Tough Decision: Where would you go?

[Moose-Hunter]

The reason I ask is because I have two very different locations I could hunt with the muzzle loader. One being in a intensive harvest, rifle zone (157). The other is in a lottery shotgun zone (417). Both locations produced deer during their own "original" seasons and I know both areas fairly well. With no snow, it's tough in both locations to spot any signs of deer movement.

I'm tending to lean more towards the shotgun zone as it's been a longer period since the deer have been shot at. Has it been long enough for the deer in both areas to return to "normal"? Or am I overengineering this and the deer will be nocturnal until spring?

Of my two choices, where do you think I'd have my highest probability for a harvest? What habitat do you think I should key in on? And with a change in the weather due on Tuesday night/Wednesday, how do I factor that into the equation?

[AlPR]

Where are you going to be hunting? The Park Rapids area got about an inch of snow last night so should be able to see where they are moving. Good luck and be safe out there.

[bigbucks]

Go where you think there are the most deer right now. Primarily I would say that's good cover where there's still food. A week ago my best bowhunting place was my Dad's where there's essentially no woods on his propert, but was standing corn everywhere. Now that corn is gone & my best spots are hayfields with heavy cover near them especially if you have any that received very little gun pressure. From what I've seen so far during ML season, the deer are very patternable now, but aren't moving very far, so set up close to the food.

[Moose-Hunter]

Quote:

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Go where you think there are the most deer right now. Primarily I would say that's good cover where there's still food. A week ago my best bowhunting place was my Dad's where there's essentially no woods on his propert, but was standing corn everywhere. Now that corn is gone & my best spots are hayfields with heavy cover near them especially if you have any that received very little gun pressure. From what I've seen so far during ML season, the deer are very patternable now, but aren't moving very far, so set up close to the food.

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Both areas have spots that are exactly what you've described. The difference being in 157, there are quite a few locations. However in 417, these spots are more isolated. That being said, I'll be hunting both areas.

I'll be hitting the ag area in 417 possibly until tuesday of next week. I'm figuring that this area has had less overall pressure and a longer time to settle down as compared to the 157 spots. All the crops are down now so concentrating on food sources, I'll be set up on a travel route located in a funnel that boarders two wide open fields and the Crow river. VERY thick cover on one end and a hay field on the other. Easy entry and if I can get a north to northwest wind... I'll be set!!!

If I don't score in 417, I'll finish the ML season up in 157. After talking to a few locals, I've heard that the last weekend of the ML season has typically been the best. And at that time, I'll have three other people joining me in case these deer need to be pushed a bit. I'm not real fond of drives, but sometimes you have to change up tactics to up your odds...

We "count on" this harvest to get us through the winter so filling both my tags would be GREAT!!! Filling one would definately help. And going 0 for 2 will mean a long "mac and chesse" winter...

My hopes are that Mother Nature will provide. If not, I guess that's why it's called hunting... I'll keep you posted.