stalking area size?

[captdavid]

In Texas, where I am most familiar, we generally by tradition, hunt over feeders, small winter oat food plots or game trails and some hunt senderos which I believe you call rides. We are usually dropped of at box blinds, around 1/2 hour before first light, and picked up several hours later. Most hunters go out again ar0ond 3hrs before sundown and hunt until 1/2hr after, which our legal hunting time. Hunting this way, by tradition, one does not venture more than 3-400yds from their blind. ranches can be from 50-60acers to thousands of acres. Usually there is one blind to every 100+ acers are so. A typical 1000 acre ranch will have 8-10 blinds around 1/2 will have active feeders. essentially one is hunting a couple hundred acers. Of course the deer move around. often all the surrounding land is hunted in the same way. This way of hunting is done on both low or high fences.

It seems to me that much of your Stalking is on small patchwork farms that might be 1/2 pasture and/or cultivated fields, and the other half wooded. Also they seem to be very small compared to the areas we hunt. It seams to me that much of your stalking might be done on as little as 10-20 acres. of course there might me no stalking on the surrounding farms. Have I got this right? Do you stalk the smaller areas for several hours? Would someone give me a run through of your typical stalk.
A cold front came through last night and it's misty and in the low 50s, and I have plenty of time for the computer. Besides that, I'm going on my red stag cull hunt Friday and anticipation is killing me . capt david

 

[levigsp]

So in Scotland I can stalk anything from 100 to 10s of 000 acres in a day depending on deer species and 50 -1000 acres in England. I never sit in a high seat/blind in the morning only in the evening, but that's my choice.

 

[Swedish]

I would say extremely varied over here in the UK. Some will be small farms, others will be large Highland estates covering 10's of thousands of acres. My syndicate patch is around 2300 acres of mixed woodland/farmland/coastal and some hilltop areas the biggest single block being around 1200 acres with the rest being made up of 3 or 4 other smaller areas, all are near each other but not contiguous. I would use a combination of stalking and ambush depending on where I am on the shoot.

 

[Freeforester]

How far/many acres do you 'need' to properly stalk on foot in the 'right' type of terrain and how quickly? This might give an idea as to how much land you actually 'need' to hunt on any particular outing?

More 'damage' /adverse impact is done to hunting areas by overhunting and moving about without due regard to the wind, etc. (which is why blinds and high seats are more productive) by overly-keen would-be stalkers, who often never see the deer, much less the tell-tale evasive measures and signals given by the other wildlife that so many seem otherwise quite oblivious to; if each disturbed animal or bird were to give a claxon call each time they are disturbed by a heavy-footed hunter, then said hunter might take notice eventually; alas nature is a bit more subtle than this, and many are unable to 'read' such signs!

This should not be confused with more general disturbance by ramblers, dog walkers, agricultural machinery, etc, all of which deer are mostly able to discern as being of little danger, even though they will withdraw accordingly; its the purposeful, clumsy, yet cat-like blob with the thunder-stick that alarms them more than the small children chattering or the tractor growling along.

First American saying - "Walk little, look much" is a good starting point, though the phrase was admittedly coined some time before the advent of the hunting blind and corn dispenser...

 

[captdavid]

Two favorite American Native quotes:

As Columbus is leaving on his ship, one native remarks to another,. 'did you notice something ominous when he said he'd be back!?'

Native American definition for vegan. Poor hunter

capt david

 

[John Gryphon]

We have ( in Victoria) 18 million acres of public deer hunting land,that is not counting any of the privately owned land.

My patch that I frequent most is at a guess 10,000 - 15,000 acres, 24 square miles or so.

 

[A Guy Out West]

We have ( in Victoria) 18 million acres of public deer hunting land,that is not counting any of the privately owned land.

My patch that I frequent most is at a guess 10,000 - 15,000 acres, 24 square miles or so.

That is a great size to hunt on John. Mt. Hood National Forest is 40 minutes from me and is over 1 million acres with most of it huntable. It is too big, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. If a guy had horses it would be a good place to hunt, without horses, it’s very difficult. I’ll take a 1 to 10 thousand acre ranch any day.

 

[John Gryphon]

It is too big, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

Guy its how we hunt....it is what hunting is all about to many of us. The thrill of not knowing and then finding something to make ones day is a great way.

 

[deeangeo]

We have ( in Victoria) 18 million acres of public deer hunting land,that is not counting any of the privately owned land.

My patch that I frequent most is at a guess 10,000 - 15,000 acres, 24 square miles or so.

Do you occasionally bump into other hunters (There unknown to you) utilising the same patch?

 

[John Gryphon]

Have a Google Earth look at Victoria's bush and you will see it has enough tracks to get around on.Just thousands and thousands of miles of tracks and we will pick a spot and if there is a camp or hunters ute there we will move on.
Victorian deer hunters have a great record and that shows statistically by the very very few hunting/shooting related deaths.
The mecca of sambar hunting has generally been the Wonnangatta Valley/River and at times it is inundated with hunters,the last death afaik was back in around 1980 where a young bloke shot his uncle thinking he was a deer.
It didn't help that uncle was wearing a Drizabone coat (brown) and was stooped under a Wild Cherry Tree (sambar rub fave).
But to answer your question directly..very rarely do we see other hunters actually in the bush whilst hunting,that is VERY rarely.
I only have to go "over the top" and my patch will increase by another 20,000 acres.

