Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


CEG017
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:01 am
Status: Offline

Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby CEG017 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 5:31 am

Hey Guys,

Wanted to get some advice about an experience I had over the weekend when I was going to a spot to hang a camera.

So back in the spring when I was scouting a particular property I came across a point running out into a marsh. At the base of the point is actually a small over grown clear cut with good browse and there are some oaks surrounding the area as well. While scouting this point I found a really good rub line going out into the marsh. Clearly deer have been traveling this for a while. There were rubs from the prior season and ones from years ago. They were everywhere. It was like a beacon and I didn't not see any previous hunter sign. Ofcourse I marked the spot, took notes, and made plans to put a camera there in the summer time.

Which brings me to over the weekend. I made a plan to head straight for a particular spot on this point to place a camera. As soon as I got to the spot I looked up and there was another camera pointing at me. I was pretty disappointed as I thought I found a good and undisturbed spot but someone obviously found it too. But then I thought about this more and I realized that I probably made a mistake that alot of people do. I went for the obvious spot. You can clearly see this area on a map, and once you get to the spot the rubs make it quite obvious.

This was a good lesson learned for me. Maybe it was a good thing that it happend because it's a reminder that I need to think outside the box and out work the other guys.
I know this area gets alot of pressure so I need to key in on overlooked spots.

So my questions here are how would you handle my situation? Can I use the pressure to my advantage?
Also for those that face alot of pressure how do you key in on overlooked spots? What types of things catch your attention but not the attention of others?

Sorry for the long post. Would love to hear some feedback!


User avatar
brancher147
500 Club
Posts: 1414
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:46 am
Location: West Virginia
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby brancher147 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:15 am

Things I key in on for overlooked spots are no obvious parking, no marked public boundary or sign, crossing water like a river, or very steep preferably with cliffs. We don’t have much real thick or swampy areas but I’m sure those are good too. Or a small piece of land with no trail adjacent to a big piece with good access.
Some do. Some don't. I just might...
Hookslinger
500 Club
Posts: 706
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2019 8:51 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Hookslinger » Wed Jun 29, 2022 12:25 pm

Something I started doing when I go to scout public, is when I'm pulling up to the parking area and I'm looking at the terrain and layout of the land I ask myself "if I was a hunter, where would I NOT go". I'm trying to think and do differently than the other people. The best spots that I've found so far that I think are overlooked are spots where there is no parking nearby, or where access is not ideal (muck, water, thick areas with briars). I'm brand new to the public land game so I can't say much more than that, I'm trying to figure it out myself.
mipubbucks24
500 Club
Posts: 1417
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:56 am
Location: South West Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby mipubbucks24 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 12:41 pm

Find the deer in-season. You find the deer you will be avoiding most of the pressure. The sign will tel you where they are at, your spot that you found there may be good, in the actual marsh, but not in the area where you wanted to place a camera. You might need to be 75 yards away. It seem like a lot of people think deer are going to do this thing and you can pattern them and that if one person is in there the spot is burnt. That may be the case but most likely the deer just make small adjustments to avoid the hunters. You have to make small adjustments to kill the deer. Take the hunter sign, the deer sign, bedding, feeding into account and you will in the game.

I feel like every spot I kill a buck is overlooked at that time that I kill the deer, otherwise he would not have been there. Each spot has its timing. The guy leaving the cam may have the wrong timing.
User avatar
Stingray713
500 Club
Posts: 956
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:14 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Stingray713 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 2:01 pm

mipubbucks24 wrote:Find the deer in-season. You find the deer you will be avoiding most of the pressure. The sign will tel you where they are at, your spot that you found there may be good, in the actual marsh, but not in the area where you wanted to place a camera. You might need to be 75 yards away. It seem like a lot of people think deer are going to do this thing and you can pattern them and that if one person is in there the spot is burnt. That may be the case but most likely the deer just make small adjustments to avoid the hunters. You have to make small adjustments to kill the deer. Take the hunter sign, the deer sign, bedding, feeding into account and you will in the game.

I feel like every spot I kill a buck is overlooked at that time that I kill the deer, otherwise he would not have been there. Each spot has its timing. The guy leaving the cam may have the wrong timing.


