???? I don't know. To my limited northern Michigan experience a cedar is a cedar, I didn't know there were two variety's. A quick google search shows me that they are probably northern white cedar. Hmmm, learn something new every day.
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Post season scouting
- Thread starter BTaylor
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I have done a lot of this already but I know I miss a lot as well. Also, with our snow cover right now I want to maximize the tracks and trails that are easily picked up in the air. For each property. Then watch to see How much their travels change (or not) as the snow pack recedes into mid to late spring. The drone would allow me to multiply my scouting efforts by per property.
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Today was a pig hunt/scout day for me. I made a big loop and found a dead head in a thick pine stand that I have hunted several times before and never ran across this head until today. That tells me that both I, and everyone else is not off in there a lot. I know bucks use this pine stand, about 30 acres in size as a refuge. I know of one buck killed on the west side of it, along an overgrown lane, I've had several encounters with bucks off in there, and then I found this dead head today. This little sanctuary needs to get hunted this fall.
I also had a very cool encounter with a big bobcat today. I was slipping along wind in my face and happened to catch movement to my right about 40 yards out. It was a bobcat, I'm guessing about 30 pounds, slipping along parallel to me. It was not aware I was there, and I watched it for a while and then made some squeaks to get it's attention. It seemed less than happy that I saw it before it saw me, and it slipped off asap. It was a very cool encounter.
I also had a very cool encounter with a big bobcat today. I was slipping along wind in my face and happened to catch movement to my right about 40 yards out. It was a bobcat, I'm guessing about 30 pounds, slipping along parallel to me. It was not aware I was there, and I watched it for a while and then made some squeaks to get it's attention. It seemed less than happy that I saw it before it saw me, and it slipped off asap. It was a very cool encounter.
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I went out snowshoeing in a traditional winter yard area on Saturday afternoon. I was hitting some known bedding areas hoping to find a stray antler tip sticking out of the snow. There's still a solid 2' of snow on the ground. The top of my 4.5 foot walking stick was at short cane height for most of my walk.
I was surprised how few fresh deer tracks I ran across. The trails are beat into the snow where they usually are but it seems the herd numbers are really down from previous years. I did find a couple of single big beds I'd say were buck beds and several spots where there were clumps of beds I'd associate with does. I didn't stumble across any antlers though, not surprising given the amount of snow we still have. On the plus side I didn't come across any winter kill carcasses this year. I generally find several walking in this area this time of year. I did cross several sets of coyote tracks though. These two rubs caught my attention. Both are mid-thigh high and probably from rut time frame although I found one last year in January in this same area that had shavings laying on top of the snow.
I was surprised how few fresh deer tracks I ran across. The trails are beat into the snow where they usually are but it seems the herd numbers are really down from previous years. I did find a couple of single big beds I'd say were buck beds and several spots where there were clumps of beds I'd associate with does. I didn't stumble across any antlers though, not surprising given the amount of snow we still have. On the plus side I didn't come across any winter kill carcasses this year. I generally find several walking in this area this time of year. I did cross several sets of coyote tracks though. These two rubs caught my attention. Both are mid-thigh high and probably from rut time frame although I found one last year in January in this same area that had shavings laying on top of the snow.
Hit the last area I had targeted to scout this post season. Made a 6 mile loop Found a fair amount of sign scattered throughout the area but only one spot of real interest. That spot will get a cam this year most likely. Not sure if it will get hunted or not. It would likely be a rut only hunt with a plan to climb and stay cause it is not a spot that will be easy to access very cleanly. It has been a super productive post season and I am excited to hunt the stuff I found. All of the spots work will hunt with a wind out of at least one of NW, N, NE or East. I keyed on spots that work with those winds because that is our general wind pattern with cold fronts.
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I went out and did another hog hunt/scout loop today that took me through an area that I had superficially scouted last year. Today I was walking the road on the way out and I noticed a deer crossing so I followed it back a ways and it turned out to be a rub line in thick cover diverging from the angle of the road at about 30 degrees and leading back into a thick pine stand on a little knoll. There were about 6 scrapes and a dozen rubs back in there. The main area of concentration is only about 175 yards off the gravel road, but you can tell the deer were off in there pretty much undisturbed. I'm guessing the area is active in early to mid November. I'm adding that spot to the rotation and it needs to get checked and hunted when the scrapes start to open up this fall.
