Winter Scouting

[redsquirrel]

Has anyone been out scouting? I put in a 3 hour session with my father today. I was rewarded with a great rut spot and a swamp with great potential with some more scouting.

Last weekend I was out with my snowshoes and put in about 3 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. I found 1 really good spot each day.

I had a couple other sessions earlier in January in spots that showed some potential.

Time is tight this year so I will probably not get anything set up right now. I will spend my time looking for new spots over the next few weeks and then try to get them set up for the season in late spring.

 

[Bigburner]

I've been puting in a lot of time. We just got a blast of snow yesterday so I'll be out snow scouting this week trying to find some buck beds and doe bedding. Only found 1 shed so far and one good dead buck. I'll be in the Phrag marshes soon looking for buck beds as well. Still need to prep some trees. Other than that a lot of GPS'ing.
Scott, what part of Jersey are you in?

 

[redsquirrel]

I've been puting in a lot of time. We just got a blast of snow yesterday so I'll be out snow scouting this week trying to find some buck beds and doe bedding. Only found 1 shed so far and one good dead buck. I'll be in the Phrag marshes soon looking for buck beds as well. Still need to prep some trees. Other than that a lot of GPS'ing.
Scott, what part of Jersey are you in?

We lucked out and that last storm missed us. We still have 6-10 inches on the ground from the last storm... I am hoping that it will finally start to melt this week.

I live up in north jersey in Parsippany now. I am originally from Freehold. I hunt anywhere from the mountains way up at the top of jersey down to Freehold where I go with my father.

I have basically been scouting the same as you. Putting miles in on the ground looking for bedding. I don't have much luck in the shed department. I'll be happy if I find one! My time is limited this winter so I hope to get my new spots scouted within the next few weeks and hopefully I can get trees set up in late May/June.

 

[joaxe]

I've been puting in a lot of time. We just got a blast of snow yesterday so I'll be out snow scouting this week trying to find some buck beds and doe bedding. Only found 1 shed so far and one good dead buck. I'll be in the Phrag marshes soon looking for buck beds as well. Still need to prep some trees. Other than that a lot of GPS'ing.
Scott, what part of Jersey are you in?

We lucked out and that last storm missed us. We still have 6-10 inches on the ground from the last storm... I am hoping that it will finally start to melt this week.

I live up in north jersey in Parsippany now. I am originally from Freehold. I hunt anywhere from the mountains way up at the top of jersey down to Freehold where I go with my father.

I have basically been scouting the same as you. Putting miles in on the ground looking for bedding. I don't have much luck in the shed department. I'll be happy if I find one! My time is limited this winter so I hope to get my new spots scouted within the next few weeks and hopefully I can get trees set up in late May/June.

Cool! Tell "The Boss" I said Hello!

I think that I remember seeing what looked like some good hunting spots off of Rt. 33...

"Aero" Joe

 

[redsquirrel]

Cool! Tell "The Boss" I said Hello!

I think that I remember seeing what looked like some good hunting spots off of Rt. 33...

"Aero" Joe[/quote]

When I was a kid I worked at a locally famous ice cream place (Jersey Freeze on the corner of rt 33 and rt 9) and he would actually come in there occasionally. I only saw him once but it was pretty cool. My mother's hair dresser used to play with him when they were kids!

There is definitely lots of good looking land off of 33 and all around but not too much of it is public over there. Monmouth battlefield state park has a hunt occasionally but I have never participated.

Where I grew up on the other side of Freehold there is a WMA with 4000 acres in it that is 5 minutes from my parents house. In the past 10 years they have also opened up the adjacent county park for bow hunting only. I used to ride my bike over after high school with my bow strapped to my back

 

[joaxe]

Cool!

One time, during his "Born in the USA" tour in Philly (at the ol' Spectrum), I had painted the album cover on a large white tablecloth I "obtained" from work. I hung the sheet on the 2nd level ring on the right side of the stage. Bruce came over during a song, playing his Tele and shouted "Yeah!" looking right at the painted sheet. I had put our seat number on the back hoping for a ticket upgrade...oh, well. It was a great show anyway! "the dogs on Main Street howl..." I used to do computer service calls at the egg farm over in Freehold way back...

I am toying with the idea of getting a non-resident license for Jersey this year.

"Aero" Joe

 

[redsquirrel]

Cool!

