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Palmettos

Weldabeast

Weldabeast

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
12,482
Location
Northeast Florida
How are you hunting in or around our favorite plant?

Can u share examples of how u have seen deer act or behave in the palmettos?

I have lots of thoughts and theories but that's all they are. I understand that the palmettos are all not created equal for some of u guys further north and west .....y'all have them too but not to near the extent as what we have but I'd still like to hear how u deal with them.

Do u guys mostly avoid them, seek them out, or what?

Things I know; they are "bedding", they are a food source, they are hard to hunt.....but I've also seen stuff that makes me think that they need more of my attention
 
I think they repel hunters just like the limeys and that's why there's so many deer in them.

The deer can get up and walk around all day long and not have to worry about anything. They are so safe in there. Once they in the center of a couple acre palmetto flat they can hear any danger from way far away.....if the palmetto berries are present then they really never need to leave
 
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I don't have any up here in Maryland but the guy on the hunt primitive YouTube channel seems to hunt in/around them on a regular basis. It's also just cool to see someone so knowledgeable with a stick bow and stone points in my opinion.

 
I've seen his stuff....he hunting maintained pasture and other terrain that isn't what u got on public land around here....maybe south south Florida u got public land that looks like what he hunts but he lucky to have some good looking land to hunt
 
Zero One Actual said:
I just know they repel the British really really well here in South Carolina.
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June 28, 1776!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I only hunt the edges where they meet a swamp, thick cover, or oak hammocks. Hate the sea of green that seem to go on forever. If I was reduced to only hunting palmetto flats would be with a rifle. That said love hunting the edges in early season because the deer love them berries.
 
Weldabeast said:
How are you hunting in or around our favorite plant?

Can u share examples of how u have seen deer act or behave in the palmettos?

I have lots of thoughts and theories but that's all they are. I understand that the palmettos are all not created equal for some of u guys further north and west .....y'all have them too but not to near the extent as what we have but I'd still like to hear how u deal with them.

Do u guys mostly avoid them, seek them out, or what?

Things I know; they are "bedding", they are a food source, they are hard to hunt.....but I've also seen stuff that makes me think that they need more of my attention
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They’re so bad in the woods I hunt in LA hell we have a town called Palmetto lol for cover, love them, deer do also and most of ours are taller than myself and the deer in areas and they can be very sneaky walking amongst it. I avoid it when I can but like in Thistlewait WMA the entire 6k acres is 3-6’ palmetto thicket and I’ve argued it has the best deer in LA they just have the entire WMA to hide and it’s thick beyond thick so it’s hard to get more than 30-40 yds off the main path but Walk in in the morning for an afternoon hunt bc of the noise. I overall like them bc I know the deer feel secure walking through them don’t really seek them out as it’s everywhere which also makes avoiding it a mute point.
 
josh9284 said:
I only hunt the edges where they meet a swamp, thick cover, or oak hammocks. Hate the sea of green that seem to go on forever. If I was reduced to only hunting palmetto flats would be with a rifle. That said love hunting the edges in early season because the deer love them berries.
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Sea of Green....u know what I'm talking about then. I think there's more deer in there than we think. I've been trying to explore them and learn.
 
Seen them but never hunted that far south.

Sounds similar to laurel. Deer mainly travel the edges. The easy-access edges get pounded. The deer will dive into the worst of it when pressure really hits in rifle season.

I like to use it as a barrier to access places most guys simply won't go. If I have to cross a couple hundred yards of impenetrable laurel I can pretty much guarantee that's going to cut down 95% of the competition.
 
We have a very little bit of it on one place I hunt but just a handful of plants in any particular spot and they mostly only seem to get up about waist high.

