I found fresh sign and didn't hunt it

[MaineVanes]

Hi guys Im a new Beast student and I greatly appreciate everyones willingness to share their knowledge. My question is, I went in blind after doing some cyber scouting and found great fresh sign. I found what looks to be a fresh line of large rubs near a bunch of fallen acorns ( I live in Maine so theres a lot of red oaks) that led to a decent sized scrape which had a number of trails leading to it. I continued to fallow the a decently worn in trail to an area that I was assuming is a bedding area from cyber scouting. Unfortunately i walked though all the sign on my way to what I thought was the bedding area to find not a single climbable tree to climb ( Im using a climber which im going to change my set up for next year). I didnt want to move backwards so I continued on hoping to find a better area to set up with a more obvious bedding exit. Once again I unfortunately didnt find it and didnt want to move backward so I moved out of there area to not do anymore damage to the area. In hind sight I had a lot of things to working for me such as I had a good cross wind, cold front, it just stopped raining, and moon phase. Im still angry with myself that I just didnt stay and hunt from the ground. Regardless how do I move forward? How long should I wait before I go back in? I live in southern Maine which sees fairly high pressure due to the fact you can hunt anywhere that is not posted.

[tgreeno]

Hunt hot sign, while it's hot. I'd give it another go if you think your last access was clean.

[MN_DeerHunter]

Maybe pull a couple fallen logs together and make a natural ground blind. Lots of guys have had success on the ground with their bows. Don't hunt for a tree, hunt the deer.

[xpauliber]

How far from the hot sign/acorns was the bedding area?

I've had great success hunting exactly what you described. I didn't know where the exact beds were but I knew I was adjacent to the bedding AREA and when I found that hot sign in the feed, I setup and killed two of my biggest bucks as they came out of the bedding area to feed.

You don't always have to get right on top of the bed if you find hot sign in the feeding area, and the feeding area is secluded enough that bucks will make it there in daylight, id give it a shot next time you find a similar situation. Heck, if you don't have any better spots to hit, it'd be worth going in and giving that spot a shot ASAP while they're still hitting it. Your best shot would have been when you first walked through there but you may still be able to get on one yet. Good luck!

[MaineVanes]

Thanks for the responses guys. The acorns where about 150 yards from the bedding with the scrape in between. As for getting in clean other than hearing a buck jump and move out (which I didn't hear) Im not sure how you can tell if you go in clean or not. It had just rained and the wind was kicked up a little so as for sound wise i fell it was pretty quite. I try to be very conscious about sent and sent control. Full scent lok and everything in totes when im not hunting. That being said Im sure I left some sent in there for him to find when exiting his bed.

If I jump right back in the woods and hunt the fresh sign does that mean I hunt the next similar wind with in a day or two or should I hang back for a week maybe longer and wait for a more ideal situation like passing cold front?

[Buckshot20]

The only way to know if you blew it is to hunt again. Then move on

[Bonecrusher101]

I would get right back in there immediately. Strait to the scrape and oaks. Especially if you suspect pressure from fellow hunters

[Jonny]

Like everybody else said, gotta hunt it while its hot.

Almost got a decent buck this morning hunting an intersection of 2 fresh rublines. Buck just didn't do his part. Also was around fresh digging in the acorns and saw some does and fawns. Wouldn't be surprised if its dried up and the deer moved by next weekend for me already