It's a promising spot, and looks to be a little overlooked buck bedding/sanctuary.
It's a promising spot, and looks to be a little overlooked buck bedding/sanctuary.
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Oh, and I forgot to mention that I found the first tick of the year crawling on my pants leg yesterday. Folks in warmer climates out scouting, keep a look out for them. It's time to break out the permethrin and deet.
I had one back a few weeks ago on a pant leg. Sawyers is a year round thing for the most part even in the cold when they arent out, pants stay sprayed up anyway.
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I generally don't wear the treated pants, (aside from a set of BDU scouting pants) I've had for decades that stay treated, until I start seeing them.
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My approach is stay on the couch until there’s not 30” of snow on the ground! After that I too am taking a different approach. Had a tough year during gun season so I reached out to a bunch of new areas and found some spots I’d really like to dig into. I have a really hard time leaving my comfort zones but I think I’m finally mentally prepared enough to take a season as a wash and learn learn learn
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Yeah I’m not in a warm climate and I had one on my belly a couple of weeks ago. Actually realized it was a tick on Super Bowl Sunday. Noticed an irritation Saturday and picked at it thinking it was a scab. It bled a little bit and I didn’t think anything of it. Sunday I felt the itching irritation again and started picking like a dummy but this time it actually was very tender and bled a lot more. Had my wife look at it and sure enough, a deer tick!! Had to get the doxycycline pills, just two one time. Dr. said if I developed a rash or the classic bullseye or started having a lot of aches in my joints she would start the Lyme disease protocols testing. So far I’ve had nothing. Only thing I can think of where I got it is a lady called Me to take care of a coon outside her house. I dispatched it and then carried with a gloved hand for about an 1/8th of a mile. That’s the only exposure I oh can think of aside from carrying firewood.Do you think they can live in split and stacked firewood?? Boggles my mind as we had been super cold for two to three weeks if not slightly more. So Yes, great advice @NMSbowhunter!!!
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Glad you found it and got it treated. Hopefully no long term issues...sounds like you are "out of the woods", so to speak. They can probably live in a stack of firewood in cold weather for a while, maybe under the bark. The raccoon is also another highly possible vector.
I actually tend to get ticks more around the house than in the woods. At home I will just go out in the yard for a while and not think too much about it and that's how they get me. When I am scouting I wear the proper treated clothes and so they can't get me as easily.
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That's exactly why my boots and pants at a minimum stayed sprayed up year round. Glad it appears you arent going to have any serious issues with it.
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Coming from someone who has Lyme disease and lived for weeks with it un diagnosed (becuase doctors suck) the second you ache (god willing you don’t) get to a hospital. I got it like 12 years ago and I was sick for months. Couldn’t eat couldn’t move couldn’t sleep. Still have occasional flare ups but haven’t needed doxy in a long long time
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Sorry to hear that. It’s crazy how it manifests in different people.
The adult daughter of a fellow hunter safety instructor I taught with before contracted Lyme disease several years ago. It was I unfortunately diagnosed extremely late in he disease progression and cause some major life long issues.!‘y h if it neurologically. For example,’she started to develop an extreme concern for germs etc. where she didn’t even want to drive because she didn’t want to touch the steering wheel of her car. She lost her job and had a real problem for a long time. Kind of scary. My wife said I’m already nuts so I shouldn’t have to worry to much…….
mschultz373
Well-Known Member
i walked ~2mi loop around 75acres on a different NWR. I've scouted out there before two years ago but never hunted. It is bow only, ~14k acres, and has pine savannas, marsh, and some hardwoods.
in this block, the woods are being cut and improved: basically everything besides mast and large pines has been cut down. if they do a burn, it could be excellent very soon. this refuge in general has clearer habitat edges than the swamp flatwoods i've focus on primarily the past few seasons - the TSI notwithstanding.
there were some small palmetto flats in the un-improved sections butting up the marsh. i've never had to deal with those before. talk about making some noise.
there's two types of marsh (or how I am differentiating them, anyway): thick sawgrass and wax myrtle primarily; or more open, brushy but watery/muddy marsh. walking the latter is perilous; the former, safe but very loud. i bumped a deer in the thick sawgrass - was a fairly big deer from the sound of it, too, and just after passing a big pile of crap on the trail. the sawgrass seems like obvious bedding; absent mast or an abundance of forbes/browse coming up in this block (likely due to how much sunlight it now gets; even moreso if they burn it?) i'm unsure if there's a big draw for them to leave the marsh.
