Why are you on edge all the time?

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greenhorndave
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby greenhorndave » Wed Jan 01, 2020 4:23 am

peteherbst wrote:Great read. Thanks for the bump.

NP. It’s a killer thread, pun intended.


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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Huntress13 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 5:44 am

funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby funderburk » Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:03 am

Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.


Yep, it’s still there! Actually used it last night to ambush a group of deer this morning. Really helps you identify possible feeding locations. Go to the drop down menu, select Additional Layers, and False Color IR will be an option under Aerial Imagery.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby greenhorndave » Wed Jan 01, 2020 7:02 am

funderburk wrote:
Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.


Yep, it’s still there! Actually used it last night to ambush a group of deer this morning. Really helps you identify possible feeding locations. Go to the drop down menu, select Additional Layers, and False Color IR will be an option under Aerial Imagery.

Mike... what was the tipoff that led you to that location where you ambushed them? Using the above image as a reference. (especially if it was NOT the parcel on which you found them... don’t want to give away the secret)
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby funderburk » Wed Jan 01, 2020 7:48 am

greenhorndave wrote:
funderburk wrote:
Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.


Yep, it’s still there! Actually used it last night to ambush a group of deer this morning. Really helps you identify possible feeding locations. Go to the drop down menu, select Additional Layers, and False Color IR will be an option under Aerial Imagery.

Mike... what was the tipoff that led you to that location where you ambushed them? Using the above image as a reference. (especially if it was NOT the parcel on which you found them... don’t want to give away the secret)


For this morning’s hunt, I was keying in on bedding that was adjacent to food. While cyber scouting last night, I found this tiny, overlooked rectangular clear cut (probably 5-6 years old). What got my attention was a small sliver of timber coming out of the private into the cut, like a finger of hardwoods. It was about 80 yards long and a hair over 50 yards wide. Really easy to miss on the map unless you’re looking carefully.

After assuming that this point of timber would encourage bedding within the cut/along its edge (much like a timber point in a swamp), I pulled up the false color layer to identify surrounding oaks and pines with in hopes of better understanding where they might be feeding before daylight. On the private land, perfectly adjacent to the timber finger, was a concentrated grove of oaks (bright pink). Everything else was open pines with very, very sparse hardwood pockets. I figured they’d be feeding in that bright pink area of private just before returning to bed in the cut via the timber finger.

This morning, I got settled in my tree two hours before daylight and they read the script perfectly. A half hour after sun up, a small deer group came from that exact location of hardwoods (about 150 yards from my tree) and used the timber finger to approach their bedding area. It was thicker than I thought it would be so I was never presented an ethical shot, but I was thrilled to see a plan come together so well.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Huntress13 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:15 am

funderburk wrote:
Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.


Yep, it’s still there! Actually used it last night to ambush a group of deer this morning. Really helps you identify possible feeding locations. Go to the drop down menu, select Additional Layers, and False Color IR will be an option under Aerial Imagery.


Okay, thanks, I found it. I am going to study this on properties I know well to try to learn what to look for. What % do you put it on for contrast?
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby funderburk » Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:24 am

Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:
Huntress13 wrote:
funderburk wrote:Figured I'm not fully a beast until I contribute something to this amazingly insightful thread :lol:

Been playing around with CalTopo for a while now using different map layers looking for terrain-specific commonalities between beds, rub lines, scrapes, etc. By far the best thing to help you locate edges (or transitions) is the layer called False Color IR. Don't know how it does it, but locating edges just got a whole lot easier. This is really helpful when trying to dissect big woods. Depending on the time of year an aerial is taken it can be hard to distinguish edges. But slap that False Color IR layer on there and call it a win boys 8-)

Notice how the "hub" I have marked exists on a tiny sliver of transition. Coincidence?? :naughty:

Hope this helps someone!

Image


I can't find the False Color IR setting in CalTopo. Maybe there is more options in a paid version or something? It seems like the website looks different than it did the last time I looked at it, which was..... not sure, at least a year ago.


Yep, it’s still there! Actually used it last night to ambush a group of deer this morning. Really helps you identify possible feeding locations. Go to the drop down menu, select Additional Layers, and False Color IR will be an option under Aerial Imagery.


Okay, thanks, I found it. I am going to study this on properties I know well to try to learn what to look for. What % do you put it on for contrast?


