Just recieved our deer age report

[Bill]

Congrats on the great age structure. My condolences on having an outfitter move in next door.

I've got mixed emotions on it. All my border with them are field so they can't hunt the line. This year they only ran archery hunts and a new group of guys every week. They pressured the heck out of that farm and on our place deer were so relaxed. I had a buck bed in a grass field next to me on the third day of rifle season during the middle of the day.

As long as they have minimum class deer to shoot I don't think they can hurt me to bad. Sure they'll kill a good one here and there, but by mid October their stands will be Burnt.

 

[swat1018]

I've got mixed emotions on it. All my border with them are field so they can't hunt the line. This year they only ran archery hunts and a new group of guys every week. They pressured the heck out of that farm and on our place deer were so relaxed. I had a buck bed in a grass field next to me on the third day of rifle season during the middle of the day.

As long as they have minimum class deer to shoot I don't think they can hurt me to bad. Sure they'll kill a good one here and there, but by mid October their stands will be Burnt.

I think I'd prefer "light pressure," over an outfitter. Some really good hunters, and some lucky slobs will make a dent in the age structure, pretty quick, I would bet. I think all of us in N. MO are at risk of the same thing, at any time.

 

[Bill]

I think I'd prefer "light pressure," over an outfitter. Some really good hunters, and some lucky slobs will make a dent in the age structure, pretty quick, I would bet. I think all of us in N. MO are at risk of the same thing, at any time.

Id prefer light pressure too or really bad outfitting.
I see road signs all over for people looking for leases. My hunch is its outfitters putting them up so you're right could happen anywhere anytime.

I've had the price on my leased land driven up twice by guys wanting to oust me.
thankfully, I have a great relationship with the owner who wont blind side me.

 

[sandbur]

I've got mixed emotions on it. All my border with them are field so they can't hunt the line. This year they only ran archery hunts and a new group of guys every week. They pressured the heck out of that farm and on our place deer were so relaxed. I had a buck bed in a grass field next to me on the third day of rifle season during the middle of the day..

When I see a buck, I have about 3-5 seconds to kill him or he is gone. What a difference hunting pressure makes.

With APR's I would not have time to count the tines. Spikes would be easy to tell.

 

[bueller]

When I see a buck, I have about 3-5 seconds to kill him or he is gone. What a difference hunting pressure makes.

With APR's I would not have time to count the tines. Spikes would be easy to tell.

Very much the same for me. IF I'm lucky enough to SEE a buck, the window of opportunity for a shot is usually extremely short.

 

[Bill]

When I see a buck, I have about 3-5 seconds to kill him or he is gone. What a difference hunting pressure makes.

With APR's I would not have time to count the tines. Spikes would be easy to tell.

Very much the same for me. IF I'm lucky enough to SEE a buck, the window of opportunity for a shot is usually extremely short.

I know exactly what you're talking about. Hunting PA in the 80's and NJ most of my life I know how hard it is when deer are on red alert "all" the time. Killing a 2.5 year old is something to be happy about. First because there are very few around and second if they made it the first year they live on eggshells for the rest of their life.

I could hang our deer heads on the old barn take a picture and proclaim I have the secret to killing mature bucks. But the truth is, we're just blessed with a good area and figured out how to hunt softly. It's impossible to kill what isn't there. We don't have any holy grail hunting method.

When my brother and I got to the neighborhood we are in, in MO, we were baffled. Young deer would look right at you in the stand and not even care you were there. Unfortunatly, that gave us a false sense of the success we would have killing older deer. We can/could hunt sloppy and still have 1.5 and 2.5 Y.O. Bucks skip around with out a care. Something happens to them when get to 3 and 4 and they get a bit more ghost like so we had to learn to hunt a little smarter. No rocket science there. These 4 year old deer spent their entire life walking our ground with very little human contact.
which is quite a contrast to a deer that gets stepped on weekly or daily some times of the year.

 

[MN Slick]

I've got mixed emotions on it. All my border with them are field so they can't hunt the line. This year they only ran archery hunts and a new group of guys every week. They pressured the heck out of that farm and on our place deer were so relaxed. I had a buck bed in a grass field next to me on the third day of rifle season during the middle of the day.

As long as they have minimum class deer to shoot I don't think they can hurt me to bad. Sure they'll kill a good one here and there, but by mid October their stands will be Burnt.

It can't be good but like you said it depends on the outfitter and how they hunt. The field between you should help.. Hopefully they are sloppy. One thing for sure is a 3 year old is big to most clients so that age class gets hit hard and most outfitters put another guy in the tree as soon as the first buck is dragged out.

I just learned of an outfitter who has 200 acre NW of me. Not sure how they hunt yet but I did find one 3 year old in a kill pic on their website that I had a bunch of pics as a 2 year old in 2014 and a few pics of him in September this past season before he vanished. Now I know why. Their clients have damn long arms too! The 200 is for sale so hopefully someone who manages buys it. Crazy high listing price though. It's hard to get away from outfitters down there these days.