Your farm's DNA

[roymunson]

I know we live in different parts of the country, and we hunt different zones, etc, but it'd be interesting to hear how, in the span of hunting your place, how you find it the same or different from other properties you've hunted. Be that how it hunts, habitat, deer movement, etc.

We hunt in in mid central Ohio (Knox county), just a ridge or 2 over from the Mohican River. Generally speaking in Ohio, the last week of October things start to build and the first 2 weeks of November all heck breaks loose in the woods.

We've noticed a trend the last few years that our farm seems to hit early when it comes to rut hunting. So Thursday, 10-24 I hunted all day and my buddy hunted all day 10-24, 10-25, 10-26. We talked early this week and he said we've been doing it all wrong. We had more daylight/midday rut activity than we ever have in the month of November. Thursday in an all day sit at the edge of a switchgrass field I saw a dozen different bucks. Including a big 160" deer hound dogging a doe for about 2-3 hours in the switchgrass mid day. He saw the same buck 700 yards away on the other corner of the property 2 days later with the wind at his back dead sprinting thru the timber after a doe.

When we kill does late season we'll often measure fetuses and we've found a lot of them (probably 1/2 or so, anecdotally) that were bred in the month of October. Not chased, bred. That seems wicked early to me.

The last few years we've been rough on does, so maybe there are less does and a more aggressive rut, but it's not like we don't have does running everywhere. It's not abnormal to see 20+ deer when sitting a field edge.

We hunt less than 10 miles away and the timing seems to shift back to the traditional "First 2 weeks of November" thing. It's kinda crazy.

What's your property's weird quirk. It's kinda cool if you can figure it out and exploit it.

 

[Telemark]

The place I hunt in Ontario has a lake on its north side forming the entire northern border. I haven't figured out how to make this a real advantage yet. With a south wind I can access by canoe, which is nice. I try to put food plots and trees in the northern fourth of the property to get the deer to move across the property. Otherwise it really seems like a disadvantage.

 

[SD51555]

My place is heavily influenced by human activity. I can't get a deer sighting beyond the resident half dozen or so that keep the property trimmed all year. Once the late comers start blowing up the surrounding areas in the later half of October to get their stands ready, chase grouse, and all sorts of new intrusion, they push a bunch more does my way and right about now, the bucks come in from the deep-woods hiding places to chase the ladies.

In two weeks, it'll all be over and quiet again.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

For deer that see a lot of people in my immediate area from farming and whatnot, those bastards do not like to be hunted. They are the most vocal deer I’ve hunted. They will blow for 30 minutes if they have nothing better to do. It’s infuriating and has led to rage killing.
Magically the rut will always peak on opening week of rifle season. Rifle season could be January 10th and that’s the day they will decide to run for miles away from the safety of my farm to the waiting embrace of bubbas corn feeder.

 

[Brian662]

I have a two properties only a few miles apart from each other in MN and the deer population numbers are so drastically different between the two properties it's crazy. The place with more hunting "pressure" has a much higher deer population and ultimately the higher pressure results in a lower age class of bucks, the higher population of does results in a less hectic rut than the other property.

I have begun to cater my efforts with food and bedding so that I can target bucks in the early season. I despise the MN gun hunt being so early in the season, during the middle of the rut most years. It ruins the movement of deer and generally just gives me a sour taste in my mouth. Some years I don't hunt during gun season and some years I bow hunt, but I dont control enough acreage to keep the deer from feeling the negative effects of the 9 day hunt. Now that I have WI property, I'll go bow hunt that place to avoid the chaos all together. What an incredible time to be in the woods in WI.

It is painful and complete mismanagement from the MN DNR in my opinion, and very unlikely to ever change for the better.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

My 45 acres in NW Mass. is a cold, swampy 2,000' plateau with no mast, no ag, no neighbors, no trespassing...bordered by 4 square miles of big woods. Cover is abundant and the deer tend to feed on low quality browse...wandering and bedding randomly, making it hunt more like No. Maine. Therefore, tracking is the preferred method and has been more successful on my place than sitting. I do sit during bow season. My small food plots are the only game in town. But deer densities are low...I saw a single deer last year during a 2 and a 1/2 month long deer season. No snow for tracking.

 

[SD51555]

I have a two properties only a few miles apart from each other in MN and the deer population numbers are so drastically different between the two properties it's crazy. The place with more hunting "pressure" has a much higher deer population and ultimately the higher pressure results in a lower age class of bucks, the higher population of does results in a less hectic rut than the other property.

I have begun to cater my efforts with food and bedding so that I can target bucks in the early season. I despise the MN gun hunt being so early in the season, during the middle of the rut most years. It ruins the movement of deer and generally just gives me a sour taste in my mouth. Some years I don't hunt during gun season and some years I bow hunt, but I dont control enough acreage to keep the deer from feeling the negative effects of the 9 day hunt. Now that I have WI property, I'll go bow hunt that place to avoid the chaos all together. What an incredible time to be in the woods in WI.

It is painful and complete mismanagement from the MN DNR in my opinion, and very unlikely to ever change for the better.

The DNR has a tough job. They have to keep a boot on the throat of the deer herd. If they let up even a little, they'd have a real mess on their hands. I'm surprised they survived their CWD campaign and kept the hunters pulling the trigger. They spent years trying to convince us every deer could kill us with CWD tainted meat. Their fear campaign got so bad, they had landfills up north refusing to take deer carcasses because it was a health hazard to landfill workers.

And now the most recent gem:

Notebook: DNR assures deer hunters it’s OK to shoot does with fawns

By the time hunting begins, fawns are old enough to survive on their own, the DNR says.

www.grandforksherald.com