I am curious how people balance deer hunting with other kinds of hunting they might do on their property. I feel like the general wisdom of staying out of your deer hunting area (scent, getting in and out, etc.) just gets beaten into people so much that it becomes hard to get yourself to hunt something else for fear of driving away the big deer. I have a lake on my property. Isn't the greatest for ducks and geese but is worth hunting when they are around. I have not hunted it once this year. I have a new puppy that is a squirrel dog. Probably going to take her into the woods this weekend but part of me doesn't want to because I have another buck tag..... Anyway, just curious if people only hunt other things after they have filled their deer tags or if you just say screw it and enjoy the other seasons regardless of any harm it may do to your deer chances afterwards.
Hunting, other than deer, on your property
- Thread starter bjseiler
- Start date
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
My dad and I have pretty much been staying out. We have dnr snipers on the adjoining property, and don't want to chase any extra deer their way. If they'd ever stop sniping, I think I'd do small amounts of rabbit and squirrel hunting again, especially since my kids will be coming of age soon. I do turkey hunt in April usually once or a few times. These past few years there's been no balance. Probably a fault, but we decided to not push deer.
Boll Weevil
5 year old buck +
We hunt/trap just about everything whenever it's in season. I know afew people that only hunt 1 or 2 species of critter but not very many.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Spring turkey, snowshoe hares after deer season (January 1st), and the occasional grouse hunt on parts of my land that I do not deer hunt.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Anyone wanting to do additional hunting on your land, simply get hold of a mature female hog and a mature male hog and let them loose. Before you know it you'll be hunting year-round out of necessity.
In the famous words of Cajun chef Justin Wilson (for those old enough to have ever watched him)...
In the famous words of Cajun chef Justin Wilson (for those old enough to have ever watched him)...
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
And lest anyone think I'm joking in the least, I've killed a dozen or so in the past year and my neighbor who's retired and has time to stay focused on them has killed OVER 100.
Blessedly, we still have fairly decent deer around for our neck of the woods / just lay off the pigs a tad the month or so before deer season and pick right back up afterward. I've even shot a few hogs from my stands as long as deer weren't within sight.
Blessedly, we still have fairly decent deer around for our neck of the woods / just lay off the pigs a tad the month or so before deer season and pick right back up afterward. I've even shot a few hogs from my stands as long as deer weren't within sight.
hillrunner
5 year old buck +
My main property is a deer hunting property. I'll call coyotes after season ends and I allow people to spring turkey hunt. Other than that, it's all about creating sanctuary for deer. The property where my home sits doesn't hold the same caliber of deer so I'm a lot looser here. I'll do some pheasant hunting and trapping as well as general messing around in the woods stuff.
If I could only have hunted deer on my property, I wouldnt have bought it. I hunt deer, ducks, hogs, predators, squirrels and coons with a dog, doves, fish, and just ride around. The other evening, I got out of my stand and ran two bucks off a corn feeder so they would leave some corn for the hogs I was hunting. I shot at the hog and milled around looking for fifteen minutes. Camera showed bucks were back at feeder 30 minutes after I left.
j-bird
Moderator
Not to be "that guy"....and I know your being sarcastic....or at least I hope you are BUT PLEASE do NOT do this! This is exactly how some of the spread of wild hogs has happened and wild hogs are very hard on a habitat. You want to hunt hogs year round....go south....I am sure there are people that will essentially let you hunt them for almost nothing...just to get rid of them.
j-bird
Moderator
As for the OP - its all a matter of what is important to you. If you are after them big antlers and that is what consumes you....then it's deer only and stay out otherwise. We will do some squirrel hunting on my place simply because they annoy me while deer hunting and the little a-holes chew on my wooden blinds! My property isn't the home of a monster buck as it is...and never will be, I would certainly stay out of sanctuary type areas if you are going to do other hunting on the property.
g squared 23
5 year old buck +
Depends on the size of the property, the layout and the neighborhood. I can turkey hunt the spring without ruining things. I can also get away with some early season squirrel hunting without disturbing the deer too bad. But if I’m wandering around during October and November, I’m telling the mature deer to move somewhere else during daylight which is just dumb if I’m a serious deer hunter. It’s also making it easier for my neighbors, who only seem to hunt hard during gun season. If your neighbors didn’t hunt, it wouldn’t be quite so crucial to stay out.
