We all dream of hunting deer that do what they’re supposed to do – deer that do what we read about in books and magazines.  You know, chasing does, grunting, making scrapes – all of that fun stuff.  You can definitely find this kind of behavior on big properties and areas otherwise subjected to little hunting pressure, but in a growing number of areas regular human contact has made it nearly impossible to see textbook behavior during the daytime.  In the real world we see deer act “naturally” only when they’re running for cover to get away from hunters. 

 Even during the bow season or late muzzleloader seasons, when the number of hunters in the field is reduced, we’re often still faced with the challenges of hunting small properties – often 40 acres or less.  And when the firearm season is open, the deer seem to go instantly underground.  To be a successful deer hunter in heavily hunted and urbanized areas you have to adjust to the conditions.

HUNTING SMALL FARMS

 Jim Hill, of Minnetrista, Minnesota had permission to hunt a small suburban property in 1993.  Jim had heard that a big buck had been sighted on the estate so an hour before daylight on November 20 he slipped around an open meadow to sneak undetected into his stand. 

 Shortly after sunrise Jim heard a noise to his left, and turned to watch a doe and fawn make their way out of the cover and into the meadow.  Soon a big buck leaped from cover to scent-check the deer.  Acting instantly, Jim grabbed his call and grunted twice.  The buck gave no indication that he had heard the call and began to move away.  Blowing even harder, the third grunt was finally heard, and the buck abruptly stopped and snapped his head around to look straight at the bowhunter.  Hill grunted one more time and the buck took off on a run – straight toward him.

 "When he was still a hundred yards away I drew my bow," said Hill.  "He was coming that fast.  Instead of crossing my shooting lane the big buck followed it straight toward me.  I didn't want to risk a frontal shot so I had to wait until he got closer.  Right at the base of my tree, shooting almost straight down at him, I released my arrow.  The shot looked good but the buck only ran 20 yards before stopping.  It was too thick for another shot, and then he just walked off."

 Slowly following the good blood trail left by the single lung hit, Hill and a hunting buddy were able to recover the buck later in the day.  And what a buck it was!  A 6 X 5 typical, its beautiful wide-spreading antlers score in the 160's.  Jim’s bruiser is proof that big bucks can be taken from small properties.

 The typical hunting area in many parts of America is a home site surrounded by a five to 50 acre estate either entirely wooded or with a mix of meadows and wood lots.  Though people are always present, these deer aren't desensitized to humans.  A big buck is no easier to fool in the proximity of humans than anywhere else.  In fact, they can be some of the toughest of all because you can’t make any mistakes before they figure out they’re being hunted and move off the property.

 "Because you generally have to stay on a single landowner's property the whole time, it can sometimes be very tough to get to your stand without spooking deer," said Hill.  "Keep this in mind when deciding on your stand sites and also go to great measures to remain scent-free and out of sight when approaching your stand.  If deer see you going to your stand you’ll never get a shot."

THE RIGHT STAND LOCATIONS

 Most stand placement advice revolves around reading deer sign.  Typically you’re told how to set up near a scrape, what rub line is the best, how to hunt funnels and trails, etc.  When hunting small properties you should forget about all that stuff and focus on one thing: your impact.  The most difficult challenge to overcome in this kind of hunting is keeping the deer from realizing they’re being hunted.  Ideally you’ll come up with a strategy that permits you to hunt the property all season without ruining it.  Here are some tips that will help.

 Plant a food plot:  Here’s one of the most important tips for increasing your success rate when hunting small farms: plant a secluded food plot.  Ladino clover is a good choice because it is fairly easy to establish and maintain and deer love its high protein nutrition.  Even an acre or two will greatly improve the hunting on a small property.  It will cost you a couple of days of hard work during the spring and fifty to one-hundred dollars, but the food source can make all the difference in the world. 

 Take excellent care of your food plot: lime it, fertilize it and mow it a couple times during the summer because your plot needs to be the most lush, best tasting food source within the deer’s home range.  A food plot will also give you a definite feeding area that makes patterning deer easier.

 Hunt backwards:  I don’t mean walk backwards!  When choosing stand sites start by considering access routes first, rather than buck sign or even the availability of good trees.  None of the other matters if uyou can’t get to and from your stands without detection.  Because limited options will force you to hunt stands more than once during the season, access needs to be foolproof.  Ideally, you’ll have only a few excellent, easily accessible stands rather than a bunch of mediocre ones.  That will keep you from leaving scent all over the place and moving deer to your neighbors.

 Get in front of the action:  It’s nearly impossible to hunt deer where they are, you need to figure out where they’re going and get there first.  In the morning that means bedding areas and in the evening you need to focus on feeding areas.

 Before you jump right in and start hunting smack in the middle of bedding or feeding area, you need to go back to the last tip and read it a couple more times.  If you can’t get to and from the stand without spooking deer it is a poor choice regardless of how many deer use the area.  In fact, the more deer using the area, the quicker you’ll burn it out if your stand is poorly chosen.

