Who thinks our deer are harder?

[fairchaser]

I've hunted deer in 5 states and two provinces. That doesn't make me any kind of expert but when you look at the available cover, lengthy hunting seasons and ideal scenting conditions, I think our deer are the most challenging. We may have more deer than many places but our mature bucks have to be the hardest to kill. But I'd like to hear from you.

 

[Roost 1]

I know hunting pressure plays a huge part, but I think big woods deer are the hardest to hunt.

 

[Matador]

I definitely think some places in Tn. Are harder and more of a challenge to hunt. Try some of the old mountain Bowater property. Those wily old mature bucks go to the thickest bottom of the biggest creeks with all the laurel thickets. It takes a young man to get down in there with them. And if you are fortunate enough to kill one then it almost kills the hunter getting it out.

 

[AT Hiker]

I couldn't imagine hunting them in some of those Alabama pine thickets. I've turkey hunted some WMAs down there and I'm not sure how I would go about hunting deer.
But yea, TN hardwoods deer are the toughest I've hunted so far.


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[catman529]

Our deer are definitely harder, in November.... mainly the bucks

 

[Mr.Bro]

Mature bucks are hard to kill in any state.
Ive been fortunate to hunt several states and Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan in the early 2000s was fairly easy. With bad winters, decease, and heavy pressure not so easy now.
Southern Illinois can be as hard as anywhere. Especially early bow.
30 years of hunting Tennessee was challenge I could never conquer.
Kentucky is as hard as anywhere. You can get plenty if night pics of mature, 4 years and older bucks, but never see them. Much less kill them.
Mature bucks are just plain hard wherever you hunt.

 

[Boone 58]

What amazes me is that unless the rut is in you cant see a mature buck where I hunt. Thus hunting every other day in October for the last 20 years I have found that bow season is more for taking does for the freezer cause you cant see a good one up on his feet most of time. I can count on both hands the slim opportunities I have had and amazingly they are around the 17th of October and after a good cold front moved in. Every time I got busted by a turkey or something else stupid. I love the rut................for without it Mature buck hunting would be a dream only.

 

[Ladys man]

Our deer are definitely harder, in November.... mainly the bucks

I see what you did there lol

 

[MUP]

I definitely think some places in Tn. Are harder and more of a challenge to hunt. Try some of the old mountain Bowater property. Those wily old mature bucks go to the thickest bottom of the biggest creeks with all the laurel thickets. It takes a young man to get down in there with them. And if you are fortunate enough to kill one then it almost kills the hunter getting it out.

This, all of it. From experience. :shock:

 

[TheLBLman]

I know hunting pressure plays a huge part, but I think big woods deer are the hardest to hunt.

Agree about pressure & big big woods, mainly because the deer are harder to pattern, more nomadic, and tend to range over larger areas.
A good TN example of this would be the Cherokee National Forest.
Can be really tough bow-hunting; gun hunting, not so tough, but not as "easy" as farmland deer hunting.

IMO, the "hardest" deer hunting I've experienced (at least for older deer) is big cover deer.
What I'm talking about is an area of thousands of acres that is predominately heavy cover,
very little ground level visibility, no trees large enough to climb, but even if you find one,
you can hardly see down into this thick mess.

Easiest deer hunting (imo) is farmland deer,
where there are more ag fields than woods or cover.
You'll find some of this in most every state, but some Mid-Western states may be predominantly this kind of deer hunting.

Generally speaking, I believe TN deer hunting is overall "harder" than KY deer hunting,
but some of the toughest deer hunting you'll find anywhere can be found in parts of KY.

Tennessee is a very diverse state, as are the deer habitats and deer hunting.
So is Kentucky and most states.
But whether the deer hunting anywhere is relatively "hard" or "easy" has to do with a lot more than what state you're hunting. Ongoing localized hunting practices and pressure can trump everything else.

To answer the question:
Yes, I believe TN deer hunting is "harder" than many states,
but certainly a lot "easier" than many as well, just for a variety of reasons.
Imagine deer hunting in Pennsylvania where the hunters out-number the deer.

 

[TheLBLman]

Try some of the old mountain Bowater property. Those wily old mature bucks go to the thickest bottom of the biggest creeks with all the laurel thickets. It takes a young man to get down in there with them. And if you are fortunate enough to kill one then it almost kills the hunter getting it out.

