Big woods hunting

[Buck_shooter]

I'm looking at trying some big woods hunting in the future and looking for any advice on scouting/hunting such areas. The area I'm looking at is mostly mature forest in hilly terrain with pretty limited access. There are some trails in portions of it but no use of motor vehicles are allowed. It's roughly a 60k acre property that is open to the public and gets hunted fairly hard in rifle season but very little in archery. The deer numbers are low but I've seen some really nice bucks taken out of here over the years. The valleys are loaded with mast so there's no set feeding area that stands out and really nothing that I can find that seems to focus the deer travel. It's like they can and do just wander wherever they feel like with no real pattern. My current strategy is scouting terrain features such as saddles and benches but even that hasn't really given me anything. Any big woods hunters got some ideas or things to look for?

[rfickes87]

60k acres is huge. Try cutting that area way down by figuring out your common wind direction. If its a West wind for example, concentrate on the east facing leeward slopes. That alone should get you started off on the right track when you go scout. If you see a military crest on that leeward slope ob the map. Walk that crest. Any thick brush or green briers on that slope should hold bedding.

[AttackMode]

Sounds a lot like the area I hunt. I like to start at the top and just walk it looking for any trails that cut across and drop down into the valley on either side. From there you can mark waypoints on a GPS. This will help dictate bedding and funnels. The bedding in big woods and mtn is very widespread but it can be narrowed down to a degree by marking waypoints and studying them in relation to terrain. I also like to look for scrapes near bedding or any type of trail funnel. These areas have become my focus and have shown positive results through trail cam surveillance.

I would also advise to cut damn near all of that 60,000 acres out of the equation. Try and learn the patterns and habits of about 500-1,000 acres for a few years. Afterwards you can take the knowledge you've gained and then go elsewhere in that 60,000 acres tract and apply it to shorten you're learning curve. From there you can bounce around that tract of land and have a playground of unlimited bowhunting for hopefully the rest of your life. Good luck.

[Jonny]

Focus on the bedding that is near food sources. I see very little sign in the swamps that are 2 miles from oak trees. But swamps that border oaks, that stuff is loaded with sign. And if there is low pressure, you won't see people back in the swamps.

Now if its very low pressure, remember hill bedding trumps swamp bedding. More visual and scent advantage to the deer, so don't rule out hill bedding. Something Jeff G told me at Dan's workshop that I found was very interesting.

What I do for big woods, is highlight the roads one color, and logging trails, paths, stuff that is established for walking another color. Do a little leg work to find out how far guys are going in. For me, I usually cross off open woods that are within 1/2 mile of the roads, and 1/4 mile of the logging trails. Swamps and water act as borders that I don't expect people past them. Go look on the back side of them. Then circle the hardwoods, ag fields, or food sources. Look at bedding around this. Use the hill country dvd, swamp dvds, and all time tactical threads on the deer hunting section to get closer to your goals.

Yes there are overlooked spots next to parking and roads, but I have yet to figure out how to find those consistently. The farther I get from hunters, the better the sign gets. Scouting after gun season showed me most people don't go more than a half mile from any established trail. The ones who got that far walked through open hardwoods and sat a swamp edge. Might be different in your area, and you need to do a little walking to figure it out.

Doing this, I can easily cut down my 120,000 acres into a chunk I don't choke on too badly. Just looking at nearby food sources cuts down my area in half since most of it is mature red and jack pine and river bottom. Not enough pressure to kick the deer away from the food until gun season.

[Nocturnal]

I've been hunting big woods my whole life. There are a lot of guys here who have a heck of a lot more experience than me. 60k acres is very large. To start off, map scout and pick areas that catch your eye, get in there and scout it. Hunting big woods you really should scout hard. Things change fast and outside of the rut, in season scouting is a must if you want to stay on deer.

[Buck_shooter]

Hunting bedding areas is a pretty new concept to me so at this point I'm just learning what to look for. I actually just ran across Dan's videos on YouTube the other day which led me to this site. I plan on ordering a few of the dvds, just waiting for episode 5 so I can order all at once. I have scouted this area a fair amount the last couple years but there isn't really a whole lot of diversity once you get away from roads. It's pretty much all mature forest with no logging. There are streams through a lot of the valley bottoms but no real marsh or swamp land. Also no agriculture anywhere within the area. It's basically a wilderness area. The feeding areas can literally be about anywhere so their movement has been very unpredictable. I know that big bucks have been taken from all sections of this land and I've narrowed it down to some spots that I've seen good ones. I'm hoping if I can learn about bedding habits that I can add another piece to the puzzle.

[Jhand]

I am new to hunting big woods, well by me there not really what you would call big. Everywhere by me is just about completely flat so I like to start by looking for some kind of transition, a creek, hardwoods meeting pines, old trails, ag fields anything where there is some kind of change.

