Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How do you hunt?

Shhhhh!!!!! But let's not BS the boys. It's 100's of thousands and then some. Best thing to do is run down the whole Pa Deer hunting experience. I'd post a wink, but no need to arouse any unnecessary curiosity.

With thousands of square miles of public land, I spot and stalk. Binos and spotting scopes to find and asses, and then put on a stalk if it's deemed worthwhile.

I mostly hunt from stands on private land. Haven't hunted public land in 20 years at least. The stands consist of climbing tree stands, shooting boxes/houses, ladder stands and tripod stands.

I mostly stick to two separate tracks of private land. The smaller track is about 200 acres that's just my dad and myself hunting. We hunt it very little, so there is almost no hunting pressure. The other track is a 1200 acre family farm of a close friend. It's usually just me hunting, but he and a few other friends and/or family members hunt it occassionally.

My typical hunting day consists of being in a stand an hour before daylight for a 3 or 4 hour sit. Then I usually either come out or get down and stalk/scout for an hour or 3. Then lunch. Then back in a stand around 3 until dark.

I'm blessed with great hunting numbers wise and rarely go an entire day without seeing deer, usually multiple deer. I usually take enough that my family and I can enjoy venison year around.

Trophy bucks are few and far between though. My best buck this year was an 8 point with a 15" inside spread and I got him on my first hunt, 15 minutes into it. He was the best one I saw all season. The weather was crazy here this year (abnormally warm) and the bigger bucks moved almost exclusively at night. I have several good bucks on camera at night, but only had 1 picture of good buck, out of 10s of 1000s of pictures from 8 different cameras, during shooting hours. But that's ok, the freezer is full and they'll be there next year!

Ha, been there, still doing that.
Spot and stalk, then walk and spot.
Then snack and watch.
Repeat.
All Nat Forest.

This is an awesome thread to hear about all the nice hunting areas people have. My hunting is similar to yours JDK. We have our own 12 acres within the 3 million 9 hundred thousand acre Superior National Forest.

I have a ladder stand on my 12 along a beaver pond for a quick sit, or the occasional longer sit if I don't see a deer I want to shoot. Our son shot his first deer from our land. Last year prior to his deployment to the middle east he shot his first big woods buck in the middle of nowhere. It was the absolute best hunting day of my life so far to find him dragging his 18" inside spread, high tined 8.

Most of my hunting is roaming a 10 square mile area out the backdoor of our camp using still hunting, and longer sits in previously productive areas. I move several hang-on stands, and always have at least two set up prior to season in proven areas such as natural funnels between ridges or along waterways.

In my 30 years of hunting this area I have never seen another hunter in the woods, other than a handful of time I have run into my buddy, son or cousin.

I routinely go days on end without seeing a deer, but when I do it is just as likely to be a mature buck as a doe, or smaller buck. Some severe winters we can lose as many of almost half of our deer herd.

Calling works well where I hunt, both grunting and doe bleat. My biggest buck came within 30 feet of me on the ground after a grunt sequence. I have called in a timber wolf to a can call, and have been in an area where I could hear a pack of wolves at a fresh kill with 100 yards of me. The wildlife viewing is incredible some days with chance to see moose, wolves, pine martin, fisher, fox, bobcats, lynx, hares, grouse, owls, hawks, waterfowl, ravens, eagles, osprey, and all types of other birds.

One year we had a pack of timber wolves take down a fawn in the yard one night.

I have never imagined wanting to hunt whitetail anywhere else, but I know there are other great areas in the USA with similar conditions. I am glad I don't have to travel very far to get my own slice of hunting heaven.

Yeah, Tom-your area sure doesn't get over hunted, that's for sure.

HAHAHA! No Sunday Hunting and No Deer. Gary Alt ruined it!

Now I usually sit in a tree stand or a box stand and wait for the deer I want to shoot to walk out where I can see him. I have in the past hunted with dogs which was the most fun and exciting. I have done lots of moving slowly through the woods looking for deer and used to sit on the ground against a tree where I thought one would cross. I have also done drives where we would take turns walking and blocking narrow strips of woods. All of them work I always kill a couple every year.

no its not,its havesting farm animals

Opinions differ. You're more than welcome to come to Texas and hunt any way you want. I wish you luck! captdavid

myself, wife and my oldest son we hunt our 300 acre lease in the southern tier of ny. the land consists of 130 acres of woods and the rest is corn or soy bean fields depending on what the farmer plants, the back side runs up to a river and we have a stream in the middle. we hunt travel routes between bedding and feeding and field corners. we use ladder stands 90% of the time and some ground blinds and climbers the rest. we bow hunt it every chance we get and come fire arms season wife and I hunt with our revolvers and the boy uses a 30-30. its not uncommon for any of us to see 2-3 or more deer a sit.

I hunt both high fence over corn and sit in the brush in low fence refuges where baiting isn't allowed. I have no preference, but I will say that when hunting high fenced private ranches I become much more selective in what I kill. This year I didn't kill anything. I passed on a good many deer. I usually look for mature does, culls bucks and pigs.

