Why I love/hate backyard hunts
Whitetail Deer
Hunting my friends backyard which has a 75 acre swamp in back and million dollar homes running next to his. Lots of deer and some good bucks. The town made it a reg. this year that hunting has to be 150 feet from a property line. Now this year I am sitting in the swamp and facing the homes and the deer will be between me and the houses. Not good as I don't want any wounded deer running thru the yards and dying in the pool or on the street. Double lunged a doe this AM and bingo she runs up to the houses and I see her running along the property lines. Right off the bat I am cursing the situation as I am expecting the worse. Climb down, find my arrow and start to follow the blood and low and behold she is rolling down the hill towards me. She ran 40 yards, probably stood still for 5 minutes or so and then died. ST Grizztrick left 2 big holes. Four more months of this fun and frolic.
Don't let one make it to the pool... I don't want to see that pic on the news! Lol!
Good Luck!
Love it! You may have to switch to Rage heads so they drop dead right where you hit them ?
First year I moved to our neighborhood I came home to a dandy 8 point dead in the cu de sac. More guys had lost the trail on it. Wish I had a pic. Dead no more than 15yds from my mailbox. Anyway, made for a nice way to meet the neighbors. Figured I'd fit right in!
We don't have the 150 feet rule in CT but wouldn't surprise me if they did it soon.
I was hunting in Westchester NY one time in a similar situation. Very wealthy neighborhood.
I had killed several deer on this property. One morning a GIANT doe comes by and I shoot her.
She runs right at my owners house and dies under the main window. Of course it's a shot where blood is everywhere - all over the kids toys. It looks like a horror movie.
I hurry up and get down and start washing things up. The owner looks out the window and comes out.
"She's a giant doe!"
I apologize for the mess and she replies," Kill every one of them! I hate those things. I can take a little blood."
I laugh and hurry to clean things up. It's always an adventure.
I also one time lost my biggest buck after I had made a liver shot. The buck bedded and not 2 mins later the fox hunting club on their horses came by and pushed that buck so far I could never find him.
Another time I was hunting a different place and a nice buck stepped out and someone in a stunt plane started doing tricks right above us and he bolted.
Another time 2 women on horses rode right under my treestand talking about their bedroom habits with their husbands. I couldn't believe what they were saying. I wanted to jump into the conversation but those women would have been too embarrassed!
Sometimes you can't make this stuff up!
Sage them are my neck of the woods ! Yrs ago we had good deer today its too urban for me !
Chip any luck on the elk
I am part of an urban wildlife hunt also. (Deer and turkeys) We have the same 150' rule. I just limit my shot distance, 25 yards or less. Most of my shots are 15 or less.
Several years ago I had someone strolling through the woods. His head swivels around, searching for something on the ground. After he finds whatever he is looking for, he drops trow! (IE He was looking for something to wipe his @ss). What do I do? I just turned my head and gave him what I thought was a "sufficient" time to complete his task. As I turn back, he has pulled his pants up and is looking up to the sky like nothing happened. (IE He finally saw me!)
All of this went down 30 yards from my tree!
One hour later, I had 5 deer come through and they actually went up and smelled his plookie!
You cannot make this stuff up. Urban hunting.
It's not just an eastern thing. I have one spot that is an 80 that is between an expensive acreage development and a very small town. It's only a few miles outside of Lincoln. Sitting in my treestand early one morning waiting for sun up and I see a light go on in the house a few hundred yards away. Next thing I know there's a woman in there with the shades wide open getting ready for her morning shower. Oops!
I snuck into my urban honey hole in the dark early one morning and got into my stand. As the pre-dawn light started to filter in, I strained to make out something that was different in the area.
There was a brushed in bunch of cardboard and tarp. Some homeless guy had set up camp maybe 45-50 yards from my tree. I didn't hang around for the shower scene or plookie time.
Yup, thats how it goes. I have one stand about 10 yards off a main road that is used by a lot people biking and jogging. I have a pretty wide path cut leading to the stand. I once had two women stop, walk in my trail(about 10ft. from my tree) and both dropped their draws and peed than Wiped. I waited until they started to walk away and said "excuse me, could you please not litter and take your TP with you?" They both almost had a heart attack and actually apologized. You cannot make this stuff up for sure!
My neighbor gave me permission to hunt his property adjoining mine. Although you can see several houses, it's a good spot.
My brother was up in one of my stands and the neighbors wife (about 75 years old) came walking along the path and when she got right under my brother he shouted at her.
Scared the heck out of her - she screamed and took off running - well as fast as an elderly lady can run.
So, before she is hardly out of sight, my brother comes in and is laughing as he's telling me this.
I'm like, oh crap!
Just then the phone rings - no more hunting on that property.
One time I found a prime spot on a public urban hunting area, I mean half a dozen deer trails, rubs, scrapes and a boat load of acorns. I found a nice big oak with a rock leaned against it and I plopped my happy backside down even though it was just a couple yards from a hiking trail. About an hour or so goes by and here comes someones family dog. Rover stops to sniff my boots. Then I hear a family, dad, mom and two kids, coming up the trail. They call rover off and proceed to walk right up to me. I recognized them from when I went to school and I figured they had seen me so when they were right in front of me I said, "Hey Tom, hows it going?" They ALL hollered, jumped and just about wet themselves!! LOL! Tom says, "Man, that camo really works!"
My friend Gene Wensel once talked about questions/comments he received when giving a whitetail seminar on the East coast. One guy asked him how he deals with joggers going past his stand while another talked about using a Duncan Donuts parking lot to access where he was hunting. A little different from his experiences and issues in hunting rural Montana at that time!
And then there's everything you do to follow the property owner's direction about making sure no one is aware that you are hunting the property...
Ahh Ollie...that would be Dunkin Donuts. But yeah, he's correct; hunting back here in suburbia comes with it's challenges for sure.
There is one house I hunt very close to and Sunday is "wash day". It hardly matters which way the wind blows, there is enough fabric softener in the air to choke a horse.
When I use to live in Loveland, Ohio my neighbor across the street has a small farm and decent acreage. It was all hill behind him.
One year I blast a doe she takes off down hill full speed. I thought Oh shit, I hope she doesn't get hit by a car? Or make it past my house and die on the freaking Loveland bike trail!
Well she didn't do any of those she died and slid against my mail box!
Shot a doe a few years ago in the 1-acre woodlot behind my house. She died on the edge of my neighbor's yard, right next to a soccer ball.
