Sounds a lot like my Ohio place. It's only 100 acres but surrounded three sides by 10,000 acres of state forest. All mature hardwoods in steep hill country. The fourth side is a medium size river with bottom full of ag. It's a mile away. I see almost no mature bucks in summer and there's nothing I could do to pull them off the ag fields. In fall, about right now, the bigger ones begin sifting up into the hills. No idea yet which ones will stay close and which will keep going. But from now through May I'll be seeing a parade of different bucks as they make their miles long circuit through the big forest. My place is just a blip on their radar, a spot they pass through. The only time one spends any significant time there is when a doe is about to cycle.
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Sounds a lot like my Ohio place. It's only 100 acres but surrounded three sides by 10,000 acres of state forest. All mature hardwoods in steep hill country. The fourth side is a medium size river with bottom full of ag. It's a mile away. I see almost no mature bucks in summer and there's nothing I could do to pull them off the ag fields. In fall, about right now, the bigger ones begin sifting up into the hills. No idea yet which ones will stay close and which will keep going. But from now through May I'll be seeing a parade of different bucks as they make their miles long circuit through the big forest. My place is just a blip on their radar, a spot they pass through. The only time one spends any significant time there is when a doe is about to cycle.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Fascinating observations! I've also noticed that the older a buck is, the more likely he will be back the following year. As you mentioned Ski, this is especially true of 4-year-olds. I get a high percentage of the 4-year-olds back as 5-year-olds. I think it is a combination of 4-year-olds being better survivors, as well as they seem to have settled down into a more consistent range pattern by that age.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Somewhat similar situation. In my area, there are two primary habitat types: 1) huge wide-open agricultural bottoms (and these bottoms are over a mile wide in places), and 2) ridge-and-hollow hardwoods that are primary White Oak. If there is an acorn crop, once the acorns begin to fall, and once the ag has been harvested in the bottoms, all the deer move up in the hilly oak forests. What gives me an advantage is that about 1/3 of my property is in cover habitat. My neighbors in the hardwoods do not have that kind of cover. Hunter-wary deer that want places to hide tend to congregate on my place, especially once the guns start going off. In fact, we have so much cover, that even though we put far more hunting pressure on our property than the neighbors do, we still hold most of the deer because we've given them so many places to hide from us (and they do so, very successfully!).
BSK
Well-Known Member
Ohio's gun season is only a week long. When I was a kid it was a big deal and the public lands would be full of orange! As pressure mounted the deer would all end up congregated in our little hollow that jutted up into the state forest. I'd see herds of 20-30 deer. Now days I rarely see another hunter or hear a shot. People pour out a pile of corn & shoot them in their back yard. And I haven't seen deer congregated like that in many, many years.
BSK
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
I don't know what it is, but same thing here. I guess it's that so much of the timber land in my area that used to be open to the public for a small fee has been sold off to private owners. But opening weekend of gun season used to sound like a young war. Easily hear 200+ shots just opening weekend. Now, it's an extremely busy year if I hear 5 shots all of opening weekend. We just don't have the hunter density we used to have. Used to be, every room in every motel at the freeway as well as all the KOA campgrounds would be full, and you had to make reservations a year in advance of opening day. Now you can drive by the motels on opening weekend, and it doesn't look any different than any other weekend. Just a couple of trucks with ATVs in the bed.
In some ways I miss those days. Deer camps and check stations. We'd spend the day hunting then after sundown my dad would lug me around the countryside stopping in at the check stations and other houses where families hunted. It was exciting to see who got what, who had a big one hanging in the tree. Deer season was a community affair of sorts. The weekend after season closure our church would have a big wild game dinner to share in the feast.
Now days I'm largely a solitaire hunter. I enjoy the solitude. I enjoy the year round habitat work. And I really enjoy focusing on a single buck and having a year or two or three game of chess trying to kill him. I love the way I do things now, but I also miss the way it used to be.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I remember the days when hunters would check in 250+ yearling forkhorns and spikes at the local check station on opening day alone. A 90-class 2 1/2 year-old 8-point would really draw a crowd to your truck.
Same here. I scratch my "killing itch" shooting 3-5 does every fall, and I hold off on the bucks until it is a buck I really want (usually 4.5+ and 130"). Due to this, some seasons I do not shoot a buck, like last year. But I did watch three 125" 3 year old bucks walk by to live another day. I shot them with my iPhone video to share with others. For me, I am not a fan of shooting a buck, just because he is a "nice buck", sawing his antlers off, and throwing them in a pile. I did that for 15 years in TN and the pile of 2.5/3.5 year old 90-120" antlers are just a lot of potential that I removed from the local herd at that point in time. My .02
I agree with you about the tasty 1.5yr old does. They are the best eating. I only got a buck last year. It was 3.5yrs old (tooth aged) and was tuff eating to the point that I still have him in the freezer. Thinking I will thaw the meat and can it with my instapot. Then it will be tender and edible.
BSK
Well-Known Member
For those old bucks, find a cooler and let them hang. We let all deer hang in a walk-in cooler for at least two weeks. After this, even a 5 1/2 year-old buck will be tasty and tender.
Wish I had a walk-in cooler. I have to settle on quartering and an ice chest. The buck I was talking about chilled for 8 days. I know it's not as good as hanging but it helps. I process all my deer at home. Tried a butcher/ processor once, I didn't much care for the results. I never have gamey tasting meat because of the care that is taken with it. But thus guy was/ is tuff. I think doe are much more tender naturally because they don't have the testosterone running full tilt through them like a buck.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I've never used a processor. Learned to butcher meat with the first deer killed and been doing it ever since (although that first one was an experience! We drug the entire deer into the kitchen to cut it up in the house!). I've never trusted a processor to give me the meat from the deer I actually killed, and I doubt a processor goes to the trouble we do to remove all the fat and fascia layers before grinding or packaging of roasts/steaks.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Fortunately or unfortunately, we do not have the excess does to kill for meat, yet. But that day will come back. Although I dread the days of processing 5 or 6 does in a single day. That was not fun.
Nice one!