One time, during his "Born in the USA" tour in Philly (at the ol' Spectrum), I had painted the album cover on a large white tablecloth I "obtained" from work. I hung the sheet on the 2nd level ring on the right side of the stage. Bruce came over during a song, playing his Tele and shouted "Yeah!" looking right at the painted sheet. I had put our seat number on the back hoping for a ticket upgrade...oh, well. It was a great show anyway! "the dogs on Main Street howl..." I used to do computer service calls at the egg farm over in Freehold way back...

I am toying with the idea of getting a non-resident license for Jersey this year.

"Aero" Joe

That's awesome! Great memories for sure!

Where is that egg farm? I'm not familiar with it. Freehold used to be a town with some suburban areas and lots of farms, now it is almost all suburban.. Things have really changed there since I was a kid. I'm only 30 but I feel old when I can talk about how things "used to be" lol. The suburban areas are holding some big bucks though. There are tons of places where you can't hunt and the bucks can just grow and grow. My father has a IR security cam set up in his backyard to watch the deer. He puts corn out for them every night. There are some real nice bucks that come in.

I'm not sure on how it would all price out for your for the non-resident license but I like to say that right now NJ is a bowhunter's paradise. The season runs from mid september until mid february in certain parts of the state. There are unlimited anterless tags in many of the zones and not including the 2 bucks that you can shoot during shotgun week that you can use a bow for, you have 3 separate bow seasons where you can shoot a buck. For me the biggest money pit is our permit seasons. It is $28 per zone for a permit. In addition to this you must pay another $28 for your "buck stub" if you want to shoot a buck. Thats $56 now. If you hunt in 2 or 3 zones it really starts to add up. And then if you hunt during muzzeloader or permit shotgun its the same.

NJ is definetily hunted hard but I'm sure its like PA. Based off of all the trail cameras I have run over the years I know that there are big bucks around that survive. They just don't get that big by making mistakes!

 

[joaxe]

Man...it's been so long that I forget the name of the egg farm over there. It had to been around 1989 since I was last there...it's probably gone now but it was right on the outskirts of the center of Freehold. I even dated a girl from Robbinsville and another from the Hightstown area...while I was living in Philly!

I think the NR license is around $135 but I don't know all the ins and outs of the tag system over there. I'll check into it, though, first. Yep, PA gets hammered but there is a lot of posted land (private property) and getting permission is getting tougher every year. I'm on a mission to try and get some new properties for this year.

"Aero" Joe

 

[redsquirrel]

Man...it's been so long that I forget the name of the egg farm over there. It had to been around 1989 since I was last there...it's probably gone now but it was right on the outskirts of the center of Freehold. I even dated a girl from Robbinsville and another from the Hightstown area...while I was living in Philly!

I think the NR license is around $135 but I don't know all the ins and outs of the tag system over there. I'll check into it, though, first. Yep, PA gets hammered but there is a lot of posted land (private property) and getting permission is getting tougher every year. I'm on a mission to try and get some new properties for this year.

"Aero" Joe

I'm sure the egg farm is gone by now..

Robbinsville is home of my favorite outdoor sporting goods store. The Sportsman Center. Ever been there? My father grew up in Florence, NJ so we have some family in that area. Looks like thats not that far from you.

If you need any help or have any questions about the game laws or tag system in NJ reach out to me. I look at our wildlife digest at least once a week

 

[62kodiak]

I did a bit of scouting in my local marsh yesterday. It was not much fun. I overestimated how much snow had melted and I ended up walking 3 miles in knee deep snow. Most of the sign is buried under snow yet, but I did find a very nice funnel for hunting during the rut.

 

[Bigburner]

I'm surprised you can walk today

 

[62kodiak]

I'm able to get by with a little help from Ibuprofen and will power. I sure was feeling bad last night though. :lol:

 

[redsquirrel]

I was out scouting last night and again today as well. And I am also overestimating how much snow has disappeared! On the southern faces of all of the hills all of the snow has melted,
but everywhere else it is still anywhere from 4-10 inches deep. When I look at it from my truck I say I'll be alright without the snowshoes and then I get on the top of the mountain and I wish I had my snowshoes lol.

I did 4.5 miles last night, but most of that was hiking to and from a point that I knew held deer to try to find a buck bed, particularly a bed of 1 of the bucks I know hangs out up there. I found a doe bedding area, and what I'm pretty sure is a buck bed. There were a couple rubs about 150 yards away on the trail to the bed, but no rubs around the bed. It was a big lone bed in a thick spot overlooking the valley where I would expect to find a buck bed based off of the others that I have found so far. The best part is that there is a big rocky point jutting out about 100 yards from the bed, so I should be able to sneak in pretty close. I plan on having a tree set up with screw in steps for the saddle this spring so it will be ready to go for the fall. I also found 1 other spot that is kinda like a funnel along the side of the ridge that I will mix into my rotation.

