Want to help mitigate the negative effects of hunting pressure on your deer grounds? Then have deer sanctuaries that you never hunt beyond the perimeters of. (Photo courtesy of Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo)
By Lynn Burkhead, OutdoorChannel.com
In the course of an autumn deer hunting campaign, perhaps nothing else accounts for more changes in the behavior of a local deer herd than the pressure of hunters moving into the woods.
From the opening days of bow season to the appearance of smokepolers during muzzleloader season to the orange army of gun season, deer can't help but notice and react to the increased presence of human beings intruding into their woodsy home.
"Our bow season opens on October 1st and we still get regular deer movement (for a few days), the deer we have been seeing on our cameras (for a few weeks)," said Ralph Cianciarulo, a longtime big buck guru from the deer rich state of Illinois.
"But...