Or over populated with deer.

Captdavid. That's a shame that it costs so much to hunt down there. Here in Wisconsin, we have thousands of acres of public land. National Forest, State and county. Our Deer population is on a comeback mode right now after a slight over harvest and some Wolf kills, but next year and after that we should be back on track. The Northern half of the state is Bucks only right now, but the Central and Southern counties are allowed a doe with a small extra fee. Look us up and maybe plan a trip. hunter friendly state. License for out-of-state hunters are reasonable and lodging is cheap. PLUS, you won't have to go far to find a watering hole after the hunt.

This past season, I began hunting on a small farm in Clarke County, VA. There aren't a lot of woods, so we hunt from stands or chairs overlooking feeding areas. Stillhunting isn't an option, due to the limited size of the property and cover. It doesn't take much poking around to run the deer clear off the property. I took a buck and two does there, and my son got a buck and a doe. Three or four other hunters that hunted there either missed their chances or in one case, killed a nice ten-point, but failed to track it to where it finally fell. I found that one a week or so later.

For four years prior to that, I hunted a WMA totaling about two square miles. That area was heavily hunted during the rifle season, but I managed to get something every year; just does and one spike. There are some decent bucks in the area, but I've yet to see one during the rifle season. To bag a decent buck there, the best bet would be bowhunting, before pressure runs the deer off onto the surrounding private land. These are some nice woods, with lots of other wildlife to hunt and observe and spectacular views of the Shenandoah River, but if you want venison, you'd best shoot the first deer you see.

For approximately 30 years, up,through 2011, I hunted a couple of tracts in PA and WV belonging to a good friend who passed away last December. My family had almost exclusive access to this gentleman's land and though neither tract was much over 100 acres, during the later part of the season, it was possible to stillhunt or stump sit rather than just numb my butt in a stand. We killed a lot of deer on those properties, and pheasants, doves and rabbits on the PA tract as well.

We're going to lease the VA farm this year, and hopefully for years to come. Now that I'm getting old and creaky, stand sitting is the best option for me, and with no other hunters involved, we'll be able to practice some management to allow the bucks to grow up a bit, while keeping the freezers full of venison from mostly does. Even on a small property, it doesn't take long to see some real improvement in antler quality if you leave the small ones go. My neighbor takes some boomers off a small farm a couple of miles from here where he's been doing just that.

I too hunt TX. There is quite a bit of public land out there for free or a public permit, 50ish bucks IIRC. Have hunted it quite a bit, and missed one chance at a 150ish buck( don't shoot moving animals). The longets public shot I've had though was probably just under 100 yards. Never saw another hunter while on public, but we choose to not hunt just off the roads too...

We hunt at home too, generally watching food plots though there are a few feeders around. Have one out the back door at 181 yards to watch deer, but not specifically hunt except I'll shoot trash bucks there. Don't even have a stand at all at home, but hunt many places sitting here and there or walking around. Longest shot at home is couple hundred yards typically, 300 about max.

Hunt a lease, feeders because thats what everyone else is doing, but ours are placed strategically to cover big acorn years. When other folks are not there, we hunt sitting by trees on trails and such. Enjoy that much more actually.
Feeders there use to be 200 plus but I scooted them up when we started with suppressed subsonics.... 125 to 150 yards now.
But Carolyn and I often shoot to 350 to cover the main trails. And have shot a few out around 500 or a bit over as our place has a lot of wide open spaces. This is TX Hill Country.

If you only knew..... but then again most folks are ignorant to what happens here.

I could take you to some places, fenced yes, but over 25K acres.... and in some years I can show you stands and feeders where You'd be lucky to see a deer. Other years they are hungry.

But they are not farm animals by any means.

Of course I could take you to small fenced tracts that are basically farm animals and shooting too. Probably every state these days has that.

You can't paint fences and blinds with a broad brush. Well you can, but you would be wrong.

I've said it many times I prefer not to have stands and feeders, and often times if the place is big enough we don't. But if its low fence and smaller tracts you do what otehrs do or you dont' have as many opportunities.

That said, when others are not around at the lease, we don't see the stand, Carolyn, Tiger and I go walking and find a good place to prop up under a tree and see whats around. Can often see bucks no one else sees.....

I hunt in central Kansas. No tree-stands, or blinds(Though I suppose you could). I'm always on the move, glassing cover and stalking- occasionally I may sit in a spot and glass for an hour or so.
The ultimate adrenaline rush for me is to glass up a buck, and use the terrain to put a stalk on it- climaxing with shooting it in it's bed.
Though I hear people say KS has no public land, we do have over a million private acres enrolled in CRP and "walk-in-hunting" which is open to hunting. Some of the ranches I hunt have thousands of contiguous acres.


Here's a buck I shot that never left it's bed.

He;ll, I'm just hunting for a thread that wasn't started by captdavid..

Oops, I just started another. I thought it was a campfire where we sit around and 'chew the fat' will you forgive me if I tell you the 7x57 is the greatest cartridge ever. (: captdavid