Is your property better during archery or rifle season?

[suburbhunter]

Mid season is best for me. The week before rifle is best for buck movement. So I would have to say rifle is better than bow.

 

[Triple C]

See deer just about every sit regardless of season. For bucks, the chase phase (last week of October thru 10th or so of Nov) is magic. Fun, fun time to be on stand, particularly an afternoon sit on the edge of a green field/plot. Multiple encounters with young bucks chasing does around.

The bottoms near the beaver sloughs with river cane and such growing everywhere is a buck haven during the rut. Our biggest bucks get killed during the 1st 2 weeks of November and usually slipping out of the bottoms.

 

[Tory Carter]

For me archery season works out best and obviously I have to prepare property to attract best does around. Fertilizing crop soil every year and pruning fruit trees works for me. Rest I use wind and camouflages to hunt sometime as tree stand ranger or use ground blind.

 

[WhiteoakJoe]

I think mine depends on my hunting pressure, I can burn out my 100 acers quick if I put pressure on early in Bow season. Around middle half of October I get an influx of does, really too many. Much of that because of harvest of nearby crops. By Halloween things get weird, lots of activity on my 7 food plots from Doe's being harassed by Bucks. Its hard to hunt because everything seems like chance, if the right Buck likes the doe that is feeding in the plot you are near its great, but it's more likely be several 2 year old bucks, during all but late October. If I pick the wrong stand spooks deer on the way in and out making the Older Bucks harder to hunt. It's a balancing act. I do think that if I have the Doe's "trained" to not worry about me to much at that time from my normal routine, and their experience with agriculture, the younger Bucks will forgive me in the area it they do. I can spook does and young bucks and cameras tell me they are back in plots 15 minutes later. But it never works that way for the 4+ year old bucks, they learn quick an go nocturnal fast. I have always kept a Sanctuary Bedding area and the cameras tell me they are in there. (I have a couple locations I can capture photos of them coming and going almost always in the dark). But It's not a good option for me to go in there after a buck. A deer recovery can mess up my entire season if I mess with that area. Cameras have changed hunting for me now, I just hunt bow season when the camera tells me I have a buck that is showing some pattern. If not I will just wait for gun season to start hunting seriously, and just hunt with a bow when winds are perfect, or set a box blind with great access, and low impact on deer, just to be out hunting but range limitation during bow season make it more of a scout than a hunt many times. Now that I'm older it's ok with me, I want to hunt all the way to Jan seeing deer so I sacrifice some early hunts to get some later ones. And I firmly believe that the early Archery Hunting neighbors just makes my place better as the season goes forward. I suspect this is similar to most of us that hunt small properties. Good Luck

 

[Drycreek]

I think mine depends on my hunting pressure, I can burn out my 100 acers quick if I put pressure on early in Bow season. Around middle half of October I get an influx of does, really too many. Much of that because of harvest of nearby crops. By Halloween things get weird, lots of activity on my 7 food plots from Doe's being harassed by Bucks. Its hard to hunt because everything seems like chance, if the right Buck likes the doe that is feeding in the plot you are near its great, but it's more likely be several 2 year old bucks, during all but late October. If I pick the wrong stand spooks deer on the way in and out making the Older Bucks harder to hunt. It's a balancing act. I do think that if I have the Doe's "trained" to not worry about me to much at that time from my normal routine, and their experience with agriculture, the younger Bucks will forgive me in the area it they do. I can spook does and young bucks and cameras tell me they are back in plots 15 minutes later. But it never works that way for the 4+ year old bucks, they learn quick an go nocturnal fast. I have always kept a Sanctuary Bedding area and the cameras tell me they are in there. (I have a couple locations I can capture photos of them coming and going almost always in the dark). But It's not a good option for me to go in there after a buck. A deer recovery can mess up my entire season if I mess with that area. Cameras have changed hunting for me now, I just hunt bow season when the camera tells me I have a buck that is showing some pattern. If not I will just wait for gun season to start hunting seriously, and just hunt with a bow when winds are perfect, or set a box blind with great access, and low impact on deer, just to be out hunting but range limitation during bow season make it more of a scout than a hunt many times. Now that I'm older it's ok with me, I want to hunt all the way to Jan seeing deer so I sacrifice some early hunts to get some later ones. And I firmly believe that the early Archery Hunting neighbors just makes my place better as the season goes forward. I suspect this is similar to most of us that hunt small properties. Good Luck

I only have 85 acres so my situation is similar to yours. I do have a deer lease that I share with four other guys though and that helps keep the pressure down at home somewhat. Like you I have a rifle stand with easy access and only hunt it when the wind is good. On the lease I have two stands, one for a N wind and one for a S wind so I have a little more leeway. This year I’ll have a hangun stand that I think will work for either wind but time will tell.