any tips for stalking/seeing deer in an area with a high hunter population? opening season for NH is next wed, and I will be hunting in an area that will unfortunately have it's fair share of hunters. should I sit and let other guys push the deer towards me, or walk around? I haven't had much experience hunting in crowded areas. thanks

Should I sit and let other guys push the deer towards me ?

YES
I believe that is th most effective tactic in a heavily hunted locale. Look for escape routes and real thick places where they'll go to hide out.

Vij,

I too sometimes hunt in crowded areas and it sucks IMO. I try my best to get away from crowds and the best way to do it is to look for the nastiest most rugged looking hill you can find and work your way up it. If you do then dont be suprised to see some other "crazies" with the same idea, some hunters are incredibly ambitious. Sitting in crowded areas is VERY effective IF there are others moving around. Otherwise bring a Snickers cause your gonna be a while.

If you decide to do some stalking then remember you can never be to alert or too quiet. Absoloute silence is the ticket. I sometimes use logs and rocks to mask my approach. Good luck!

A good swamp with a little high ground in the middle is also good place to wait for the crowds to push deer to you. For the first day or two sitting on a good run way or in so very hard to get to place and letting the other wander around and chase deer to you works just fine.

VV, welcome to AR.
Like Steiny said, find the thickest cover in the area, pay very close attention to the wind direction and set up accordingly on the edge of the cover, get there well before daylight, pack you a tree lunch and SIT TIGHT. The other hunters in the area will push the deer to you.
Most hunters that are stompping the woods will usually head for camp or where ever they head to around mid morning. Don't think for a second that those witty bucks don't know this. They'll sneak out of thier hiding place for an hour or so, stretch thier legs and get em a bite to eat. As soon as the afternoon crowd hits the woods it's back to the hide out.
If you can get in some pre-season scouting of the area you intend to hunt, you can pick your ambush spots in advance and mark you a trail to them. I like to use those little reflector tacks that shine when your light hits em. If you stick them as hi up on the tree as you can reach most hunters won't see em. That way you can go straight to your stand opening morning without stumbling around in the dark.
Another thing that may be worth mentioning is when your walking to your stand, make sure your boots are scent free and try not to touch anything on the way in. It never ceases to amaze me how well a deers nose works. They can smell where a hunter walked hours earlier.
Good luck, hope you get a nice one.

Ahhh, hunting with the masses.... I just returned from a failed elk hunt that failed from just the situation you describe. The party I hunted with has hunted an area with definate geographic boundries and basically spend all week trying to "push" or "spook" animals to each other. Once every year or two, a cow elk or dink bull will commit suicide or offer itself as sacrifice for someone in the party.... Long story short, I said to hell with this after a day and a half and began pooring over topo maps in the evenings and hunting new areas, inaccessable to 4-wheelers and the unambitious. At the end of the week I had spotted and nearly had a shot at a nice bull. No one else even saw an elk. I'm not sure if this annoyed them more than the fact I was up making noise and out the door before their alarms even went off.

I've hunted crowded and high pressure areas successfully many times. The key is to do, plan, and go where the other guy isn't. Make the effort and it might just pay off.

good luck!

Vijay V,
Wstrnhuntr hit the nail on the head, and Nutoy offers some added advice.
My only additional comments:
1) As opposed to using firetacks or other reflective trail markers, get a GPS unit and use it to navigate to your stand.
2) Use a topo map of the area(Terra Server and a couple other sites have free topos of the entire US avaliable) to pick as large an area without easy access to plan on hunting. Then go to a funnel area(either terrain or cover) and plan on spending your entire day sitting in an overlook on that funnel. LEt the other hunters push the deer to you, let the mid-day lull let the deer come to you and the afternoon hunters puch them around and again to you.

Good Luck