OutdoorMissouri.com

Durn, that is a small area.

Dave: The pieces of wood that these guys might be able to hunt won't allow them to shoot terribly far. My FIL has a small piece. If I shot 20 yards, I would be shooting over the property line.

Have you Aimlow boys ever hunted an urban area in the rut?



It seems like that would be your best bet for catching a good one on such a small place. IMO the big ones are going to be living in the best habitat around, but you might catch one trolling on any smaller chunk of land when the rut is going.



That is the only reason I have such a good place, bigger piece of property. I have found that a big buck will seek out the area, and it's big enough to hold him.



I have just about endless stories of bucks seen trolling through town here, and in some of our parks. Last year about 1/4 mile from where I sit there was a 10pt seen running down a sidewalk about 11am in early Nov, and there's not 30acres of woods within 2 miles of here.

I have heard similar stories as well. I also here of big bucks just lying down in some of these folks yards. We did hunt quite a bit more this year during the rut than we did last year but with little luck. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before one of us gets a chance at a good buck in one of these areas.

All I know is that I hope you kill that big 10 pointer. That would be cool as heck.

Yeah, he must die.

PS is wrong about wind in the small places. They wind you, and it is over.

Yes, we hunted the rut. Just didn't happen for us. Still can, obviously. I did pass a nice buck that only had a spike on one side, but a heck of a 4pt on the other. I won't pass him again, only did cause the cameraman was off pissing and I either could shoot him, or film him. So, I filmed.

I have not been flingin shafts, cause nothing is walking by. Believe me, I have an itchy trigger finger and need some more meat in the freezer.

Piss out of your stand, it really makes no difference as far as the deer care.

The deal with really tiny hunting places is that if you get busted, and the deer start taking a different route, you're forked. Not just for a week or two, they will forfiet that 40sqyrds of territory during daylight. I've seen that when I was hunting early season where I currently hunt. It doesn't take a lot of pressure for them to alter their travel routes. If you don't have any room to work with, then the whole property is screwed.

Robin@AimLow said:
PS is wrong about wind in the small places. They wind you, and it is over.

WTF are you talking about? If a deer winds you, it may or may not be over. It happened 3 or 4 different times the other nite and deer kept coming. I may as well have been in Wildwood as the neighbor was having a bonfire and his darn dog kept running the length of his yard barking like a crazed gorilla. It's that fornicating simple. What I'm saying is that in town, deer are used to the presence of humans. You use the thought of not hunting because of a bad wind. I would probably chance it because 1)you are in town where deer are used to the presence of humans, and 2)you don't have much time to be terribly picky about the wind. Big bucks are ellusive animals. No doubt about it. But, just because a deer catches your scent, it isn't over. I've killed to darn many sammiches to prove that statement wrong a lot of the time. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I had 6 deer right under me spook and run back up the hill the other evening. I saw 19 more deer come off of that hill the same evening. Those 6 could have been some of the 19, I don't know. But it sure as heck wasn't over.

Dude, chill out. WTF I am saying is there isn't any darn difference hunting the city deer vs. country deer when it comes to the hunter's scent. I know, it seems like if I am only 50 yards from a house, and the wind blows from the house to me and towards the deer that the deer should be used to smelling a person from that direction, but that ain't the way it shakes out. Not for me anyway.

Robin: I don't disagree with that. A deers nose is the same regardless of where it resides. But, the truth is that those deer are used to dogs, humans, you name it. It is that simple. Is a big buck gonna be easier to kill. I don't know. Somehow I doubt it. But, I do believe, based upon hunting deer within the city limits of Columbia, that those deer that have seen relatively little pressure (i.e., rifles, ML, 4-wheelers, etc...) are much easier to hunt than those deer that have gone through the onslaught of rifle season.

We used to have a spot that we would hunt exclusively on the ground and kill a couple each time we hunted that spot. We certainly didn't worry about covering our scent nearly as much. I didn't kill a good buck, but my buddy killed two that year. It was amazing.

Deer are deer and they are wary animals. A big buck is going to be tough to kill I don't care where it is at. But, just because one deer smells you, the gig is not up necessarily.

BTW, you must stink to high heaven.

PoisonSnake said:

BTW, you must stink to high heaven.

MOC told me he could smell a bb-q burning and the exhaust from a clothes drier while he was in the woods. I garuntee you though, that a deer could still pick out your scent if you don't take extreme care to be scent free.

Same with noise, cars going by, dogs barking, radios blairing, but if your stand creeks or rattles at all with a deer nearby, you will be spotted.

Just the other night in a very heavily populated suburban area (I could see no less than 4 houses from my location) I had 3 does slowly feed up to me. The wind swirled for a brief second and the game was over just like that. The biggest of the 3 does started backing up, gave the infamous stomp, snorted, and bounced off taking her comrads with her. I keep all my clothes in air tight tubs and shower before every hunt. Smitty can attest to that. This isn't the first time this has happened in a suburban area with houses near by. I don't know the answers as to why or how they can distinguish between whos scent belongs in the area and whos doesn't, but I have seen proof several times that they can.

My experience shows me that does will bust me quicker than a buck...Could be because they travel in packs, kind of like middle school girls going to a restroom.....

Alot of reading but without rewriting what has already been said. PS is spot on.

We smell stew. Deer smell the carrots, the green beans, the broth, the potatoes, and little chunks of their momma.