Today I did 7.5 miles. I was just trying to explore a wma that I'm not very familiar with to get a lay of the land and along the way I was hitting up likely bedding spots. Most of my trip I went without finding any good obvious bedding, but I did find 2 different spots where deer activity was funneled through and the deer were clearing using it a lot. It was up high so i'm sure it is getting use in the daylight. On my way back to the truck I came upon a small cattail marsh, maybe 50-100 acres. From the ridge I could see a few trees sticking up in the middle but one tree was bigger and really stood out so I figured I would check that one out. Well on my way out I went slipping through the snow, crashed on my butt and went up to my knees in ice cold water. I figured what the heck I'm on my way back to the truck anyways. There was nothing around the tree but as I got into the smaller brush and bushes not too far from it I a 15 square yard section that had about 7 or 8 rubs in it. There weren't very many tracks in the snow and no beds but there was one fairly recent track that was pretty big. There was definitely a buck bedding here at some point in the season. I will be returning soon to try to figure it out a little better and set up a tree.

All in all a productive weekend! It was a cold walk back to the truck, but worth it!

 

[redsquirrel]

I did another 2.5 miles tonight. Found another buck bed, and then a nice rub line leading into a thicket on a point. Couldn't find a bed but somebody was definitely bedding in there last fall.

 

[Bigburner]

Friday I got out for about 4 hours at the wma across the road from my house. I found a point with a mess of rubs and a empty pack of marlboros and a line of flagging along the entire marsh edge. No beds just plenty of retard sign. I killed a big fat doe there this year and had few nice buck encounters. I wanted to get in the marsh and did but all the trails led to muskrats dens. I need to spend some more time over there and try to get a few more spots wired. We are getting snow tonight so Monday and Tuesday should help me find some beds maybe find a track to cut. The state area butts up to the fed. Rufuge and I want to avoid the hassle of having to hunt that place. The regs. Make it about as enjoyable as a root canal. Trying to find beds in flat ground sucks :!:

 

[redsquirrel]

I'm glad that you are getting the snow and not us. I've had enough. Still waiting for it to melt. With the amount of snow that they are talking it should be great for scouting if it sticks around long enough. I agree with on you the Fed regs. The delaware water gap is within an hour of me and 50,000 acres, but with all of the other places for me to check out that gets bumped to the bottom of my list.

I'm lucky that I've finally started to figure out the hill country. Hopefully it can pay off this fall

 

[DePalma]

I live up her in RI and the woods are snowless..been doing a ton of scouting and found some early season and rut spots on some of the areas I have to hunt.All the land I hunt is primarily big woods so it's hard to find destination spots early season with just endless oaks and very little swamp.Who else hunts big woods and any advice as to good destination spots??

 

[John Eberhart]

Last Wednesday I worked all day cleaning up 5 rut phase locations of new growth from the summer of 2013. One location was next to a creek crossing and a huge tree fell during winter and blocked the major runways crossing the creek at a shallow location. Had to get waders and a chainsaw and cut it into sections to allow it to flow downstream and out of the runway crossing. Also removed the steps from a tree I no longer hunt from because I moved over 10 yards to another tree in the fall.

I was worn out by the end of the day but all 5 trees are ready for fall.

Tomorrow will go check on another area that has several locations requiring clean-up and on one more location that needs to be totally prepared.

Also got permission on a 20 acre piece that looks pretty good on the aerial. Will check it out and prepare locations there next week.

 

[Bigburner]

I gained a lot of Intel so far I just need to get the prep down. Most of the places are one time sits but between work turkey hunting ànd the kids I need to get some work done. John sounds like you guys went to the extreme with prep. I hope you drop the hammer on a monster there. That would be a really good feeling after wading and sawing to get a crack at it. I figured as long as I get the work in before the crops are put in I'm golden.

 

[redsquirrel]

Sounds like you guys have been busy!

I've had a lot going on with work the past couple weeks and thats going to continue for me until the week before memorial day. I'm going to have to find some time to squeeze in setting up the trees I found over the past couple months.

John, 5 new trees in one day! Thats impressive! Hope the new piece that you got has some good locations