THE FEAR FACTOR: HOW MUCH HUNTING PRESSURE CAN A BUCK STAND?

What Hunters Can Do To Reduce Pressure And Increase Deer Sightings And Hunting These Pressured Bucks

The only way to eliminate hunting pressure is to reduce the number of hunters who hunt any given piece of property or reduce the number of times each hunter goes onto that land. However, our experts have some creative alternatives to reduce hunter pressure on the land you hunt. Bob Foulkrod suggests that, “If you’re in a hunting club with 20 members, try and reduce that number to 10. Then fewer people will be pressuring and attempting to take the same number of deer. A better solution may be to hunt posted property. I don’t mean you should violate the law of trespass. However, I look for posted property. Then I go to the landowner, talk to him about why he’s posted his property and convince him I’m not the type of hunting slob who has caused him to put up the No Trespassing signs. Often talking to the landowner may help you gain permission to hunt posted property no one else can hunt. You may find and develop a deer-hunting hot spot by simply being courteous to the landowner.”

Dr. Causey recommends you specify the times of day you hunt to help reduce hunter pressure. “If for instance, your hunting club has imposed a rule that all hunters must be in the woods before daylight, not leave the woods until 10:00 a.m., must be out of the woods by 10:30 a.m., cannot reenter the woods until 2:00p.m., and then must wait to leave the woods after dark, you drastically will reduce the amount of hunter movement in the woods except for those periods. This strategy will reduce hunter encounters with deer. I believe reducing the amount of vehicular activity and hunter activity during specific times can reduce the amount of pressure the deer feels.”

Brad Harris feels often outdoorsmen exert too much hunting pressure on the deer before hunting season opens. “Even scouting creates hunting pressure,” Harris mentioned. “When you go in the woods a week or two weeks before hunting season to scout, you’re letting the buck know you’re there and teaching him to prepare for hunting season. I do my scouting before summer when the deer are in the velvet and still walking in open places. I use binoculars and try to stay as far away from the deer as I can. Once I’ve spotted the buck I want to bag, I’ll wait until the week before the peak of the rut to attempt to take that deer. That’s when bucks are usually moving the most and are the easiest to locate and bag. Scouting from long range reduces hunting pressure and increases your odds for bagging a buck.”

The Best Area And Time To Hunt Pressured Bucks

Bucks that feel the effects of hunting pressure will hole up where deer hunters are not. If you want to take an older, trophy buck this season, study an aerial photo or topo map, and hunt five or six areas where other hunters never go. These spots may include thickets, islands, a berry patch behind the hunting lodge, the edge of a road leading to camp, a little shelf off the edge of a cliff or a thigh-high swamp. “Once you understand where to hunt, determining the best time to hunt is relatively easy,” Foulkrod said. “The deer know that most hunters hunt from daylight to 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. until an hour before dark. The prime time for you to hunt a buck that has dodged all the other hunters is in the middle of the day and during the last hour of daylight.” Causey relates a story of a colleague who has developed a simple method, which has produced bucks for him in high-pressure areas. “My hunting friend lets everyone on the lease he hunts decide where they prefer to hunt each morning. After everyone else has picked out the ‘good places,’ he goes to the worst hunting spots left on the land. But often he bags better bucks in these areas because these animals aren’t receiving much hunting pressure.”

Dr. Sheppard believes the best time to hunt a high-pressure buck is the last week of the season. “Before bow season, I go to thickets and cut shooting lanes, 2 to 3 feet wide and 10- to 25-yards long inside each thicket. Then the last week of the season, I move into these thickets with a favorable wind and watch the shooting lanes. By the end of the season, the older-age-class bucks have to be in the thickets to survive. If they’re in those thickets, sooner or later they have to cross shooting lanes. When they do, I bag them.” Harris tries to pattern hunters to take older-age-class bucks. “By the end of the season, I’ll usually know where and when people are hunting. Then I get in the woods before the hunters arrive and stay in the woods until after they leave. This way I’m using hunter pressure to move deer to me so I can get a shot.”

TOMORROW: PREVENT A BUCK FROM SEEING, SMELLING OR HEARING YOU, THEREBY DECREASING HUNTER PRESSURE