Boy do I feel everything about this post. Ive spent three weeks total in Ohio over the course of 5-10 years and every time it was a complete failure. The first year guys I took shot a yearling doe, that was it, in a hurricane. Figured that was bad luck went back again and couldnt get away from pressure. Drove for 2 days over the entire southern to northern end on the east side of the state. Went back again, this time with a different target location and outside the rut couldnt get on any deer with consistency.
Needless to say I am not in a rush to go back. I thought it was quite interesting when the guys all came here to PA and said "man theres no deer here" well its not any better in Ohio on public either from what I have seen. I literally watched guys enter properties from every angle there. If you didnt bung up your own wind, no worries, someone entered from the other way and has you covered.
To with that. Theres hundreds of thousands of acres here. See just as many deer and less people. Ive never done gun season there, the rut looked like PA gun season, that was enough to tell me not to try it. Ohio has had way to much publicity for its amount of public. That south eastern end is where it mostly is. You better be ready to date the fat chic in that terrain too.
Moving on....sorta.
- jlh42581
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
jlh42581 wrote:Boy do I feel everything about this post. Ive spent three weeks total in Ohio over the course of 5-10 years and every time it was a complete failure. The first year guys I took shot a yearling doe, that was it, in a hurricane. Figured that was bad luck went back again and couldnt get away from pressure. Drove for 2 days over the entire southern to northern end on the east side of the state. Went back again, this time with a different target location and outside the rut couldnt get on any deer with consistency.
Needless to say I am not in a rush to go back. I thought it was quite interesting when the guys all came here to PA and said "man theres no deer here" well its not any better in Ohio on public either from what I have seen. I literally watched guys enter properties from every angle there. If you didnt bung up your own wind, no worries, someone entered from the other way and has you covered.
To with that. Theres hundreds of thousands of acres here. See just as many deer and less people. Ive never done gun season there, the rut looked like PA gun season, that was enough to tell me not to try it. Ohio has had way to much publicity for its amount of public. That south eastern end is where it mostly is. You better be ready to date the fat chic in that terrain too.
Biggest issue with Ohio is that it is the closest "big buck state" that anyone on the Eastern seaboard can get to. That makes it popular just because of geography. Our camp is in the middle of WNF, so I run into alot of out of state hunters. Many of them are quite disappointed after realizing that there isn't that many deer and definitely not a booner hiding around every tree.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
cspot wrote:Biggest issue with Ohio is that it is the closest "big buck state" that anyone on the Eastern seaboard can get to. That makes it popular just because of geography. Our camp is in the middle of WNF, so I run into alot of out of state hunters. Many of them are quite disappointed after realizing that there isn't that many deer and definitely not a booner hiding around every tree.
Yep, that doesnt do it any favors. Imagine how many of them drive past better hunting to get to it. Youre at least invested by having a camp to figuring it out. The wife and I have our eyes open for a potential camp even here in PA just as somewhere to go, if nothing else you got that.
Part of the problem too is most people are so enthralled with horns they cant just enjoy the trips for what they are too. I personally need to at least see some deer to feel comfortable spending that kind of money, even if its not bucks but I also enjoy adventure.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
amarty734 wrote:Mauser, we texted a while back about hunting close to each other. Last year I hunted the 1st week of November and barely saw a deer until things lit up the last few days. Almost every property has several groups hunting it and was pretty discouraging. I saw bucks in a few different spots but I really only have one little hidey hole that I have real confidence in. Actually I saw 5 different guys hunting the same property in that week but it didn't slow the movement in my little hidden corner. Its just so tough with the varying pressure, and bucks laying down way less sign than at home in Michigan. I actually just got back from a quick scouting trip this weekend and didn't find anything I felt confident with. The properties look entirely different with the thick vegetation right now so that definitely plays a factor. Don't sleep on the early season though, in 2020 we hunted first weekend of October with not another soul in sight. We killed a good buck and saw a nice number of deer. We never saw another hunter the entire trip. Turkey hunting was a different story first week of may. We saw more hunters than Michigan rut or gun season.
What types of spot location/habitat do you guys find yourselves the most successful seeking out? I have scouted countless spots and for some reason only have 2 or 3 that I felt were worth hunting much. Just seems like I must be passing by stuff.
Well, for most guys it's a destination hunt, where they've spent a lot of time scouting and plotting online. It's hard to invest all that time, then show up and hunt close to the road, or not at a good looking terrain feature. I like 10+yr old cuts in steep bowls, or just steep bowls. If it's a labeled cut on OnX, it's gonna have guys. Same with burn areas. My better spots are ones that don't stand out for any reason other than mapping out a property as if it were gun week. Novembers in Ohio get more pressure than gun week in Ohio.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
I currently live right on the Ohio river, Wayne National is 5 min from where I'm living at the moment. I've been thinking long and hard about hunting over there but the more I read this thread the less I want to, I've got 3-4 shooters in West Virginia and more deer lol.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
The Ohio DNR has treated our public lands as a money grab from out of state hunters for a couple decades now. Its truly a shame what our public lands have turned into.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
Whew!! Glad I'm not alone.
