HOW TO FIND BIG BUCKS IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD
Hunting Trophy Deer
Near Parks and Kids’ Camps
Editor’s
Note: If you live in suburbia like I do, less than 15
minutes from metropolitan Birmingham, Alabama, and its
more than 1/2-million folks, you'll often hear reports
of big deer spotted within walking distance of your
house. But everyone knows you can't hunt bucks downtown
or in your own backyard, or can you? We often forget
that white-tailed bucks travel. Although you may see
them standing on asphalt or crashing across a creek,
they must come and go from somewhere. Sometimes those
backyard bucks have travel routes that will cross property
you can hunt, if you'll research your options. Often
you may find a trophy-buck hotspot less than 30 minutes
from your home where no one else hunts or has permission
to hunt.
You and I both know some sanctuary
areas where we absolutely cannot get permission to hunt.
For example, the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia,
a large wildlife-filled sanctuary, forbids deer hunting.
This region always has
sheltered tremendous-sized bucks. However, each year
observant hunters who have watched those big, Shenandoah
National Park bucks frequently migrate out of and into
their sanctuary area take trophy bucks from private
lands adjacent to this national park.
Once
you've defined a region as a big-buck sanctuary where
you definitely cannot negotiate the right to hunt, go
to the sanctuary without a gun or a bow to scout. Locate
the big bucks, and learn where they move and where they
go. Then visit the county courthouse. Determine who
owns the property around that sanctuary. Carefully mark
each individual plot adjacent to the sanctuary with
the names, addresses and phone numbers of each landowner.
Make appointments to visit the landowners first who
have property where you've observed bucks leaving and
entering.
Next, I suggest you narrow your search
even more. Visit the landowners who have the smallest
tracts of land where the bucks funnel off the sanctuary
onto private property. For instance, a farmer may have
a cornfield that corners into a draw on the edge of
the sanctuary that deer use to come into the landowner's
field. Although the property owner only may have 5 to
10 acres, that spot may funnel a large
number of big bucks from the sanctuary onto that farmer's
property. Because of the small size of that land, other
hunters probably won't consider trying to lease that
property or obtaining permission to hunt it. Generally,
the smaller the size of private lands next to a sanctuary,
the less trouble you'll have getting permission to hunt
these private lands.
Children's
summer camps also provide sanctuaries for trophy bucks.
These camps usually burst with activity during late
spring and summer, but in the winter months when the
kids attend school, many of these areas turn into sanctuaries
for big bucks. Here's some secrets to help you gain
permission to hunt these camp areas:
* offer to conduct a charity hunt with all proceeds
going to the camp in exchange for permission to hunt
the property the rest of the year;
* suggest you teach summer-camp courses such as archery,
gun safety, nature or backpacking in exchange for hunting
rights;
* get permission to hunt lands adjacent to the kids'
camps if you can't hunt the camps themselves.
I have a friend who makes turkey calls.
Each spring, when a church camp has a weekend retreat
for fathers and sons, my friend attends that retreat.
All weekend he teaches men and boys gun safety, how
to call turkeys, how to set up on gobblers and other
turkey-hunting skills. In return for my friend's time,
the camp allows him and his friends to hunt the property
for one weekend during the fall. This camp has some
tremendous-sized bucks living there that will score
from 130 to 150 points on the Boone & Crockett scale.
The camp also lets my friend and his hunting buddies
stay in the camp and use all its facilities for their
weekend hunt.
Numerous church and civic organization camps all over
the nation rarely get hunted. By giving up a weekend
or offering to teach a course in the spring or summer
at these places, you may gain permission to hunt big-buck
sanctuaries
that no one else can hunt. Since most hunters completely
overlook children's camps as sanctuaries, you'll have
a good chance of finding success by hunting the lands
that adjoin these camps and taking the bucks as they
move into and away from the sanctuary. Even if you have
to lease the land next to a camp, you only may have
to lease a small tract where deer funnel off the kids'
camp
onto surrounding farmlands. To discover when and where
big bucks leave the sanctuary for private lands, you
must gain permission to scout the sanctuary areas and/or
the property adjacent to them.
TOMORROW: BECOME A HUNTING GUIDE OR GO TO SCHOOL
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