A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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strutnrut716
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby strutnrut716 » Thu Jan 26, 2017 2:34 am

Thanks Lockdown and everyone else posting on this ! What GREAT ideas !

I found the BEAST last Feb and immediately started finding beds. HOWEVER, I got really excited and never planned further...never picked kill trees out ahead of time saying to myself ..."there are plenty of trees there". I deliberately stayed away from the beds so as not to disturb...

Fast forward to opening week in Sept., I had stand,sticks, bow and was all ready to get er done. I entered only to realize this looks substantially different after green up and I never found a tree that worked for me in the kill zone.

I always learn the hard way but now its a year later and I'm much much wiser...thanks you you guys !!


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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:35 am

Or you spend the off season clearing kill trees, clearing paths, planning your entrance...and never hunt the area. :D I have done plenty of that.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:47 am

mainebowhunter wrote:Or you spend the off season clearing kill trees, clearing paths, planning your entrance...and never hunt the area. :D I have done plenty of that.


Me too Maine! And there's nothing wrong with that. Having more spots than you can effectively hunt is the name of the game IMO. If you don't hunt it this year that's fine. 95% of the work is done for next year.

However it is far more common to find a bunch of good spots, more than you can hunt, and then keep scouting. :naughty:

Find those honey holes, GET THEM PREPPED, then keep scouting. It is soooo easy to scout too much and lack in the prep department.

I just want to emphasize access. Make sure you do exactly what you're going to do the day of the hunt. I had many times where I'd plan my access then have trouble while sneaking in. Physically go through the motions with stand on your back! Don't just look at it and think of what you're going to do.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Kokes » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:53 am

awesome thread Lockdown... really like the emphasis of "learning the spot", theres a lot more to it than just finding the bed, I also like the idea of clearing the last 50 yards to the stand, sticks out of the way, etc...
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Bubbles » Thu Jan 26, 2017 4:03 am

Great thread! My first year beast style last year and was definitely guilty of this.
More thought put into finding beds than picking the right tree, prepping and access.
I always seemed to climb higher on an actual hunt than I did when I initially prepped with just my climbing sticks. That paracord idea is great.
For access routes and tree prep, my stand will be on my back.
I'm really going to focus on taking my few best properties and really trying to get the most out of them. Last year I spread myself a little thin trying to get a huge catalog of spots. This year I'm going to be more precise with my scouting.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Mibowfreak » Thu Jan 26, 2017 4:52 am

Another big thing that I have been doing when planning all the details and prepping trees, is prepping observation spots/trees also. I also did this with some of my future trail camera locations also.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Johnboy » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:03 am

That's me for sure! Scout, scout, scout during spring and summer, have all my "ducks" in a row,I think, then those last fifty yards to my stand I hear tink, tink,ding (treestand hitting twigs as I walk ).Then an awkward silence.....,then deer blow out from beds or field.A lot of hard work wasted. Great reminder post as I start workin on next year!
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Wolfofmibu » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:04 am

Guilty myself !, I'm going to be very busy this spring :shock: . Good post bud!
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:43 am

Unfortunately prepping is not possible for many of us on public land since we legally cannot trim out trees and alter the landscape in any way. Whenever choosing beds to hunt wind and access to them based on wind or terrain are my primary concerns.

Part of my prep when scouting is to hang a blaze orange glove or hat in the buck bed then go to my chosen kill tree, get up there with a few climbing sticks and see what I can get away with. Learned this from Singing Bridge and that has been a huge help. Obviously early season with thick cover it changes things a bit but actually makes it easier too. My main concern is not being seen after leaf drop and winter/early spring is perfect for this. Details like this can be huge.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby hunter_mike » Thu Jan 26, 2017 6:00 am

Yep guilty! But I am getting better.

Especially for morning sits. I find that its way easier to convince myself to get out of bed and walk through a swamp in the pitch dark if I am 100% certain that I will have a good tree to set up in when I get there. A few instances of early morning thrashing through brush and getting stuck in muck holes with a stand on my back trying to find a tree in the dark has wisened me up a little :lol:

I cant do much for actual prep work but I do knock down any dead limbs and move deadfalls at the base of the tree. I find myself taking the extra step of finding the actual tree I will hunt from or hang a trail camera from instead of just finding the general area.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby Jonny » Thu Jan 26, 2017 6:16 am

Dewey wrote:Unfortunately prepping is not possible for many of us on public land since we legally cannot trim out trees and alter the landscape in any way. Whenever choosing beds to hunt wind and access to them based on wind or terrain are my primary concerns.

Part of my prep when scouting is to hang a blaze orange glove or hat in the buck bed then go to my chosen kill tree, get up there with a few climbing sticks and see what I can get away with. Learned this from Singing Bridge and that has been a huge help. Obviously early season with thick cover it changes things a bit but actually makes it easier too. My main concern is not being seen after leaf drop and winter/early spring is perfect for this. Details like this can be huge.


I was thinking an orange cone but same concept. Just a bit bigger and harder for something to block out of view. Or if you have a buddy with you, have him sit in the bed with an orange sweatshirt on and see if he can see/ hear you.

My biggest issue is access. I can find beds fine, but access is the hard part. All of the beds are exactly where they should be terrain wise, but they also are observation stands for the deer to see hunters coming in. Best buck bed I found was on a south side of a ridge, on a point, 1/3 of the way from the top. Exactly where it should be. Only problem is that the only access within 2 miles of the area runs directly to the bed. During gun season I took a back way that was about 2 miles through thick brush to come through the back. Jumped the buck out of his bed but my dad couldn't get a shot at him. Said he had a huge rack on him.

Would love to hear how people plan access routes. I know from watching MWW, Bill winke actually finds good access routes first, then a spot to hunt using that route. Only problem is I don't have a lot of ditches and creeks to use like he has on his farm.

Singing bridge had a great thread on access but I feel like there is still more that I am missing.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby cbay » Thu Jan 26, 2017 6:27 am

Great thread and posts. Guilty as charged here but learning a little. If i'm not positive i will go back to make a mock run on the entrance and dial in on the exact setup then it's probably not going to work out unless i do it the first time in. I like to scout multiple spots and potential setups on the same trip so i'm learning to commit extra trips to make mock runs, check wind, etc.
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby hunter_mike » Thu Jan 26, 2017 6:48 am

I attached my scouting notes video for an area I scouted a little while back. I got some pictures of a mature 8 point in november near this doe bedding area. Went in and pinpointed bedding, and explained my thought process on video. After I took this video, I climbed all the way up the tree and knocked off a bunch of dead branches. I figured this kind of fits in with the main idea of this thread. I was carrying one lone wolf stick and a rock climbing harness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGO7cRN8inY
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby flinginairos » Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:40 am

Such a good post and I am definitely guilty. Funny thing is the one spot I really took my time and prepped well is where I killed my buck this year. I had cleared all the leaves out of my path for the last 100 yards and made sure I could get to the tree with zero noise. If I took that kind of time at some other spots I know my success would go up. Just hard finding the time to get it all done! :think:
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Re: A common mistake of the rookie Beast

Unread postby creepingdeth » Thu Jan 26, 2017 12:06 pm

Super post and replies...I think we're all somewhat guilty at one point or another as we figure things out. Picked a few trees out last year and everything sure looked different come greenup. The subject of prepping came up on a groundhunting thread not long ago ( I'm thinking LD), and it really made a lot of sense to spend time now, not during the hunt. So much to do...its just down to how much I want it...I'm not planning on "luck" in 2017 :handgestures-thumbupright:
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