressure on the location. I had 7 different hunters come through along the edge of the bedding area from Nov 2-Nov 9th on trail camera. And predictably, the deer in the area either went nocturnal or relocated to areas where there weren't people as I didn't have a single buck over 2yrs old on any of the 3 cameras in that area from Nov 2nd- Nov 14. The 10ptr I missed didn't show, nor the bigger buck. But that's public land hunting.
So in my case, I made a lot of mistakes, but this year not anticipating hunter pressure and saving the spot for what historically had been the best days for movement during the rut was probably the biggest one. I should've gotten aggressive on that area when it was hot. I got humbled a bit! Next season I am going to focus a lot harder on the Oct 15-31st time frame before the pressure arrives.
I've hunted this spot for 6 years. In years past the biggest bucks in the area showed up in this location Nov 3rd-11th. And even though I was disappointed I had missed that 10ptr, it was only to a degree as I had another buck on camera who was bigger that i was my number 1 target. So I decided to let it cool down and waited to return hunting at this area until Nov 7th when I had the wind I thought was best for it. In years past it's been a rugged 1.5mile hike to get there- having to drop down into a deep steep ravine and then climbing a big hill with lots of small rocks making for some bad footing. In bow season I've had maybe 4 or 5 sightings of other hunters whether on trail cam or in person in 6 years.
This year however logging was recently completed through a portion of the area's access. The logging road put in by the logging company has made access much easier, eliminating a lot of the barrier of the steepness and bad footing. It's still a solid hike, but a combination of way more out of state hunters coming in and an easier hike suddenly put a lot of pressure on the location. I had 7 different hunters come through along the edge of the bedding area from Nov 2-Nov 9th on trail camera. And predictably, the deer in the area either went nocturnal or relocated to areas where there weren't people as I didn't have a single buck over 2yrs old on any of the 3 cameras in that area from Nov 2nd- Nov 14. The 10ptr I missed didn't show, nor the bigger buck. But that's public land hunting.
So in my case, I made a lot of mistakes, but this year not anticipating hunter pressure and saving the spot for what historically had been the best days for movement during the rut was probably the biggest one. I should've gotten aggressive on that area when it was hot. I got humbled a bit! Next season I am going to focus a lot harder on the Oct 15-31st time frame before the pressure arrives.
-
- Advertisement
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: brodie1978, Google [Bot], wrusch and 45 guests