I usually have it on 100% to clearly identify hardwoods and evergreens (oaks and pines). I’ll mark things and then put it at around 70% to see my topo lines. Then I find where topo hot spots line up with the false color rendering. I find it most useful for morning hunts. Knowing where they could potentially be coming from, especially during late season in the big woods, it’s pretty helpful.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby greenhorndave » Wed Jan 01, 2020 9:34 am

That's awesome stuff Mike. Thanks.

It's definitely a feature I have underutilized... Because I haven't used it yet. :lol:

But I will now! :D
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby deer365 » Mon Jun 29, 2020 8:57 pm

Just wanted to give this thread a bump and say it's opened my eyes on a lot of things. I'm going to have trouble wording the question I'd like to ask but I will do the best I can and to provide example. When you do come up on a transition, let's just use hardwoods to pines for an example, what determines where you will setup along this transition? Me personally I would want to go the start of the densest cover rather than being on the initial change in timber types but I could be wrong in thinking that. Does anyone have a rule of thumb as to where they setup along these type transitions or do you just let your scouting and what sign you find determine this for you? I hope I'm making sense, this is something I struggle with and would love to get some feedback.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Jonny » Tue Jun 30, 2020 1:12 am

deer365 wrote:Just wanted to give this thread a bump and say it's opened my eyes on a lot of things. I'm going to have trouble wording the question I'd like to ask but I will do the best I can and to provide example. When you do come up on a transition, let's just use hardwoods to pines for an example, what determines where you will setup along this transition? Me personally I would want to go the start of the densest cover rather than being on the initial change in timber types but I could be wrong in thinking that. Does anyone have a rule of thumb as to where they setup along these type transitions or do you just let your scouting and what sign you find determine this for you? I hope I'm making sense, this is something I struggle with and would love to get some feedback.


I’m not a huge fan of just randomly sitting on a transition between one and another. Like oaks and pines. Usually there will be a trail beat down so you could sit on that. I like to sit where 3 or 4 transitions come together. Like pines, oaks, and a 4 year old clear cut. Multiple edges give you better chances to see what you are looking for.

If you want to catch a guy driving a car, do you sit on a random country road or at an intersection? You can cover two transitions at an intersection.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby headgear » Tue Jun 30, 2020 1:48 am

Jonny wrote:I like to sit where 3 or 4 transitions come together. Like pines, oaks, and a 4 year old clear cut. Multiple edges give you better chances to see what you are looking for.


This is the key, don't just sit any random transition, find multiple transitions coming together, know where the bedding is, why are the bucks traveling in this area? If you can't list 5 or 10 reasons why a mature buck would come by during the rut then I might look for another spot.

My new favorite rut spot has all kinds of stuff going on, buck bedding to the east, do bedding close by to the west, another doe bed further west. Does bedding in some thick pines, a fresh clear-cut for food and cover. The entire area is connected by a ridge system with a nice thick cedar swamp at the bottom, then a huge tamarack/cedar swamp to the north for an escape/travel route. Just all kinds of stuff going on but it is a huge area, think 1/2 mile squared so the deer have a lot of options to bed and hide but a lot of the rut traffic follows those ridges/cover/bedding.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby deer365 » Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:53 pm

Thanks Jonny and Headgear, that makes better sense. I think what I've learned in the last couple of years is to really analyze a spot and see if holds multiple things that make it a good set up. In the past I've been in to big of a hurry to climb a tree and just hunt rather than stacking the odds in my favor and looking for a better spot. I have to remind myself it's just as important to eliminate ground and find out where I don't need to be as it is to find out where I do need to be.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:49 am

I’m on edge all the time cause I saw a clip from Roger Raglin back in the late 80s which is pretty much word for word of this thread. Good stuff, guess many folks think alike.
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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Out Hunting » Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:09 pm

Great information on here, which aligns pretty consistently with what I find here in central NY as well as gun hunting the Adirondacks.

I’ve had my best success along transitions that meet up at a topographical funnel. I’m not talking a saddle or a small scale funnel but rather a hard funnel such as two closely positioned ponds or super steep ridges that steer and consolidate normal deer travel.

Of course you still needs boots on the ground and typical scouting to confirm the activity you suspect, and there still needs to be a reason for a buck to want to go through there or else there’s no reason to hunt it.

Thanks for sharing all the great information on this thread!

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Re: Why are you on edge all the time?

Unread postby Peerless » Fri Nov 17, 2023 2:52 am

Long bump.

This thread is excellent. I've been using this edge hunting/scouting more so this season then the previous three (new bow hunter).

Had more buck sightings during the rut and had a hit on one of my biggest public land bucks that I hit low but one that I unfortunately never recovered.

Thanks!


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