Where do you deer hunt?

[someguy2800]

Its illegal to bait or feed deer here so the best you can do is plant food plots, which primarily attract the small does and fawns during daylight, but is great for keeping deer in the area. We have much better success paying attention to cover and game trails and figuring out the habits of the mature deer. I've said this a million times but the deer have been well educated by their third year not to wander around in the open during daylight in the fall. The rut is pretty much the only thing that gets the mature bucks up and moving during daylight so we seek out their breeding and bedding areas more so than food.

 

[mcb]

It's illegal to bait deer in Tennessee too, where I do all my hunting. You can run feeders you just can't hunt over them. The food must be removed for at least 10 days before you can hunt near that location. We take the feeders down before deer season. The feeders seem to help the deer in the spring and early summer when food is still short and it helps keep the food plots from getting destroyed as quickly when we first plant them. We usually put the feeders back out shortly after season to help the pregnant does. The feeders get taken down again for the few weeks of turkey season in the spring and then back up for late spring and summer.

 

[MCgunner]

I tried to plant a food plot. The hogs really liked all the soft, disced up dirt. Nothing ever germinated after they plowed and rooted it up.

Glad I can run a feeder.

 

[mcb]

I tried to plant a food plot. The hogs really liked all the soft, disced up dirt. Nothing ever germinated after they plowed and rooted it up.

Glad I can run a feeder.

Thankfully we don't have and wild hogs in our part of Tennessee. That would make building food plots a nightmare no doubt.

 

[Random 8]

I acquired a small tract of private land 2 years ago after a "career" of hunting mostly public lands. Up until about 5 years ago, my wife and I had almost free run of 80 acres of prime timberlands open to public hunting. A couple of locals would put up a portable occasionally, but we worked with them to disperse the pressure. They knew which end we hunted, and we stayed out of each other's way. It was a prime habitat and travel corridor, so everybody got deer. Around that time, the public land apps came out, and a lot of new hunters "discovered" this woods. Predictably, the quality of the hunting went down. It had been a dream of mine to buy and manage my own piece for deer hunting, and our present circumstances combined with a soft land market made this come true. Now we're content to hunt our own 40, although I do make an occasional foray to the old 80 of public if I get time to hunt during the week or if the weathers really bad keeping others at home.

 

[Nature Boy]

I never understood that either and I'd never participate. For me, dogs are for bird hunting.

I’ve hunted deer with dogs most of my life, but not so much anymore. Given the inaccessibility of the swamps we hunted it made sense. One of the benifits is you don’t have to get up and be in the woods before day break. One of the downsides is you spend as much time hunting dogs as you do deer.

It is exciting. There’s always action on every hunt.

 

[George P]

Thankfully we don't have and wild hogs in our part of Tennessee. That would make building food plots a nightmare no doubt.

Thankfully we don't have and wild hogs in our part of Tennessee YET..............(fixed that for ya )

 

[mcb]

Thankfully we don't have and wild hogs in our part of Tennessee YET..............(fixed that for ya )

I fear you might be right but hope you're wrong. It will definitely change things if and when it happens.

 

[Choctaw]

Thankfully we don't have and wild hogs in our part of Tennessee YET..............(fixed that for ya )

Hopefully you guys will never have to deal with them but that's rather doubtful. Some idjit will introduce them for hunting and that will be that.

 

[Armored farmer]

20 years ago the Illinois DNR began asking hunters if we had seen any turkeys while deer hunting. Soon we had Turkeys.
Then it was otters.
Then it was bobcats.
Last year they asked if we had seen any wild pigs!

 

[mcb]

20 years ago the Illinois DNR began asking hunters if we had seen any turkeys while deer hunting. Soon we had Turkeys.
Then it was otters.
Then it was bobcats.
Last year they asked if we had seen any wild pigs!

Lets hope they are wrong for once!

 

[MCgunner]

I like pigs. They can be a pain, but they do eat a lot better'n venison, they're year around, and there's no shortage...trust me, no shortage.

Smoked pork is yummy. Smoked venison will dull your chain saw.

 

[Choctaw]

I like pigs. They can be a pain, but they do eat a lot better'n venison, they're year around, and there's no shortage...trust me, no shortage.

Smoked pork is yummy. Smoked venison will dull your chain saw.

I like my wheat better.

 

[ACES&8S]

I have better luck here on my own place but before this was ours, I did & always will love our local National Forest
for how I learned to hunt there & the memories I have that seem endless.

 

[MCgunner]

I like my wheat better.

Well, ya know, it's like Bill Clements stupidly said to reporters when he was running for governor, hogs are like rape, ain't much you can do about it, so you might as well enjoy it.

 

[Choctaw]

Well, ya know, it's like Bill Clements stupidly said to reporters when he was running for governor, hogs are like rape, ain't much you can do about it, so you might as well enjoy it.

Bill did say some stupid things but that was a Clayton Williams whopper.

 

[wankerjake]

Public in AZ

 

[MCgunner]

Bill did say some stupid things but that was a Clayton Williams whopper.

Oh, well, one of them republicans.

 

[EIB0879]

I didn't vote because I hunt public land (draw hunts) and family land. It varies from year to year if I get drawn for public land hunts. BIL and I are doing two draw hunts this year and I'll probably hunt some on his land also.

 

[Jack B.]

According to a different thread on THR the highway.

 

[MCgunner]

According to a different thread on THR the highway.

That 50 mile long 'deer lease'?

 

[EIB0879]

Yeah and we ended up with Anne Richards. I voted for Clayton anyway.

Bill did say some stupid things but that was a Clayton Williams whopper.

 

[Peakbagger46]

Country like this (public land):



It’s both steeper and more beautiful than a picture will show. Last year I was ascending 1,500 vertical feet chasing a big mule deer buck around.