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Move on?

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Dmathews87

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2022
Messages
775
Location
SE Louisiana
bored at work guys so cut me some slack on this one lol....Ive been hunting a piece of public land for awhile now and get very minimal results. The property is mostly managed for bird hunting. They do bird dog training and i often have dogs run in on me. They also have a ton of trails all through that people are constantly horse back riding through. The property is mostly pine and all though there is deer sign, its scarce. Ive scouted the crap out of it and its only 25-30 minutes from home so its convenient. My question is this...have any of you ever had a piece of property that you just had to cut your loses on and move on? How much work are you willing to put in before deciding your time is better spent else where?

I have shot deer on this property (exactly 2, buck and a doe) I do hunt other properties but they are at least 2 hours away so unless i take some time off from work, i just dont get the chance to really go out there
 
Dmathews87 said:
bored at work guys so cut me some slack on this one lol....Ive been hunting a piece of public land for awhile now and get very minimal results. The property is mostly managed for bird hunting. They do bird dog training and i often have dogs run in on me. They also have a ton of trails all through that people are constantly horse back riding through. The property is mostly pine and all though there is deer sign, its scarce. Ive scouted the crap out of it and its only 25-30 minutes from home so its convenient. My question is this...have any of you ever had a piece of property that you just had to cut your loses on and move on? How much work are you willing to put in before deciding your time is better spent else where?

I have shot deer on this property (exactly 2, buck and a doe) I do hunt other properties but they are at least 2 hours away so unless i take some time off from work, i just dont get the chance to really go out there
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It depends upon what you are after. You can probably hunt there if you want a quick hunt (after work before dark or something) and might get a doe or little buck. I would not expect to find a buck there that is over 1.5 years old.

I have cut my losses several times. One was a tough because it is 3,000 acres of public near my house, looks great on paper, and is long and narrow so you can out walk the lazy hunters to access the back 40. However, for some reason, it holds more coyotes than I have ever seen in this state. In one week, 2 years ago, I saw 2 live coyotes and one dead one on the locked access road (shot by a hunter and head cut off). When you walk out at night, they are singing everywhere. There is some deer sign, but I have seen VERY few deer there compared to how much time I spent scouting/hunting. I could setup in what seemed like near perfect locations to me everyday for a week straight and not even see a single doe. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
 
raisins said:
It depends upon what you are after. You can probably hunt there if you want a quick hunt (after work before dark or something) and might get a doe or little buck. I would not expect to find a buck there that is over 1.5 years old.

I have cut my losses several times. One was a tough because it is 3,000 acres of public near my house, looks great on paper, and is long and narrow so you can out walk the lazy hunters to access the back 40. However, for some reason, it holds more coyotes than I have ever seen in this state. In one week, 2 years ago, I saw 2 live coyotes and one dead one on the locked access road (shot by a hunter and head cut off). When you walk out at night, they are singing everywhere. There is some deer sign, but I have seen VERY few deer there compared to how much time I spent scouting/hunting. I could setup in what seemed like near perfect locations to me everyday for a week straight and not even see a single doe. That doesn't happen anywhere else.
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sounds identical to my situation...do have some coyotes, though probably not as much as you.
 
Work, save vacation and yard passes, save all the cash and time spent at the “it’s conveniently located to the house but deer hunting sucks” place. Go somewhere else further away with way better deer hunting.

It’s been my experience that when I add up the actual costs of each of these two options, they are not as far apart as you might guess. Then when you factor in your joy from each, the needle could move even more.

I’m not saying you can just pack up and leave and do whatever you want with no regard to budget or wife budget. All I’m saying is set your prior assumptions aside, and just do the math. Worth a shot.
 
Dmathews87 said:
sounds identical to my situation...do have some coyotes, though probably not as much as you.
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yeah....the combo of all the humans you described and coyotes means no deer will survive or tolerate that long enough to be more than a small 6 point.....you might get lucky during the rut and catch a crazy buck chasing a doe but that'll be a rare event
 
raisins said:
yeah....the combo of all the humans you described and coyotes means no deer will survive or tolerate that long enough to be more than a small 6 point.....you might get lucky during the rut and catch a crazy buck chasing a doe but that'll be a rare event
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interesting enough the buck i shot was a small 6 lol....i had a nice 8 on camera years ago but he was always nocturnal (obviously). The other bucks i tend to see when they do make an appearance are the spike, small 4 crowd
 
Dmathews87 said:
interesting enough the buck i shot was a small 6 lol....i had a nice 8 on camera years ago but he was always nocturnal (obviously). The other bucks i tend to see when they do make an appearance are the spike, small 4 crowd
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lol....well take heart in the fact that you probably took out the 'king of the mountain' in that piece
 
I have learned in my 40 odd years of hunting that most of the properties I have hunted over the years have had a limited lifespan for one reason or another. Some have been turned into housing projects, some sold to anti hunters, some just out grew being good deer habitat and others wiped out by loggers. You just have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. That is the #1 reason I always have my eyes peeled for new hunting opportunities.
 
If you like hunting, going away once every few weeks ain't going to cut it....at least not for me. I hunt because I love it. If couldn't do it at least 2 or 3 times a week, I'd be miserable.

Exhaust all options. There may be something that's getting overlooked.
 
kbetts said:
If you like hunting, going away once every few weeks ain't going to cut it....at least not for me. I hunt because I love it. If couldn't do it at least 2 or 3 times a week, I'd be miserable.

Exhaust all options. There may be something that's getting overlooked.
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I go a decent amount which adds to the problem...my sightings per trip just arent there...there is a chunk of hardwoods almost as much north as you can go on this tract that i have started spending more time on and does seem to have a bit more sign to it and less human activity so fingers crossed this year.
 
Cut your losses and move on. @Nutterbuster will give you all the inspiration you need in this thread:

Access to Quality Whitetail Habitat

I think by now most people who are paying attention know that I'm a Bob Sheppard fanboy. I have his "list" of things that are important to hunting success taped to my fridge. Number 1 on that list is "access to quaity whitetail habitat." I think we all know it matters. We all like to point out...
saddlehunter.com
 
I’m in the depends what’s you’re after crowd. You’ve had success there, 2 deer is something. Not sure what the time frame was though or if you are trying to find a “wall hanger” or just put meat in the freezer. Would you rather have 40 sits with a 10% chance of getting a deer or 5 with a 40% chance? No guarantees either way I wouldn’t think. I’m new to the bow and saddle but even with a gun I have long thought that the deer were likely going to win more often than I did.
 
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