Marking off 90% of the map???

[KLEMZ]

I care more about what are 90% of the people doing. With the internet n cyber scouting the 90% rule of the land is going to the wayside. People can visit a forum n buy some DVDs n get a pretty good idea of the layout of a property quickly. What makes or breaks a good spot is how many others are hunting it and how are they hunting it. That changes yearly, or heck, weekly or daily depending on the time of year.

Having an idea of how that buck slips through the cracks around those human trails is key. Thermals, specific bedding to be a leg up on you before you ever get to your spot, small little thickets n hidden travel corridors, land features that keep them hidden. Those are all the small pieces to the puzzle that produce success in high pressure areas.

Great observation oldrank! I believe the overlooked spots are getting harder to find due to the massive amount of information available to anybody with a keyboard. However, they will always be out there. I have a public property near me that is hyper managed for multiple outdoor interests. It is a large property, and for years I never even considered hunting it for big deer because of the saturation of human activity. However, the last couple years I have been exploring it and have found it to be a hidden gem!

There are so many regulations, and permits required for parking, and special hunting seasons for this and that. I think it drives big buck hunters away because they are looking for areas with no human intrusion. Well, the human intrusion on this property is very specific to the hunting regulations on the property. In other words, the regulations dictate where the people are gonna be. Turns out, there are many overlooked big buck hideouts on this highly used property.

The point is, overlooked areas are always gonna be challenging to find, because they will fool you too. But they will always be out there.

[Rich M]

The guys I know who are most productive scout the most. They aren't afraid of hunting where they find sign.

I don't have a quota hunt this year but last year it was a matter of seeing where everyone else went. 10,000+ acre public land with 30 permits per hunt. There was a nice bit of ag/cattle land on one side and a huge area of fields on another and a serious swamp on another. The guys were gravitating towards the ag/cattle and the fields and then the swamp. So, from where I chose to access, about 1,000 acres were being hunted and pressured - I went the other way, where no guys were going. Never saw another footprint and found some good deer activity. Another guy took a ridiculous buck for the area - 18-inches inside 8 pt, which is about as much of a slob as you can find in central FL on public. He used a bike to go where no-man had gone before. He basically outran the competition.

Can't wait to get that permit again. Have 1 good spot, need to find a couple more and learn the area more. Will be scouting it on and off in the next couple of years while I wait to pull that hunt again.

Someone once told me to find an area with 3 or more converging habitats and the deer will use it.

[funderburk]

Part of the idea of eliminating 90% is also skipping monotonous features.
All identical swamp, all even age timber with no elevation, flooded, dry etc is not where they hang out. The defining activity of deer is they like to stay with edges, terrain changes, vegetation changes. Clearcut to old timber might be common down south. Go to google earth and find historical data/photos to narrow down to the edges, plot them on a gps and then BAM you are hunting 10% of the ground but in 90% of the deer activity.
Water to dry ground is considered an edge also so creeks and rivers can be seen as 2 edges because of each side. Single lone trees in marshes up north are talked about frequently, hard to call them an edge but definitely a landmark feature within a monoculture.

That’s certainly on point for southern hunting. I’ll add that most non-serious hunters or weekend warriors around here will seek what’s easiest and offers the biggest view. They’re mostly looking for what they see on TV. Scouting isn’t a priority for them at all. So, a nice parking area with a clean road bed that leads to a huge clear cut is ideal for 85% of gun hunters around here. Their mindset is: “Cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible, and as quick as possible.”

Don’t do that

Agreeing wholeheartedly with the post above: scout the transitions and hunt hot sign. From all that I’ve learned from the Beast, those two have been total game-changers. One thing Dan said that also really helped me key in on overlooked spots was, “Bucks don’t see with their eyes, they see with their nose.” In other words, they don’t “see” spots where hunters don’t frequent (no reflective tacks, no marking tape, no trash, etc.) and think, “This is a good spot to hide.” Instead, they SMELL that hunters don’t frequent an area. No human scent = safe place.