In areas where there is a good deal of hunting pressure, you can see and shoot more deer by playing off both the front side and the back side of that pressure.
Imagine a line of hunters coming into the woods at the same time from the same direction. This mass stream of humanity will move most of the deer in front of them.
But since these hunters are probably 50 to 100 yards or father apart, some deer that held tight and allowed the hunters to walk past can easily slip out behind that wave of guys.
So there’s a primary movement of deer away from hunters as they enter the woods and a secondary (and lesser) movement of animals away from the hunters after they have passed by. A wise woodsman will hunt both those movement patterns.
“If I were hunting an area where I knew many hunters would come into the woods either from a road or another natural access, I would plan to get into the woods before the other hunters and hope to bag a deer as the pressure approached,” says noted whitetail researcher Dr. Karl Miller of the University of Georgia. “I would let the hunters come to me and pass on by. I’d wait and watch for that second movement of deer trying to escape back behind the hunters.”
That’s smart—often one of the deer that tries to slip out the back door is the biggest buck around.