That highlighted sentence is pure gold.
Strategically Inefficient
User avatar
Lockdown
Moderator
Posts: 9957
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:16 pm
Location: MN
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Lockdown » Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:27 pm

How invasive is “the imposters” cam location? If the bedding is a ways away and he’s not burning it, I’d walk in front of his cam often enough to make him feel like that spot is burned. Or put a dummy cam real close to his where you know he’ll see it.

I wouldn’t let the cam bother you too much. If the sign is that great then keep tabs on it and figure the situation out.

Far more often than not, the bucks aren’t bedding in a super obvious spot whether there’s an explosion of sign or not. All it takes is a little bit of a buffer from where that guy is hunting to the bedding.

Moral of the story is figure the situation out… don’t ever jump to a conclusion. Get yourself a concrete answer.
mipubbucks24
500 Club
Posts: 1417
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:56 am
Location: South West Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby mipubbucks24 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:51 pm

Lockdown wrote:How invasive is “the imposters” cam location? If the bedding is a ways away and he’s not burning it, I’d walk in front of his cam often enough to make him feel like that spot is burned. Or put a dummy cam real close to his where you know he’ll see it.

I wouldn’t let the cam bother you too much. If the sign is that great then keep tabs on it and figure the situation out.

Far more often than not, the bucks aren’t bedding in a super obvious spot whether there’s an explosion of sign or not. All it takes is a little bit of a buffer from where that guy is hunting to the bedding.

Moral of the story is figure the situation out… don’t ever jump to a conclusion. Get yourself a concrete answer.


I know this will tick some guys off, but I always walk past cams on public. It’s amazing how many people will bail on a piece of public because they get a couple people walk past the cam.
User avatar
Hawthorne
500 Club
Posts: 6217
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2014 2:13 pm
Location: michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Hawthorne » Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:01 pm

What I look for in an overlooked spot is a secret or they wouldn’t be overlooked anymore. Lol.My advice is get out there and figure it out
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby dan » Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:09 pm

I think a lot of people still struggle with the meaning of over looked. There is a difference between over looked and remote. I have killed a lot of nice bucks in obvious places. Places with rublines going down points, the transition edge of a clear cut. Even at crop or food plot edges... But, notice I said "nice bucks" I didn't say giant, or old... A lot of guys go thru stages as hunters and most get hung up when they start killing nice deer... The ones in the two or 3 year old range that are good bucks. But then they can't get past that stage. They are hunting for that class of buck, which is a whole different animal than a mature buck. Its like trying to pattern a teenage male human to find a 60 year old male human, they just don't hang in the same places or act the same, so the hunter who tastes success and keeps hunting that way never gets beyond that age class...

Its real easy to get stuck on hunting rut funnels, food sources, rublines, scrape lines etc... But the results will be the same as everyone else doing it and you will only on a rare occasion catch a mature buck slip up. Plain and simple, you need to hunt mature bucks to kill mature bucks. You will still get opportunities at middle aged bucks, but now you will be in the game and actually have a fair chance of getting a "huge" buck.

When I look back at my buck kills, the majority came from spots just like you described, obvious rub lines, funnels, edges, acorns, etc... But, when I look at just my top 10 or 15 bucks that are all over 4 years old, they came from spots no one else was hunting, where no one else was looking, and where other people would not even consider.

I hear people speak of hunting pressure as a very negative thing, but if I know a big buck is in an area, pressure helps me, and certainly don't deter me. I parked in a full parking lot, and walked past a 1/2 dozen or more hunters the day I killed the Rome legend. Pressure in all the obvious spots pretty much locked in and assured where he would be bedding and living. Its not that bucks are super smart, but in the public woods if they walked around in daylight thru funnels and up rublines in the middle of what people perceive as deer habitat they would never make it to 5 or 6 years old.

People are "eye oriented" so you see something and act on it. Deer are scent oriented. You might smell a bear in the woods, but you will not really fully believe its there till you see it. A big buck might see a person in the woods, but he won't fully believe it till he smells him. With that said, there are enough studies that show a deer can smell you for a week or two, possible longer after you have been somewhere. Bucks of age who have learned hard lessons about human scent and the dangers associated seek out areas they do not smell humans. Now, obviously there are no places humans never get. But there are places they rarely intrude.

