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John's Journal... Entry 96, Day 4

Deer-Movement Patterns

click to enlargeEDITOR'S NOTE: Often the lands containing the most deer sign won't produce a buck. Any hunter who continues to hunt where he sees deer sign may never take the deer making the sign. Hank Hearn of Vicksburg, Mississippi, manages Tara Wildlife, located on the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Hearn has logged thousands of hours studying deer-movement patterns to learn where to put his hunters to allow them to take deer where deer leave no sign. According to Hearn, many factors cause deer to move. However, he's found that food, sex and hunting pressure will make bucks move more than any other factors, with hunting pressure usually the strongest influence.

click to enlargeHearn once showed one of his hunters a small hardwood flat less than 40 yards off a woods road between a pine plantation and an agricultural field. In the dark he whispered, "We've been hunting the field where this buck feeds early in the morning. But I believe hunting pressure has caused the buck to leave the field before daylight and come into this thicket to bed. Since we've pretty much run him out of the area where he wants to feed during daylight hours, I believe he should come through this draw just at daylight. Get ready as soon as you can see to get a shot off." As the sun started to rise, the hunter looked over the area he had to hunt. He saw no trails, no food, no scrapes, no hooked bushes or trees and absolutely no sign anywhere that a deer ever had walked in this spot or ever would walk there. Then the hunter used his binoculars to study the terrain but still saw no evidence of deer from his tree stand.

click to enlargeBut at about 7:30 a.m., the hunter heard a noise behind him as he stood on his tree stand, watching the direction from which Hearn expected the deer to come. He then turned to see a nice-sized 8-point buck meandering through the woodlot. The buck didn't walk down a trail, and he didn't feed. He simply passed through that area. When the buck came to within 15 yards of the hunter, the buck stopped and looked at the road where the truck had dropped the hunter off an hour before. With the buck's attention distracted, the hunter took aim and bagged the nice buck.

click to enlarge"The older a buck, the quicker he responds to hunting pressure," Hearn said. "I use hunting pressure to put bucks in areas where my hunters can take them." For instance, if Hearn's hunters hunt bucks at a food source and at a particular stand two or three times without seeing deer, Hearn knows hunting pressure has caused the deer on that part of the property not to feed during daylight hours. Because he studies his hunting land so intensively, he knows where the deer will go when they feel the effects of hunting pressure. Probably he'll already have tree stands set up in that new area. To bag a deer, you may have to hunt a site that shows absolutely no deer sign.

To learn more about Tara Wildlife, contact 6791 Eagle Lake Shores Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180 or (601) 279-4662.

TOMORROW: Alternative Food Source

 

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about Lying Sign ...

Day 1 -Deer Sign that Lies
Day 2 -Thick-Cover Hunts
Day 3 -Greenfield Hunts
Day 4 -Deer-Movement Patterns
Day 5 -Alternative Food Source

John's Journal