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Hunter Sign

TL16

TL16

New Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2020
Messages
28
Location
Vermont
SH from VT. Hope you’re all having a fun season so far!

Posting this as I’m curious others tolerance for hunter sign in your hunting area.

The last two outtings I’ve gotten into some real good sign, tonight I came across about 6 different rubs and 2 scrapes in a small area coming off a point which I had e scouted and assumed was bedding. I started looking for a tree and of course, I was standing under a tree stand. Frustrated I carried on looking for fresh sign unpressured (second time in a row this happened). I get it, it’s the nature of the game but do ya’ll sit it anyway or, like me, do you move on?
 
Just this evening I stumbled upon a guy in a ground blind, right where I wanted to be. I know it's a different situation, but I usually move on. I wouldn't want someone else hunting in my stand area, so I don't do it to them.
 
Public land , fresh sign, only truck in the parking lot .. gotta hunt where the deer are

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A treestand on public land doesn’t mean you own that spot in my opinion. You also have no idea when or if that person will hunt that spot very often. I’m not avoiding a good spot. Just my opinion. If you avoided all the areas with treestands you wouldn’t hunt in some areas at all.
 
If they are not there hunt where you want. It's public land. Just because you have a stand there does not mean it's off limits to the rest of the hunting world. You want that, pony up and buy some private land.

If they are there I move on. Otherwise it's open game.

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Bowtie747 said:
A treestand on public land doesn’t mean you own that spot in my opinion. You also have no idea when or if that person will hunt that spot very often. I’m not avoiding a good spot. Just my opinion. If you avoided all the areas with treestands you wouldn’t hunt in some areas at all.
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@TL16 - I agree with @Bowtie747. Here’s a tip: Cellular trail cams are allowed on public land in my state, and if I really want to hunt a spot near where someone has a tree stand, I’ll leave a cell cam nearby, secured in a cam lockbox. I don’t aim it right at the tree stand … I aim it in the direction of where I think the deer will be coming through … but I make sure that a hunter climbing the tree with the treestand will be within the frame of the camera photos, so it will trigger and send me pics when it gets used.

Then the camera lets me know if someone else is actively hunting there this season, and when, and how frequently; Gives me the intel on deer coming through; Lets me make an informed decision about hunting that spot myself. If someone else is using the spot much, I’ll go back and pull the cell cam out of there and leave that spot alone. Deer usually pattern hunters faster than we pattern them. Multiple guys using the same area too frequently will ruin it for everyone.

If I’m getting very infrequent pics of other hunters, however, I’m gonna hunt that spot if there’s good deer sign. And if someone happens to get there before I do on a day that I’m planning to hunt that spot, the cell cam immediately lets me know (I get the pics on my cell phone) and I revert to plan b.

You should always have a plan b when heading out to hunt public land.
 
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I'll also add that learning to play off the other hunters is a skill worth learning. Knowing which areas are hunted hard, how they're accessed, and which areas are overlooked is a major contributor to deer movement just like bedding and food. Deer will move until they're no longer pressured. That's why during gun season you see so many deer feeding in people's front yards. They aren't dumb and know how to survive. Hunt deeper, walk longer, walk uphill and through swamps. Or hunt right next to the parking area. Think about the average hunter in your area (for me that's middle age, overweight, and lazy) and go where they won't.

This gun opener me and two friends are going to backpack up a ridge 2.5 miles and camp up there for the weekend. The lowlands in the valley are all private, with the public being up high on the mountains. Our plan is to let all the guys on private stir up holy hell and push the deer towards us. This is our first year doing this, and it's honestly a good excuse to do a western style backpack hunt here in NY, but it sure sounds like a good plan at least!
 
littlefish said:
I'll also add that learning to play off the other hunters is a skill worth learning. Knowing which areas are hunted hard, how they're accessed, and which areas are overlooked is a major contributor to deer movement just like bedding and food. Deer will move until they're no longer pressured. That's why during gun season you see so many deer feeding in people's front yards. They aren't dumb and know how to survive. Hunt deeper, walk longer, walk uphill and through swamps. Or hunt right next to the parking area. Think about the average hunter in your area (for me that's middle age, overweight, and lazy) and go where they won't.

This gun opener me and two friends are going to backpack up a ridge 2.5 miles and camp up there for the weekend. The lowlands in the valley are all private, with the public being up high on the mountains. Our plan is to let all the guys on private stir up holy hell and push the deer towards us. This is our first year doing this, and it's honestly a good excuse to do a western style backpack hunt here in NY, but it sure sounds like a good plan at least!
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Littlefish-
Great idea, I used to do the same thing when I resided in VT.
Only thing I would advise is don't go to early, the full weekend might give up your presence to the local deer.
I would get up and start my climb at approx. 2:00 AM walk very slowly (you have to in the dark) not get sweaty and be at the top before first light.
I shot many deer as they approached me looking over their shoulder, then the REAL work begins, luckily it was mostly a downhill drag..........
 
I worked at BPS for a while and I've had more than one person tell me that they have 50 - 70 treestands in the woods. Now if you think about it they probably won't hunt all of them during the whole season. I wouldn't hunt out of their stand but I will definitely hunt the spot.
 
I hunt public land where people will pick out the best trees and leave stands up for years (illegal in my area as stands are to be taken down at the end of the season).
My motto in those cases is "public land, public stand"

I'll hunt right out of their stand. You don't get to claim the best spot on public land, and leave your stand there for 5 years.
 