 

[Swedish]

Have a Google Earth look at Victoria's bush

Well that produced some interesting google results...

 

[John Gryphon]

Well that produced some interesting google results...

A quick screen grab showing about two thirds of the "big bush" Freely open to any with a $50 deer stamp.

 

[Swedish]

Lol, thanks John, I have to ask...does the word 'bush' have the same connotations in Oz that it does here in the UK?

 

[John Gryphon]

Yes I often have delved into the bush on exploratory missions.
Although with the advent of modern polishes and waxes the bush seems to be on a global decline.

 

[Swedish]

Yes I often have delved into the bush on exploratory missions.
Although with the advent of modern polishes and waxes the bush seems to be on a global decline.

Nothing like a good root around eh?

 

[Freeforester]

I hear that in Brazil, it is disappearing fast, not much more than strips now.....

 

[howa243]

I assume that most stalking in the UK is not fenced? Hope so anyway.

 

[CarlW]

I hear that in Brazil, it is disappearing fast, not much more than strips now.....

You can still find the occasional uncontacted tribe hiding out in there, though...

 

[25 Sharps]

In Texas, where I am most familiar, we generally by tradition, hunt over feeders, small winter oat food plots or game trails and some hunt senderos which I believe you call rides. We are usually dropped of at box blinds, around 1/2 hour before first light, and picked up several hours later. Most hunters go out again ar0ond 3hrs before sundown and hunt until 1/2hr after, which our legal hunting time. Hunting this way, by tradition, one does not venture more than 3-400yds from their blind. ranches can be from 50-60acers to thousands of acres. Usually there is one blind to every 100+ acers are so. A typical 1000 acre ranch will have 8-10 blinds around 1/2 will have active feeders. essentially one is hunting a couple hundred acers. Of course the deer move around. often all the surrounding land is hunted in the same way. This way of hunting is done on both low or high fences.

It seems to me that much of your Stalking is on small patchwork farms that might be 1/2 pasture and/or cultivated fields, and the other half wooded. Also they seem to be very small compared to the areas we hunt. It seams to me that much of your stalking might be done on as little as 10-20 acres. of course there might me no stalking on the surrounding farms. Have I got this right? Do you stalk the smaller areas for several hours? Would someone give me a run through of your typical stalk.
A cold front came through last night and it's misty and in the low 50s, and I have plenty of time for the computer. Besides that, I'm going on my red stag cull hunt Friday and anticipation is killing me . capt david

It varies, my permissions are 12, 40, 104, 600 odd and 1100 odd acres, all agricultural either grass or arable, a couple of spinneys but no woodland thought there are a couple of woods nearby. Luckily the 4 smaller border each other so it makes one big 750+ acre permission.

All areas have public footpaths that get used and paths that people use even though they have no right of way, this is a major consideration, all are within 1/2 a mile of a village or town so dog walkers are common place.

A typical 'hunt' is either park up and get into one of the high seat 1/2 before sun up or an hour or 2 before sun down or like today stalking on foot around to areas you know the deer frequent, weather can be a big factor in this. This morning we parked on the smallest an hour or so before legal sunrise and stalked to an area that holds Munties. Nothing showing we moved around to another area which is holding a does with doe twin followers, we got on to these but there was no safe backstop. We waited for them to move on to next field and doubled back to give an approach shielded from their view, by the time we got to where they were they had moved on over the road.

We then stalked up to one of the seats and climbed it to see if any animals in the the field in front, which is large, 150 acres or so. After a couple of minutes my buddy picked up movement on the far boundary, it was a young, loan roe doe. We sat up for 25 minutes to see if she moved around the perimeter to a shootable position but she did not, unfortunately my buddy had to be away by 10:00 am so we decided to stalk to where I thought she would be. As we moved along the hedge line we picked up the young doe then a second couched deer. There was only one route to take to get a decent backstop which was to crawl to the far corner on the hedgeline they were on, cross through the hedge and hole a shot offered. By the time we got to the corner which was the only way through the hedge quietly we had picked up 5 deer in the group, 4 does and a buck. They got up and started feeding moving left to right, unfortunately the wind had changed a little and the route they took meant th crossed our scent, they went.

Because of the time limit we had I knew it unlikey we get lucky, -4 last night so I knew the deer would be ouched and mivng fairly late on. Had we had time to sit up in the seat for the day I'm very confident we'd have grassed one. The buddy with me is my oldest friend, he's shot with me a fair bit but I am just introducing him to stalking. This morning was the first proper stalk in that had a shot presented he would have taken it, having previously just accompanied to watch. No deer in the freezer but he loved it!

This is a fairly typical stalk for me but others will vary as they'll have woodland etc.

 

[25 Sharps]

PS.

Just to add to the above, about 1:3 trips the wind, backstop and deer coincide to offer a safe shot and I get to take a deer. Last time out there were strong northerlys and again it was around freezing, I knew almost for sure where the deer would be, stalked in at first light and sure enough I picked up 2!

(also apologies for any errors in first post I had a 5 and 3 year old climbing on me)