Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Running dogs effect on Still Hunting land

I'm sure those informative articles were shoehorned in between all the glossy colored ads for scent lock clothing, anti-ass stink spray, invisa-flage, ect, ad nauseum.

Deer very rarely leave an area for more than a day or two. There was a study several years ago from the mid-west where they had college students survey a section that had been high fenced (the deer couldn't leave). The deer had all been individually marked and collared. The students did not harass the deer other than observing them and recording the sighting. The first couple of days there were a lot of sightings. After a couple of days of "hunting" the sightings dropped to almost nothing. The deer were still there, they just learned to avoid the students.

Rutting bucks will leave their home area at least once during the rut to look for un-bred does. There are a couple of telemetry research projects that back this up.

Dog running does not, from 30 years personal observation, disrupt deer behavior to the point of running them out of the country. I hunt public land that has a 3 week season that gets run every day, and there are just as many races at the end of season as there are at the first.

If you want to sit on a food plot or a corn feeder, then being in a dog running area is not going to be conducive to your type of "hunting". If you're willing to do a little scouting to find travel routes and escape cover, you might find that you do very well still hunting or placing a stand in these areas.

The bottom line is, you knew it was a dog lease when you joined. Either figure out how to hunt it, or find another spot.

How about suing the offending dog owners? If someone spends $43,450 for hunting rights, and some new guy in town comes in and screws it up after 33 years of successful hunting, then I would think you could sue for at least the $43,450, if not for consequential damages too. We don't have many dog problems in my neighborhood because people won't tolerate it, but I sympathize with guys that do, aspecially when paying that much just to hunt.

It's a lot simpler in my area. If a dog is observed chasing deer, the dog dies. Period. That crap just isn't allowed here, by anyone. Dogs are used for runnning rabbits and coyotes after deer season, but not during deer season.

Oh! the irony!. Sounds like it's the other way around. The club has been running dogs for generations and now a new guy comes along and wants them to quit because he doen't like it. Maybe they should sue him.

You both have it wrong. I am not a "new" guy trying to stop dog hunters; that is in others posts not mine. The dividing line (Hough Rd) for dog hunting in our county bisects our club 3750 acres on the dog side and 1500 on the non-dog side (the dogs still run here from time to time). I hunt both sides. I'm trying to figure out how to hunt it better, but if dogs are responsible for moving the deer north of our land onto other properties across the "Dog" line and they stay there till the pressure goes away (Jan 1)......

Read my first post about the study on deer movement inside the high fence enclosure. Are you sure that the deer are leaving? And, are you sure that the dogs are the only influence on deer movement? It could well be that your movements, or the movements of other hunters may be influencing deer behavior.

In the enclosure study, the deer and the "hunters" both had GPS trackers on. The hunters were often within a few feet of deer they never saw.

My guess is that the deer are still on the property, but they have worked out how to avoid you. I would scout the area extensively pre-season, looking for travel routes, bedding areas, and feed areas. I would try to place stands on travel routes between the bedding and feeding areas, and I would develop alternate ways of getting in and out from them, as well as varying the time of day I hunted. Try to never hunt the same stand twice in a row, and never stay in a stand if the wind becomes unfavorable. In other words, do everything you can to keep the deer from paterning you.

If the dogs are running across other peoples private property it's the dog hunter's fault. Period. PRIVATE Property paid for and owned by someone is not a playground for a dog hunting group unless they have been given permission just like any other hunter.

Guys, my post wasn't directed toward anyone in particular, and no offense was intended.

To me it seems like the people that pay to have the legal right to hunt the property should have control of how the property is hunted, unless the owner of the property specifically holds the right to run dogs on the property, or any other right specifically stated in the agreement. And there should be a written agreement, especially for a 'contract' of this value. Not having a written agreement would be very naive of both parties.

No one on my lease is arguing about dog hunting. Just wondering how it is affecting those of us that prefer a more quiet one on one challenge. It cost each of us a little over $1000 each a year. We have a camp (1.5 miles from a road) where small cabins and campers are year round. I have marked the corners with my gps. It is approximately 4.7 miles long by 3.6 miles wide. Rivers make two borders and we have 14 creeks. Most of the land gets timbered in sections every year. This was not intended to be a discussion about whether someone was for or against...Duke/Carolina....Clemson/South Carolina....

We were just having this discussion the other day and those who hunt the land I do feel the deer do not pattern at all now that the dog hunters are back, and are not seeing quite as many deer. There is a creek that seems to stop the dogs, and the deer seem to be staying on the opposite side more (not our property).

Yep. That's hunting pressure, and it does not matter wither it is dog or human.

Thanks.

Dink

Thanks.

I still think it would be worth it. Just something about hounds running, deer running and shotguns going off that I think would be a great time. Not to mention killing multiple deer each day. I live in the wrong state.

Dink

Every time I've ever done that, I promise myself I'll never do it again, usually about the time I finish butchering the first one

The couple of times I have hunted with a club as a guest, there were butchering parties at the end of the day, and everybody generally helped. The meat was divided up, with "shooters" getting their choice, the rest by draw.

As I generally hunt alone or with a friend, I used to dread the butchering until I discovered Processors.

Dink: The club hunting with hounds thing is a very social type of hunting, and I think that is an attraction to some people in addition to the hounds, which to me is like music.

I've tried it but simply prefer the solo hunt.

I'm a lowlife doghunter. I generally only read the gun writers section, as I'm not a gunwriter. I suspect most of ya'll aren't either, so I'll throw my opinion out there.

