Growing up hunting deer during rifle season in southern Minnesota, I learned that there was a general wisdom about hunting deer habitat: just don’t do it. You will be chasing deer off the property.
Honestly, it never seemed necessary to me. The increased hunting pressure was enough to cause deer to move along river bottoms and through diminutive woodlots. So it was demanding to let go of that mindset, even when I became interested in bowhunting after college in 2007. A few years later, while hunting in mid-October, I became so frustrated that I decided to make a change.