Beating the Crowds for Public-Land Whitetails
I think it's safe to say that most deer hunters in the US depend on public land for their hunting. I know I do, and have all my life. Many years ago, as my home state of Florida began to succumb more and more to the "yankee invasion", and much private land was also being posted, a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) called Gulf Hammock was opened. At the time it was the first, and for many years was the biggest, WMA in Florida. At that time, it was truly wild; trying to maneuver the roads with anything less than a four-wheel-drive truck was unheard of, and there just weren't many of those around. I know this because my Dad spent a lot of time hunting up there before I was born, and he's told me about it. At that time, it was not uncommon to hunt all day and never see another hunter. If you passed someone on one of the narrow roads, it was a rarity and something worthy of grumbling about. My, how times have changed!
These days, if you can go all day without encountering another hunter, or don't stumble across another hunter's stand or someplace he's recently been, it's reason to celebrate. The woods have become packed with human activity, and at times it seems like there's no way to get away from them all. But take heart; there are places out there that, despite fairly easy access and the proximity of back roads, can separate you from the crowds.
I live and hunt in and around one of the most popular deer hunting destinations in my state: the Ocala National Forest. We don't get many big bucks around here, and there's really no huge numbers of deer, but it is a big forest, and lots of folks come here to hunt deer. This makes for some rather challenging situations, when it comes to getting away from the people and getting to where the deer are. Like all of you, I don't know it all, but each year of experience brings me more insight into what actually went right with my hunts. What I mean is, I have been successful, as a routine, for many years. I have been blessed with at least one deer per year since my first buck in 1987. But until recently, I lacked the analytical skills and knowledge to pick apart my situations and figure out what exactly contributed to my success, and what may have handicapped me. I hope to share some of my methods and strategies with you, even as they continue to evolve.
This past year, I did pretty well. I missed a doe while stalking along a trail on foot, took a spike with my blackpowder revolving carbine, and took 2 more spikes with my .44 Auto Carbine. That's plenty of meat in the freezer for my wife & I, and a very successful season. It was all over by Wednesday of opening week of general gun season, too. What I did right was, I got into areas that had been recently changed, and I was the first guy hunting there.
I had often been drawn to a border area of the forest, where the planted shortleaf pine (harvested for making paper) met up with the hardwoods along the river. The main problem was, this area was THICK! However, when I checked it out in September 1997, I found that the Forestry Service had been there ahead of me; they had recently revised their boundaries, and in an apparent attempt to create "accepted" boundary lines, they had plowed a bulldozer-wide path smack through the super-thick hardwoods along their new line. After a little scouting, I found that there had been minimal human activity along this path, and lots of deer tracks! This being archery season in an area that allows the taking of does, that was all I needed. During my initial scouting trip down the path, in fact, is when the doe I mentioned stepped out. I had to lean to shoot around a bush, and the highly nervous doe jumped the string anyhow. But I had been the first to find this newly altered "honeyhole", and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. In the 4 weeks or so following, I took 2 spikes there, less than 100 yards from one another. I knew it was time to look for a new spot; more and more people were moving in on "my" territory, and 2 legal bucks that I knew of were gone.
By Tuesday of opening week of the season, I was out of options as far as my traditional hunting areas were concerned, so I fired up the ol' three-wheeler and hit the woods. After a good bit of riding and checking out new areas, I found a new clearcut (that's what results when the pines mentioned above are harvested; they cut everything down in a given area) that did not appear to have been hunted yet. I found that a small, almost nonexistent road would lead me to the southern end of it, and keep me out of sight of the cut at the same time. The next evening, spike number three was in my cooler. Even as I hunted that afternoon, and my Dad hunted there the next day, more and more hunters were moving stands into the cut, and walking the edges. But when I got there, I was the first.
I've decided that the key is finding a spot, and hopefully one that has recently seen changes for the better, and getting there first. Obvious as it sounds, it is pretty important, and easy to forget. A bulldozer path through the woods may not have been a radical change in the opinion of the deer, but the freshly dug earth showed me the tracks I needed to see, and gave me a clear shooting lane. Sure, the clearcut I was hunting was huge, at least a hundred acres, but I had the prevailing winds in my favor, and any other hunter activity would occur on the far side, hundreds of yards away from me. I was at the most attractive spot on the cut, to the deer. Had I not been the first in either case, I certainly would not have been able to enjoy hunting undisturbed deer. Their only disturbance was me, and I can control me, to a large extent. During my scouting trip on Tuesday, I passed several hunters strolling up and down similar bulldozer trails. The word was out, and the boundary trails were beginning to feel the pressure. There were too many folks for me, so I struck out in search of new horizons.
Something that can help you get away from other hunters, that has gone unsaid in many articles that I have read, is plain old-fashioned walking. Especially if you can take a weekend away from mowing and weeding this summer, get to the woods and walk them before the season. That way, you're not digging into your hunting time... the way I see it, you're snagging some more time in the woods, and learning something to boot. In my area, good scouting means knowing what paths lead to a potential hunting spot, which of those provide the easiest access from the most favorable direction, and which of those may or may not lead other hunters there. Many times, since food sources abound and are everywhere in my neck of the woods, simply finding a fairly remote chunk of woods can make the difference. Less hunters, more relaxed deer. Who could ask for more?
-Russ Chastain
