Deer in the Thickets
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It is hard to believe that an animal as large as a big buck deer with the equivalent of a chair on its head could move about as easily as they do in a dense thicket. This is the choice place for them. One would think that they would choose easier walking paths, but they are seeking security and want to hang on to those trophy racks. At night they choose easier paths, and in fact they do most of their meandering at that time. But since you are a daytime hunter, the thickets are your best chance for a good deer. A stand near a thicket is a great bet for tempting a buck out into view by various means. A big buck can go through brambles like a rabbit. They have this uncanny ability to "get small" and sneak. There are rare recordings of antlered deer having been caught up in vines and dying as a result, but these are indeed uncommon. These situations probably occur when antlered bucks attempt to fight off predators in vine entanglements.
Albie Berk enjoys hunting and sharing what he has learned and any successful tips he can with others. He enjoys South Carolina hunting and usually stays at Carolina Buck and Boar
In the daytime, deer go where people are not expected to travel and where, if they decide to do so, their intrusion would be noticed.
Pressured deer go in search of such places. Big bucks head there as soon as they see early headlights on the roads and hear car doors slam. Any unusual activity sends smart deer hiding.
Deer in thickets stick tight in the relative safety of the underbrush. Scanning the edges just inside by careful glassing is a good bet. Rattling, or racking, or calling by various mouth calls are good methods to get them out to investigate. If you build a stand overlooking a thicket, don't give up looking for deer there. Deer bedded down stand up to stretch their legs just as we do. Keep looking for movement or some part of a deer. If you have chosen a likely thicket and have found good deer sign there, then you may catch them getting there when they seek it out. On a normal day most anywhere the time of day for such an encounter is generally around 9:00 A.M.
I have had the experience several times of getting within a yard or so distance from deer in thickets before they bolted. On each occasion I had not noticed the deer until the deer took off. Since it was always when I paused or switched directions that the deer arose so close to me, I am certain that I have passed by many deer which were laying low and expecting me to pass them by. Jump-hunting deer in thickets is a lot like hunting rabbits in the same habitat. One hunter can walk through a high field and not see a single rabbit. Another hunter can come through right after him and by zigzagging with frequent pauses cause the rabbits to panic and provide a shot. One time I had followed some fresh tracks to a thicket and while crawling on hands and knees noticed the legs and underside of a deer in the trail ahead. I slowly rose upright and shouldered my rifle to catch a look at the deer's head some twenty yards ahead when a humongous buck which was hidden in the honeysuckle thicket to my immediate left, bolted over the top of my head and scared the living daylights out of me. This big buck would have let me pass right by him had I not paused in that exact spot.
Good thickets are often found in "transition zones." Transition zones are the vegetation of mid size between, say, a field and a woods. Transition zones are located around the borders of clearings, fields, creeks, roads and other low-profile areas that are next to woodlands. These zones offer lots of branch-tip forage at forage height to the deer and also offer concealment. Since deer are considered "edge" animals such locations are natural choices for hunters to locate deer.
Abandoned cotton fields in the South which have fallowed into thickets are good deer locations.
Fallow fields, which have overgrown with staghorn sumac, make terrific choices for locating bedded bucks. The sumac offers high protein winter forage and deer antlers blend in perfectly with the branch structure.
For the stand hunter scoped rifles are useful for spotting animals in thickets and choosing shots which bypass obstructions. The stalker and still-hunter are better off using a brush gun.
One final note that Christmas tree plantations harbor deer herds.
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