- Joined
- Oct 10, 2018
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I consider myself a successful deer hunter with years of experience and knowledge gained from prowling the woods here in southern NY but have recently found an area I am lacking in my deer hunting skillset - late season/end of season hunting. So I'm here now looking for you to fill in the blanks.
Now I've been killing multiple deer each year for the past 15 seasons so I feel I have a good grasp on how to locate them and am confident in my ability to finish the deal when the opportunity presents itself, but I've never gone after them in the late season - after the rut, when the trees are bare, most ground vegetation is gone and the weather is harsh - mainly because my kills came early in the season and I was content to relax my hunting efforts. This year I made a promise to myself to continue hunting hard until the season is over which is how I found my knowledge to be minimal for hunting this time of year.
A bunch of questions came to mind and when I thought them out I realized I didn't feel 100% certain my answers were correct. What also brought this to light was my recent scouting at a new small piece of public land and found a bunch of fresh buck sign at a few different locations that if it was mid season I would have set up on without a thought but now I feel is the wrong time. So let's talk this out...
The buck sign I'm referring to is fresh rubs and they're made on 4" to 8" diameter trees. The trees have been worked hard and the height of the rubs is waist high. I found three locations like this with rubs on multiple trees situated in a small area all of which happen to be next to thick cover. The trees are either hardwoods or cedars and the surrounding area is strictly hardwoods made up of red and white oaks, maples and hickories. At one of these locations is a scrape that appears to still be in use. This property is roughly 500 acres in an oval shape with residential houses bordering on one long side, a major roadway on one of the smaller ends and a lake making up the border along the remaining perimeter. The property gradually rises to the center which forms a plateau that is mostly surrounded by thick cover that most humans would think about entering. The plateau has a small field of grass between waist and chest high roughly in the center with some trees and thick underbrush forming a ring around it. There are also patches of this thick brush along parts of the outer edges down lower bordering the property.
This time of year at the end of the main rut I'm thinking deer move back to their normal activity of finding food and seeking the comfort of cover. My initial thought for my first hunt here would be to set up at one of the areas I found buck sign as close to thick cover as possible and adjust my position after spending a day observing deer movement. What I'm not sure of is will deer enter a leafless hardwood forest to forage for nuts during the day or if at all at this time of year? Will they stay in cover and browse on the green brush that remains? Should I not waste time near the buck sign and blindly plunge through a section of cover looking for more sign like droppings? I'm also limited to only taking bucks which is my reasoning for setting up close to buck sign.
I'm excited about hunting this property and will scout it hard during the off season but right now I don't want to push deer off this piece by getting too aggressive. What do you think is the best approach?
Now I've been killing multiple deer each year for the past 15 seasons so I feel I have a good grasp on how to locate them and am confident in my ability to finish the deal when the opportunity presents itself, but I've never gone after them in the late season - after the rut, when the trees are bare, most ground vegetation is gone and the weather is harsh - mainly because my kills came early in the season and I was content to relax my hunting efforts. This year I made a promise to myself to continue hunting hard until the season is over which is how I found my knowledge to be minimal for hunting this time of year.
A bunch of questions came to mind and when I thought them out I realized I didn't feel 100% certain my answers were correct. What also brought this to light was my recent scouting at a new small piece of public land and found a bunch of fresh buck sign at a few different locations that if it was mid season I would have set up on without a thought but now I feel is the wrong time. So let's talk this out...
The buck sign I'm referring to is fresh rubs and they're made on 4" to 8" diameter trees. The trees have been worked hard and the height of the rubs is waist high. I found three locations like this with rubs on multiple trees situated in a small area all of which happen to be next to thick cover. The trees are either hardwoods or cedars and the surrounding area is strictly hardwoods made up of red and white oaks, maples and hickories. At one of these locations is a scrape that appears to still be in use. This property is roughly 500 acres in an oval shape with residential houses bordering on one long side, a major roadway on one of the smaller ends and a lake making up the border along the remaining perimeter. The property gradually rises to the center which forms a plateau that is mostly surrounded by thick cover that most humans would think about entering. The plateau has a small field of grass between waist and chest high roughly in the center with some trees and thick underbrush forming a ring around it. There are also patches of this thick brush along parts of the outer edges down lower bordering the property.
This time of year at the end of the main rut I'm thinking deer move back to their normal activity of finding food and seeking the comfort of cover. My initial thought for my first hunt here would be to set up at one of the areas I found buck sign as close to thick cover as possible and adjust my position after spending a day observing deer movement. What I'm not sure of is will deer enter a leafless hardwood forest to forage for nuts during the day or if at all at this time of year? Will they stay in cover and browse on the green brush that remains? Should I not waste time near the buck sign and blindly plunge through a section of cover looking for more sign like droppings? I'm also limited to only taking bucks which is my reasoning for setting up close to buck sign.
I'm excited about hunting this property and will scout it hard during the off season but right now I don't want to push deer off this piece by getting too aggressive. What do you think is the best approach?
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