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What do you guys look for when you are scouting public or private land.

S

Skrause5

Active Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Messages
102
What kind of terrain do you look for. Like do you like to hunt ridges, thick forest, edge of a forest or crop field. What I usually do is look for a crop field and also somewhere with a pond or some water source. I live out in Wisconsin so there's a lot of forest. Kind of want to know wheres the best place to set up.
 
Skrause5 said:
How do you know if you found a bedding area? And what's a funnel area? And drop mast
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Funnel area is a place that draws down to a tight spot pushing deer to cross in 1 particular area. Drop mast means acorns late apples or the like.

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Bedding. Bedding... and.... bedding. It can be doe or buck bedding. I then relate that to food and expected travel which can often include funnels.

For early season into October I hunt buck bedding and then switch to doe bedding for the rut.

You know you’ve found a bedding area when you see oval depressions about the size of a deer matted into the grass or leaves.
 
I start with means and ways to access land. Next bedding and food source. Then I way in other known things that may impact patterns ie: structure, human activity and topography of land that funnel movement. A lot of this information can be gained by using satellite maps before you enter area.
 
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Here's a pic of a property I hunt, hope this helps. Pink are doe bedding areas. Blue is a creek. Green are mast trees(oak, hickory, Pecan, walnut etc) yellow are crossing areas. So the doe bedding areas are tall grass and pine with branches that stop about 5 feet from the ground. The wind blows predominantly from the south. Does luv this kinda setup because it allows them to see out, keep the wind at their back and have an escape route if needed, they can either haul ass up the gasline(which is the lard void in the middle) or dump out into the field to the west. The pines act like a venturi and push the wind down along the ground right into their faces. When they get hungry they go from their bedding areas north to where the mast trees are and just amble along munching. Sometimes they'll cross over to where the other trees are. Now this is primarily a doe factory, you won't see much bucks here, at least mature ones because there isn't enough coverage. There's a parcel to the north that offers much more coverage and that's where they hang out until rut.
Find a parcel that has all these(or close to it) and you'll find deer.
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In some of the areas I hunt it’s more about scouting for other hunters. Deer will shift their daylight movements to the areas not getting pressured. Deer will bed in just about every terrain out there if it’s void of human pressure. I would start by finding areas that aren’t getting hunted, that could be an over grown field next to the road or a thicket on the hill top that doesn’t have any trees for a stand.
 
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pesqimon said:
Can someone from the Northeast let me know if I am crazy? Seems to me, that the deer in New England feed and bed everywhere!
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I'm with you, in North Alabama they just bed where they stop that day and feed as soon as they stand up, These deer here are blessed with food and a place to sleep or hide when they want to.
 
Skrause5 said:
What kind of terrain do you look for. Like do you like to hunt ridges, thick forest, edge of a forest or crop field. What I usually do is look for a crop field and also somewhere with a pond or some water source. I live out in Wisconsin so there's a lot of forest. Kind of want to know wheres the best place to set up.
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I like to start with my focus on edges. Those may be terrain edges (i.e. ridges, potholes, valleys) or tree or thicker brush edges (I don't focus on much field edges). If I'm hunting a new area I'm most likely to find a setup near an edge where the wind is blowing perpendicular to it. I tend to see deer moving perpendicular to the wind and along natural edges.
 
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Edges and crops seem to hold a lot of deer around here too this time of year or anytime for that matter. I try to do my best to set up between where they might be bedding and walking to a food source (which is sometimes on the edge of crops). Funnels/staging areas fitting this description are a bonus. I'm not stealthy enough to set up right on a bed usually. I always play the wind and set up stand sites accordingly.
 
I am from WI also and hunt all public land. I start with map scouting using OnX and google earth to find public land, then drill into each property to look at access points, then look for areas with habitat diversity and edges. I exclude the areas that are super easy to get to. I mark areas of interest on the maps and then go in for boots on the ground.

When doing the boots on the ground, I look for beds, hunter pressure, big tracks, rubs, scrapes, food sources (oaks and crops), trails between bedding areas, good trees for different wind / thermal conditions, access routes.

I mark waypoints on OnX when I find items of interest and snap pics to attach to the waypoint as a visual reminder.

Any time I bump a deer, I mark that location and try to dissect why that deer was at that location at that time.

Lastly, I enjoy every minute I’m out there exploring and try to learn something new each time.
 
sureshotscott said:
My opinion on hunting bedding: it's a great tactic, but you better be stealthy like a cat. If you're clutzy, your gear isn't quiet, the leaves/snow is crunchy, or anything else you get so close they see/hear/smell you on entrance, odds increase that you're going to blow them out.
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Right, I think you're mostly describing me. :D

Where to set up then?
 
I'm up the road a bit from you hear in NH and absolutely agree. Especially this year there are acorns just everywhere and in my neck of.the woods no fields just woods hills and mountains.

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