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Balloons IN the actual bed

Absolutely insane. These were in beds, the second one was literally inside the worn dirt of the bed, like the deer is laying on the freakin balloon. Red circle is worn bed, blue circle is around the balloon 90% buried which I pulled out for the other pic. The bed is leeward to the log for predominant winds - just like Infalt and the legends teach. I’m starting to call my shots. I put pins for target areas where I think buck beds will be and last spring I was right about 50% of the time, this year I’m closer to being right about a third of the time.

greenup is here - scout hard while the scouting is good fellas!!
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So I must say I never bought the balloon theory much. Heard it time and time again figured it was just gibberish to get hopes up! Well there’s a property I’ve been hunting for a good number of years with my brother and the only harvest has been 2 does and I’ve had 2 mature buck encounters right a the kick of the rut and it was dumb luck that brought no results. So this year in my scouting of that property I thought oh why not and started mapping balloons in relation to sign. And put that into relation of spots we had already set where we’ve seen good numbers of deer but they were far off or outside of legal hours. The properties hard it’s 800 acres +\- and the terrain is all over the place but I did figure out bedding quick finally after years of struggling and I owe it all to 7 friggen balloons!!!! The deer sign within 50 yards of the balloons in either direction is double of anywhere else and within most of them is a bedding area. Really hoping this pays off in the fall like it looks right now! Moral of the story is I will forever hunt balloon sign from this day on!!!
 
I've seen balloons in hot spots too often to dismiss it. Every hot spot may not have a balloon but when I see a balloon, I look for buck sign and I have rarely been disappointed.
 
I got in the woods yesterday and found a balloon! I immediately thought of this post and was laughing to myself. I set up a camera in the vicinity of the area (which looked right good) to test it out. I am really really curious to see what happens.
Could be a coincidence, it's too close to tell...but I set up cameras in a couple new spots that same day and this was the first to produce photos...
 
I also get the idea that some areas will have a much higher density of balloons than others. Around here I find a few each season. I can imagine that if I hunted an area that was downwind of a major metro area that number would drastically increase. I treat balloons as one more piece of the puzzle when looking for sign. When I see one, it gets my attention, but a balloon without corresponding deer sign is worthless. Oddly, I have yet to find a balloon in the woods that did not have good sign nearby, and usually buck sign.
 
Shot this doe at 15yds last Oct and she ran 75yds. Tracked her down and didn’t even realize the balloon 10ft from where she expired until someone on SH pointed it out. Strategized a bit and ended up taking a nice 13.5pt buck at the same POI a month later. Definitely a nice honey hole for the time being but will always keep my eyes open for balloons and nearby buck sign in the future.
 

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I just got back from scouting a very large track of timbered and hilly public land here in KY. Almost 200,000 acres.Towards the end I jumped a very nice buck all by himself. He was bedded in the upper 1/3 leeward in a small pocket of cover where a secondary ridge connected to the main ridge. When I walked over to inspect where he was bedded guess what was not 10 feet away…..? You guessed it.. Mylar balloon. I immediately thought of this thread!
 
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