 Getting out undetected can be particularly tough in the evening when hunting near a feeding area.  You may need to avoid these spots at first until you can figure out the perfect stand location that’s far enough away from the food source that you can slip out after legal shooting time.

 Best for last:  When hunting a stand with high deer traffic you educate a lot of deer, which is essentially like putting all your eggs in one basket.  You may have lots of action on your first hunt, but it will die very fast and subsequent hunts are likely to be pretty boring.  Most people think of their best stands and simply can’t wait to start hunting them.  Consequently they burn them out – and mess up their limited hunting area – too early in the season. 

 High traffic stands are usually one-day wonders.  If you’re bowhunting, save them for the end of your hunt – right before the firearms season opens or the last couple of days of your vacation.  You’ve got nothing to lose by playing your trump card at these times and hopefully by hunting smart in other parts of your hunting area the hotspot will still produce lots of activity.  These stands may or may not be good choices for the opening morning of gun season depending upon how close they are to heavy cover.

 Discipline:  We all have favorite stands that we can’t wait to hunt when the weekend finally comes.  But when you’re hunting a small area you have to be very disciplined in choosing a stand.  If the wind is wrong (or even marginal) you can’t afford to risk spooking deer.  Hunt other stands until the wind is favorable and you’ll be rewarded with a long season of better-than-expected deer hunting.

HUNTING PRESSURED DEER

 Now let’s change gears and look at another challenge we all face when hunting in the real world: hunting pressure.  Opening day of the firearm season has a predictable affect on deer patterns.  Bucks quickly become ghosts.  Many times all you'll see are their tracks.  Rarely will they venture out of their security cover during the daylight.  It only takes a few encounters with hunters before a buck seemingly goes underground, and this often happens within the first two hours of opening morning.

 Even long after the opening day invasion, there may still be enough hunters in the woods bumping into deer and leaving scent all over the place that it's impossible for a buck to completely relax.  Even the does become unbelievably skittish.  This doesn't mean a good buck can't be taken under high-pressure conditions, it just means you have to hunt them differently.

 For years hunters believed that bucks completely vacated an area that received hunting pressure, traveling miles to hole-up in no-hunting sanctuaries.  Here’s the good news: it’s not true.  Recent radio telemetry studies have shown that despite heavy hunting pressure (with hunter densities reaching as high as 16 hunters per square mile) the bucks didn't turn tail and run.  Instead, they simply headed for patches of thick cover within their normal range.

 During the study, hunter-savvy bucks spent nearly all of their daylight hours tucked away in heavy cover, sometimes within sight and hearing of heavily used hunter access points.  You'll never know one is around until you nearly step on him.  Sitting tight is the best strategy when the pressure increases.  Let the other hunters do the work.

 Posting security cover:  At least a week before the firearms season, spend an afternoon in your hunting area locating the thickest cover (ideally, this kind of scouting was done after last season).  You can be assured the place is a natural draw for local deer, and a trail system will already be in place that will make choosing a stand location (or a place to stand - if you're hunting from the ground) a lot easier.  Obviously, you want the wind blowing from the deer toward you, so take the time to scout up a second location if you think you might need it. 

 Deer hunting is all about playing the odds.  If your stand covers three heavily used trails your chances for success are three times better than if your stand covers only one.  Scout the perimeter of the cover for the single location that offers the best field of fire. 

 Stay put:  Most hunters don't have the patience to sit for long hours, and a high percentage can't seem to sit at all.  When hunting small plots of private land you can use the impatience of hunters on neighboring properties to your advantage.  Other hunters may think they're slipping through the woods like a ghost or that their drives don't push deer off the property.  In reality, deer know exactly what's happening and take the earliest opportunity to get the heck out of there.  That's why you should sit and let others do the dog work.

 Hunting isn't meant to be competitive, but there is a little contest that takes place on opening day whether you realize it or not, and the deer act as the scoring judges.  The winner is the hunter who is the most secretive and his trophy is a winter’s supply of venison.  If the deer know you're waiting for them you can forget about getting a shot.  You should be hoping your neighbor is the impatient bumbler, and quite possibly he's hoping you are.  If you can get to your stand without alerting a single deer, and stay there quietly all day, you win.

 You can take advantage of this strategy on public land too, but with a twist.  Since hunters aren't restricted by property lines, things aren't quite as black and white.  But the contest still goes to the hunter who gets in early, quietly and with the wind in his face.  But on public land you also need to get in front of the other hunters.  Go in early, as deep as possible, and let advancing hunters push the deer toward you.

CONCLUSION

 Hunting in the real world can be tough.  You have to deal with small properties, nervous deer and lots of other hunters.  But, if you adjust to these challenges by hunting smarter and sitting tighter you can be one of the 10% of the deer hunters who seem to take 90% of the big bucks.