[headgear]

There is very little randomness to mature bucks, they usually have a purpose and reason why they bed and travel in certain locations, the bigwoods can make it a little harder but the patterns are there. If you don't have the hill country dvd buy it now, it will be like a giant leap forward in your learning curve. Forget food in the bigwoods, there is food everywhere and it is rare to find a spot where the food will bring them in from miles away. Focus your scouting on those bedding points, or areas where a buck has a few bedding options for different winds. Not all spots are created equal so put on the miles and scout like crazy.

[stash59]

Go over the aerial pics from different years. Look for differences in color. Those should indicate some soft transitions. Study the topos for barriers and all of the typical features.

[Dhurtubise]

Is this area far enough north to get snow during the season?

[Buck_shooter]

Wow, it's hard to keep up with the replies on here. Before I forget, thank you guys for the quick responses and willingness to help. I'm not sure how to quote individuals so I'll try to break this up to respond to the posts separate.
Headgear, I agree that I've been going about it all wrong without knowing what to look for as far as bedding goes. Hill country is at the top of the list for sure.

Stash, how would I go about getting aerial photos from previous years? Currently I just use Google Earth and I'm at the mercy of their updates.

Dh, the area gets a good amount of lake effect usually starting in November and lasting through March.

[stash59]

That's where even buying Dan's other DVD's can help. He explains about Google Earth's timeline works.

I used it years before I found the Beast for checking where old clear cuts were. When I lived in Montana and hunted elk.

It's pretty simple. My version of Google Earth has a bar with various tool options in the top left corner just above the aerial pic. There's one for placing a marker, another to draw a polygon, a measuring tool. Mixed in there is a little clock. By clicking on it a bar graph drops down.

The aerial you currently see is usually the most current. Click on the left arrow in the timeline graph/bar to see older pics. Some will be blurry and others are of poorer quality, but even those can show things at times. You can often go back to black and white aerials. Sometimes you can find winter pics without leaves on the trees. Often just slight variences in color can indicate different tree species. Which can indicate soft transitions.

If a color difference coordinates with a small finger ridge on the topo. You may have a thick spot for bedding.

Good luck!!!!

[Blinginpse]

That's where even buying Dan's other DVD's can help. He explains about Google Earth's timeline works.

I used it years before I found the Beast for checking where old clear cuts were. When I lived in Montana and hunted elk.

It's pretty simple. My version of Google Earth has a bar with various tool options in the top left corner just above the aerial pic. There's one for placing a marker, another to draw a polygon, a measuring tool. Mixed in there is a little clock. By clicking on it a bar graph drops down.

The aerial you currently see is usually the most current. Click on the left arrow in the timeline graph/bar to see older pics. Some will be blurry and others are of poorer quality, but even those can show things at times. You can often go back to black and white aerials. Sometimes you can find winter pics without leaves on the trees. Often just slight variences in color can indicate different tree species. Which can indicate soft transitions.

If a color difference coordinates with a small finger ridge on the topo. You may have a thick spot for bedding.

Good luck!!!!

On iPhone my google earth doesn't show any of that

[mauser06]

Like was said, you don't need to care about the mass as a whole. Break it down.

I start by finding places to park. Sounds silly but sometimes that can be an obstacle.


Then I look at human trail systems, roads, etc. Lots of big wood settings have human trails and such. I wanna know where those are. I can hike them to get in and other hunters are likely hunting near them.


Then I start looking at terrain features. Saddles, benches, cuts and draws, creeks, ponds, etc.

Then I switch the map to satellite images and look for transitions and timber cuts. Timber cuts in the big woods can be huge. Food and cover. Again..it might be 1000 acres...but you can break those down too....

Then I look at likely buck bedding. In the big woods its not always on a point. Find a remote beaver swamp and you can find swamp bedding. Clear cuts, CRP type brushy fields and such I often relate to Marsh bedding and big trees and transitions.

You can do all that from the computer.

Movement seems random...but it's not. There might be a lot of food. But there is a preferred food. Like was said, that food can change in a second and you gotta stay on your toes. Go a step farther and locate preferred oaks that are dropping hard and you can find a lot of activity.


I'm no pro....but I enjoy big woods. We don't have much THAT big. At least not a continuous mass.


Snow can be very helpful...as is the period of time after the melt and before the green up.

[PK_]

60k acres is pretty good size but don't let that scare you. You are really only interested in a small percent of it.

Find the steepest sections that are 'leeward' for your predominant winds and check any swamps/cleearcuts. Most of your better buck bedding will be in those two areas.

Yes you will have other good buck bedding that won't show from topo/aerial maps but unless you have time to grid search 60k acres by foot don't worry too much about what you can't see on the map.

DONT GET CAUGHT UP TRYING TO FIND EXACT BEDS TO HUNT. You will Spend the rest of your life walking that 60k acres. Find general bedding areas (steep ridges, thickets, swamps) and buck sign around.

Good luck.