Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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checkerfred
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby checkerfred » Sun Dec 22, 2013 8:45 am

Thanks Dan and Stanley! I will definitely be scouting this year to check things out!


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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby gjs4 » Sun Dec 22, 2013 12:16 pm

I continually get my but handed to me trying to scout (let alone hunt) large tracks of dogwood on flat terrain....and despite being private the neighboring ag, as well as internal hay cutting, the variables rarely are back to back similar.
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby dan » Sun Dec 22, 2013 12:39 pm

gjs4 wrote:I continually get my but handed to me trying to scout (let alone hunt) large tracks of dogwood on flat terrain....and despite being private the neighboring ag, as well as internal hay cutting, the variables rarely are back to back similar.

1st off, don't try and scout "large tracts" of Dogwood... Scout small sections of large tracts of dogwoods... Look for the edge bedding, mostly over looked or interior transitions... If you break your large area up into 10 smaller areas its easier to say the buck is probably in section 7 or 8 and concentrate on the best beds you found there... Make sense?
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby PK_ » Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:09 pm

dan wrote:I wanted to talk a little about the differances in hunting / scouting differing terrains. Having hunted and scouted most terrains its pretty obvious to me that certain types of terrain are much easier to scout and predict deer movement and bedding than others.
The easiest terrain to scout / read in my opinion is cattail marsh and hill country.
[glow=red]The hardest is big woods and large swamps that have level terrain and simalar cover over large expanses.[/glow]
Flat farmland falls somewhere in the middle. Not as easy as Cattail marsh or hills, but easier than big woods, or swamp.
The best thing about cattail marshes is its realy easy to just look at an aeiral or topo and have a good grasp on where deer bed, and where to hunt.
Hilly terrain you can pick out bedding relitivly easy with a topo.
[glow=red]When you get to level swamps and big woods you really have to search for subtle elevation changes and transition.[/glow]
Flat farm land usually takes grid searching areas and covering just about every piece of cover on foot...
I guess the point is that if given a choice, one can be more successful based just on the type of terrain he chooses to hunt.

Thoughts?


[glow=red]This[/glow] describes 90% of the land I hunt.

I appreciate your last sentence, I will take this mindset into this scouting season and next deer season...
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby <DK> » Fri Dec 08, 2017 5:43 am

:text-bump:
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby Rob loper » Fri Dec 08, 2017 10:26 am

I hunt marsh. Farms and big woods and farms and bog woods are hard to find bedding to me at least now it is since i just started looking gor bedding areas this year
After watching everything with dans name on it podcast and videos. I watched dans videos one day when i got them then the next day i scouted a marsh i live by and wow points and bowls were spot on. Beds on everyone of them
Bowls seemed to have multiple beds out in the marsh grasses
Then points were single beds right on the edges
I think bowls tend to be doe bedding and bucks like points? Big woods just confuses me bad. Farms to but you know where the deer are gonna feed so that helps
I just need to be shown what to look for and why im a show me dont tell me kind of person
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Fri Dec 08, 2017 3:05 pm

I have relitively easy to read terrain features for bedding in the hilly farmland and creek bottoms I hunt. Never hunted big woods or swamps/marsh so I can't speak for there difficulty but hands down the hardest I have ever tried to pin down was suburban bucks. Spent 2 or 3 years hunting them on the outskirts of towns and it was like nothing I have seen. These deer knew which houses never have anyone in the backyard, who has dogs, who has chained up dogs, what time they leave for work and when they get home. Seen some crazy stuff, seemed there only concern was not being disturbed and chased by dogs. Most of the woods are just small drainages and u would find spots with 20 or 30 deer all bedded together both bucks and does, young and old.
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby Rob loper » Sat Dec 09, 2017 12:22 am

New jersey was same way. Very difficult to get on deer consistently although there was huge bait piles behind every house that had a deer hunter living there too
New jersey. At least extreme south jersey atlantic salem and cape may counties By far has to be one of the toughest places to kill mature animals in the country.
The hunter density per mile is astonomical
And everybody thinks that this is their area cause they have been hunting it for years. Lmao. So glad to be away from that mess
Liscence cost me for resident was 56$ per season * 4
Muzzleloader bowshotgunand doe days so it was 224 dollars for a resident hinter to hunt all year. Cost me 69$ in delaware all year. Money hungry ;/&@$-/
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Re: Hunting/scouting the percentages...

Unread postby Twenty Up » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:08 pm

something I took from Zach off The Hunting Public was to play your strengths, think it was the hunt where he shot that big buck in a ghillie suit.. anywho it resonated with me and I'm focusing more on hill and farmland where I can determine deer bedding more easily than swamps. That.... and once you come face to face with a copperhead while crawling through a privet hedge thicket you tend to reprioritize things, after changing your underwear!
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