How many years do you give a spot?

[Elite]

I have a couple spots like this, 1 spot in particular I can't seem to let go... every year I scout it, it's blowed up with buck sign, I find what I think is a buck bed in the same spot every year, but every time I hunt it he's not there, I've hunted early Oct, late oct, Nov, Dec, Jan for 2 years. I'm kinda wondering if it's falling into what Dan said... he's bedding there before the season starts oct.1. I'm planning on dropping a trail cam in there this coming summer.

So what’s you’re approach other than dropping a camera?

[Dpoole90]

Honestly with that spot I'm not sure, I'm hoping that the camera will give me some info on when he is there... theirs a chance my entry access is the problem, could be that he is bedding there on a specific wind.

[Dpoole90]

It's a smaller peice of public, it's one of those narrow long peices, that's surrounded on 3 sides by outfitters which I thought would help my case but it's been tough hunting.

[Matt Gill]

I gave the closest piece of public to me 3 years. Every year the sign would say there’s nice bucks here but I never saw a nice one. Lots of borderline bucks.

Here’s where long soaking cams told me all I needed the last 2 seasons. Nothing but a bunch of overly eager 2.5 yr olds running around thrashing trees and making a bunch of scrapes and sign, and an occasional 3.5 yr old.

The cams confirmed exactly what hunting sightings told me but I was falling in the trap of seeing all that sign and thinking there had to be a good one there. Each piece of ground is different and in my particular case the one I was hunting closest to my house just didn’t have enough good security cover to get the bucks over that hump and through the 2 weeks of rifle and week of muzzleloader.

I now drive 45 mins to one and 70 mins to another but they are much better properties where bucks have the cover they need to reach older age classes and get better racks

[Elite]

That’s a good approach, Matt. I plan to rescout this piece this spring to see what I missed, check beds, etc. driving past this spot about two weeks ago showed decent trails going to the swamp in this piece.

[Elite]

Bumping with an update, along with suggestions..

I rescouted this spot I scouted in spring 2021; so the sign I found in 2021 was from fall 2020. I rechecked buck beds, buck sign, etc. I noticed the beavers took out a lot more trees than I had seen in spring 2021. Buck beds were not visible, and trails into the marsh leading to the beds were diminished. The rub lines to the beds were not opened up from fall 2021. No hair or crap could be found in the former beds. I didn’t see any signs of hunting pressure either.
I hunted this small parcel early October and early November 2021 with no sightings.

The only rubline I found was on top of a beaver dam. Rubs appeared to be done in late October-November. Based on the limited sign to minimal rut sign, would you write this spot off, in your experience?

[Buckharasser150]

You have to scout. Put pieces together and try to think of time of year and where the bucks are living. Still learning this myself.

[MichiganMike]

I wouldn't write it off. Whatever sign I find in post season scouting, I would rescout it INseason around pre rut time. A lot of times they wont repeat the same rub line or scrape area etc. from the previous season. He may of relocated 100 yds away or so and is laying sign over there the following season, that is if he's still living. His reloaction could be due to weather/climate change, beavers disturbing his security, change in doe traffic, people, number of things. Need to poke around and scout it INseason too to see if hes (or another good buck) is taking up some residence in the area. If there is nothing after that, then yeah I would probably write it off.

[Elite]

I wouldn't write it off. Whatever sign I find in post season scouting, I would rescout it INseason around pre rut time. A lot of times they wont repeat the same rub line or scrape area etc. from the previous season. He may of relocated 100 yds away or so and is laying sign over there the following season, that is if he's still living. His reloaction could be due to weather/climate change, beavers disturbing his security, change in doe traffic, people, number of things. Need to poke around and scout it INseason too to see if hes (or another good buck) is taking up some residence in the area. If there is nothing after that, then yeah I would probably write it off.

That’s a good idea considering it’ll be a 15-20 min glance. The buck bedding and sign is/was no more than 1/4 mile from the road.

[Boogieman1]

I’m a 3-5 years kinda guy. Lots of variables at play for me. Even if the spot doesn’t initially have any big bucks just lots of younger ones. I wanna see if these bucks grow up. Other times there’s conditions that make deer like a spot only under certain conditions. In 5 years I get a look at most of these conditions. Other times big bucks are just rare and are not always on a property every year. But if I can’t find a single one in 5 years I consider it low odds and move on to a better fishing hole. I prefer to spend my time in the stand where I know there’s multiple bucks I wanna shoot. I’m not mathematician but seems like better odds to me.

[MichiganMike]

I wouldn't write it off. Whatever sign I find in post season scouting, I would rescout it INseason around pre rut time. A lot of times they wont repeat the same rub line or scrape area etc. from the previous season. He may of relocated 100 yds away or so and is laying sign over there the following season, that is if he's still living. His reloaction could be due to weather/climate change, beavers disturbing his security, change in doe traffic, people, number of things. Need to poke around and scout it INseason too to see if hes (or another good buck) is taking up some residence in the area. If there is nothing after that, then yeah I would probably write it off.

That’s a good idea considering it’ll be a 15-20 min glance. The buck bedding and sign is/was no more than 1/4 mile from the road.

Yup- post season scouting is fine and dandy and all, but if there is no fresh sign there in the follwiog season- its irrelvant. He relocated or he's dead

[<DK>]

I’m a 3-5 years kinda guy.

Yep agreed

I think by year 3 you should be doing some damage and things only getting better.

[Brad]

I scouted several public spots last year and located good buck bedding. One spot I hunted this year October 2, November 3 and December 12. All three times I saw zero deer even though the rut and buck sign was there from spring ‘21 scouting and this fall. Not sure if the summer drought had anything to do with the lack of bedding in this particular swamp.
I also hunted another spot Oct 1 and November 2/3 with zero sightings even though the spring scouting showed good rut sign. This is my first year hunting these two pieces so my question is, how many years do you give public spots before you abandon them? I have aerial scouted several different pieces that I’m looking forward to walking this coming spring. It’s hard to hunt them all especially during the rut and vacation time.

if it looks like a good spot, keep going as long as it looks like a good spot. If you hunted it 3 times, there might have been a buck near by that you didn't see that night, or might have been in that spot other nights. It could be that the buck or bucks are only using that particular spot on very specific conditions, so you'd have to figure out when that is. They might just be bucks that travel alot and only hit that spot once every few days or less, so you'd have to be there more frequently or just be lucky enough to be there at the right time. Maybe you'll need to in season scout and hunt when you find the hot sign. Sometimes it's a game of inches. Sometimes it's a game of patience. Sometimes it's a game of chance.