One thing that is a very tough hurdle...
You scout and come across good hot sign.
You spend a day or 2 or 3 hunting there. It looks pretty dang fresh and it's the best stuff you seen.
You didn't realize a guy spent the last 6 days there and the deer know it.
It's tough in low deer density and hills that sign is tough to real. Obviously if a scrape is still wet and it's 72 and sunny you know. But a lot of times it's tough. Like I said, for the most part, it's tough to even find actual general deer trails.
Despite the pressure, the deer still seem to move during the rut. Probably because competition is high. I'm betting the older deer know to avoid the common spots or how to skirt them. I still feel like deer will use terrain funnels to some extent just because those little hills are nasty. But instead of going up through a saddle maybe they cut across the top of the ditch or whatever and avoid the normal stand in X marks the spot. I use that example because the buck I killed did just that. I thought it was odd the 4 does he was trailing broke prior to the saddle and actually went down the steep part of the ditch and up the other side...where as it'd been more natural to follow the saddle. Of course he followed....with a bow, I'd been 30-40 yards too far away. Unluckily for him, I had my muzzleloader.
Looking back, I knew that area was climbed with a climber in October. Who knows how badly it was molested since then.
I'm not overlooking hunting earlier....now that I know several areas of a property, I can probably do alright. If I can get the schedule to work out, I plan to head down for atleast a few days to scout and hunt.
One thing that is a very tough hurdle...
You scout and come across good hot sign.
You spend a day or 2 or 3 hunting there. It looks pretty dang fresh and it's the best stuff you seen.
You didn't realize a guy spent the last 6 days there and the deer know it.
It's tough in low deer density and hills that sign is tough to real. Obviously if a scrape is still wet and it's 72 and sunny you know. But a lot of times it's tough. Like I said, for the most part, it's tough to even find actual general deer trails.
Despite the pressure, the deer still seem to move during the rut. Probably because competition is high. I'm betting the older deer know to avoid the common spots or how to skirt them. I still feel like deer will use terrain funnels to some extent just because those little hills are nasty. But instead of going up through a saddle maybe they cut across the top of the ditch or whatever and avoid the normal stand in X marks the spot. I use that example because the buck I killed did just that. I thought it was odd the 4 does he was trailing broke prior to the saddle and actually went down the steep part of the ditch and up the other side...where as it'd been more natural to follow the saddle. Of course he followed....with a bow, I'd been 30-40 yards too far away. Unluckily for him, I had my muzzleloader.
Looking back, I knew that area was climbed with a climber in October. Who knows how badly it was molested since then.
I'm not overlooking hunting earlier....now that I know several areas of a property, I can probably do alright. If I can get the schedule to work out, I plan to head down for atleast a few days to scout and hunt.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
jlh42581 wrote:cspot wrote:Biggest issue with Ohio is that it is the closest "big buck state" that anyone on the Eastern seaboard can get to. That makes it popular just because of geography. Our camp is in the middle of WNF, so I run into alot of out of state hunters. Many of them are quite disappointed after realizing that there isn't that many deer and definitely not a booner hiding around every tree.
Yep, that doesnt do it any favors. Imagine how many of them drive past better hunting to get to it. Youre at least invested by having a camp to figuring it out. The wife and I have our eyes open for a potential camp even here in PA just as somewhere to go, if nothing else you got that.
Part of the problem too is most people are so enthralled with horns they cant just enjoy the trips for what they are too. I personally need to at least see some deer to feel comfortable spending that kind of money, even if its not bucks but I also enjoy adventure.
Yep. We didn't get the camp for chasing big bucks. Something we always wanted to do. We do a fair amount of squirrel and turkey hunting there and there is some good fishing close.
I will say though I would strongly consider an out of state camp. We considered PA, but then settled on going to Ohio. The nice thing about out of state is you drastically increase your available hunting. Especially since PA doesn't have Sunday hunting except for 3 weekends. The other things is the seasons don't line up exactly so you also can pick up time that way. Ohio's bow season runs from late September till February and never goes out. Not many deer, but nice to go whenever you want.
My other recommendation for a camp is try and get something within 2 hrs. That makes short trips to camp alot easier.
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
cspot wrote:My other recommendation for a camp is try and get something within 2 hrs. That makes short trips to camp alot easier.
2.5 hours in every direction from me to a border state
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Re: Moving on....sorta.
jlh42581 wrote:cspot wrote:My other recommendation for a camp is try and get something within 2 hrs. That makes short trips to camp alot easier.
2.5 hours in every direction from me to a border state
That stinks. For some reason I thought you were in Beaver County.
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