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Pressured land

lpv77

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2015
Messages
418
Anyone else hunt heavily pressured land? The choices of land we have on Long island are all very pressured. There is really almost no where you can go that there isn't someone else .
We have mostly flat land, no ag on the public property, some surrounding. Not really any lakes or rivers that we canoe across.
Anyone else have this type of situation. Most of our public land is multiple use too.
 
Yes. My best advice is to just put boots on the ground and cover as much ground as you can. Find the thickest stuff you can and the deer will hole up there. In areas like this I usually just try to go as far from access as I can, but don't overlook anything. Most guys will not crawl on their hands and knees to get into the middle of a thicket.

An area I scouted a couple weekends ago I had planned to walk 1.5 miles to cover a certain area. I hit good thick stuff less than 1/4 mile from the truck. I scouted it and found 2 great spots for next season. The rest of the day did not turn up anything nearly as good.
 
Anyone else hunt heavily pressured land? The choices of land we have on Long island are all very pressured. There is really almost no where you can go that there isn't someone else .
We have mostly flat land, no ag on the public property, some surrounding. Not really any lakes or rivers that we canoe across.
Anyone else have this type of situation. Most of our public land is multiple use too.
I heard a really cool podcast from a guy that manages private properties on Long Island. I'll see if I can dig it up. Sounded pretty cool. There was a fee involved, but it was reasonable from what I remember and it opened up a LOT of ground.
 
Southern Michigan here, and I only have access to public land - VERY pressured. And you're in luck today - just a moment ago on the Michigan Sportsman Whitetail Hunting forum, I noticed John Eberhart posted an extremely relevant guide to scouting high pressure areas and wanted to share the link here - your post is the perfect place.

https://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/threads/off-season-scouting.607840/page-3#post-6676927

FYI, when John references "zone 2" or "zone 3" in Michigan, he's talking about the lower peninsula (shaped like your left hand, palm down) divided into 3 vertical zones. 1 is at the top and is about 1/3rd of your hand (not densely populated, rifles allowed in gun season), 2 is in the middle (more population: rifles/shotguns in season), 3 is at the bottom (dense population: shotgun* only). Zones 2 & 3 are hardest hunted because they're closest to population, and limited to close-range guns, so the woods are filled with "drunken pumpkins" during gun season here, every one of them trying to get where someone else isn't. Very high pressure. Bow seasons goes ~1.5 months before and after gun here.

* recent years have allowed straight-walled calibers up to about .454, but zone 3 is still commonly referred to as "the shotgun zone".
 
Completely Agree with red. I hunt heavily pressured public land where you can't walk miles away from the parking area, simply because parking areas are everywhere. The furthest I can get away from a road is just under a mile and while scouting it I found 4 tree stands. So now I focus on small islands in the river and thick stuff that I have to crawl through.
I also attended a John Eberhart hour long seminar and he talked about widening trails to allow Mature bucks to move through easier, I've done this twice now and it can get painful and bloody, but I think it'll be worth it. Don't be afraid to ask for permission either. I found a thicket that I couldn't find a decent access route too, so I stopped at a house simply to ask if I could walk across his property. Guy told me I could hunt the large Oak in his back yard, he could care less. Only 6 acres but I'll take it.
 
Yes. My best advice is to just put boots on the ground and cover as much ground as you can. Find the thickest stuff you can and the deer will hole up there. In areas like this I usually just try to go as far from access as I can, but don't overlook anything. Most guys will not crawl on their hands and knees to get into the middle of a thicket.

An area I scouted a couple weekends ago I had planned to walk 1.5 miles to cover a certain area. I hit good thick stuff less than 1/4 mile from the truck. I scouted it and found 2 great spots for next season. The rest of the day did not turn up anything nearly as good.


I have to agree. You have to put the boots on the ground and you will find the deer. I was fortunate growing up to learn this. I grew up in Ocean County NJ. As the area developed there was less land to hunt and deer became a lot more pressured.

Do yourself a favor. Once you find your honey hole do not even tell your best friend. I had that experience after doing all the leg work in one area I used to hunt.
 
Check out his podcast if you haven't already. Rick is from Long Island. Follow him on instagram. He's a beauty!

 
Lol, he's a friend of mine.

Hahaha that’s awesome! Man I loved that podcast and I love following him on Instagram. You’re lucky buddy. I’d follow him around everywhere and get as much help from him as he’d be willing to give!

Let him know to keep up the good work, it’s appreciated!
 
Hahaha that’s awesome! Man I loved that podcast and I love following him on Instagram. You’re lucky buddy. I’d follow him around everywhere and get as much help from him as he’d be willing to give!

Let him know to keep up the good work, it’s appreciated!
He is a great person him and I spent a lot of time hunting together in my earlier hunting career.
 
try hunting some popular public land in fl, same thing. people everywhere. but deer know how to hide in these places and those are the places you have to find.

Deer know when there is a lull in activity on these places and that is when they will make a move. They will move not to make noise or be suspicious in movement. It will be slow and quiet. You just have to be in the right spot when they do. Basically this means staying in your stand until at least 1:30 - 2:00.
 
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