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Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:24 am
by chad
Ok, so we talk about scouting around other hunters that hunt near the parking lots of public hunting grounds, I was one of these people until the spot I used to hunt got too pressured..... I shot a buck at this spot 75 yards from the parking lot... and missed a nice one about 40 yards from it... Now why was I hunting so close to the parking lot? One day while walking out from further in I walked to the parking lot and seen a buck not too far away from the parking lot, and there was still other cars and hunters around, so I thought I would try hunting closer,the next day I hunted near the area I seen the buck and sure enough here he came walking right through the parking lot with three or four hunters cars parked in it. :shock: he never did come close enough that sit for a shot, so I moved closer to the parking lot and missed him a few days later....I later shot a 7 pointer in this spot but never have seen a true trophy, I did see some nice ones though.....There's way too much traffic in the spot now to get away with it, as there's constantly people going in and out of there....

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:27 am
by 10point
after a morning hunt I was headed back to the parking lot where I stopped short by 30 yards where a guy had just shot a deer...so much for the 1/2 mile walk...

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:35 am
by Zap
From my experiance, there are usually one or two ways that most hunters enter the woods from a parking lot. The deer pattern them in short order.
Little hide outs within 100-150 yards of the parking lot, or higher vantage points that enable deer to look over the lot are worth a look.

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A public marsh in Missouri. The waterfowl hunters would park at the x's. then proceed along the levee to the west. The ones that parked in the lot went right out into the marsh to the north. That left the pie shaped brushy area undisturbed. There was a buck that would wait until all was quiet and come from the south past the vehicles and go into that spot. Any does the duck hunters pushed off the high spots in the marsh would go there also.

marty

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:13 am
by dan
Some of my best public land spots have been right along the road in between parking areas. Some guys go a little way out, some guys go to the middle, but few park in the lot and then follow the road.
Its not ( at least in my opinion ) that deer are smart enough to think to go there... Its more that thats the spot where there is no human interaction.
On public land you need to think about where the hunters are, than where the deer will be. Cause if you know where the hunters don't go, your going to find where the deer do.

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:52 am
by stikbow26
dan wrote:Some of my best public land spots have been right along the road in between parking areas. Some guys go a little way out, some guys go to the middle, but few park in the lot and then follow the road.
Its not ( at least in my opinion ) that deer are smart enough to think to go there... Its more that thats the spot where there is no human interaction.
On public land you need to think about where the hunters are, than where the deer will be. Cause if you know where the hunters don't go, your going to find where the deer do.

Exactly Dan!! You and I talked about this on the other site, how many times you hear a some kid out for his first time hunting and he sits about 50 yards off the road and kills a monster buck.Luck maybe for him because he didn't know what he did but that buck was there because everyone was parking and walking back a mile or two so he went up to the road where there were no humans moving around.. Walt

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:06 am
by publiclandhunter
As a kid, I used to tag along with my father on his firearms deer hunts in Michigan each fall. There was an old-timer who wasn't very mobile and used to sit near the cars. He ended up killing one of the biggest bucks out of the spot that any of the hunters killed in the area. As the years passed, several more bucks were killed within a stone's throw of that parking area...seems to be some irony here?

PLH

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:28 pm
by dan
This one lived within a stones throw of a parking area / road
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Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:37 pm
by DevinJD2007
Man I still can't get over the size of that deer Dan that thing is a "Beast!" 8-)

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:51 pm
by Singing Bridge
Good gravy, Dan- that thing is a BEAST!!

It's pretty ironic how big bucks get taken near parking areas. The public land parking area I've used the most or driven by is the same- I had an uncle take an absolute BEAST within sight of it. A few years back another guy had a dressed 200 lber BEAST hanging in tree next to the lot, he shot it while eating lunch at his truck. I also had one of my only sightings of one of my target bucks driving by that same lot after an afternoon hunt.

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:51 am
by Liberty-Hunt
Amazing stories!!!

I'm pretty sure that about Red Deer, you can dream if you want catch one near a useful parking place...

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:08 am
by dan
Here is the article about the roadside beast... I highligted the part about where he lived...


The 400 Pound SE Wisconsin SLOB: by Dan Infalt

"There are no magic gizmo's, no pixie dust, no easy way to consistently produce huge bucks. You just have to do the work. You have to do the scouting."It was a full two hours before dark, when I heard the 1st deer coming through the cattails. Slurp, Slurp, his feet made the unmistakable rhythmic, sound only feet getting pulled out of muck can make. It kept getting closer, till finally a 140 class ten pointer emerged into a creek that separated me from the bedding area. The buck crossed the creek right where I expected, the turned and headed right at me. I was a mere 6 feet of the ground in a natural blind formed near the union of several huge limbs in a gigantic willow tree that sat alone in an otherwise treeless environment, I got nervous, as I looked directly into the eyes of the beast. It felt like he was starring me down even though I new he did not know I was there. Finally at 7 yards from the tree he turned with the trail and quartered away He stopped at 10 yards to work over a primary scrape offering me a perfect shot. As he walked away, I questioned my decision to let him go.