For me, the “best public land spot” starts with no other people hunting it/garbage/beer cans around.


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fraggs said:
I hunt public land where people will pick out the best trees and leave stands up for years (illegal in my area as stands are to be taken down at the end of the season).
My motto in those cases is "public land, public stand"

I'll hunt right out of their stand. You don't get to claim the best spot on public land, and leave your stand there for 5 years.
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Not cool! Personally I don't want people in my stands so I don't hunt out of their's. However if your cool w/ someone hunting out of your stand then I guess go for it. Nothing ruins a good locations faster than multiple people hunting out of the same location multiple times. I also don't leave stands up for 5 years either. This is also one of the reasons why I saddle hunt. So I can stay mobile and not advertise my location to other hunters.
 
1simplemann said:
Not cool! Personally I don't want people in my stands so I don't hunt out of their's. However if your cool w/ someone hunting out of your stand then I guess go for it. Nothing ruins a good locations faster than multiple people hunting out of the same location multiple times. I also don't leave stands up for 5 years either. This is also one of the reasons why I saddle hunt. So I can stay mobile and not advertise my location to other hunters.
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i haven't hunted out of anyone else's stand, but here in maryland it's illegal to leave them in the woods overnight. to me the "not cool!" goes towards the people leaving them, and it's fine fora different hunter to take advantage of someone else's "trash" left in the woods. everyon'es got their own opinion though, and entitled to them. i hunted next to a tree with screw in steps in it a few times last season, saw deer but nothing close enough, i'm too new to know if the deer are avoiding the stand locations, or my smelly loud self lol.
 
I agree with the folks who say fresh sign outweighs hunter presence when picking a spot.

I agree with the folks who say stands don't reserve hunting rights unless the regulations dictate that they do (only ever seen that on a few duck hunting properties).

I agree with the folks who say you waived your right to private property when you illegally left it unsupervised on public property.

That said, there's a wrinkle I don't think gets considered enough. Hunters are primarily male. Men are convicted of about 75% of violent crimes in the US. Hunters generally have stronger than average convictions about their rights to self-defense and private property. Controversial as this may be on this site, there are plenty of studies suggesting that capacity for violence towards other species translates to increased capacity for violence towards your own. And the big cherry on the cake is that every hunter you meet in the woods is armed and there will likely be no witnesses at all or if a witness is present they'll be biased towards him.

Add to all that George Carlin's observation that he was dismayed to realize, "How dumb the average person is, and that half of them are dumber than that!" and it makes no sense to do anything that could initiate conflict with another hunter in the deer woods, all jokes aside.
 
Granted I'm a newb at public land, but the approach I took was marking every stand, camera, reflective tape marking a tree, etc with a pin. Then, if I pull into the parking lot I can make some assumptions to where hunters might be sitting, and what approach paths might be taken to get there. From then you can get a gameplan that might use their pressure, whether it be checking cameras or hunting stands, to your advantage. Theoretically.
 
Nutterbuster said:
I agree with the folks who say fresh sign outweighs hunter presence when picking a spot.

I agree with the folks who say stands don't reserve hunting rights unless the regulations dictate that they do (only ever seen that on a few duck hunting properties).

I agree with the folks who say you waived your right to private property when you illegally left it unsupervised on public property.

That said, there's a wrinkle I don't think gets considered enough. Hunters are primarily male. Men are convicted of about 75% of violent crimes in the US. Hunters generally have stronger than average convictions about their rights to self-defense and private property. Controversial as this may be on this site, there are plenty of studies suggesting that capacity for violence towards other species translates to increased capacity for violence towards your own. And the big cherry on the cake is that every hunter you meet in the woods is armed and there will likely be no witnesses at all or if a witness is present they'll be biased towards him.

Add to all that George Carlin's observation that he was dismayed to realize, "How dumb the average person is, and that half of them are dumber than that!" and it makes no sense to do anything that could initiate conflict with another hunter in the deer woods, all jokes aside.
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Nutt,
I agree that stands and blinds don't reserve hunting rights. However IMO it's a matter of respect. I've seen some guys make some awesome blinds out in the duck marsh. They obviously put in alot of recent effort to get there and build it. I've also seen those same guys return two weeks later on opening day and find dudes in "their" blind. Legal? Yes. Cool? Definitely not! The argument that followed could be heard across the whole duck marsh. You make a good point however. Grown men w/ guns and temper's flaring are not a good recipe. I've heard of more than one case of someone getting shot over territorial dispute in the woods. As a general rule, I try stay out of other people's stands. I have hunted a few but I also knew they were abandoned and had been there for 10yrs. I will hunt near their setup especially if I know they are not going to be in the area and if they are hunting a good spot the wrong way. Usually I have talked to them beforehand and got their OK. If I can, I try to work together and avoid confrontations.
 
fraggs said:
I hunt public land where people will pick out the best trees and leave stands up for years (illegal in my area as stands are to be taken down at the end of the season).
My motto in those cases is "public land, public stand"

I'll hunt right out of their stand. You don't get to claim the best spot on public land, and leave your stand there for 5 years.
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Personally I think that's a bit risky as you're trusting some unknown person's equipment and installation. Especially in the situations where the stands have been there for an extended time, it's even more dubious.
 
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