The Hunting Beast

Dan says he can look at map and mark 90% of it out cause of easy access, walking trails, etc. but here in Georgia they have trails all thru the wma most are very easy to walk on and get to. My question on this would be what would you look for on a map like a key spot to scoundrel or hunt in a situation like this?? Thanks

The WMA I primarily hunt has a lot of roads and trails as well. However, the roads only have certain pull off areas and/or parking lots will long stretches in between. I'd start by concentrating on those areas and the areas that have steep ditches/water next to road limiting/deterring access.

The areas with easy access are the easiest to mark off. A lot of my biggest bucks were taken along side a road in between parking areas. Not in the middle or most remote.

dan wrote:The areas with easy access are the easiest to mark off. A lot of my biggest bucks were taken along side a road in between parking areas. Not in the middle or most remote.

This is where “dating the fat chick comes into play” I’m guessing lol I think I’m thinking to hard about it is my problem. On a piece of public like I’m talking about would you scout close to the roads first then venture out after that?

I try to look at the big picture but often the best stuff is near the road.

I agree with Dan that in between parking areas can be good. But Ill add my twist/2 cents worth for areas I have hunted. I think areas close to roads are overlooked more when that road is a hwy or major road that people are not comfortable parking on. On dirt or gravel roads, I seldom find overlooked bedding between parking areas as people will pull off and park on the side of the road to scout or hunt. Another exception is when there is an obstacle to cross (tall bluff or river) that runs parallel to the road - then people often park in the designated parking areas and seldom walk in between the parking areas. So it really is dependent on many factors. There's only one way to know - go and see - if humans are going in there they will leave sign and if bucks consistently use it there will also be signs.

It definitely depends on the road. If you can’t park on the side or walk to a parking area in 5-10 minutes, I like it.

We have forest roads by me that are getting regraded. Tough to pass a truck going in the opposite direction and a 4’ deep ditch going down to mud and who knows what else for a couple miles at a time, and with no places to turn off and park. That gets the blood flowing.

I also rarely see guys touch wet stuff next to a road. Even if there is higher ground in sight, guys seem to hate any water.

One of my WMAs is like that tons of two tracks. I've hunted a lot of years so I know where the crowd tends to hang and where the serious guys are leaning towards. Water is huge if it's deeper then your boots it's prob pretty as far as marking off the map that takes knowing the water levels at the time you will hunt and up to that date. road side with stupid thick stuff is always intriguing to me even if I have to walk a ways to get around it or figure out a way through it.

Part of the idea of eliminating 90% is also skipping monotonous features.
All identical swamp, all even age timber with no elevation, flooded, dry etc is not where they hang out. The defining activity of deer is they like to stay with edges, terrain changes, vegetation changes. Clearcut to old timber might be common down south. Go to google earth and find historical data/photos to narrow down to the edges, plot them on a gps and then BAM you are hunting 10% of the ground but in 90% of the deer activity.
Water to dry ground is considered an edge also so creeks and rivers can be seen as 2 edges because of each side. Single lone trees in marshes up north are talked about frequently, hard to call them an edge but definitely a landmark feature within a monoculture.

justdirtyfun wrote:Part of the idea of eliminating 90% is also skipping monotonous features.
All identical swamp, all even age timber with no elevation, flooded, dry etc is not where they hang out. The defining activity of deer is they like to stay with edges, terrain changes, vegetation changes. Clearcut to old timber might be common down south. Go to google earth and find historical data/photos to narrow down to the edges, plot them on a gps and then BAM you are hunting 10% of the ground but in 90% of the deer activity.
Water to dry ground is considered an edge also so creeks and rivers can be seen as 2 edges because of each side. Single lone trees in marshes up north are talked about frequently, hard to call them an edge but definitely a landmark feature within a monoculture.

Excellent point.

justdirtyfun wrote:Part of the idea of eliminating 90% is also skipping monotonous features.
All identical swamp, all even age timber with no elevation, flooded, dry etc is not where they hang out. The defining activity of deer is they like to stay with edges, terrain changes, vegetation changes. Clearcut to old timber might be common down south. Go to google earth and find historical data/photos to narrow down to the edges, plot them on a gps and then BAM you are hunting 10% of the ground but in 90% of the deer activity.
Water to dry ground is considered an edge also so creeks and rivers can be seen as 2 edges because of each side. Single lone trees in marshes up north are talked about frequently, hard to call them an edge but definitely a landmark feature within a monoculture.

yes, excellent post. once you start to see edges as anywhere 2 unsimilar things meet, you start being more efficient. in my area, there are 2 clear cuts butting up against each other. one is 4 years older than the other. to some, it looks like one continuous cut, but once i started seeing the meeting of the cuts as an edge, things started clicking. also, guess where the deer come in and out of those cuts the most? anyhow, justdirty, you had a very excellent post. thanks for sharing.

I’ll add that trails can be your friend, too. Deer tend to be more lenient of human sent near them. And just because there are trails does not mean guys will walk them if there’s some distance involved. I can think of multiple public spots where trails are only used for the first half mile or so. The terrain in the back rarely gets used. Sometimes it just takes hunting the area a few times to see how far in guys are generally pushing.

Find the best bedding that can see/smell hunter access.
Find the secondary bedding that these deer resort too during high pressure.

It’s subtle a lot of times, boots on ground type-stuff to confirm.

I care more about what are 90% of the people doing. With the internet n cyber scouting the 90% rule of the land is going to the wayside. People can visit a forum n buy some DVDs n get a pretty good idea of the layout of a property quickly. What makes or breaks a good spot is how many others are hunting it and how are they hunting it. That changes yearly, or heck, weekly or daily depending on the time of year.

Having an idea of how that buck slips through the cracks around those human trails is key. Thermals, specific bedding to be a leg up on you before you ever get to your spot, small little thickets n hidden travel corridors, land features that keep them hidden. Those are all the small pieces to the puzzle that produce success in high pressure areas.

oldrank wrote:I care more about what are 90% of the people doing. With the internet n cyber scouting the 90% rule of the land is going to the wayside. People can visit a forum n buy some DVDs n get a pretty good idea of the layout of a property quickly. What makes or breaks a good spot is how many others are hunting it and how are they hunting it. That changes yearly, or heck, weekly or daily depending on the time of year.

Having an idea of how that buck slips through the cracks around those human trails is key. Thermals, specific bedding to be a leg up on you before you ever get to your spot, small little thickets n hidden travel corridors, land features that keep them hidden. Those are all the small pieces to the puzzle that produce success in high pressure areas.

Now that’s some good stuff right there.

The only other thing I would add is something I will be working on this year and that is to grid-hunt it. Break a property down into a grid, then hunt the best areas — and you need to be seeing sign in places that something is worth pursuing there— within each grid block until you get on something or not. If the sign is hotter in one of the grids, hunt it until you kill something. There was a video on the YouTube channel where Dan did that two or three seasons ago. He knew from Mario and others that there were good bucks there, one in particular. He grid hunted it. Had very little action in the first few areas. Got to the last one and sign lit up, activity was high and he nailed a slob.

Ha! I found it quick...
https://youtu.be/dXpXH1yxeB8