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"Finding the deer" (efficiently in large areas of public land)

coolhand78

coolhand78

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2019
Messages
84
Location
South Central, WI
Edit: I started this thread inspired by this video -

This is a followup to a deer bedding question I posted a few minutes ago. What would be your strategy for in-season scouting large areas of public land with low deer density? I live 2 hrs from where I hunt, and due to my work schedule I'll be hunting a three-day weekend for the first three weeks of October, then almost a week off for the rut in November, and that's it. This is a typical season for me.

I have a TON of spots to consider (many I have experience with) in an area of 7,000ish acres of public land. I've hunted this area for 20+ years, but not with a ton of success. I do love this area and the challenge. But the deer density is low, and I want to be better at finding deer.

Typically, my hunting style has been to consider the wind and choose a promising area, and slowly/quietly still hunt my way in, hoping to find some sign in the morning... or continue walking into the afternoon, and then just setup somewhere for the late-afternoon/evening (if I haven't already setup on something that looked promising). I typically hunt a mile or more deep, but this year I think I want to be more mobile and do more hunts not as deep into the woods, which allows me hunt more locations in a limited amount of time.This year I might try the idea of "speed scouting" as many spots as possible during my first one or two days. I watched Aaron from Hunting Public on a podcast say that this was a method they use in a new area. Does anyone have experience using that strategy for large areas of public land? Or do you have any other advice for big woods, low deer density, limited time, etc?
 
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Maverick1 said:
If I had a week off and had hunted the same area for 20 years without much success - I would hunt elsewhere. Low deer density areas are just not worth my time.
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I understand this perspective, but this is where I hunt, due to a cabin and the people I like to hunt with. I've learned to not get discouraged and embrace the challenge.
 
Unfortunately, I have to agree with @Maverick1 --"Not that there's anything wrong with that..." --LOL

Life's too short to beat your head against a wall merely out of a sense of tradition, though. Would you hunt an area that's kicking your butt just because you already have a stand there?

If you choose to embrace the suck of hunting at the known cabin with the known friends, I will say no more.

But I guarantee your eyes will be opened if you expand your horizons.

Either way, I think a *** LOT*** more preseason scouting and study of edge habitat and feeding and bedding habits will be to your benefit. I have a feeling you have been hunting a day late and a dollar short. You can sometimes recover from that in ag country, but in my experience it is the kiss of death in big woods and swamps.

Good luck!
 
I’m in a similar boat as you. I hunt public big woods with low deer density. My reason is different, ( less people around and some huge bucks here and there).
I do 99.9% of my scouting in the off season because I’m too afraid to booger up the areas. I’ll suggest to try something different.
I almost always concentrate on the upper 1/3 of the mountain because that’s what you always hear to do but I’ve had better luck down in the river bottom.
 
First thing I would say is to commit the next three seasons to an entirely different approach or combination of approaches. I say combination of approaches for a very specific reason. I would encourage you to start accumulating inexpensive trail cams, 8-10 would be good. Park those cams in in spots you like for the rut and let them soak for the entire season. At the end of the season, log the dates when you had the kind of deer you would shoot show up in daylight esp. during the rut and mark those dates on the following years calendar. Cams that get a deer or quality of deer you are after get re-hung in the same spot the next year. Cams that dont produce get moved to a new location for the following season. This is building data for future hunts, purely a long play to help you build knowledge that you can try to take advantage of in coming seasons.

This season pick a single strategy that you have not been using and stick to it. Not knowing anything about the make up of the area you are hunting or your goals, it's hard to recommend a particular strategy like hunting feed trees. But pick one and stick with it. It could be the hottest feed sign, it could be travel routes tight to bedding, it could be ditch crossing or the heads of ditches/drains in hills or mountains. The one thing I would encourage though is to focus on a particular type of travel location related to the heaviest doe travel you can find in the early season because it is imo higher odds than trying to hunt beds or rut funnels in the early season.

You still have plenty of time to pick a strategy and map scout for it. And time to put boots on the ground for potential spots. Early season, I would prolly use most, if not all mornings to keep scouting potential locations for the chosen strategy and hunt accordingly. The next season pick a different strategy but use the previous season trail cam data for your rut hunt. There are lots of ways to kill deer but doing the same unproductive thing isnt one of them. Neither is haphazardly mingling different strategies or tactics with no rhyme or reason. IF you dedicate a few seasons of being committed to a single strategy, pretty quickly you will figure out what works for you and in the meantime you have been building rut knowledge from the trail cam data as well. Then you can start stacking the odds in your favor as much as possible.
 
All good advice above. I hunt 3 areas, all told around 100,000 acres. Very low deer density of around 3 deer per square mile. Some is hill country, some is marsh and swamp. Very heavily pressured during our very long gun season. Deer are paranoid as all get out.

What works best for me is to be light and mobile. I use 2TC and so everything fits in a medium backpack and weighs 10 pounds. I also have a Torges seat in the pack, a small tree seat I can attach to a tree and hunt off the ground if the situation calls for it. I am flexible in my approach. I don't have to climb.