Map out your property and cross out the 90% that you think people go to regularly. Take the last 10 percent and look there, and don't waste your time on the other 90%. and that in a nut shell is the biggest reason for my success over the years on bucks of age.
CEG017
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:01 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby CEG017 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:45 pm

mipubbucks24 wrote:Find the deer in-season. You find the deer you will be avoiding most of the pressure. The sign will tel you where they are at, your spot that you found there may be good, in the actual marsh, but not in the area where you wanted to place a camera. You might need to be 75 yards away. It seem like a lot of people think deer are going to do this thing and you can pattern them and that if one person is in there the spot is burnt. That may be the case but most likely the deer just make small adjustments to avoid the hunters. You have to make small adjustments to kill the deer. Take the hunter sign, the deer sign, bedding, feeding into account and you will in the game.

I feel like every spot I kill a buck is overlooked at that time that I kill the deer, otherwise he would not have been there. Each spot has its timing. The guy leaving the cam may have the wrong timing.


Great point here. I will definitely need to investigate this area further as season comes around to see if the deer are actually there, or if pressure has moved them.
User avatar
Brad
500 Club
Posts: 643
Joined: Tue May 26, 2020 2:06 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Brad » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:48 pm

mipubbucks24 wrote:Find the deer in-season. You find the deer you will be avoiding most of the pressure. The sign will tel you where they are at, your spot that you found there may be good, in the actual marsh, but not in the area where you wanted to place a camera. You might need to be 75 yards away. It seem like a lot of people think deer are going to do this thing and you can pattern them and that if one person is in there the spot is burnt. That may be the case but most likely the deer just make small adjustments to avoid the hunters. You have to make small adjustments to kill the deer. Take the hunter sign, the deer sign, bedding, feeding into account and you will in the game.

I feel like every spot I kill a buck is overlooked at that time that I kill the deer, otherwise he would not have been there. Each spot has its timing. The guy leaving the cam may have the wrong timing.


One particular spot of public I hunted last year there there was a specific spot that I wanted to hunt during the pre-rut under the right conditions. There was a ladder stand I knew of about 200 yards away, and then I found another probably 25 yards from the spot I wanted to hunt. There was only one big mature buck that I have ever personally seen on that property, and I had not yet run cameras there. I killed that big mature buck Nov 3rd last year on my first sit in that spot when I felt the time was right to hunt that spot. He's on my wall now. I'm glad I didn't give up on that spot, & I'm glad I put myself in the right place at the right time.
CEG017
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:01 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby CEG017 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:56 pm

Lockdown wrote:How invasive is “the imposters” cam location? If the bedding is a ways away and he’s not burning it, I’d walk in front of his cam often enough to make him feel like that spot is burned. Or put a dummy cam real close to his where you know he’ll see it.

I wouldn’t let the cam bother you too much. If the sign is that great then keep tabs on it and figure the situation out.

Far more often than not, the bucks aren’t bedding in a super obvious spot whether there’s an explosion of sign or not. All it takes is a little bit of a buffer from where that guy is hunting to the bedding.

Moral of the story is figure the situation out… don’t ever jump to a conclusion. Get yourself a concrete answer.


Understood. I will be definitely be spending some time in the area this fall and not giving up on it yet. The guy's camera is probably a good 80 yards from the bedding. My original plan for placing a camera in that same spot was that I could used it for inventory and see what is coming out. I did not want to be intrusive and wanted to be able to check the camera before hunting the point.
Dellingerj
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:53 am
Facebook: Jacob and Katasha Dellinger
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby Dellingerj » Thu Jun 30, 2022 2:08 am

One thing I try to remind myself is that I may not be the only hunter using beast tactics to hunt. I think we often fall into the trap of no one will hunt this property like I do, and forget that many new mobile hunters are out there. I think the best thing you can do is look at all the information the woods is giving you, including the human sign and log it into memory. The most valuable thing you can do is get familiar with the property, so when the deer change their movement you have good ideas of where the will be willing to travel. One spot I can think of there is a ton of rubs and a few stands where I thought they wouldn’t be, but through scouting and really just walking the deer trails I found secluded areas and some good beds 75 yds off the road with the deer traveling toward a creek. All of that is positioned to monitor human access, stands, and common walking trails.

