Oh great saddle sages,
BLUF: I stepped in an uber-fresh buck bed yesterday morning and now I don't know what to do...
Please advise!
Background: We just bought a new house on 16 acres at the beginning of SEP. The huntable portion is basically a rectangle with two big hills (mountains to me), running North to South right separated down the middle (North to South) by a valley with a slow moving creek. For perspective, each hillside is a 100ft drop in about 60yds of slope. The valley running down the middle eventually opens to a tall grass swamp toward the south of the property and the creek (flowing North to South) dumps into a stream (flowing West to East) along the bottom border. There are 80yds of grass between the tree line and the stream. There is a subdivision on the other side of the stream. I've toured the hilltop ridges but we've been pretty busy moving/unpacking and I haven't had time to scout the swamp area in the south. The only thing I know about the tall grass swamp is from cyber-scouting and topos.
Monday morning events: Never been one to walk into waist-high grass/muck, but since so many of my Heroes here are doing it, thought I could give it a try too. So yesterday, I headed south and picked my way through a bunch of crap to where the trees thin out and the tall grass starts taking over. My headlamp was primarily pointed upward as I was trying to find a suitable tree when I noticed that I had walked 15-20ft into a pile of depressed grass. This was literally the first time I've ever seen a "bed" so I found the nearest tree right in the middle of them and climbed to 18ft (in hindsight #1, I should've backed out and found a tree farther off). Spent all morning in that tree looking out into the swamp and down at my feet. The view was fantastic! However, didn't see a deer at all and decided to get down at 1000. Rappelled out of the tree and got all packed up. Before leaving the tree, I briefly looked around and saw a very large, UBER-FRESH bed. It was owned by either a monster or Sasquatch. This was the last one in the immediate vicinity and it backed up against a bunch of thick stuff. In hindsight #2, I probably shouldn't have walked through it, but I got excited and I did. I'm kind of glad I did though because I couldn't see the mud escape route behind the tree trunk until I walked into it. The escape went 20yds due east into the adjacent property. In walking the escape route, I realized how big this deer must be due to the size of tracks in the muck.
Advice needed: Should I hunt that bedding area at the next available opportunity with favorable wind (Friday evening)? Or let it cool off and wait until the leaves fall so I can see it from the adjoining ridge (farther away).
Additional info that may help:
1. I'm pretty serious about scent control this year (new boots that haven't seen any other surface other than the woods, ozoning the crap out of everything, so I'm not sure how much I left in the area as I walked through.
2. I'm the only one hunting this property and this is my third time out this year. I've moved to a different tree/area every time.
3. We're new to the neighborhood, but I don't know of any other hunting pressure in the immediate surrounding parcels.
4. GIS shows this particular bedding (southern part of our 16 acres) is surrounded by hardwoods and 10-20 acres parcels with houses for 1/2 a mile in every direction. I can't tell where these deer are eating. The closest opening of any kind is a 4 acre field due West about .65 miles away (I can see the rows on Maps but don't know what kind of crop they planted). EDIT: GIS shows four steep hills (similar to mine) between this bedding and the 4 acre field. I remeasured using the route I think a deer would take around the slopes, instead of over them. Using this route, deer would border the tree line next to the stream flowing West to East. This route turns out to be a full mile.
BLUF: I stepped in an uber-fresh buck bed yesterday morning and now I don't know what to do...
Please advise!Background: We just bought a new house on 16 acres at the beginning of SEP. The huntable portion is basically a rectangle with two big hills (mountains to me), running North to South right separated down the middle (North to South) by a valley with a slow moving creek. For perspective, each hillside is a 100ft drop in about 60yds of slope. The valley running down the middle eventually opens to a tall grass swamp toward the south of the property and the creek (flowing North to South) dumps into a stream (flowing West to East) along the bottom border. There are 80yds of grass between the tree line and the stream. There is a subdivision on the other side of the stream. I've toured the hilltop ridges but we've been pretty busy moving/unpacking and I haven't had time to scout the swamp area in the south. The only thing I know about the tall grass swamp is from cyber-scouting and topos.
Monday morning events: Never been one to walk into waist-high grass/muck, but since so many of my Heroes here are doing it, thought I could give it a try too.
So yesterday, I headed south and picked my way through a bunch of crap to where the trees thin out and the tall grass starts taking over. My headlamp was primarily pointed upward as I was trying to find a suitable tree when I noticed that I had walked 15-20ft into a pile of depressed grass. This was literally the first time I've ever seen a "bed" so I found the nearest tree right in the middle of them and climbed to 18ft (in hindsight #1, I should've backed out and found a tree farther off). Spent all morning in that tree looking out into the swamp and down at my feet. The view was fantastic! However, didn't see a deer at all and decided to get down at 1000. Rappelled out of the tree and got all packed up. Before leaving the tree, I briefly looked around and saw a very large, UBER-FRESH bed. It was owned by either a monster or Sasquatch. This was the last one in the immediate vicinity and it backed up against a bunch of thick stuff. In hindsight #2, I probably shouldn't have walked through it, but I got excited and I did. I'm kind of glad I did though because I couldn't see the mud escape route behind the tree trunk until I walked into it. The escape went 20yds due east into the adjacent property. In walking the escape route, I realized how big this deer must be due to the size of tracks in the muck.Advice needed: Should I hunt that bedding area at the next available opportunity with favorable wind (Friday evening)? Or let it cool off and wait until the leaves fall so I can see it from the adjoining ridge (farther away).
Additional info that may help:
1. I'm pretty serious about scent control this year (new boots that haven't seen any other surface other than the woods, ozoning the crap out of everything, so I'm not sure how much I left in the area as I walked through.
2. I'm the only one hunting this property and this is my third time out this year. I've moved to a different tree/area every time.
3. We're new to the neighborhood, but I don't know of any other hunting pressure in the immediate surrounding parcels.
4. GIS shows this particular bedding (southern part of our 16 acres) is surrounded by hardwoods and 10-20 acres parcels with houses for 1/2 a mile in every direction. I can't tell where these deer are eating. The closest opening of any kind is a 4 acre field due West about .65 miles away (I can see the rows on Maps but don't know what kind of crop they planted). EDIT: GIS shows four steep hills (similar to mine) between this bedding and the 4 acre field. I remeasured using the route I think a deer would take around the slopes, instead of over them. Using this route, deer would border the tree line next to the stream flowing West to East. This route turns out to be a full mile.
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Unless you have a spot that is easily checked without bumping him or getting your scent in the area. Other than that I wouldn’t do it. 