What @elk yinzer posted resonates though, treating it like a landscape feature.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
They’re so bad in the woods I hunt in LA hell we have a town called Palmetto lol for cover, love them, deer do also and most of ours are taller than myself and the deer in areas and they can be very sneaky walking amongst it. I avoid it when I can but like in Thistlewait WMA the entire 6k acres is 3-6’ palmetto thicket and I’ve argued it has the best deer in LA they just have the entire WMA to hide and it’s thick beyond thick so it’s hard to get more than 30-40 yds off the main path but Walk in in the morning for an afternoon hunt bc of the noise. I overall like them bc I know the deer feel secure walking through them don’t really seek them out as it’s everywhere which also makes avoiding it a mute point.
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Thistlewaite is insane. A person walking through can be heard for half a mile but deer manage to slip through barely making a sound. It's unfair I'm tellin ya :D

Weldabeast said:
Sea of Green....u know what I'm talking about then. I think there's more deer in there than we think. I've been trying to explore them and learn.
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I've seen a lot of trails cut through them, then deer start using the trails and become shooting lanes.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
They’re so bad in the woods I hunt in LA hell we have a town called Palmetto lol for cover, love them, deer do also and most of ours are taller than myself and the deer in areas and they can be very sneaky walking amongst it. I avoid it when I can but like in Thistlewait WMA the entire 6k acres is 3-6’ palmetto thicket and I’ve argued it has the best deer in LA they just have the entire WMA to hide and it’s thick beyond thick so it’s hard to get more than 30-40 yds off the main path but Walk in in the morning for an afternoon hunt bc of the noise. I overall like them bc I know the deer feel secure walking through them don’t really seek them out as it’s everywhere which also makes avoiding it a mute point.
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Sounds familiar hehehe....in those type situation from what I've seen it's the minute changes that makes the edges they walk. A 8" deep ditch that's 12" wide and150 yds long that u can't see without standing in it....or the swallow bowl size of a 2 car garage that's 4" deeper than the surrounding areas. The areas that seasonally flood and make the tiny little openings when they dry up and grass grows.....or where waist high palmetto meets head high palmetto. The height differences are almost impossible to see from the ground so 1 thing I started doing recently is this....I throw up my tether as high as I can in whatever tree I can and attach my long aider and climb up to where my feet about 5-6 foot and just look around. U know things look different as u go up...then take a compass bearing and climb back down and put the tether and aider away and process to whatever I saw of interest while up there. Going real slow trying to be as quiet as possible all that takes maybe 10 minutes...the info u can get in that 10 minutes well worth the extra effort. I don't know.how.many times.now I've popped up and seen a trail I couldn't see before or a rub that I didn't even know there was a tree to rub there to begin with
 
As far as the deer moving so sneaky I just had an encounter this past weekend that I think I learned some stuff....the trail is cut and maintained right they the center of the palmetto flat. There was an oak hammock that the palmettos grew up into. They were over head high almost everywhere u could see but thinned a little and were only waist high around the spot I chose to hunt.....I just excepted the fact I was gonna make a ton of noise getting from the trail to the tree I was gonna climb. I moved slow and careful as possible but it's still crazy loud in my ears. Once I got to the tree it's totally surrounded and I slowly but deliberately moved/smashed a spot I could stand and start to climb. I talking turtle slow. I got set up and had deer in the area 45 minutes later. I was within 50-60 yards of that deer for over 4 hours only catching a handful of glimpses. She was just as loud as us moving thru but she moved so slow u wouldn't associate the noise with a big animal moving thru. The squirrels were much louder than that doe. She was directly downwind multiple times throughout the afternoon. Never left the area until I got down for the evening and made all kinds racket packing up to leave. I wasnt coming back to hunt it so I didnt mint blowing them out....but she had to have known I was there being downwind for so long yet she still stayed relatively close regardless.....so I feel I learned I can get away with a little more noise than I thought as long as it is slow and spread out and I learned they aren't as sneaky is I previously thought
 
This is the clearing....I didn't bother taking a pic of the thick palmettos....hahaha thats boring pic. The clearing in the background is the salt marsh....this was a little peninsula of land that went out into the marsh. Palmetto and scrub oak with a little pine mixed in by the marsh. I know that deer was within 100yds of me when I was getting set upScreenshot_20231010-125926~2.pngScreenshot_20231010-132449~2.png
 
Weldabeast said:
so I feel I learned I can get away with a little more noise than I thought as long as it is slow and spread out and I learned they aren't as sneaky is I previously thought
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You're probably right. Walking through them seems really loud because we're right there. From a stand it's sounds quieter because it's further away but may not be that much quieter in reality.
 
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