Any doghunter that casts dogs on private land to run deer out the other side is a sorry bastard. They give all us doghunters a bad name.

Any stillhunter that shoots a dog for doing what it was born and raised to do, is a sorry bastard and gives all stillhunters in dog country a bad name.

The best solution in every situation is for everyone to try their best to be neiborly. Doghunters shouldn't cast dogs where they have no chance of controling them. Stillhunters should nicely return dogs and nicely ask that it doesn't happen again. If that doesn't work, as a last resort, they should get law enforcement envolved. Everyone needs to remember that at the end of the day, we all have to live together. And peoplenfrom both sides take stuff pretty seriously.

As to the original question, any pressure from anything can effect deer movement. No matter if it comes from dogs, people, farmers, or whatever. The part you have with only a race through it now and then should be a gold mine.

I hunt 60,000 acres public land surounded on all sides by stillhunt public land. If our dogs get by, they go into 13000 acres that is only hunted on a few special weekends a season. The only accsess to retreve dogs is on foot. We see piles of buck sign while walking to catch dogs and see quite a few bucks during the day also while walking. I can only imagine what you would see if hunting.

I would use the forced movement to your advantage in the dog area, and maybe scout the still hunt area better.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Same here -I'm not into group anything especially hunting .

As mentioned earlier ---I myself have seen deer come to food plots that had been dog hunted earlier in the day -although never a decent buck -skragglers and does only.

Talking about some dog hunters having no respect for anything .
I use to work offshore for a drilling company and went dog hunting with a bunch of roughneck coworkers from marion county ,Ms.. Hunting consisted of ragged out pick-up trucks ,CB radios , beer ,semi auto -pump or lever action rifles/shotguns.
Me being a transplant to mississippi from a cornfield in ohio --well it all seemed wild and crazy to me . Driving trucks down dirt roads -through people yards/driveways -shooting at deer running across peoples big country yards . Shooting at 'something' running through the brush -oops that was alberts bluetick -no big deal -jump in the truck and try to catch up with the hunt -80mph down a dirt road yelling on a CB -loaded guns bouncing everywhere .
DO NOT drag azz getting to the truck if the deer has already crossed the road --you WILL be left -happens all the time I guess -leave them here and that way I'LL get the shot mentality. Always go towards the front of the truck - that way they can slide to a stop and maybe you can jump in. laf.
Anyway this bunch of guys I worked with had not a care in the world nor did their friends/family who owned whatever land . They told me of shoot outs with land owners -people killed from guns -truck wrecks etc. -it was just a day of mayhem for them .
Certainly not saying this is typical of dog hunters but I went with them a couple of times and heard many "hunting stories" from them .

Went squirrel hunting with them 'once' I took a rem. 572 pump 22 , them -shotguns only for the running shotgun squirrel shoot.
Our derrick hand had a couple of squirrel dogs --turn them out where ever whenever -when they tree -they foot race to the dog/tree . What you do is run until you're close enough for the pattern to spread out enough to have a high percentage chance of killing or knocking the squirrel out of the tree -if you get there first shoot it first ---you're -the man.
Just came to mind - I remember a squirrel shot and fell into the fork of the tree about 50' up I thought maybe they might consider letting me see if I could knock it out with the 22lr -- sonny the dog owner looked at me while reloading his 12ga. and said --well shoot -he couldn't believe I was just standing there while everybody was unloading shotguns at the squirrel . A minimum of 25 12ga. shots were fired.
Crazy times hunting with that bunch -they truly had no thoughts of still hunting , ethics -anything -none of them had ever had a hunting permit that I know of.
They fished with a long cable attached to one of the spark plug wires of the boat and a big dip net -the old telephones had been taken away from them.
Here in NW Florida -dog hunters who are responsible about trying their best not to trespass use beagles . A beagle deer dog works deer slow and the hunter has to pay attention to normal hunting practices like wind and staying still .
Some people have gotten very good at this new kind of dog hunting -they scout and have studied what big bucks do to give the dogs the slip. It's not a group thing one or two hunters and one or two beagles.
They glass out in front of the beagles and kind of stalk -the deer most always circle and they use this to their advantage .
Over and out.

I will never shoot a dog for crossing my property or my lease while I'm hunting.

Hunting 60,000 acres of public land is not the norm in my neck of the woods. With what acreage leases for around here, leasing 1,000 acres is a BIG investment.
If a guy leases 500 acres beside me and chooses to dog hunt, it would be best for all parties involved for the dog hunter to contact me before he casts his dogs.
If the ajoinng properties do not want dogs coming onto property they paid money to lease, then it is the dog hunter's responsibility...not the dog...to see that does not happen. If he can not control his dogs, he had best not cast them.

I know hog and coon hunters who do this and problems are avoided.

I live in SE Okla about a stones throw from Ark where running dogs is legal. I've got several buddies who keep dogs and hunt Ark. I have hunted with them from time to time, although its fun, its not my cup of tea. The people I have hunted with are as savy about deer as anybody I know. And can and do kill them without dogs. Its as much about getting together with friends & family as it is about killing a deer.
My experience hunting deer in areas where dogs are running is that deer don't leave. I have also seen some pretty darn big deer killed in areas that dogs run in. Deer that were killed out of a stand and not being run.
I have no problem what so ever with deer dogs.

IMO hunting deer with dogs is more sporting than shooting deer that are eating corn out of a feed bucket.

That's right there is funny.