That is kinda what I was talking about with vast "heavy cover" areas.
Most of these type areas are only like this for a few years, then the trees grow larger, and the understory opens up. But some of those laurel areas in steep canyon-type terrain may never change much. That's tough hunting, for the terrain alone.

But then, so is wearing chest waders, trudging thru mud, while deer hunting some of the swamps in West TN :tu:

 

[Jmed]

I see less mature bucks here in my home state than I do in the other places I hunt. But I still enjoy the challenge. I think its more the pressure and the habitat I hunt in TN.

 

[Winchester]

I dont think TN deer are any harder to hunt than deer in other states with like habitat. That said States with more farmland are definitely easier to hunt as the deer are MUCH more predictable in Ag settings.

 

[landman]

The plains of Eastern Colorodo are Tuff, I saw my largest ever whitetail 190" animal that across the fence line, 500-600 yds and he was killed later that season. The year before we saw another giant but sooo far away and trying to get to them was hard, knew thing you know 20 deer would up an disappear,in that rolling country.

Kansas can be tuff too.

In KY I have killed my best bucks, and should have killed more, but when I got my first farm there I had been TN hunting all my life and 100-110" Buck was giants here, it was hard letting those bucks walk. And I learned so much the first 10 years with that place about Mature bucks, at that time ky rifle was only 9 days long, and trail cams still ran film and cost over $300 each. Over the years with other places in ky was more successful, but on the original place I only killed 4 bucks in 10 years, 2 where mistakes and shot the wrong one, part of that time we still had a Tn place just to kill something on.

 

[AT Hiker]

Early season KS surrounded by standing corn is stupid hard.


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[Mike Belt]

Of course hunting pressure has a lot to do with deer sightings during hunting hours but I think available cover is king... and the more expansive it is the less you'll see of the deer. This doesn't just relate to Tn but any place with like terrain. If you have to jump in there with them to see them you stand a good chance of shifting them around and away from where you're hunting to boot. This is how it is in much of the area I hunt in Tn. The easiest hunting I've found is in our agricultural areas where fields are 50-300 acres and separated by timbered areas. Usually these timbered areas are only there and not converted to field use because they are drainage areas. Many of them are just a ridge on either side of the drainage going up to the field's edge. This drastically reduces options for travel areas and give the hunter views of deer they would never see in areas with expansive cover. I've never hunted the mountains but I would imagine that would be some of the hardest physical hunting in Tn.

 

[Winchester]

I live in East TN and have hunted these mountains a lot over the years, especially when I was a little younger and more gung ho. Its not that the deer are smarter its the population is no where near what it is in many other areas of the state, where you have better habitat vs simply mostly all mature hardwoods, which just wont support that many deer per acre. Its actually not that hard to pattern them as the older bucks are somewhat predictable in how they will use the vast steep terrain. Problem is their simply arent that many of them and you may have to sit the perfect geographical location several days for a single chance when a buck finally rolls through that area while searching for a doe. If you have a bad wind or something else screws you up you could be several more days before another mature bucks uses that terrain feature again. Being in good physical shape also makes this Mountain hunting much easier, another reason I have backed off it some!!lol

 

[Tenn Aubie]

I couldn't imagine hunting them in some of those Alabama pine thickets. I've turkey hunted some WMAs down there and I'm not sure how I would go about hunting deer.
Y'all go give this a shot and you'll appreciate what you have here

 

[fairchaser]

What amazes me is that unless the rut is in you cant see a mature buck where I hunt. Thus hunting every other day in October for the last 20 years I have found that bow season is more for taking does for the freezer cause you cant see a good one up on his feet most of time. I can count on both hands the slim opportunities I have had and amazingly they are around the 17th of October and after a good cold front moved in. Every time I got busted by a turkey or something else stupid. I love the rut................for without it Mature buck hunting would be a dream only.

This sounds just like Ames. You can forget seeing a good buck until the rut. Early hunting is to take does and for getting a feel for what's going on with the rut. You know they are out there but it's really unproductive to be hunting because he's smelling where you've been all night and changing his patterns. I stay out of my mature buck areas until the rut. Unfortunately, I can't keep others out.

 

[7X57]

I don't think that the Tennessee Ag land bucks are that difficult to pattern and kill. The big woods mountain deer are a whole different story.