I do think that staying out 11.5 months of the year is overkill, with few exceptions.
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I do think that staying out 11.5 months of the year is overkill, with few exceptions.
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No - most people will not let you hunt hogs on their property. Besides trapping hogs, they are best killed by hunting with dogs or hunting at night. Most private landowners either do not want a pack of hog dogs on their property, or don't have enough land for dog hunting, or don't want someone they don't know roaming around on their property at night killing animals with a high powered rifle. You have to understand that in the south, hogs are the savior of hunting in many areas. Many historically great hunting for quail, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, and even deer numbers down to harvest for cwd control - hogs fill a niche for folks who actually like to have an animal to hunt. I would gladly trade hogs for turkey, ducks, quail, and rabbits - but it aint gonna happen. And hogs are not the reason the rest of the game has vanished. Even in areas devoid of hogs, those games species are largely gone or declining.
Booner21
5 year old buck +
I agree i also am beginning to think intrusions made have a much bigger impact if you largely stay out than if you are a regular there. If deer see the property as human free and you track a deer through the middle of a sanctuary that you haven’t set foot on for 11.5 months I think it will have more of a short term negative impact than walking through the same property that you visit and have some form of intrusion on a regular basis.
Just my observations on a couple of properties I use in totally different fashions.
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SWIFFY
5 year old buck +
I used to duck and pheasant hunt A TON on our property. Id shoot hundreds of birds off it. Then I got into deer hunting and hunting big bucks. Now im paranoid to set foot on the property during hunting season because I dont want to scare off the big deer especially during gun season.
The worst part is, I dont shoot any birds anymore. I dont let my dog out there. I dont hardly let many friends out there. And at the end of the season I dont think ive killed, or saved, any more big bucks than I did back when it was just a free-for-all on the place.
This season ive just been trying to keep bucks alive so ive again stayed out. But if my efforts prove to be unsuccessful, im done. Im going back to inviting friends and shooting birds and rabbits and walking it regularly. I imagine ill still keep a few willow thickets as sanctuaries, but otherwise im just gonna have fun again! Sometimes I feel the lack of my presence has obviously made the deer move more in daylight, and therefore easier for the neighbors to kill! When I bird hunted a lot, the deer were tougher to hunt and I think it may have educated them and kept a few more on edge, and alive. The "less pressure" thing can kind of backfire on a guy....
The worst part is, I dont shoot any birds anymore. I dont let my dog out there. I dont hardly let many friends out there. And at the end of the season I dont think ive killed, or saved, any more big bucks than I did back when it was just a free-for-all on the place.
This season ive just been trying to keep bucks alive so ive again stayed out. But if my efforts prove to be unsuccessful, im done. Im going back to inviting friends and shooting birds and rabbits and walking it regularly. I imagine ill still keep a few willow thickets as sanctuaries, but otherwise im just gonna have fun again! Sometimes I feel the lack of my presence has obviously made the deer move more in daylight, and therefore easier for the neighbors to kill! When I bird hunted a lot, the deer were tougher to hunt and I think it may have educated them and kept a few more on edge, and alive. The "less pressure" thing can kind of backfire on a guy....
Booner21
5 year old buck +
I think that is the hardest part of trying to kill big deer is watching your neighbors harvest bucks while you aren’t and also feeling you are doing everything right. It is much easier to stomach when you see it is working together such as a coop( I haven’t masterered that yet
but am actively trying). On my personal property I am at 7 to 1 when compared to my immediate neighbors harvesting mature deer. I just recently started discussing the deer I have on camera (still don’t share trail cam pics) before I kill them but would after. I like that ratio a lot and want to keep it or grow it now on my dads place we are 1 to 3 which I don’t like at all and is super frustrating especially when you don’t care for the neighbor who is having all the success. If your goals are to harvest mature deer from the farm stick with it the second and third on come a lot easier than the first in my experience.
