Author Topic: Can't concentrate on deer hunting (Read 413 times)

frozentoes · « **on:** November 23, 2003, 12:10:41 PM »

Well I have been deer hunting all weekend. For the first time in a long time I got skunked. Of course if I could have kept my mind off of all the fresh coon sign I might have seen a deer, LOL. I walked around in a lot of places I haven't really explored before. Seems most of the coon sign is on the ridges right now. I did see some scat, trails, and tracks near the water also. It was a miserable weekend as far as weather. Rain, 20+ mph winds, and people. I am not much for being around people. I did get a nice nap in the woods this afternoon during the rain. It was so peaceful and quiet out there. The squirrels here are the size of black labs. I also saw a nice yote. A bunch of shots were fired near me, then here comes a yote, bookin it down the stream. The woods should be fairly quiet now so should get a few sets started again. This trapping thing is very addicting. I never thought anything compared to deer hunting. I guess I was wrong, very wrong. Thank all of you for all the help you have given me and all other new trappers.

rascal (Joe Duncan) · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2003, 12:42:59 PM »

toes;

YOU'VE DONE BEEN BITTEN!!!!!!! And guess what-- you can't get unbitten

I don't deer hunt-- it takes away from my time of scouting and trapping :wink:

Wackyquacker · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2003, 06:27:28 PM »

Yeppers, Toes is done for

jim-NE · « **Reply #3 on:** November 24, 2003, 02:33:34 AM »

I actually tried a little bird hunting again last couple of years now...hadn't done that for long time, and lots of trapping time in between there, too.
Found myself stumbling an awful lot while plowing around through the weeds, too. Eventually figured out that I was spending way too much time staring at the ground for tracks and not concentrating on what was coming up ahead of me.
Have you exhibited all the other little odd behaviors yet also? Like the following:
1.) can ID roadkilled fur at quite some distance away
2.) find yourself peering over bridges as you drive by them at highway speeds (looking for little beaver dams, shoreline spots for sets, etc.
3.) watching weedy draws for coyotes or foxes running
4.) commenting to yourself on the "nice" spots as you drive by
5.) have that weird gland lure odor or even weird coon fat odor emminating from your hands and fingers and it doesn't seem to want to come off very easily

Asa Lenon · « **Reply #4 on:** November 24, 2003, 02:36:39 AM »

Hey frozentoes, i've always said if one gets into canine trapping they will put hunting into a second place position. I got more kick out of watching a coyote work a gut pile than in actually getting the deer in the first place. Go get 'em! Ace :grin:

shb · « **Reply #5 on:** November 24, 2003, 03:50:07 AM »

I think every hunter is a trapper and every trapper is a hunter, I dont draw a line between them. In my view of the true woodsman, a person should be just a efficient at harvesting deer, as he is at catching fur, and catching fish. The more one moves away from specializing in one area, the more all of these activities become the same. I say they're all the same because a person is basically just becoming intimately familiar with a given species in order to identify a pattern or behavior that makes the critter vulnerable, (easy to catch). Thats the idealistic goal I try to shoot for anyway. Does anyone else feel the same?

TJF · « **Reply #6 on:** November 24, 2003, 08:48:19 PM »

shb

I feel the same way and enjoy both hunting and trapping. Trapping has been very important to me as it has helped in so many ways when it comes to hunting. By learning how to read sign for trapping, I have applied that to hunting deer. It's taught me to figure out how the deer are using an area by tracks, rubs, scrapes, what they perfer to feed on and where they like to bed. Why they use certain areas compared with other areas at different times of the year. This has helped in placing stands, places to make make-shift ground blinds, stillhunt, track, stalk and drive deer. Most importantly to understand deer for hunting, for just watching or for shedhunting.

Hunting/shedhunting on the other hand has helped me to be a better trapper. I scout a lot for my bowhunting and to know where the bucks are when they drop there antlers for shedhunting. Scouting is just as important for trapping as it is hunting. Scouting is the best way to learn an area and to find places to set well before trapping starts. It teaches you not to overlook areas thinking they will be good or bad from one year to the next depending on the previous trapping season. What was a hotspot last year could be only an ok spot this year when the hotspot is now 30 or 40 yards away. Without scouting you missed a potential hotspot by taking it for granted and setting the old spot.

Tyler and I love shedhunting as it is a great time of the year to be out. I find out what bucks made it though the previous hunting season and winter. We tromp on the average of 10-15 miles a day on the weekends and any free time we have in late winter and spring during the week. I use this time for learning an area and finding where the mink, coon, fox and yotes spend their time and where they den. it is a big help for the following fall/winter for trapping. I spend a lot of great quality time with Tyler...showing him tracks, sign and where good sets could be made of all the critters plus show deer sign, placing stands and ect... Sometimes we find sheds too!!

It is just a great time as there is so much to see such as the bald eagles heading north, the first ducks to come back or geese, tips of black/white tails popping up above the grass 10 feet from you on warm spring days :eek: and the many sites nature has to show you.

Hunting and trapping go hand in hand. While you are doing one, you are thinking about the other.

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