i put all my iphone clips into one video. im not much of a narrator, and i was moving quickly:
in this block, the woods are being cut and improved: basically everything besides mast and large pines has been cut down. if they do a burn, it could be excellent very soon. this refuge in general has clearer habitat edges than the swamp flatwoods i've focus on primarily the past few seasons - the TSI notwithstanding.
there were some small palmetto flats in the un-improved sections butting up the marsh. i've never had to deal with those before. talk about making some noise.
there's two types of marsh (or how I am differentiating them, anyway): thick sawgrass and wax myrtle primarily; or more open, brushy but watery/muddy marsh. walking the latter is perilous; the former, safe but very loud. i bumped a deer in the thick sawgrass - was a fairly big deer from the sound of it, too, and just after passing a big pile of crap on the trail. the sawgrass seems like obvious bedding; absent mast or an abundance of forbes/browse coming up in this block (likely due to how much sunlight it now gets; even moreso if they burn it?) i'm unsure if there's a big draw for them to leave the marsh.
i put all my iphone clips into one video. im not much of a narrator, and i was moving quickly:
My brother went on a scouting mission Saturday. It was an area I hung some cameras in pre-season, and picked them up in December. There was enough activity that he went in there and killed a small buck, and had an opportunity at a bigger one. Other than sending him two waypoints where my cameras were, I hadn't sent him any other information about where to go. And the cameras weren't that deep into the area. They were within sight of the road because I anticipated the fence that was down would funnel deer to that area.
It's funny how the woods have a way of "guiding" activity. He sent me waypoints of two stands, a camera, and multiple scrapes and rubs that I had marked already from my two walks through that area. 400+ acres, and we both followed almost the same path.
It's funny how the woods have a way of "guiding" activity. He sent me waypoints of two stands, a camera, and multiple scrapes and rubs that I had marked already from my two walks through that area. 400+ acres, and we both followed almost the same path.
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Good video. Lots of lines of cover. Are they bedding within the marsh area(s) or just concerned of them? If it’s noisy go in much earlier than normal times let things settle back down. I like that live oak but every one will key on that.Maybe find a line of transition that leads to it, set up downwind of that line of cover to the tree instead of the tree itself?
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That new area looks really good to me. As far as the pines out in the marsh, I'd hunt them if there is active sign. I like the root ball spot from your description. Those spots may be problematic to get too without alerting deer but if you don't hunt it there is a zero percent chance of getting one there, so even if it is 50/50 you bust them out getting in it's worth a shot. Also, a trail like that in thick cover might not have deer close to it all the time, they might just filter through going to or coming from a destination. That cleared area looks really good also. If there is sign that deer were in there this past season feeding on acorns I'd scout the mast trees out now marking the ones closest to heavy cover and then revisit them this fall and speed scout them to see if they are active. The ones nearest to dense cover and transition lines will be the most likely to be visited in daylight.
A tree out in the bald open might be getting hammered but they might not get to it until well after dark.
I like the look of that live oak with the old pig trap under it. In that instance, if the tree were hot during season I'd set up in that tree. Low limbs and lots of branches should make great cover.
mschultz373
Well-Known Member
I didn’t see any sign that hunters had been back in this block, save one cell cam ~150yrds from the parking area. (Of which there is only one) In general, because this refuge is bow only, I’m guessing it gets much less pressure than the other which has two split weeks of gun and a week of primitive/ML, each of which draw a lot of pressure.
It will remain to be seen just how many deer there are out there. Many of our local lands in swamp/marsh habitat have gotten taken over by pigs; I didn’t, however, see a single pig on the refuge this year, which probably means nothing… but could portend some management success?
I think the deer are bedding either in the sawgrass/wax Myrtle; any high ground surrounded by water; or else the points or edges jutting into the marsh. I don’t imagine there being sufficient cover for them to bed in the woods, even if that block of cut timber grows up?
It will remain to be seen just how many deer there are out there. Many of our local lands in swamp/marsh habitat have gotten taken over by pigs; I didn’t, however, see a single pig on the refuge this year, which probably means nothing… but could portend some management success?
I think the deer are bedding either in the sawgrass/wax Myrtle; any high ground surrounded by water; or else the points or edges jutting into the marsh. I don’t imagine there being sufficient cover for them to bed in the woods, even if that block of cut timber grows up?