The overlooked spots are the spots that everyone sees but ignores because it would hard, less scenic, or no way a deer would be there. Good luck and if you can, find another couple bucks to target, just in case another mobile hunter is on the same target.
CEG017
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:01 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby CEG017 » Thu Jun 30, 2022 4:06 am

dan wrote:I think a lot of people still struggle with the meaning of over looked. There is a difference between over looked and remote. I have killed a lot of nice bucks in obvious places. Places with rublines going down points, the transition edge of a clear cut. Even at crop or food plot edges... But, notice I said "nice bucks" I didn't say giant, or old... A lot of guys go thru stages as hunters and most get hung up when they start killing nice deer... The ones in the two or 3 year old range that are good bucks. But then they can't get past that stage. They are hunting for that class of buck, which is a whole different animal than a mature buck. Its like trying to pattern a teenage male human to find a 60 year old male human, they just don't hang in the same places or act the same, so the hunter who tastes success and keeps hunting that way never gets beyond that age class...

Its real easy to get stuck on hunting rut funnels, food sources, rublines, scrape lines etc... But the results will be the same as everyone else doing it and you will only on a rare occasion catch a mature buck slip up. Plain and simple, you need to hunt mature bucks to kill mature bucks. You will still get opportunities at middle aged bucks, but now you will be in the game and actually have a fair chance of getting a "huge" buck.

When I look back at my buck kills, the majority came from spots just like you described, obvious rub lines, funnels, edges, acorns, etc... But, when I look at just my top 10 or 15 bucks that are all over 4 years old, they came from spots no one else was hunting, where no one else was looking, and where other people would not even consider.

I hear people speak of hunting pressure as a very negative thing, but if I know a big buck is in an area, pressure helps me, and certainly don't deter me. I parked in a full parking lot, and walked past a 1/2 dozen or more hunters the day I killed the Rome legend. Pressure in all the obvious spots pretty much locked in and assured where he would be bedding and living. Its not that bucks are super smart, but in the public woods if they walked around in daylight thru funnels and up rublines in the middle of what people perceive as deer habitat they would never make it to 5 or 6 years old.

People are "eye oriented" so you see something and act on it. Deer are scent oriented. You might smell a bear in the woods, but you will not really fully believe its there till you see it. A big buck might see a person in the woods, but he won't fully believe it till he smells him. With that said, there are enough studies that show a deer can smell you for a week or two, possible longer after you have been somewhere. Bucks of age who have learned hard lessons about human scent and the dangers associated seek out areas they do not smell humans. Now, obviously there are no places humans never get. But there are places they rarely intrude.

Map out your property and cross out the 90% that you think people go to regularly. Take the last 10 percent and look there, and don't waste your time on the other 90%. and that in a nut shell is the biggest reason for my success over the years on bucks of age.


Awesome stuff here Dan. Really appreciate the feedback. One question I have is your comment in the end talking about crossing off the areas on a map that you will find people. So narrowing in on the 10 percent. In that 90 percent are you including the areas that look good on a map like I described? In other words things like points going into swamps, good terrain features, saddles, etc. Would you not look at these areas because they are places where you are going to find other "good" hunters? Or at least people that have done their homework and may not necessarily be after the biggest deer in the woods. I think the spot I am describing is an example of that. Looks good on a map and an educated deer hunter is likely to key in on it.

Reason I ask is I am still learning to adapt to pressure. This is my 2nd year hunting mobile and mostly public land. My goal this year is mainly to get on deer as I am still learning these properties but I am mainly focusing on areas that will give me an opportunity at a buck. Not necessarily the older bucks you are describing. Hope to be at that point one day but I am trying to build some confidence.
MitchB
Posts: 467
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:52 am
Status: Offline

Re: Lesson Learned: Neccesity for Overlooked Spots

Unread postby MitchB » Thu Jun 30, 2022 4:20 am

I made a post this year basically asking how much hunter sign it would take to make you write off an area. I live near a big city so there’s a lot of pressure on all my hunting spots. Every time I go out I see reflective tape, garbage, cameras and stands.

While out scouting I’ve kicked multiple deer out of beds within 60 yards of ladder stands. Seriously it blows me away how much deer sign or even live actual deer I’ve found close but just outside of bow range of a lot of hunter sign.

I’m starting to think overlooked is just that, overlooked. You don’t have to go to some remote island that no one has set foot on in 200 years. You just have to go where they’re not looking and that might literally be 50 yards from their stand.

So, the guy found a spot and hung a camera. That doesn’t mean he’s hunting it correctly. I’d keep the spot in the back of my mind and check it with in season scouting if you have the time. And in the mean time keep looking for something else and if you find something better let that pull you away.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: seazofcheeze and 72 guests