Just a few days earlier I had seen a much larger buck cross the creek on the same trail, and work this same scrape, as a matter of fact I had seen him several times since the summer. I could not put my tag on a lesser buck, until I gave this buck a worthwhile effort. I could still see the ten pointer working over some unlucky dogwood bushes in the distance, when a ripple in the creek caught my eye. The buck had slipped in while all my attention was focused on the 10 pointer. I felt foolish for momentarily loosing my concentration enough to lose the ability to hear this one coming. It only took a glance to recognize the buck that had filled my thoughts and dreams since the 1st day I seen him. His massive 9 point rack was dwarfed by the biggest body I had ever seen. He crossed the creek and turned facing me, my nerves and emotions were going nuts. If it was hard to look the ten pointer in the eyes, this was nearly impossible. I kept focused as the slob buck hit spot 7 yards away where the trail finally turned away from me. He stopped facing me head on, put his head down, smelled the ground, then raised his head starring right at me. I wondered if he was hearing my heavy heart beat, but after a short look he just flicked his tail and followed the trail, When he started working over the same licking branch the earlier ten point had worked, I eased my bow back. The arrow was perfect. The buck jumped, looked around then just fell over with a loud thud, and a little kicking.


"it should be said that I believe a hunter seeking a mature whitetail should spend far more time scouting than hunting."The 162" score did not do justice for this monarch. His main beams were nearly 30 inches long, and carried there mass all the way to the blunt tips. His tines had circumferences as big around as most bucks bases. You can't just throw a score onto a buck like that. When Lee Gatzke and I, finally got the monster out of the swamp and back to camp, we were amazed when it bottomed out my 300 pound weight scale after field dressing. This buck had to be near 400 pounds alive. I have crossed paths with a few unlucky bucks that scored higher, but this would be my best buck, the one that meant the most.

The moral of this story is not just to brag about my favorite buck, Instead, I would like to share the scouting that was involved in getting this buck. First of all, it should be said that I believe a hunter seeking a mature whitetail should spend far more time scouting than hunting.

Scouting for me, never really starts or stops, its kind of always going on. Its funny how your ears tune into anything hunting related or having to do with the where abouts of the next monarch. Any way, after hearing about some great bucks some people had seen in a certain area, and seeing some huge sheds another guy had found, I decided to check out this new property. It started at home, looking over plat books to determine land borders and owners, and viewing aerial photo's to find starter points. I started driving around this particular swamp, looking at the trails and tracks in the snow, and also looking at how the local hunters accessed there hunting spots. I walked the land completely, starting in January and completing in march. I looked for the food sources, buck bedding areas, doe bedding areas, travel funnels, rubs, significant tracks, etc. I learned how the bucks traveled this land. However, even more importantly, I learned how other hunters hunted the land, I found the trees they hunted out of, the permanent stands, there parking spots and travel routes to and from there stands . This was then mapped out, and when I compared the travel and bedding of the bucks to the travel hunting of the hunters, I was then able to find overlooked areas where big bucks could find some peace on this property. As usual, one of the best spots was right next to the road only a few hundred yards from the main parking spot. The bucks were bedding in cattails mixed with small trees and dogwood bushes on the other side of a creek within a stones throw from the road. All the hunters walked down the path a way then some turned off and set up, some went to the middle of the swamp and set up. But nobody, walked along the road and set up near the parking lot. It was one of the few spots these bucks had not felt human invasion. The best part was that if I parked my truck just right, I could see into the staging area, and view the bucks as they staged after leaving there bedding area just before dark. Of course this had to be done covertly. I would make believe I was reading the paper and never wear hunting cloths or have hunting stickers on my truck as I did not want to tip off other hunters to where the bucks are. Occasionally all summer I would glass the bucks seeing all the bucks that came out of the bedding area and how they moved around the staging area. At the same time I was watching other bucks in other areas as back ups. I needed a good wind in order to hunt this spot, and once the season came, it was a waiting and watching game until everything was perfect. By watching deer like this, I had learned that a good wind is not necessarily a wind blowing away from the bedding area. This is because the deer would naturally come out much later, or use a totally different exit when the wind was not in there favor, but with the proper cross wind, that was close to being in there favor, I could slip in and get the job done. Moral of the story. 300 hours scouting 1 hour hunting. There are no magic gizmo's, no pixie dust, no easy way to consistently produce huge bucks. You just have to do the work. You have to do the scouting.
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Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:18 am
by chad
That's surely a true slob, thanks for sharing your story dan! 8-)

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:57 am
by Singing Bridge
looking at Dan's slob buck never gets old... 8-)

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:15 am
by Justin85
I think it was the hair that killed that buck. I'm still jealous of the hair, but only slightly envious of the buck.

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image

Re: Hunting near the parking Lot

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:46 am
by Stanley
Great story, Great buck.