I generally scout a ton post season when the leaves are off. Then I speed scout late morning for 3 to 4 good spots with feed trees for opening week. I then hit the spots best to worst and try to get on relatively calm, unsuspecting deer right out of the gate. I tend to hunt easy to get to overlooked spots during early bow season and then once gun starts I go deep, usually not any closer than 500 yards form any parking and I try to cross water. I pair of Wiggy's waders make this a lot easier. Even guys with rubber boots will get stopped by water I can cross with Wiggies and stay dry.

I generally walk until I find one of two things. One is a live deer on the hoof, right there in front of me. The other is smoking hot feed sign. If I don't find either one of those I keep going. I have walked all day, like 8 miles and not set up.

Another thing I will recommend, since you are in Wisconsin and hunt marshes. Look at everything Dan Infalt has to say about the subject. That is his specialty and his backyard, so to speak. The guy is undoubtedly successful at getting on deer, and big deer. No need to reinvent the wheel.
 
Swamp Fox__On The Run said:
Unfortunately, I have to agree with @Maverick1 --"Not that there's anything wrong with that..." --LOL
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Agree with @Maverick1 ? “Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.” —- LOL
 
20 years and not much success i would be hunting somewhere different if u wsnt deer. Any farm fields near by? How many other hunters around? Maybe you are not going far enough. Most guys hunt right beside their truck and run the deer from close to the road back in. Trail cams, how many u have out? Where are the deer moving for food and water? Every spot u have hunted in the 20 years dont hunt again, go somewhere new. I never try to stalk a deer unless it's raining. Always in way before daylight. Maybe I'm not good at stalking, but I mostly bowhunt. If u hunt with a bunch of guys, how about putting on a drive if its legal? Alot of people hate it, we do it all the time even in archery.
 
I'm in the same boat as you, living in SE WI but hunting up in the national forest during the rut. I haven't had much luck either, but what I can say is that hanging and hoping is one strategy that will leave you frustrated. If you're not on hot sign, you're not even in the game. I've mainly focused on clear cuts in the past but eventually grouse hunters would come through and blow everything out. This year I'm trying to focus on hot oaks near bedding which is something I've never done before. I'll be paying attention to this thread and hope some others chime in!
 
Our group hunts a public draw 3 day hunt annually. Most of the bucks we have taken were not from scouting. We spend the first morning “running” the woods in known or mapped thickets for bedding and intentionally try to jump bigger bucks, then hunt them that same afternoon through the rest of the hunt. Odds are very high they will return within the rest of the hunt and usually get a shot opportunity. Try it and see what happens. Worst case scenario is you learn where they bed and can hunt those spots through the season.
 
It's been a busy few days, so I haven't been able to respond to the thread I started. To address some of the comments and questions:
1) This is where I hunt, and I truly don't give a **** if most other people see 10x more deer than me. I don't hunt in a heavy ag area. There is plenty of ag some miles away, but I essentially have 20sq miles of big woods/marsh public land out my cabin doorstep. I love where I hunt, despite the low deer density.
2) I choose not to use trail cams, which I know puts me at a disadvantage. I just don't have the time or the extra $ to invest in a lot of them, and at this point in my hunting career I have little desire to start now. Not that I think they're bad or I look down on anyone who does use them.
3) I typically never sit in the same tree twice, although I do return to certain areas. However, each year I do try to learn at least a couple new areas.

Our group hunts a public draw 3 day hunt annually. Most of the bucks we have taken were not from scouting. We spend the first morning “running” the woods in known or mapped thickets for bedding and intentionally try to jump bigger bucks, then hunt them that same afternoon through the rest of the hunt. Odds are very high they will return within the rest of the hunt and usually get a shot opportunity. Try it and see what happens. Worst case scenario is you learn where they bed and can hunt those spots through the season.
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@Bwhana -
I really like this idea, and I'd love to learn more about this style of hunting. Typically, I would just pick a good looking area on the map, usually based on wind or some feature, methodically still hunt there for a couple hours and hope I see some good sign along the way, or eventually. This year, I'm going to devote my first day - or even my first full weekend to speed scouting as many known and unknown areas as I can. I won't worry too much about bumping deer.
 
coolhand78 said:
This is a followup to a deer bedding question I posted a few minutes ago. What would be your strategy for in-season scouting large areas of public land with low deer density? I live 2 hrs from where I hunt, and due to my work schedule I'll be hunting a three-day weekend for the first three weeks of October, then almost a week off for the rut in November, and that's it. This is a typical season for me.

I have a TON of spots to consider (many I have experience with) in an area of 7,000ish acres of public land. I've hunted this area for 20+ years, but not with a ton of success. I do love this area and the challenge. But the deer density is low, and I want to be better at finding deer.

