Lastcast#1 wrote:Only been hunting 3 years myself. Like you, I discovered the Beast just before I began. I am definitely not one to give advice, but setting realistic goals is a big deal. Make the decision to put an arrow thru the first deer you see based on goals you have set for yourself, and do it before you hit the woods the day of the hunt. One less decision to make on stand.
Obviously this site is dedicated to the pursuit of big bucks and killing one takes time. Rungs on the ladder. My mindset from the beginning has been to scout and hunt like I am going to kill a mature buck despite my short time hunting. Learn, fail, confirm, deny, rinse, repeat. Man, if you love the process, everthing else is gravy. Coupling that mind set with realistic goals that will slowly
go up each season has been very helpful for me.
Someone my correct me on this if I am wrong but I believe trails in the marsh connecting water to water are often beavers etc.. Have quite a few beaver ponds around some of the areas I hunt which have these types of trails connecting 2 or more small bodies of water.
Good luck man!
I really appreciate this advice, and you're pretty spot on with my plan. I want to take a deer this upcoming season, and my goal has little to do with the size or sex of the deer for this first one. I want to plan and scout and have the planning and scouting pay off in the deer being where I said it would be. Once I can find deer in general I'll start worrying about which deer I want to find.
Until I saw Dan point the deer trails in a marsh out on one of his videos, I would have assumed the were all beaver runs. I didn't know deer went back into the Marsh.
tuff4x4 wrote:I like to see just how much area is getting pressured, so I drive around during hunting season and will ask neighbors if they allow any hunting. This will help you to see if they hunt. Most of the time people that hunt know all about the neighboring lands. And sometimes you get lucky, can you imagine if the folks on the east or west would allow you to just enter from their lands.... It looks like the deer are bedding in the islands and either going to the woods for oaks or ag fields for crops.
I think this chunk would be a good place to start scouting/hunting for your first endeavor but I think your key is going to be stealth. You make too much noise on 1 or 2 sits and the neighbors will thank you for pushing the deer to their properties. Good luck
I'll do my best to be quiet, but I don't have a lot of time under my belt sloshing through marsh (pretty much just duck hunting this year) and I wasn't at all worried about being quiet at the time. Best I can do is get out and practice before the time comes.