 

[BAMA BOW MERKER]

Deer in South Alabama are like hunting vampires. Tennessee deer are way easier to hunt compared to south Alabama from my experience. I've had much greater success on multiple public properties in different Tennessee counties than I ever had on private or public ground in Alabama. I've also hunted in Kentucky and Georgia, Kentucky was about the same and Georgia was a little tougher.

 

[TheLBLman]

Deer in South Alabama are like hunting vampires. Tennessee deer are way easier to hunt compared to south Alabama from my experience.

If you're comparing times past to times present,
just keep in mind deer hunting in TN was also "tougher" in times past

Today, for the most part, TN deer hunting is only "selectively" tougher.
It can be very tough to kill an adult doe where they have been hammered for several consecutive years,
Sometimes, even in areas of a high deer density in TN, can be hard to see any deer older than 2 1/2 during daylight, since the bucks tend to follow the does, and the adult does are afraid to step out of thick cover.

But it's never ever in TN been easier to kill a button buck than it is today :tu:

 

[BAMA BOW MERKER]

I started hunted Tennessee in 2004 and never had a season tougher than my best year in Alabama. Had better luck with mature deer on public ground in Tennessee. Just my personal experience, may just be lucky in Tennessee and unlucky in Alabama. But I love public ground hunting in November in Tennessee.

 

[fairchaser]

I started hunted Tennessee in 2004 and never had a season tougher than my best year in Alabama. Had better luck with mature deer on public ground in Tennessee. Just my personal experience, may just be lucky in Tennessee and unlucky in Alabama. But I love public ground hunting in November in Tennessee.

I've hunted in late January in Butler AL and you can't even hunt the mornings much but the afternoons during the rut were pretty good on food plots. I agree that hunting pine forests was dang near impossible.

 

[BAMA BOW MERKER]

Never hunted Butler county but have hunted the county directly south of it Covington County. My biggest Alabama deer came off a wma in that county.

 

[chris1976]

The plains of Eastern Colorodo are Tuff, I saw my largest ever whitetail 190" animal that across the fence line, 500-600 yds and he was killed later that season. The year before we saw another giant but sooo far away and trying to get to them was hard, knew thing you know 20 deer would up an disappear,in that rolling country.

Kansas can be tuff too.

In KY I have killed my best bucks, and should have killed more, but when I got my first farm there I had been TN hunting all my life and 100-110" Buck was giants here, it was hard letting those bucks walk. And I learned so much the first 10 years with that place about Mature bucks, at that time ky rifle was only 9 days long, and trail cams still ran film and cost over $300 each. Over the years with other places in ky was more successful, but on the original place I only killed 4 bucks in 10 years, 2 where mistakes and shot the wrong one, part of that time we still had a Tn place just to kill something on.

Can you share some of your deer pics from over the years Jimmy? Would love to hear some of your favorite hunts.


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[ImThere]

Our deer are definitely harder, in November.... mainly the bucks

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[Bone Collector]

I know hunting pressure plays a huge part, but I think big woods deer are the hardest to hunt.

those and swamp deer without dogs.

 

[fairchaser]

One of the big differences I see in our deer is their awareness of human danger. The length of our hunting seasons has a generational impact on the deer and once the bell dings on the hunting season, the deer are fully on avoidance mode. There are places like Iowa where the gun season is only a few days long a couple times a year and only after the rut. These deer encounter humans on a regular basis with no consequences. They will stand in an open field and look at you because they are out of shotgun range. With only bow hunting pressure, mature deer act a lot less afraid of humans. In places like Canada where deer may never encounter a human, they can be as indifferent as a bag of hammers at the sight of a human. What makes them challenging is their scarcity and remoteness. By the time a buck in TN has reached 4 or 5, he has a PHD in human avoidance and beating his nose is like playing 3D chess.

 

[TheLBLman]

The length of our hunting seasons has a generational impact on the deer . . . .

To add to that,
imagine in those areas where the antlerless harvests are very high, ongoing.
ALL the surviving adult females have learned to avoid any open areas.
So when the bucks are following an estrous doe, she is much less likely to step into a field during daylight,
thus you are much less likely to see those bucks following her.

In areas under a more "balanced" sex harvest, (so long as not a high harvest and when yearlings are protected),
hunters will typically see more daytime deer activity.