Locked down with a doe is BS!?

Addicting

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2017
Messages
7,774
Location
SW Michigan
Randy, not all of us hunt where there is elevated glassing areas. Some of us hunt where it’s flat and so thick a rabbit won’t enter it. So the only way to hunt it is to hunt the edge. Those big buck will keep does in there until after legal shooting light. Some of those buck are not killable till the late season when their stomachs win out. If we flat landers could get on a knob and look down in there with our rifles it would be a different story. You westerners got it good no matter how many NR flood to MT to shoot a forkie.
 
Hah! I just listened to that podcast the other night. Wished I could've been part of the conversation and say, darn! All the bulls are cowed up! I can't call one in!
 
Another problem is that a lot of people hunt small properties with little or no bedding. There may be periods where deer just flat out don't pass through during daylight. Or, if you do have bedding, you blow that out real quick crashing through and stinking it up. For the most part, it's not like you really have the option of hopping spot to spot until it works out for you, you gotta be smart with what little you've got.
 
Go in after them. If you move slow, you'll be amazed at what you can sneak right up on.

For us in our area that is not an option. We have a invasive bush/tree called Autumn Olive and it grows so thick the only option is to get low and crawl on your hands and knees. It crowds most all the trees out and they end up dying and falling over. Then those areas are exposed to light and thorn bushes grow until the Autumn Olive takes back over in a few years. Eventually you have a sea of briars and Autumn Olives. The deer navigate thru it and it ends up as great bedding cover. The only way to hunt it would be to dozer a path then plant a food source. You hunt it at last light when the deer emerge similar to how they do in the TX brush county. The Bucks will hole up in there with does and you won’t see them until season is over and there is a lot of cold and snow. Here bucks die of old age, we kill the young ones that are still stupid and wander.

LCH you are correct too, a big parcel where I live is 40 acres. Most are 15-20 and it makes it difficult to land manage and hunt. The other land owners are content to let the Autumn Olive grow as it wants and don’t allow hunting.

So locked down has different meaning and is not BS to me.
 
Man autumn olive what a dang mess that stuff is. It's taking over in the areas I hunt also. Can't kill that crap at all. It is worse than BlackBerry thickets. He isn't lying when he said you can't walk through it no joke you would have to crawl on hands and knees in some of that stuff.
 
Last edited:
You have to mechanically remove it and root rake the hell out of it. Then for the next few years you have to till it and spray it with round up. The shreds of roots keep growing new plants and the ground is saturated with seeds that need to germinate and then die by herbicides. It’s a hot mess.
 
Just listened to this podcast and got a good laugh from the lock down jokes. It is a challenge for us midwestern guys! Here in Missouri the lock down phase is usually during rifle season so if you try to cover ground the neighbor will have the best opportunity to get a shot.
 
You have to mechanically remove it and root rake the hell out of it. Then for the next few years you have to till it and spray it with round up. The shreds of roots keep growing new plants and the ground is saturated with seeds that need to germinate and then die by herbicides. It’s a hot mess.
That's good info to know. Earlier this spring I cut one bush down. Looks like I will going out and pulling the roots soon.
 
Sounds like maybe some controlled burns to clear that stuff out. May not be an option in your neck of the woods, but burns are not always a bad thing. Sometimes, mother nature will do it for you with lightning storms.
 
Sounds like maybe some controlled burns to clear that stuff out. May not be an option in your neck of the woods, but burns are not always a bad thing. Sometimes, mother nature will do it for you with lightning storms.

Unfortunately with small private parcels and homes it is too dangerous to burn as you couldn’t control its spread. Plus it would come right back just as thick in a couple years.

But that is also why a 196” deer was taken less than a mile away. Plenty of ways for those old buck to never be seen.
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,805
Messages
1,935,081
Members
34,883
Latest member
clamwc
Back
Top