Deer in small woodlots

[Brushpile]

Me too Brad...I have looked more and still have not given up...

Amazing what a deer can withstand and survive! My last track was almost a mile before the hunter called it quits. Two days later a neighbor harvested that buck, and it had a huge hole in it!

Back on topic. When I was young there were very few deer in Iowa, and none in my part of the state. When I was home for a 20 year reunion deer were the topic of conversation, because for some reason deer moved into the area. The area of Iowa I was from had 3-4 small open groves in the entire county, yet there were monster bucks in fields and trees around farm houses. Getting a big buck took a large degree of luck, since there was no place for a hunter to focus!

 

[HuntMeister]

Huntmeister here is an aerial of one these type locations that most people overlook. This is toward the bigger side of what I am talking about. Most of the places I have are even smaller and more isolated than this one. If I got the pictures posted up correctly there should be pictures from July to after season was out.

Did all those buck go through the same location?

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Did all those buck go through the same location?

Yes within 75 yards of each other. I had a camera on each side of the draw.

 

[HuntMeister]

Thanks for posting up the aerial!
Where bouts on the aerial were you getting the activity at? Looks like a pond circled in blue? If so, in relation to the pond?
What direction are these bucks traveling?
Assuming North is the top of the photo, are they traveling north to another block of timber maybe?

 

[j-bird]

I'm a little late to this party and to be honest I have not even read all the posts. What I see is that when gun season opens here everyone heads to the woods. IN was a shotgun state up until last year so deer in some areas learned that the limited range of hunters could save their butts. Deer would and will often use narrow strips of cover between larger blocks of cover to move and even hide in becuase hunters would overlook these areas. Most hunters will flood to the biggest area of cover and stumble into the heart of it and push the really smart deer out. In farm country in my area cover comes in areas where it's too wet or too steep to farm and tends to be in real narrow strips or small blocks and you gat bet you butt the bucks will use to move from one area or group of does to another.

 

[MN Slick]

Blizzard, do you find mornings or evenings to be more productive? Andy midday activity in these types of areas from mature deer? I sometimes hunt funnels leading back to bigger blocks of cover for a few hours in the morning then change location to the edges of the bigger cover after I think the morning rush hour is over.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Thanks for posting up the aerial!
Where bouts on the aerial were you getting the activity at? Looks like a pond circled in blue? If so, in relation to the pond?
What direction are these bucks traveling?
Assuming North is the top of the photo, are they traveling north to another block of timber maybe?

Not a pond that is food plot area. There is a pond on the north end though by that little building. The cameras were on both the east and west side of that area that was circled in blue on the edges.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Blizzard, do you find mornings or evenings to be more productive? Andy midday activity in these types of areas from mature deer? I sometimes hunt funnels leading back to bigger blocks of cover for a few hours in the morning then change location to the edges of the bigger cover after I think the morning rush hour is over.

All of the above. I have killed deer in fence rows in the morning and evenings. I have also seen movement during midday as typically when deer get into these areas they stay. I find them a great all day sit. But be cautious because if you are a person that needs to see a ton of movement to stay motivated it may not be for you. These types of places can be hot and cold. I always like to find a fence row that I have to walk a good ways into off the road. The deer are typically more calm in these areas.

 

[W33kender]

Because sitting on a funnel is the best place to sit those times of the year. And big open farm ground with tiny fence rows as the only cover, make one hell of a funnel.

Couldn't agree more, Gator.

Blizzard, I hunt a lot of big timber. But when I look at aerials for big woods , I look for fingers of timber that probably resemble your thin strip of wind row or creek bank trees. It could be a finger of hardwoods amidst young pines, or a regenerating clearcut, but I think Gator's point here applies. Funnels!

Hunting big timber of even aged woods can be tough to pattern. Locating those thin fingers of timber that stand out in the aerial is key.

 

[Bigeight]

I agree with the fence rows being perfect funnel for cruising bucks, not only to navigate, but often does do bed in these rows, so its another bedding area to check on his way to the next woodlot. Perfect ambush spots, and about as low impact as you can get.

I hunt mostly small 5-20 acre woodlots as well, and with a similar situation as Blizzard. I think the HUGE advantage with these is they eventually will get an older class buck to visit them, or pushed into them during the course of the year, and if you don't bump them, they usually stay put. Having multiple small woodlots is an advantage that we treat them all as individual sanctuaries, only picking at the edges, and never let our scent blow into the woods. Big woods hunters plow into the middle of the woods off the edges, and they have a hard time keeping their wind/pressure undetected as easily as people who hunt small woodlots do. (on average)
With the use of trail cameras now, you have no reason to hunt a woodlot until a mature buck shows up. Often not even hunting a woodlot for an entire season, or possibly only one time. We now use wireless cameras, even making less visits to the woods. A huge advantage in teaching the local herd where the safe zones are, if hunted like this for consecutive seasons. Especially when they neighbors probably aren't doing the same. If they are old enough to be a "shooter" I'd guess they have survived in that woodlot in a previous season. (just my theory)

With a decent food source, and only a 10 (ish) acre woods, if you pick your moments around cold fronts/good dates, they are pretty darn easy to kill. Where else they gonna go !?

 

[OkieKubota]

Big woods hunters plow into the middle of the woods off the edges
With a decent food source, and only a 10 (ish) acre woods, if you pick your moments around cold fronts/good dates, they are pretty darn easy to kill. Where else they gonna go !?

I agree with part of your previous post and disagree with another....

All big woods hunters don't "plow into the middle of the woods"...that would be like saying all fence row/small woodlot hunters don't know how to hunt if they get into big woods...

As far as the "pretty easy to kill" aspect of small woods/fence rows - I agree! This is the reason we are not killing older class bucks in our area in these situations because after years and years of pop and grandpop bucks being killed in these exact scenarios the deer have learned to avoid this by traveling in much more secure big woods which are always close by since the majority is big forest with a few cow pastures here and there with brushy fence rows and a hunter every 100 yards down these fence rows...

Some areas of farm and pasture country ONLY have brushy fence rows and small little sections of timber so therefore the hunting will be in those areas and if you have a low hunter density then the hunting can be pretty darned easy especially with a bow as the deer traveling a brushy fence row aren't going to be out of range no matter what side of it they travel... you see this scenario played out over and over on hunting shows on TV! Rarely do you see a guy hunting on TV that you can't see an edge or field somewhere near them that they are hunting and the areas certainly don't scream "Big Woods" which to me means more than 1000 acres with no real openings in them anywhere...success rates would plummet and videoing shows would take months to get a deer kill on camera especially with a bow in big woods...

It's all different and all good but all the same practices don't work everywhere... If I hunt western Oklahoma I sit brushy fence rows, draws, small blocks of trees around wide open hundreds of acres of wheat fields...nobody had to teach me this even though I came from big woods hunting because it was just common sense...

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

I agree with Bigeight and Okie in a sense. We have a high hunter density in my area especially during gun season. Our gun season is just shorter in duration. I feel the reason big deer use these type of areas is just as simple as security. They can move from area to area in during daylight times without any hunter pressure. They can bed up in these areas and it is next to impossible to get into them without them seeing you coming. I see a lot of doe herd that use these areas year around as well. If you can beat the doe into their bedroom with the right wind you can have some very interesting sits during the rut. Low impact is the key. If you screw one up you will have to give them a break for a week or two before they move back into the area. Of course this is the case whether you are in a big woods or small woodlot. Big old bucks just do not tolerate a lot of disturbance.