But I totally get using your property for something other than deer hunting. I have younger boys and am considering the purchase of another separate property to allow us to enjoy some other outdoor activities while still leaving the deer hunting place as a sanctuary.
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Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
I'm always hunting on my property - for a place to set another tree............
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SWIFFY
5 year old buck +
I think that is the hardest part of trying to kill big deer is watching your neighbors harvest bucks while you aren’t and also feeling you are doing everything right. It is much easier to stomach when you see it is working together such as a coop( I haven’t masterered that yetbut am actively trying). On my personal property I am at 7 to 1 when compared to my immediate neighbors harvesting mature deer. I just recently started discussing the deer I have on camera (still don’t share trail cam pics) before I kill them but would after. I like that ratio a lot and want to keep it or grow it now on my dads place we are 1 to 3 which I don’t like at all and is super frustrating especially when you don’t care for the neighbor who is having all the success.
If your goals are to harvest mature deer from the farm stick with it the second and third on come a lot easier than the first in my experience.
But I totally get using your property for something other than deer hunting. I have younger boys and am considering the purchase of another separate property to allow us to enjoy some other outdoor activities while still leaving the deer hunting place as a sanctuary.
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This biggest deer we have around are 3 yr olds typically 125-140s. Ive killed the biggest ones ive known of for several years... Im just talking about getting them beyond that. Were lucky to have 3 or 4 bucks at 3 yrs old in about 5-6 square miles. They are the biggest ones around. I can keep off our land, plant the plots, etc etc... but its a rare year where one gets to 4 or 5 yrs old. Or maybe I should say it doesnt seem to be any more common, since weve left our property as a sanctuary. Its frustrating. I hope this year i eat my words... as I know the biggest 3 yr old is still alive as of this morning
There are a lot of pheasants now. I will say that! And I will crush the coyotes and hopefully a turkey. So I cant act like all has been lost. I guess I wouldnt be doing it if i wasnt having fun. It would just feel good having the satisfaction that its worth it!
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H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I don't have that big of properties 30 acres and 12 acres five miles apart, during October early November we bow hunt, so that is all that is going on at farms at that time. It is a realistic chance to kill a 150's-160's buck because they do pass through and about every year a booner gets shot within a mile of our bigger place. Summer through bow season we stay out of woods and back of pasture except to swap out camera cards and fill feeders. We do have a couple does with fawns that use both our woods as home base.
That said deer hunting is not my number one priority with the farms, we bought them to enjoy and to use. It's great to shoot a nice buck but I'm not giving up all the other usage for it. We will usually duck hunt the front pond once or twice late Nov-January and we absolutely love shooting pheasants on our own place and having friends along when we do, why have a nice property if you can't share it with friends.
We also bunny hunt a couple times late season in January-February.
Gun season here is very hectic on the deer with neighbors hunting and road hunters pushing everything chasing deer all over so during that time anything could run through either farm. We try and get the most enjoyment out of our properties that we can year round and what we have been doing has worked out really good for us so far.
That said deer hunting is not my number one priority with the farms, we bought them to enjoy and to use. It's great to shoot a nice buck but I'm not giving up all the other usage for it. We will usually duck hunt the front pond once or twice late Nov-January and we absolutely love shooting pheasants on our own place and having friends along when we do, why have a nice property if you can't share it with friends.
We also bunny hunt a couple times late season in January-February.
Gun season here is very hectic on the deer with neighbors hunting and road hunters pushing everything chasing deer all over so during that time anything could run through either farm. We try and get the most enjoyment out of our properties that we can year round and what we have been doing has worked out really good for us so far.
