Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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magicman54494
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby magicman54494 » Wed May 04, 2011 2:58 pm

Black Squirrel wrote: Ok, I'm having Dan come here, whats with the monkey? Dan, leave it at home, let carol take care of it for the day. ;)


He always brings it. I can't explain the monkey so you'll just have to meet him for yourself. :lol: :roll:


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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Dewey » Wed May 04, 2011 7:21 pm

kenn1320 wrote:Fly over, brilliant idea. I get so frustrated looking at satalite images of tree's with leaves on them. You get to the spot and what looked thick on the aerial is wide open understory. I flew in a 4 seat sesna one time, didnt barf, but if the pilot had done anything but fly level like I told him, it could have got ugly. :mrgreen:

I agree flying over is a great idea and always thought I should fly over some of the areas I hunt but never got around to it. Right now would be a great time to do it before everything greens up.

I have been in quite a few float planes up in Canada and those pilots are borderline crazy sometimes. Quite the experience when you are just about touching the treetops when taking off and landing on the water. And yes.......I admit it I got very sick the first time!! :oops:
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Thu May 05, 2011 12:26 am

Flying in smaller prop planes is quite the experiance if you have never done it before and I would suggest doing it for fun as well as a scouting tool.

I fly dozens of times a year on private charter flghts for work from Cessna 172, 414, Cheiftain and King Air's.....all prop planes and have never had a problem with air sickness where some of my co-workers are pretty green when we land. :lol: I do have a few harry storys of attemting to land and couldn't because of high winds, electricity balls "blowing up" on the windshield, ice on the wings and so on.....thought I had seen it all.

The last scouting flight I took was in a 172 and never knew what that plane was capable of.........like I said it only took 30-40 minutes and I was sicker than a dog. That pilot humbled me in a quick hurry. :oops:
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby headgear » Thu May 05, 2011 2:56 am

kenn1320 wrote:Fly over, brilliant idea. I get so frustrated looking at satalite images of tree's with leaves on them. You get to the spot and what looked thick on the aerial is wide open understory. I flew in a 4 seat sesna one time, didnt barf, but if the pilot had done anything but fly level like I told him, it could have got ugly. :mrgreen:


Same here, I would love to see some winter or late fall aerials for a change of pace. I really think they could be great scouting tools once all that green is down.
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby BGHUNTER » Mon May 09, 2011 4:58 am

Sounds like a great time.
How many beds did you guys find?
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Mon May 09, 2011 4:53 pm

We found (6) bedding locations for bucks. Some were the single bed type but others were multiple buck beds in a small area. Guessing would say maybe a dozen and a half buck beds in total.

Doe beds or small 1.5 bucks probably 30-40....maybe even more as we didn't concentrate in these areas and I didn't keep track of the actual numbers, just the rough locations. I have to say Dan has a knack for locating the beds.
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:05 am

Bump per request.

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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:35 am

Hodag Hunter wrote:
dan wrote:It was a fun time Jason, glad I could help... I was certainly surprised by the amount of deer / buck sign we found after all the complaints I have heard from that area about lack of deer.


The deer numbers are still slightly down but there currently is a good number of deer available to hunt. Just as my postings were all last fall, I seen deer just about everytime out, just the quality of deer wasn't there for me........I know why now. 8-)


4 years later...how do you feel about the area?
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:38 am

Great read, I missed this thread first time around. Thanks for the bump.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby oldrank » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:42 am

How did it all pan out? Did u take any mature bucks from the area?

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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:43 am

I have tracked two different bucks through one area during rifle season multiple times. Guessing both 3.5 year Olds at the time. One bed still used occasionally. I believe what we found were areas bucks utilized before pressure is cranked up. Bird hunters in the harwoods/cuts.

Other area half of it is logged now.

Honestly I have been concentrating on other areas further from my house the last few years.

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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:52 am

oldrank wrote:How did it all pan out? Did u take any mature bucks from the area?

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Came close on one in this area with the muxxloader. The area is mostly rolling hardwoods and cuts. What dan showed me was probably great early bow season spots and I just don't hunt early bow season.

My own fault as I choose to musky fish late into fall.

I have found the larger bucks still travel through this area during rut looking for does as it holds good number of deer. Larger bucks don't hang around (bed) a lot during daylight hours after the bird hunters and other bow hunters move in.

I really should hunt this area early season....Dan and we're discussing this very topic earlier this fall. I fished too much and changed jobs. Maybe more time next year.

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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Dec 23, 2014 6:58 am

BassBoysLLP wrote:
Hodag Hunter wrote:
dan wrote:It was a fun time Jason, glad I could help... I was certainly surprised by the amount of deer / buck sign we found after all the complaints I have heard from that area about lack of deer.


The deer numbers are still slightly down but there currently is a good number of deer available to hunt. Just as my postings were all last fall, I seen deer just about everytime out, just the quality of deer wasn't there for me........I know why now. 8-)


4 years later...how do you feel about the area?

X2

Things are way different up there than they were back then! Still have a good number of deer available to hunt? I realize there are pockets of good deer numbers but these are most times centered around towns and cabin feeders.
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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Tue Dec 23, 2014 8:23 am

Dewey wrote:
BassBoysLLP wrote:
Hodag Hunter wrote:
dan wrote:It was a fun time Jason, glad I could help... I was certainly surprised by the amount of deer / buck sign we found after all the complaints I have heard from that area about lack of deer.


The deer numbers are still slightly down but there currently is a good number of deer available to hunt. Just as my postings were all last fall, I seen deer just about everytime out, just the quality of deer wasn't there for me........I know why now. 8-)


4 years later...how do you feel about the area?

X2

Things are way different up there than they were back then! Still have a good number of deer available to hunt? I realize there are pockets of good deer numbers but these are most times centered around towns and cabin feeders.


Yes there is enough deer to hunt in this area. Not as much as 4 years ago but guessing 8-10 deer square mile.

Mature bucks are hugely lacking and predict a continuous downward trend.

My opinion protecting does helps the overall population but puts a hurt on the next 2-4 year crop of bucks.

Hunters who would of shot a doe and then vacated the woods are now hunting longer and even if just 5-10% more hunters shoot a 1.5 year old spike or fork this hurts the buck population. Nubby bucks are protected but they need 4 years to grow to what I want to shoot.

The few mature bucks that are left run themselves ragged breeding even more than previous "normal" years. Not enough bucks to breed and more does to chase. I constantly see (tracks) bucks chasing does all through November up until late December.

These few mature bucks now become very vulnerable to predators and winter conditions because of being even more run down than an average year. If they do survive their rought condition affects next year's antler production.

It's a catch 22 protecting does.....big buck hunting will suck for a few years now.

Same thing happened in 2006-2010. We seen a slight up turn of mature bucks after the "no doe seasons" but not to normal standards since the 90's and early 2000 seasons.

Hunting the northwoods for big bucks will be more difficult than before which was tough to begin with.

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Re: Scouting Time with Dan and Magic

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Dec 23, 2014 10:24 am

Thanks for the update. Pretty much what I have been seeing the limited time I have been up there hunting recently and why I focus more down here now for bucks. Kinda sad because I love hunting up there but it won't stop me in the future. Always like the challenge and solitude of the northwoods.

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