First Beast-style scouting trip

[lostarrow85]

I was at Dan's scouting workshop last weekend and while things are still semi-fresh in my mind, I want to try to get out and scout some sections of this property I haven't been on before without the training wheels on. I've gone out on the southern end of this chunk of public land twice, but never this 'middle' part. There's a wooded / hilly section to the north of the picture posted but I know it's changed a bit since I've been out there, and I want to try to keep my focus small for now.



I highlighted the areas that seem like interesting points into the cattails to look at, so my plan would be to make a loop circling all those edges looking for likely bedding areas / sign / etc. There are farm fields to the left & right, more marsh to the south with some hardwoods in the mix (I've been on the hardwood point & have seen a ton of other hunter evidence). I've seen deer out in the marsh to the NW more or less just milling around when turkey hunting in the area, they have to be bedding somewhere around there I'd think.

Am I missing anything? This chunk of public land is ~30 minutes or so away from home for me so I'm hoping for a couple of good-looking spots I can keep in the back of my mind for a quick afternoon hunt when the opportunity presents itself. With any luck some spots here will be similar to where we were last weekend so I can start drawing the parallels & use them to look at other properties.

[Tim H]

Looks like you have a great start! There also might be some bedding in the cattails where there are small trees and shrubs that might not show up on aerials.

[nocoolnamekyle]

That is a pheasant hunting property. I’ve ran cams there in a couple of them spots and also hunted them. once pheasant rolls in property changes quit a bit. My experience you can expect a few cars in that north lot early in the pheasant season even on a week day. As the pheasant season goes on the less and less people hunt it. Also beware this is the only property in my few years of running cams that I’ve got one stole. Last year the Dnr mowed the cattails down around the Perimeter of the property and made it very easy to access that west spot that holds some deer in the early season. Good luck out there hope. That little bit of info helps with your season and scouting.

[lostarrow85]

That's a good point about thinking about pheasant hunting access, especially on stocked properties like this. There are definitely some grassy fields there that look like great hunting, and I'd bet guys pound the areas around the access trails hard. Also noticed what you said about the DNR mowing trails, I found quite a few that were freshly cleared.

Not a total bust - at first I was a bit discouraged as I wasn't seeing any bedding signs (or if they were there, I was missing them). I did end up finding a couple of bedding areas, probably doe areas (since it was a bunch of beds all in one cluster?) but it at least validated what I should be looking for. It certainly helped focusing on a smallish area of the property rather than trying to do it all at once.