Typically, my hunting style has been to consider the wind and choose a promising area, and slowly/quietly still hunt my way in, hoping to find some sign in the morning... or continue walking into the afternoon, and then just setup somewhere for the late-afternoon/evening (if I haven't already setup on something that looked promising). I typically hunt 3/4 or or a mile deep, but this year I think I want to be more mobile and do more hunts not as deep into the woods, which allows me hunt more locations in a limited amount of time.This year I might try the idea of "speed scouting" as many spots as possible during my first one or two days. I watched Aaron from Hunting Public on a podcast say that this was a method they use in a new area. Does anyone have experience using that strategy for large areas of public land? Or do you have any other advice for big woods, low deer density, limited time, etc?
Click to expand...
I am going to give you my favorite Dan Infalt hunting DVD hunting big woods bedding DVD . IF YOU join his YouTube channel membership I believe its $5.00 or $10.00 a month and get access to all HIS DVDS ONLINE. Truth From the stand Podcast he hunts mostly big woods in Pennsylvania. Another really podcast is Samko Tradbow podcast on YouTube. He's does still hunting with a tradbow in my Michigan big woods He's a great resource for still hunting(if you join hisYouTubechannel he goes into more details on still hunting strategy). From my experience listening to podcasts a lot of big woods hunters use 20 to 30 trail cameras to figure a hunting area out.

If your not enjoying your bowhunting experience with limited time, maybe switch to fly fishing for steelhead. Its the closest hobby to bowhunting that I experience. Another option would be squirrel hunting just get out in the woods. Big woods hunting is the most difficult experience bowhunting there is and takes a huge amount of time. Life is short if its not enjoyable move on .
 
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Real question, are you wanting success hunting or not? If going out and sitting in the woods is your thing and it is for a lot of folks then just keep doing what you're doing because that's honestly all you can expect to get from your current situation. Some places just don't have deer. That's just reality.

You ask for advice to find success based on your situation then immediately come back with you're not willing to do most of the things suggested then why are you even asking? Seriously though. I like my hunting buddies and like where I hunt too but I'm not wasting time, and I have a lot more than you my friend, but I'm not wasting it in or on an area with no deer in it. That's not hunting that's bird watching in camo.

I understand you're comfortable where you've been but if it's not working you need to embrace the uncomfortable and go somewhere else even if just temporarily. Real takeaway between your buddies and you, you've pressured the deer and pushed them away and those that stayed have patterned all of you and your habits and know how to stay well clear.

I'm not trying to bust your balls but the truth seems to be having a difficult time hitting home with you friend and I hope you figure it out before you waste another season chasing your tail.
 
coolhand78 said:
This is a followup to a deer bedding question I posted a few minutes ago. What would be your strategy for in-season scouting large areas of public land with low deer density? I live 2 hrs from where I hunt, and due to my work schedule I'll be hunting a three-day weekend for the first three weeks of October, then almost a week off for the rut in November, and that's it. This is a typical season for me.

I have a TON of spots to consider (many I have experience with) in an area of 7,000ish acres of public land. I've hunted this area for 20+ years, but not with a ton of success. I do love this area and the challenge. But the deer density is low, and I want to be better at finding deer.

Typically, my hunting style has been to consider the wind and choose a promising area, and slowly/quietly still hunt my way in, hoping to find some sign in the morning... or continue walking into the afternoon, and then just setup somewhere for the late-afternoon/evening (if I haven't already setup on something that looked promising). I typically hunt 3/4 or or a mile deep, but this year I think I want to be more mobile and do more hunts not as deep into the woods, which allows me hunt more locations in a limited amount of time.This year I might try the idea of "speed scouting" as many spots as possible during my first one or two days. I watched Aaron from Hunting Public on a podcast say that this was a method they use in a new area. Does anyone have experience using that strategy for large areas of public land? Or do you have any other advice for big woods, low deer density, limited time, etc?
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Where in WI is low deer density?.. up north?... only place I've ever frequented is the SW which is about 2 on the side of the road per mile (this is the most accurate population density unit in my opinion)
 
Can you identify distinct bedding areas (with edges to them) on your ground or not?

I think the most on-point strategy suggestions we could make will depend on your answer.
 
Swamp Fox__On The Run said:
Can you identify distinct bedding areas (with edges to them) on your ground or not?

I think the most on-point strategy suggestions we could make will depend on your answer.
Click to expand...
I know a bedding area when I see it, but I have almost 20sq miles of areas to consider, because they could be almost anywhere. I know it's all based on wind, security, and food sources; concentrate on edges. I'm just looking for a better thought process for making educated guesses on where they might be, and how to efficiently spend my limited amount of time with boots on the ground.


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It doesn’t help you this season, but get in there when there’s snow on the ground. You’ll quickly be able to map out all the heavily used trails, find the funnels, and see exactly where the commonly used bedding areas are.
 
It may be helpful to share, this video is what prompted me to start this thread:

I am interested in using more of these tactics this year. Looking for advice from anyone who hunts with a similar style.

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