Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

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Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby First Sit » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:01 am

I've been starting up my post season scouting and one of the things I'm looking to expand on is my early season areas. I've found a couple isolated mature red oaks within the marsh within 30-70 yds of bedding. However on the dry land just outside the bedding areas are some white oaks but those areas are 100-300 yds from the red oak and outside the marsh. These beds are also bucks beds with rubs from this past fall so they were used this past season.

My question is in early season have you guys found that despite deer prefering to browse on white oaks that on years red oaks are dropping isolated reds within the security cover of marshes near bedding are getting hit. I'm guessing that they will browse on the red oak and then at dark move up into the white oaks at least the mature bucks.


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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 18, 2018 5:14 am

cOULD BE EITHER WAY... Sign would tell me. If there is one bedding exit I would be as close as possible anyway, so it would not matter. If there is multiple exits from bedding that are not within range, scouting the day of the hunt would determine my tree, if there was no past experience in that spot.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby First Sit » Thu Jan 18, 2018 5:41 am

In the cases where a lone oak might have some sign but is maybe 75-200 yds from a bed do you think you might be able to get a hunt in on the oak and if that doesn't work slip out and maybe hunt the bed next or do you think the intrusion would make the buck change locations or negatively impact future hunts in that area completely and your better off hunting the bed from day one?

One of the lone oaks has trails from muliple bedding locations to it and they are all 75-200 yds from it. However this transition from bed to oak is all inside the marsh. Guys waterfowl hunt not too far from that red oak but they never hunt in the evening so they are used to smelling some human scent in that area I'm thinking I might get multiple good sits on a specific buck by hunting the oak then bed instead of just bed right away especially if I guess the wrong bed to sit on or would you just hunt the bed on first hunt?
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby First Sit » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:23 am

dan wrote:cOULD BE EITHER WAY... Sign would tell me. If there is one bedding exit I would be as close as possible anyway, so it would not matter. If there is multiple exits from bedding that are not within range, scouting the day of the hunt would determine my tree, if there was no past experience in that spot.


In the cases where a lone oak might have some sign but is maybe 75-200 yds from a bed do you think you might be able to get a hunt in on the oak and if that doesn't work slip out and maybe hunt the bed next or do you think the intrusion would make the buck change locations or negatively impact future hunts in that area completely and your better off hunting the bed from day one?

One of the lone oaks has trails from muliple bedding locations to it and they are all 75-200 yds from it. However this transition from bed to oak is all inside the marsh. Guys waterfowl hunt not too far from that red oak but they never hunt in the evening so they are used to smelling some human scent in that area I'm thinking I might get multiple good sits on a specific buck by hunting the oak then bed instead of just bed right away especially if I guess the wrong bed to sit on or would you just hunt the bed on first hunt?
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby tgreeno » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:26 am

I think you could probably hunt your way in on two hunts. The possible issue is, if you hunt from the outside first and after dark the mature bucks passes your ground scent, you could possibly get busted without ever seeing him.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:53 am

When possible I always choose to go for the kill right away... If the buck makes it to the oak in daylight, all is good. If he doesn't, your going to be treed and eventually busted by a buck you can't see well enough to shoot feeding under your tree. Or worse, you take a low light shot and wound him. You basically get one chance. Make your decision and live with the outcome. Most of the times I remember sitting at a destination the buck exits right where I thought he would and the hunt ends up getting blown, where if I went for it 1st time it would of been a dead buck. Most of the shooter bucks I see on stand come past in range. The exception would be from observations... Once they smell you were further down the trail, well, game on... Now your hunting a buck that knows he is being hunted.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby First Sit » Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:43 am

dan wrote:When possible I always choose to go for the kill right away... If the buck makes it to the oak in daylight, all is good. If he doesn't, your going to be treed and eventually busted by a buck you can't see well enough to shoot feeding under your tree. Or worse, you take a low light shot and wound him. You basically get one chance. Make your decision and live with the outcome. Most of the times I remember sitting at a destination the buck exits right where I thought he would and the hunt ends up getting blown, where if I went for it 1st time it would of been a dead buck. Most of the shooter bucks I see on stand come past in range. The exception would be from observations... Once they smell you were further down the trail, well, game on... Now your hunting a buck that knows he is being hunted.


Couple more questions...

I think I might possibly be able to do a observation sit in an area the deer don't really go and my extrance and exit isn't anywhere the deer would be going from the sign i've seen. The area is probably 300 yds from the nearest buck bed that i've located. Do you ever sit any of these type of areas prior to season and if so is there anything you suggest doing on those?

Also in the larger marsh I've located 4 buck beds as of right now two are within 10 yds of each other the other two are about 400 yds away and located about 20 yds apart. I'm assuming that those close beds are for different winds but also these are the only areas in the water near those areas with a patch of dry land. All these beds have rubs in them and coming out of them. Do you think if I hunted beds only I could get a good kill sit once at each pair of beds since they are 400 yds apart and my path to them is different. One I can access from a gravel road and barely even enter the marsh just have to wade a waist deep ditch the buck in that spot is only 50 yds from the road. I'm thinking I could hunt that bed first without disturbing the bedding deeper into the marsh then hit the other bed that is further in. I think you explained this in one of your marsh DVDs on the conservancy property where you sectioned off areas and kept moving deeper. Would you do one sit on a bed then move deeper to the next starting with the least intrusive?
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:59 am

I have gotten multiple sits on the same bedding area before bucks were tipped off by hunting different sides. So yea, you might get away with that.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby Josh_S » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:24 am

Do red oaks grow at lower elevations that white oaks?
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby First Sit » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:09 am

Josh_S wrote:Do red oaks grow at lower elevations that white oaks?


The areas I'm scouting don't have much for elevation change pretty much flat farm country with swamps and timber blocks mixed in. So I can't answer that question but what I can tell you is that I'm seeing a few lone red oaks in the marsh but all the white oaks I've seen are up on the main dry land areas surrounding the marsh not actually in it. Not sure if thats the norm but thats what I'm seeing in this area. I'm scouting a completely new public property Sat that I've never stepped foot in will see if the same pattern holds up there I saw a few large trees in the marsh via google earth.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby ihookem » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:59 am

Red oaks like dryer higher ground than white oaks. I see a lot of white oaks in some pretty wet areas. Dont recall red oaks in that much heavy soil.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:00 pm

ihookem wrote:Red oaks like dryer higher ground than white oaks. I see a lot of white oaks in some pretty wet areas. Dont recall red oaks in that much heavy soil.

buy me its pin oaks white oaks red oak then chestnut oaks buy elevation if they are pin oaks brushy branches that snag everything smooth bark and red leaves in fall that look very similar to red oak and make acorns the size of if not just bigger than peas hunt them they are in the white oak family and deer love them.
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Re: Isolated Red Oaks in marshes

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:12 pm

ImageImagePin Oak
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